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To sleep or to guard, that is the question, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

There can not be a cat photo without a dog photo. So here you have a dog asking himself the difficult questions that troubled Shakespeare and not allowed him to get a good-night-sleep. I believe that dog has resolved quite nicely; not much to guard anyway.

The Panza Verde Cat on the dome, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

The Mesón Panza Verde is one the best Bed-n-Breakfast in Antigua. It houses a very fine restaurant, an art gallery and the hotel. I have mentioned Panza Verde on my entry about Sabor Cubano and Cuban music in Antigua. I found this review of PV's Cuban music show at BlogJangles: "Friday night at Panza Verde, three members of the Buena Vista Social Club play by the bar. It was spectacular." Needless to say, if you come to Antigua this is a cool place to hang out. Don't forget to stop by and pet the cat. After all, he is the king of the house.

Guatemalan textiles, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

If you come to Antigua and decide to take a stroll you will be approached by a lot of people trying to sell you orchids, jade necklaces, Guatemalan textiles, and all sorts of native folk art. Here you see the back of a lady with many kinds of textiles right in front the building where I work.

Church and stars, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

There are about 12 churches, colonial nonetheless, in Antigua and today it occurred to me that, except for the Cathedral, I have not posted a single church photo. Now, I am not the type of person that visit churches very often, but if you have visited Antigua before, you could ask yourself; how did he manage to post 29 photos of Antigua and only one has a church in it? It is almost impossible to walk for 10 minutes in Antigua and not come across a church. As a matter of fact, the one time of the year when Antigua is flooded with tourists, locals and foreigners, is Lent and Holy Week (Cuaresma and Semana Santa in Spanish). People all over the world are attracted to the churches, processions, and live representation of the Passion of Christ.

Here are more photos of churches in Antigua via Guate360 for now. I have made promise to post at least one photo of every single church in Antigua for June.

Sabor Cubano Restaurant sign, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

Slowly but surely Cubans are building a community in Antigua. Here you see the sign for Sabor Cubano Restaurant (4a calle oriente #3A), one of the latest Cuban joints to open in Antigua. They have live Cuban music Thursdays thought Saturdays and I can testify that it is very good. You can also listen to Cuban music at Panza Verde with some of musician that belonged to Buena Vista Social Club. There is also QBA, a restaurant right acros from the Bodegona. South of la iglesia La Merced is Cubano, a small bar and Cuban cigar shop own by Vladimir, who also owns QBA. There is also Cuban music at Café No Sé. So there you have it, a short run down of the different places to enjoy the Cuban culture, cuisine and music.

As side note, it is interesting how fast the web moves. You can already see a listing of Sabor Cubano Restaurant on the Antigua section in the Wikitravel site.

Guatemalan beers, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

These are the widest available Guatemalan Beers. In the picture you can see the 1 liter container for Gallo, Victoria and Brahva. There are five other brands which belong to Gallo house (Cervecería Centroamericana) as well as Victoria. Beer is the preferred alcoholic drink for Guatemala and quite understandable since it is a tropical country. My favorite Guatemalan beer is Moza [sp], a bock type recipe.

Wood as fuel, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

The name Guatemala derived from the word Goathemala which was given by the Spanish conquistadors and it derives from Quauhtlemallan a word from Nahualt language spoken by the Tlaxcala's natives that accompanied the conquistadors. Quauhtlemallan was a direct translation from the Mayan language's Quiche or Iximche which more or less translates to the land of many trees or forests. This was long-winded explanation to bring forth the fact that this land has been a powerful lung for earth for a very long time; thanks to its many forests. That fact is changing very rapidly because many poor people cut down the trees to use as fuel and because mining is well installed in the county now (follow the link to see a photo of what mining does).

Fire volcano, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

On my photo for March 11, 2006, I forgot to mention that one of the volcanoes in the background is actually active. On this follow-up photo you can see the smoke, ashes and lava being sent onto the sky from Fire volcano (Volcán de Fuego). It is an extraordinary sight and you can still get much closer and be safe. This shot was taken two blocks from my home. There is about three month time separation for the two photos.

Opposite ends of life, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

Opposite ends of life meet to cross the street. Both depend on one another.

Shoeshine boy, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

The future of a society is with the children and their education and preparation. What kind of future awaits for Guatemala when its children are on the streets working to survive today. What kind of education and preparation will its labor force have in ten or twenty years? I posted another photo of a child at work on May 7th.

It is very disturbing to me to see children working to survive today instead of being in school and have the minimum provided to them. By the way, child labor is ilegal in Guatemala and school is mandatory for children under 16. As you can see, neither is enforced by the government.

Grandmother gazing, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

I caught this shot at a cultural event in Compañía de Jesús Building and while the activity progressed in the atrium this lady was completely unconcerned with the activity and the people there.

Fountain of Palacio de Doña Leonor, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

Spanish colonial architecture was based on a central patio with fountain (most of the time) surrounded by rooms. This rebuilt building is a good example of this type of layout.

Sidenote:
I want to thank Ham from London DP for helping me with a more thorough daily photo sidebar. He pointed out to me that there is a DailyPhoto link repository so I can keep an updated list of the DP on my sidebar. He also sent me a link to the DailyPhoto Forum where we can share ideas, tips or just plain answers for easier DP blogging. Thus, I have added a Daily Photo Tools to my sidebar where I have these links as well as DP map. I also added it the Random City for easy navigation to other Daily Photo Cities.

Colibri Sign, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

There are several architectonic elements that make Antigua such a photographic place. These are windows, doors, walls, signs, churches, arches, patios, fountains, ruins, flowers and trees, washbasins, crosses. They are plentiful in such small city (10 blocks by 10 blocks more or less). I will begin to publish all those elements now. Today's photo is Colibrí, a store for textiles which is only two blocks from my office.

May sompopos/huge ants, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

The rainy season in Guatemala begins in May and after the first few rains, Huge ants start to come out of nowhere. These ants are known locally in Central America as Sompopos. I found a better photo which puts the sompopo in perspective in one newspaper from El Salvador, but I can't seem to find now. I will update this note as soon as I come across the photo.

Street lamp in Antigua, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

A detail shot of Antigua's street lighting. For sure, function and beauty do not have fight each other. Here you can see the simplicity of the arrangement brings beauty and function to something as mundane as street lights. To top it off, the lighting poles are in harmony with the Spanish colonial town even though electricity did not exist when the city was founded.

Horse carriage in Antigua, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

There are still some horse carriage in Antigua, mostly used by tourists and by couples who want to have a romantic ride. Some people disapprove of the animal labor and exploitation, but here in Guatemala that is far too low in the political agendas.