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Stop, watch and observe

Sometimes I forget that I should simply disconnect from the Internet and go outside. This time Rudy Girón took me out, and …

Theme Day: Contrast

As every first of the month, AntiguaDailyPhoto is joining City Daily Photo community in the orchestrated global effort to show you “contrast” …

Licuado Culture

Sweet. Refreshing. Natural. Licuados are one of those treats that truly define a Guatemalan experience. The blended fruit drinks can be found …

Birds-Eye View of Nature

Antigua Canopy Tours isn’t just about the unique experience of gliding… it’s about gliding through a tropical rainforest or cloud forest canopy. …

Have a Safe Flight

“The three most important factors for the canopy tour are security, a family-oriented experience and promoting nature,” Antigua Canopy Tours Manager Pascu …

Constructing a Canopy Course

“We could see the topography was just perfect,” Victor Gallo confidently asserted. Victor Gallo is the expert Antigua Canopy Tours hired to …

El Santuario

Platform One is where the “flying” begins. After a thorough explanation and demonstration of the special techniques required to properly enjoy the …

Pick Your Poison

Just how daring are you? There are two zipline circuits offered by Antigua Canopy Tours. The first is Forest Express: six distinct …

The UNIMOG Hog

What a beast. The journey of “flying through the forest” with Antigua Canopy Tours begins with a ride in the unique UNIMOG, …

Who owns the water in Guatemala?

All Guatemalans, of course, just like the air. Water belongs to the Guatemalan people and it’s managed by the government; national and …

Above and Beyond the Clouds

Can you have too many shots of La Antigua Guatemala’s volcanoes? I think not. This one was taken from the rooftop view …

On the news

Below you can browse the portfolio of the photos or stories in other places beyond AntiguaDailyPhoto. AntiguaDailyPhoto referenced or talked about elsewhere …

Framing Balconies…

La Antigua Guatemala, LAG, draws a large part of its identity from its grid rows of picture-perfect edifices that line the calles …

Little Charms of LAG

Visitors can easily spot the Maya people dressed in rainbow colors weaving their way throughout the renowned colonial architecture of La Antigua …

Market Pick-Me-Up

Sweet. Juicy. Succulent. Happy. Fresh. Inviting. These are just some of the words that come to mind whenever I spy the overflowing …

Guatemalan Chuparrasco

Last year I mentioned about that thanks to the wise weather gods, in Guatemala any time of the year is good for …

Escaping to Another Era

Michele Woodey already so eloquently described the emotions La Antigua’s ruins evoke. In her Antigua Abstracted #3 post she wrote: “These are places …

Horseback Riding in Antigua Guatemala

It is not unusual to see people riding horses within the streets of La Antigua Guatemala. Some of the horses have been trained to do so gracefully that is a pleasure to watch them go by. Such is the case of this white horse and the jockey that ride as one with refinement and suave stride.

Antigua Abstracted #2

Luscious rivers of colour, in every hue imaginable pour through La Antigua over Holy week. Ultramarine, cobalt blue, lime yellow, day-glow orange, deep rich purples, and blood reds, all in myriad shades flow into endless combinations over the cobblestone canvas of the street.

Gravilea Trees Wallpaper

As mentioned before the Gravilea trees are planted next to coffee bushes to provide the necessary shade for the coffee plants. Once …

Colorful Guatemala

Colorful Guatemala, I tell you, colorful Guatemala! Si ni los mismos guatemaltecos logramos entender la complejidad cultural en la que vivimos… —Ale …

Enjoying the Dry Sunsets

Even during the rainy season quite often you can enjoy a dry sunset in the company of your loved one. I wonder …

Having Lunch by The Garden

As more houses of La Antigua Guatemala are turned into business, the old architectonic spaces are converted for new uses. Here for …

Flowers-R-Us

Guatemala does not have a Spring season, nor Summer, Autumn, nor Winter, yet it is known as the Land of the Eternal …

Open Schools: Registration

Finally something good for the communities in the rural areas of Guatemala. Escuelas Abiertas or Open Schools is a government program which …

Lines and Shadows

This warm light was the dry season. Although, I am sure we can get similar sunsets during the rainy season, I don’t …

Guatemalan Jade in Mayan Art

See everything is a matter of perspectives and that’s the whole truthiness and nothing but the truthiness (thanks Manolo for the new …

Shoe-shining at Calle del Arco

Shoe-shinning is quite inexpensive in La Antigua Guatemala, about Q2/US$0.25 so there is no reason not to have one’s shoes shinning and …

Guatemalan Cuisine: Revolcado

Thanks to Michele and Eddie, two loyal readers of AntiguaDailyPhoto.Com, I actually came to La Antigua Guatemala during the Holy Week. We …

