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Guatemalan Fruit: Mango de pashte

Guatemalan produces several kinds of mangoes (dozens really), but by far mango de pashte (loofah mango) or mango de leche (milk mango) …

Guatemalan Chinchines or Sonajas

The sonajas or maracas take on a different name in Guatemala, they are called chinchines; an onomatopoeia (onomatopeya in Spanish). Generally, Guatemalan …

Guatemalan Cuisine: Fiambre

How can we go by Dí­a de todos los santos (All Saints’ Day) and Dí­a de los fieles difuntos (All Souls’ Day) …

Obama in Antigua Guatemala

Maybe we will get it right this election. —The Brunscheon, Oregon We hope so. —The rest of the world Well, as some …

Sompopo: The Giant Guatemalan Ant

Enough about pondering the big questions! Sompopos are now here and thus we are now “officially” in the rainy season. Sompopos arrived …

Guatemalan Police Anecdotes

One of the benefits of living in a third world country is that you don’t need to read Cien años de soledad …

Guatemalan Cuisine: Mixtas

Guatemalan mixtas (mixed) are basically hot dogs which come with tortillas instead of a bun. Simple and great tasting. There are other …

Guatemalan Fresh Fruit Snacks

Since you guys are having the cravings for Guatemalan fresh fruit snacks, I decided to show you the current options. All you …

SAT Office in La Antigua Guatemala

Well, you may be wondering what SAT office means. Behind this placid view of this government building hides one of the reason why Guatemala is so poor; a beggar really if we consider that Guatemala begs money for road repairing, road building, new modern national identification card, fertilizers, schools, libraries and the list goes on and on. The picture above is the local office of the Superintendencia de Administración Tributaria, SAT for short and the equivalent of the IRS.

Guatemalan Indigenous Singers

I find the singing of the indigenous people extremely haunting and touching, even though, they are singing evangelical hymns. To me this singing has another layer of pain and denouncing which is above the meaning of the words they sing; something much older and more mystical than the religious hymn brought by the European Christianity.

Real People, Real Miracles

That is exactly what Guatemala needs from the new Social Democratic government: Real people making real miracles (or at least real positive changes)!

Christmas’ Eve or Noche Buena in La Antigua Guatemala

Christmas’ Eve or Noche Buena in La Antigua Guatemala is celebrated by staying up all night burning firecracker, eating tamales or turkey and drinking real fruit punch or hot real chocolate, visiting family, friend and neighbors for the respective abrazo de Noche Buena and buenos deseos (Christmas hug and wishes); many even go to midnight mass. At midnight the presents under the Christmas tree, around the nacimiento (nativity scene), are opened and everyone laughs and hugs indiscriminately everyone around. These celebrations rate the highest on nostalgic memory scale; everyone living abroad wishes to be in Guatemala for this season and for this night in particular.

Guatemalan Tortilla Basket

Right now, the going price for tortillas is 6 tortillas per one quetzal (Q1 = US$0.13). This fact brings me to another interesting aspect about tortilla selling in Guatemala: tortillas are sold by units and not by weight, which means some tortillas could be tiny or really thin or worse yet use maseca flour in the mix. 🙁

How to make the perfect Guatemalan Tortilla

Well, for starters you need ‘real’ nixtamalized maize dough (nothing of the maseca flour that Manolo uses), a ‘real’ comal (baked clay griddle) and you need to use ‘real’ leña (wood logs, quite possibly pine). After that, you need a good pair of hand to tortear (hit into shape) a real looking tortilla. You don’t need no sticking mold to shape your tortillas ma’am. 😉

Traditional Guatemalan Christmas Food: Dobladas

Dobladas (turned over) is our last meal at the Virgen of Guadalupe Celebrations. Dobladas are made from nixtamalized masa (maize dough) like tortillas, but other ingredients are added before the masa dish is folded over itself and cooked. The ingredients that are added to the doblada are normally ground pork rinds, cheese, mashed potatoes, whole beans, et-cetera, but could be anything really. For instance I would like to find dobladas with cheese and loroco flowers; that would be very tasteful. Dobladas are normally fried or cooked over a comal (griddle made from cooked clay); just like tortillas. Dobladas are very similar to pupusas, except they are turned over. Check out the giant pupusas or Mayan pizza photos. Once dobladas ared cooked they are top with repollo salad (cabbage salad or coleslaw), tomato sauce and/or chile sauce (hot and spicy sauce).

The Ecological Way to Celebrate the Burning of the Devil in Guatemala

For those who would rather break a piñata than playing around with fire, I present to you the Lucky 7 Burning of the Devil Piñata for you to fill it with all your frustration and negative vibes and virtually burn it or break it with your mouse, trackball or tablet until your let it all out. Happy Burning of the Devil everyone!

