Seen Around Antigua
Posted on May 4, 2010 - Filed Under Guatemala | 13 Comments
Yesterday, Irving and I borrowed his dad’s motorbike and headed out to get some photos for a project I’m working on (which will be revealed shortly right here). I thought I’d share a few with you.
We went up to the Cerro de la Cruz, which overlooks Antigua. This is the cross that gives the hill its name.
There were some tourists up there checking out the scenery and they asked me to get a shot of them with their camera. They weren’t sure whether to speak to me in English or Spanish . . . so we ended up in Spanglish.
Volcan Agua, looming over Antigua.
These ruins were a prison when I first arrived here . . . they only recently moved the prison to a new location, an hour and a half away.
La Merced, probably the most famous church in Antigua.
Back in Antigua, we passed this little Pinchazo shop . . . where they repair flat tires. Usually they’ll do bikes, motorcycles, cars and buses.
There are a lot of people on bikes these days.
This woman sells a variety of food just below the park. I taught her daughter English many, many years ago.
In the park, I took a lot of shots:
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13 Responses to “Seen Around Antigua”
Talk to Me, People!
Great pics, they make me miss Guatemala. I can not wait to come back for Christmas and new years
Great pictures Thank you!
I love your pictures! It must´ve been funny how you ended up speaking Spanglish with those tourists. I had several gringo friends who grew up in Xela and they all spoke Spanglish, even in their homes!
I find myself stumbling in English (more than in Spanish for some bizarre reason!) because half the time the Spanish word comes into my head while I’m talking. It’s fine if I’m with my friends who live here . . . they do the same thing and we all understand. With newbies and tourists though, it can be really difficult. Or with my parents, when we Skype. They give me a lot of weird looks when I accidentally lapse into Spanish.
The indigenous on the park bench is an especially exquisite photo. How did you do it to make everyone else and everything else appear to be almost in black and white, with the emphasis of color only on the women and their bundles? Was this intentional? It’s as though the modern life is faded into the background, and the indigenous women, in full color, have been transported from a far away time and dropped down onto the park bench. I’m having a hard time to describe how and what it is that I’m feeling exactly when I study this picture. This is a very nice and unique photographic approach.
PS, I live in Patzcuaro, Michoacan with my Mexican husband. It’s a high mountain town (7500 to 8000 ft). The indigenous here are Purepechan.
Gail, I use Adobe Photoshop, so I just used the “desaturate” tool to remove color from the other areas of the picture. I actually fiddled with a few of them . . . the little girl with the bright bag is also brighter than the background, though not as much and I made the background in the shot of the shoeshine boy blurry. Otherwise, the focus of the photo was just too hard to find, since everything is so bright here!
gorgeous pics! Now I am really getting excited for next month
I did notice that the little girl with the red bag was also more bright than the shoeshine boy. This is a really nice approach. And to blur the background also is very nice.
I know what you mean about the brightness–we have the brightness factor here in Patz too; it can be blinding at times. I was just up in Portland OR recently, with the overcast gray skies and muted light, and I do like it. When I got back home here I felt like the brightness is overwhelming at times. But I do have an eye condition that makes the brightness and the dryness (at altitude) painful for me, so that’s probably why.
I was just telling Simenesh that the difference between here and Woliso where she lived is…the people are out. Here you can drive and drive and all you see is houses and landscaping. Love your motorbike adventure. How fun and colorful.
Kimmie
mama to 8
one homemade and 7 adopted
Make sure you bring plenty of batteries, you’ll be taking TONS of pictures.
Do you know what handsome bird that is on the edge of the fountain? I’m pretty sure it’s a Thrush of some type. We have White-throated Thrush in our yard, as well as American Robin, and in winter we get Hermit Thrush.
I’m afraid I’m completely clueless when it comes to birds, Gail. Sorry, maybe one of my readers knows something?