Guatemalan Fruit: Chico Zapote

Okay, we will finish the Zapote and other exotic tropical fruits from Guatemala week with the Chico Zapote or simply chico which …

Guatemalan Fruit: Mamey

Okay everyone, I solemnly declare this week as the Zapotes (sapotes) and other such exotic tropical fruits week. Sapote or tzapotl is …

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: Rabo Guisado

Okay, get your Guatemalan notebook handy, we’re about to learn a few Guatemalan words and concepts. Rabo Guisado translate roughly as ox …

The Tourists Wear Thongs

The devil wears prada and many young tourists wear thongs. I have shown these sandals before in several photos, but just now …

Wear it with Pride (Part 3)

Sure, you say, the traje indí­gena is a far out outfit, but are there really symbols encoded in these garments? Once again, …

GET PRINTS!

Support My Efforts, Use Art Photos For Your Wall Decor! You can now purchase high-quality prints (digitally signed) of any photo available …

On the Way to the Maize Mill

The Guatemalan way of life is rapidly disappearing right in front of our eyes. Today’s entry is such a case, as the …

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 …

Pruning the Gravileas Trees

There is nothing like rain water to make all the flora grow and in Guatemala we have a very copious rainy season …

Entrance to Finca San Agustin Las Cañas

The Spring Season began a few days ago, so I’ve read somewhere {ñ}. Guatemala’s slogan is the Land of the Eternal Spring, yet in this country Spring has never showed up. As a matter of fact, Guatemala’s weather does not follow the ‘normal’ seasons. Instead, Guatemala has a dry and a wet seasons. The wet season begins in May and ends towards the last days of October; the remaining months are the dry season. So in about 40 days the rainy season will begin in Guatemala and the whole country will be wearing an intense verdurous foliage dress. If you ever decide to visit Guatemala, make sure you bring dark sunglasses because the adjective intense accompanies every shade of the color hue.

Time to harvest the coffee in La Antigua Guatemala

So what makes La Antigua Guatemala the best coffee in the world? To get the best cup of coffee of the world, one must start with the right altitude; somewhere above 1,500 meters above the sea level; add lots of fertile volcanic soil; mix in plenty of rain (about six months); stable temperate weather (about 75˚ F / 25˚ C); once you have the above, make sure you plant the best possible Arabica coffee.

Grilling and Barbequing Time in Antigua

The weather gods decided long time ago to sent into exile the fascist dictator of Cold to the vast lands of maple leaves and bacon; originally known as Kanata. Thanks to the wise weather gods, in Guatemala any time of the year is good for grilling and barbequing and to meet with friends for what is known locally as El Chuparrasco (chupa for drinking and rrasco, short for churrasco or barbequing). Nevertheless, I have said several times that the dried season, or rainless, that goes from the end of October to end of April is the best weather in Guatemala (which covers part of the Fall, full Winter and part of the Spring seasons). Well, if I had to pick one month as the best to visit La Antigua Guatemala, I would pick February. See, in February we have the Carnival, Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, San Valentine’s Day (Dí­a del cariño), the best temperate weather, Silvio Rodrí­guez in Concert (at least this year for the first time ever), just to mention a few highlights for the month of love.

Café No Sé Façade in La Antigua Guatemala

This is the façade of Café No Sé in La Antigua Guatemala, headquarters of the John Rexer’s 1a avenida sur empire. His efforts to take control over the whole 1a avenida sur (1st Avenue South) are a little more humble than Pinky and The Brain Gutiérrez who want the whole world to convert to their tender, juicy and crunchy recipe of fried chicken. 😉

Ice-capped Volcanoes in La Antigua Guatemala

Sometimes you just have to ask yourself what kind of strange brew are the Canadians brewing way up north, heh. See, first they steal our bright minds; then they take our gold and buy out our postal service; they insert strange things into our antigüeño breakfast (bacon they call it); even our money is now Canadian (it reads Canadian Bank Note on the brand-new Quetzal bills); just to name a few things. In return they send salsa-dancing-craze Spanish students and the horrible and hostile weather. Come on, this is Guatemala, a tropical country in Central America, you know, the tiny land that impedes the Caribbean Island from moving over the Pacific Ocean. So what business does it have freezing-cold-ice-capping winds in La Antigua Guatemala. See, we don’t need no sticking ice-capped mountains and volcanoes in our gorgeous temperate-always-sun-shining-eternal-spring weather. Those volcanoes you see in the background are ice-capped (see larger image).

Private Spanish Classes in La Antigua Guatemala

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the private Spanish teachers yesterday in the cornucopia of options available for taking Spanish classes in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Spanish Schools entry. Once again, take all these options with a grain of salt since many of the flyers put more emphasis in the private part of the sale of the service.