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Spanish Schools in La Antigua Guatemala

In the picture above you see two foreigners taking Spanish classes in a Restaurant/School named Korea with omnipresent beer posters. Here’s the Spanish word/phrase of the day: Quiero más cerveza por favor (please, I’d like to have more beer). Life is though for the Spanish students in the Spanish school capital of Latin America.

Window view of Mountains around La Antigua Guatemala

As beautiful, cosmopolitan, antique and modern as it is La Antigua Guatemala, many people choose to live in one of the surrounding villages that belong to the municipio (county) of La Antigua Guatemala. There are many reasons for this decision which range from the economics, ‘real guatemalan experience’, or simply to live in a more natural and greener environment.

The Roads Around Antigua Guatemala

From the Guateflora series we take a different road to show you the lush roads around La Antigua Guatemala. By the way, the roads that communicate La Antigua Guatemala with the rest of the ‘real’ Guatemala are some of the best in the country, if not the best; they are kept in better conditions than the rest of the roads around Guatemala.

The Guatemalan Flag Should Be This Blue…

Thanks to our resourceful readers now we know exactly what shade of blue should the Guatemalan Flag should be. Manolo provided us with the exact Guatemalan Congress Act 104-97, available as a PDF download, which determines the color blue as ISCC-NBS 177. Then, Manolo, who felt like procrastinating, decided that ISCC-NBS 177 was not something most people could understand as Celestial Blue, so he gave us a web site address where we could look at the specific shade of blue. He went even futher, and submitted the HTML codes #4285B4 and #4997D0 for the Guatemalan flag blue. Xensen, took this information and came back with Pantone Matching System 297 and 298 and a link to get an idea of the color. So with all this information at our disposal, we now know what the official blue should be used in the Guatemalan Flag (like the photo below). But, like I said yesterday, “… Reality dictates that the Guatemalan flag can be blue, any blue really, with or without the emblem or coat of arms.”

What Shade of Blue is the Guatemalan Flag?

Well, who knows really. I know there’s legislation which describes to the T what a Guatemalan flag is supposed to look like, but like always in Guatemala, laws are beautiful abstract texts that live inside very dusty books. Reality dictates that the Guatemalan flag can be blue, any blue really, with or without the emblem or coat of arms.

Wanted: New Mayor for La Antigua Guatemala

Calzada Santa Lucí­a gets overcrowded with all the stands of the 11 candidates for the La Antigua Guatemala City Hall or Muni as we call it here. They all have their booths, their chants and songs, their promises, their colors, their flyers, their visual and hearing pollution, their trash, et-cetera.

Guatemalan Kitchen Colors

These are some of the most often used ingredients in the Guatemalan kitchen. This photo was taken on Calle del Arco in front of La Fonda de la Calle Real at a booth that the restaurant put out to showcase their flavors and the ingredients they use in their kitchen. You can take this photo to your local Latin market and start cooking some of the recipes found in this site under the Food and Drinks category. Bon Appetite!

Guatemalan Fair: The Ferris Wheel

Ferris wheels are another element of the Guatemalan fair. There is at least one Ferris wheel, but more often two or three of different sizes. The Ferris wheel is known here by these names rueda de Chicago(Chicago Wheel), rueda de la fortuna (wheel of fortune) and vuelta al mundo (around the world). Fairs are made up by all kinds of ambulant stands. Fairs are like accordions, they grow or shrink depending of the size of the community or town. All these photos belong to the San Pedro Las Huertas, a small village just outside and belonging to La Antigua Guatemala. At the end of July, La Antigua Guatemala will have its massive fair in honor of Saint James or Santiago.

Guatemalan Fair: The Church and its Saint

Almost all town fairs and festivities are around the town’s patron, in this case is San Pedro Las Huertas, which by the way, means Saint Peter of the vegetable gardens. Since Guatemala was a catholic country for the last 500 years or so and the Mesoamerican indigenous people absorbed and mixed the catholic rituals and traditions with their own religious beliefs and traditions, most Guatemalan towns have a Spanish catholic first name and often an indigenous last name (otherwise known as the original name). For example, Santo Domingo Xenacoj, which means the original name of the town was Xenacoj, and the town was re-christen with Santo Domingo. Now with the above information, we now know that a town’s fair happens once-a-year on the town’s catholic patron. For San Pedro Las Huertas the date is June 29th and for La Antigua Guatemala is July 25th because the city used to be called The Very Noble and Very Loyal City of Saint James of the Lords of Guatemala, as mentioned by Manolo a few days ago. And some of you thought La Antigua Guatemala was already a very long name; try explaining to your friends and relatives that you are planning a vacation to The Very Noble and Very Loyal City of Saint James of the Lords of Guatemala.

