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Antigua's young love, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

Somehow, not by conscious intention, I have managed to avoid the common references and photos of Antigua. For better or for worse, at 90 days from the beginning of this blog I have yet to publish a photo of Santa Catalina's Arch and Calle del Arco which is the most emblematic photo of Antigua; the equivalent will be not to have published a photo of Statue of Liberty in New York or the Eiffel Tower in Paris after 90 days. Well, so be it! How good and different would be this blog if shot the same photos than everyone else? How could a bring you a local and resident perspective if I took the same photos that most tourists and tourist services? I believe, at least for me, this blog will be boring and bland.

Another obvious reference that I have skipped or not made a real good point is that Antigua is very romantic town. I posted a photo of young lovers on the May 1st, the first day for this blog, but I did now dwelt on the fact that this city is the perfect weekend getaway for lovers. With its many terrace cafes, candle-lit restaurants and bars, Antigua is one of the most romantic destinations nationally and internationally.

Now, you could ask, really how romantic can it be? As romantic as Paris, well maybe. Many people come to Antigua to fall in love, to get married and to conceived their first child. I have met couples in each category. I met a couple from Spain, who had been trying to conceive for a long time. They took their vacations each year to different parts of the world and at each destination they try to become pregnant. Guess what? Antigua or Lake Atitlán, they don't know for sure which town, was the conception place. When they left Guatemala, Emilio was already part of the family.

So, if you are planning to get married for the first time or the Nth time, consider what Antigua has to offer. But, I do not want to be responsible for any more conceptions. You are warned ;-)

Strolls in Antigua, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

Not to long ago, on July 18th, I told you about the joys of walking in Antigua. I bring to you a similar shot. I hope you like this photo as much as I like it.

hi-tech low-tech, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

Often in La Antigua Guatemala you find this dichotomy: old against new, high technology against low technology. The juxtaposition of a 360° closed-circuit camera (probably wireless with internet access) and a brick-n-mortar chimney is a very good example.

Antigua's colors, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

Nuno suggested that we should always look up, beauty is on every direction. That is exactly what I did for this shot; although it lacks the beauty that Nuno is giving us in July 2006, it serves to show you the color and quality of light at sunset, as well as you can see the wood beams and roof tiles that are emblematic of Antigua's architecture.

This photo also represents the 100th entry in this blog since May 1st. It is not exactly 100 days, but I posted several pictures on the first day to get the feel for the design and to have a slide show of the photos I was going to be posting. If you click the slide show link, you can see all the photos in about 5 minutes.

At this milestone I asked myself if I am not being too wordy, this is a photolog after all, and maybe nobody reads or cares for the long captions anyway. So, I decided, unless you tell me otherwise, to have short and brief caption from this point forward. I thank the 9,521 visits people have made to this blog; I am close to reaching the 10,000 visits milestone, which will probably happen before August 1st. Please, come back often, I promise to be brief and I will put more effort into the quality of the images.

Arches reflected on Tanque de la Unión, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

Here is the other side of the Tanque de la Unión.

Tanque de la Unión public washbasins, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

Yesterday I showed you a public laundry washbasin in Ciudad Vieja. Today I bring to you the Tanque de la Unión public laundry washbasin (->more info in Spanish). In colonial times these public water tanks and washbasins served as the places for doing your laundry and for water distribution. In many places in Guatemala this stills holds true. Furthermore, public laundry washbasins (sometimes rivers or lake shores) serve as the gathering place for news, gossip and community building through the interactions that take place. Public washbasins could be considered the first news broadcasting sites; batteries not required.

Public washbasin, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

On May 13th I posted a photo a public laundry washbasin in Ciudad Vieja and Heidi asked how do people wash their clothes in such facilities. Here I have a follow-up photo taken at the same time and day. People, usually from low income areas, take their dirty clothes to the public laundry washbasin which is nothing more than a large water tank with many sinks where women can wash them by hand using only soap and a small plastic vessel. The mystery is now resolved, but the magic has been taken away.

Antigua's backstreets, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

If you find yourself on the outskirts of Antigua, for sure you will be next to a coffee plantation. Here I am at only two blocks behind the market and you can already see a coffee parcel (on the right). Volcán de Agua, Water Volcano towers at 3,760 meters on the background and it is the only compass that you need as you walk around the city; it is to the south of the Antigua.