Public Water Distribution System

Central America and Guatemala especially have an abundance of water resources, many are groundwater. La Antigua Guatemala is located in a valley irrigated with over six months of a rainy season per year. La Antigua Guatemala is surrounded by mountains and volcanoes that collect even more water. Much of this collected rain ends up as groundwater.

Umbrella Time is Now Officially Over

Okay with this last photo of people carrying umbrellas we can now declare the rainy season of 2007 officially over. Okay everyone, you are welcome to the most beautiful weather in La Antigua Guatemala; come on over now!

Office Window View

Here is a little over-sharing, as Miss Jill would say. This is one of the views from our office window into the garden. Here we can see José, our green-thumb gardener waiting for the heavy rain to pass. By the way, rain is one of the most difficult things to photograph. Here I set shutter’s timing at two seconds, holding the camera over the window crate as a tripod, to try to capture the heavy down pour, yet I was only able to show silky lines. I’ve tried to do the same before in the entry Comtemplating the heavy rain with a little better success. We are about one to two weeks from the end of the rainy season.

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.

Don’t Take Pictures…

Even though La Antigua Guatemala is a very photogenic town and that is virtually impossible to take a bad photo of this …

Hotel Arizona Doorway

The La Antigua Guatemala city ordinances requires that the name of businesses be in Spanish. Some business have dual names like Rainbow Cafe which was forced to change to Café Arcoiris (although they kept Rainbow Cafe at a smaller size within the sign). Backpackers Hotel became Mochileros Hotel and so on. For the most part, I agree with this city ordinance because the La Antigua Guatemala is protected by national and international laws since it was declared by UNESCO as World Heritage.

Jungle Party Sign in Antigua

Okay, I don’t have much to say today. Or, rather there’s plenty to say, but not enough time to write it up. So, we take a break and pleasure in a soothing image of dog enjoying the late afternoon rain.

Best wishes for the upcoming weekend, everyone!

Tropical Fruits Guatemalan Breakfast

I guess you can have a breakfast like the one pictured above just about anywhere in the world since these tropical fruits are shipped everywhere now. This breakfast, however, was made from fresh fruits grown and harvested within an hour or so from La Antigua Guatemala; with luck the fruits were picked the day before.

La Tienda de Doña Gavi Sign

We continue with “the sign fetish” and today’s turn is for La Tienda de Doña Gavi sign. Believe it or not, this tiny store is one of La Antigua Guatemala landmarks and it’s located on the street behind the Cathedral. Doña Gavi sells all kinds of organic stuff in this cozy shop including avocado ice cream. If you come to Antigua, you must visit this shop. If you don’t trust my recommendation, read the On the Road Travel recommendation below:

Chicalote (Prickly Poppy) Cocoon in La Antigua Guatemala

Last year, on the entry The Land of the Eternal Spring, I talked about the “undocumented alien” in our garden, the Flor de Pascua (poinsettias) which were not planted or maintained, yet it gave us those wonderful red flowers from October through March. Since then, we moved to another house in San Pedro Las Huertas, one of the neighborhoods of La Antigua Guatemala, which is next to a coffee plantation with lots of trees and birds (partners in crime). Well, I am happy to report yet another “undocumented alien” in our new garden by the name of Chicalote (Prickly Poppy or Argemone Mexicana), a sort desert weed (that’s right I said desert, remember La Antigua is located in a tropical country). Two days ago I presented you the chicalote’s flower in the entry Flora and Fauna working together. One thing many visitors to La Antigua Guatemala notice right away is the incredible number of exotic flowers and plants, many of which grow in the wild.

Theme Day: One Way to the Decisive Moment

As I negotiated my acrobatic skills over the stone, looked back so I don’t get ran over or splashed by one of the uncivilized drivers, looked at the camera so I don’t ruin it with the running dirty water, composed the shot to include both elements, I took a couple of shots to get the best composition. As I was ready to put away the camera and moved away from the center of the street because two vehicles were using their horns to alert me that they were close and they had no mercy; this lady entered the frame; I did see her with my own eyes as I was looking down to the twist-out viewfinder paralleled to the floor; I had but fleeing second to take the shot and this fraction of a second my mind went through all countless photographs warehoused in my memory so fast that I must remember over thousand images until my brain did a full stop at one my favorite images ever: The Decisive Moment by Henri Cartier-Bresson. With that image in my head, I pressed the shutter release. Next, I pulled away from the centre of the street just in time as the vehicle behind me went by making a big splash (I did not get wet), pulled my eye sight to see that the lady did not fall and was already walking away in the opposite direction.

Flora and Fauna Working Together

This is another shot taken from our garden which shows the harmonious relationship that flora and fauna can have. There are about four or five photos from our garden, a mini-series if we may call it that way, including one that shows some of edible weeds and/or herbs that our very popular in Guatemala. But, first we have to take a break, on September 1st, to be part of the Theme day of Daily Photo Community. The theme for tomorrow is street light or street signs and I have a great capture, with rain and all, from La Antigua Guatemala that show both of them.