Is it fair? Really it’s a fair

For those who like to imagine what ruins were like and what people did around them I have todays photo of San Pedro Las Huertas Town fair with the church (not a ruin) in the background and all kind of food vendors around the town’s plaza. So this is what the ruins looked like when they were in used by the people of the past. If you would like to browse for other photos from San Pedro Las Huertas, just follow the white rabbit or if you only want to see a better shot of the church in the background just say we’re not in Kansas anymore.

What’s in a name? That which we call La Antigua Guatemala

The English-language speaking community refuses to recognize the official name of La Antigua Guatemala because it is too long or lack of knowledge or poor Spanish-language skills; who knows really?. They just want to call it Antigua. But Antigua is a Caribbean Island. Yet, they refuse to call it La Antigua Guatemala, which, by the way, simply means the former Guatemala City.

To add to this confusion, many Guatemalans just call it Antigua too, although more often they say La Antigua. This error is even published by newspapers and magazine. Worst yet, the road signs just say Antigua Guatemala. Even Wikipedia just have it listed as Antigua Guatemala, which by the way means Old Guatemala.

Walter William Road Monument in Antigua Guatemala

Believe or not, the monument plaque says that this monument was erected in the memory of Walter Williams who happens to be present on the date of inauguration for the the road. I guess that back in 1925, Guatemala was still a jungle and foreign visitors were scarce, so they needed to erect a monument to celebrate such an important event.

WI-FI Around Antigua Guatemala

La Antigua Guatemala, despite its name (Old Guatemala City) and its architecture, is a modern city with cutting-edge technologies like Wireless Internet …

© Antigua Photo Walks with photographer Rudy Giron

Antigua Photo Walks

I am happy to report that the Antigua Photo Walks are a total success. It’s been among the TripAdvisor’s TOP 3 activities …

Peasants on their way to work

Another common sight of the #RealGuatemala around Antigua Guatemala is the peasants on their way to work their land. This is especially …

Laundry Day

We continue our series #RealGuatemala with a photograph of drying clothes in one of the villages of Antigua Guatemala. If you look …

Visiting Ciudad Vieja

As soon as you step outside downtown Antigua Guatemala, you can find the REAL Guatemala. A quick visit to Ciudad Vieja, about …

Hibiscus Flower and Dramaticly-lit Ruins of the Jesuit Society in Antigua Guatemala.

Hibiscus Flower and Dramaticly-lit Ruins

I decided to place the vibrant hibiscus flowers [rosa de jamaica] in the foreground and and dramaticly-lit ruins as backdrop. I made several shots switching for the focal point from the flowers to the ruins as well making horizontal and vertical orientation version… TAP to see the full size photos and post.

PHOTO STOCK: Guatemalan Flag at Real Palacio de La Cultura by RUDY GIRON

Let’s Begin the Bicentennial Celebrations

This week Guatemala and the other countries in Central America will be celebrating their 200th anniversary of Independence. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, most massive events will not be allowed. So, Guatemalans are mostly observing the special date with flags, firecracker bombs and fireworks… TAP to see the full size photo and post.

PHOTO STOCK: Palm Sunday Bouquets from Antigua Guatemala

Palm Sunday Bouquets

Once again Domingo de Ramos, or Palm Sunday, was observed in Antigua Guatemala. Palm Sunday marks the beginning of the Semana Santa [Holy …

PHOTO STOCK: Framed Fuego Volcano Eruption

Framed Fuego Volcano Eruption

During the dry season, when there are less clouds in the skyline, one can really appreciate the continuous eruptions of Volcán de …

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Antigua Photo Walks Are Back

Last Saturday I mentioned that poco a poco, little by little, some of the activities from the old reality are coming back …

Tumbergias or tunbergia misurense

Guateflora: Tumbergias

As you can tell if you have been following the daily updates of Antigua Daily Photo for the last 14 years, I …

Daily Life Vista from Parque Central BY RUDY GIRON

Daily Life Vista from Parque Central

I feel that by making intimate photographs some of you can experience vicariously daily life in Antigua Guatemala. Let me know if you do… tap for full image!

Foodie Alert — Chicken Tiki Masala

Foodie Alert: Chicken Tikka Masala from Toko Baru

Today’s version of chicken tikka masala es from Toko Baru, a great joint located on 1a avenida sur, with lots of curry and pita sandwich options. I highlighted this diner for the first time back in April 2010 with a shorma kebab pita sandwich.