A visitor asked me to post a picture of Water Volcano and why is called that. Well, I promise I am going to post this week some photos about the volcanoes around Antigua and their different names and history. I have not done it yet because I need all the supporting documentation, but let me give you a teaser. Two of the three volcanoes have to do with the genesis of the universe.

Selling avocadoes, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

Ever since I came to Antigua about four years ago, I often come across this lady who is always selling avocados. I believe she must have a small parcel of avocado trees. Anyhow, it is a pleasure to see her and her avocados, the local variety, are always of good quality. Mexico and Guatemala are the birth places for this delicious fruit.

Trivia 1: The word avocado comes from the the Spanish word aguacate which in turn comes from the Mexican Nahuatl language word ahuacacuauhitl, which means testicle tree. Avocado in Maya is on and palta en Quechua. Source: UC Davis.

Trivia 2: The people of Antigua are known as Panzas Verdes, green bellies. They have gotten this non-offensive nickname for the great amounts of avocados they ate in the past.

Trivia 3: Local hearsay is that Wilson Popenoe took the local avocado variant to California and from it the California avocado emerged (hass). More on Mr. Popenoe on the June 12h post.

Buying books under the arches, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

La Antigua Guatemala was founded as Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala (Saint James of the Lords of Guatemala) on July 25th, 1524 at a location now known as Ciudad Vieja and then moved to its present location in 1543 (about 2 miles to the north from the founding site). I tell you this, so you know why July is the town's fair and why as part of the fair activities there is a book fair. Books are a luxury in Guatemala and the levels of readership are probably among the lowest in America.

Nonetheless, here are some interesting figures: there are 69 book publishers in Guatemala, 29 are big industrial businesses. There are only 450 points of sale for the whole country, 50% of those outlets are pharmacies. 70% of the editorial market comes from Spain, Mexico and Colombia. Guatemala is the only country in the region that taxes books (12% is the tax at the register). These figures comes from a recent interview to Cecilia Baily, president of the Gremial de Editores de Guatemala (book publishers association) on the July 2006 issue of Recrearte magazine (available as PDF download in Spanish). There are two international book fairs that will start on July 28 in Guatemala City. FILGUA, International Book Fair in Guatemala and FILCEN, International Book Fair in Central America merged on a single large event; if you can read Spanish you can hop over to my other blog for a longer description of Filgua and Filcen.

Antigua's main entrance, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

On my post Welcome to La Antigua Guatemala, I showed what you see first as you come to Antigua. Today I move a little further and show you the entrance from the the opposite end. You are thrown into a different state of mind as soon as you arrive: the cobblestone streets, the Antigua's color palette and architecture, the artworks, the lamp and the people in a relax attitude; all of it at once on the first block. You immediately realize you are not in Kansas anymore.

Just follow the white rabbit! But be careful, looks can be deceiving.

Back door for San Jeronimo Ruins, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

Ruins are everywhere in Antigua. Heck you could even say the whole town is a ruin or a post card from the past. Here you see the rear of the San Jerónimo ruins. I mentioned on June 18th that Palo de Izote is used often as a fence. Well, here is the proof. If you want to know a little more about Palo de Izote, visit the June 18th post.

Ermita de la Santa Cruz Ruins, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

On June 29th I posted a photo of Charly García on concert in Antigua Guatemala. Well, then I mentioned that Antigua is used as natural venue for concerts, jazz festivals, classical music recitals. The venue they use most often for concerts is La Ermita de la Santa Cruz ruins. Santa Cruz ruins sit on the outskirts of Antigua, on the east side, against a very densely tree-populated mountain.

A few months back there was a historic concert by Guatemala's most famous rock band Alux Nahual who recently reunited for series of fund-raising concert for the victims of Hurricane Stan (unbelievable, it is already on Wikipedia). I did not go to this first concert, but I was told it was incredible. Because of previous commitments, I was unable to attend, but I was a few blocks away and I still can sensed the greatness of the concert and felt the energy that emanated from the Santa Cruz ruins. Here four photos from their official web site (maybe?), F1 the preparation, F2 the concert overview, F3 close up with the musicians, F4 the closure. 120 photos of this concert are available here; small photos but you get to see the venue at its best.