You’re Not Dead Until You’re Forgotten

Guatemala’s real culture is syncretism and thus death plays an important role in traditions and culture. Guatemala is the real ‘melting pot’ and the final product is called mestizo. A mestizo is an individual that comes in many shades of brown and she is made up from a combination of AmerIndian, European, African, Asian and Arab. Syncretism and mestizism go together well and that is why there is no conflict with including some or many Mayan rituals, including death rituals, in a everyday Catholic or Christian service. Obviously, a single entry is not enough to describe such a complex human being, but we have to start somewhere and since Patsy Poor mentioned that recent studies showed that the U.S. will be brown (mestizo) in 50 years. 😉

San Lázaro General Cemetery

This photograph marks the beginning of the San Lázaro Cemetery series. I know Friday is a weird day to start a series, but since most people visit the cemetery on the weekends, I guess it’s okay. I have to warn you about the series though. This cemetery is not exceptional and quite frankly a little boring since it is mostly white. So, don’t expect any extraordinary or exotic shots.

Guatemalan Adoptions Could Be Mixed Blessings

There are many complications when you take an adopted child from Guatemala to a foreign land and to a foreign culture. One complication could be that he or she will be marked as strange because of her Mayan traits and the dark color of the skin.

Hispanic and Indigenous children might be walking on uneven streets if they are taken to mostly white neighborhoods where racism and discrimination could part of their daily bread.

Joyerí­a del Ángel Corner in La Antigua Guatemala

Obviously what they sell there has not influenced my appreciation for this wonderful light-blue, celeste in Guatemalan Spanish, corner. I simply liked the light hitting the building and the tourist walking by that afternoon. Also, I like the geometry of the white stripes, the Joyerí­a del Ángel sign and the lamp. You will have to excuse the white sky in many of the photos taken during the rainy season; not much I can do.

Guatemalan Fair: The Games

The Latin American lottery is played with cardboards of nine images, each cardboard is different, bean or maize counts, and a person calling out aloud the name of the images: La Chalupa, El Borracho, El Catrí­n, La Campana, El Cantaro, et-cetera. Whoever gets all nine images called out and accounted for with beans or maize seeds wins the lottery, if, and only if they scream with all their lungs LO-TE-RIIIIAAAAA.

Café Y tu Piña También plus WIFI

Boy oh boy, bagels, English muffins, exotic pastries, all the cookies in the rainbow, the best coffee and Wi-Fi internet access can almost make you forget you are in a Spanish colonial town embedded between coffee plantations, flower farms and volcanoes in the central mountain range of this tiny banana baby-exporting republic known as Guatemala.

Resistance is Futile, We are Pollo Campero Borg

Soon everyone will be familiar with this logotype. Resistance is futile, all of you will be assimilated, we are the borg-campero. Juan José Gutiérrez and Dionisio Gutiérrez remind me of Pinky and The Brain because of their new weekly plans to take over the world. The first plan began over 35 years ago, 1971 to be precise, in tiny joint in Guatemala City. Their plan was very simple: let’s make a clone of Kentucky Fried Chicken and let’s sell it the world over. So far their plan has taken as far many U.S. cities, Madrid and Jakarta and in ten days to Shanghai. In China, Pinky and The Brain Gutiérrez plan to open up 500 new restaurants in the next five years; that is little over 8 restaurants per month. The Gutiérrez plan is to convince-convert the world over to their recipe of fried chicken which is tender, juicy and crunchy by way of plain logic: after all, how can 1.7 billion Chinese be wrong, right?

Huge Bougainvillea Tree at El Pensativo River

Believe it or not, the dry green river bed is El Pensativo River. The other day while driving on Calle Chipilapa, which takes you to La Ermita de la Santa Cruz Ruins, I saw this huge bougainvillea tree on the other side of El Pensativo River, dry now but soon it will have running water. I never seen a bougainvillea tree so big; my girlfriend and I saw a midget bougainvillea tree—about 1 meter in height— in Tapachula, Mexico.

Guatemalan Policemen At Work

In this tiny office of this building, the Captains’ Palace, two police officers take crime reports, charges and denounces, all under the …

Holy Week Elements: The Churches

Churches serve as terminals from which processions depart or arrive. Churches also serve as home-base for all the brotherhoods of cucuruchos and sisterhoods. Churches also put their best face for the Holy Week and many get a paint job and/or restoration works in the weeks prior to Semana Santa.

With this photo we wave goodbye to Semana Santa and to Holy Week’s processions. I was told the last procession, the Resurrection (Resurección) procession comes out on Easter Sunday (today) a 6 a.m. and its back in the church by 10 in the morning.