www.cernikovsky.com                           
JARDINES DE LA ALAMEDA
200 Jardines ... 200 Gardens


Easter
Semana Santa

Carpets ... photos
Processions ... animated sequences

Fuego explosions
8th January 2003, 2004

jito1949
House 2007
Photos 2003
Baths 2002
Kitchens 2002
Fireplaces 2002
Fountain 2006
Guest Apt 2004
NYC to Antigua trip 2002

Contact me

Germany, Luxembourg
June 2003








 



502-7832-8466 casa

502-5916-5331 cel Tomas

Tomas:    cernikovsky@hotmail.com

 Lorraine:  lorduncan@gmail.com
U.S. - Guatemala courier

Tomas Cernikovsky (A-369)
P.O.Box 669004, Miami Springs, FL 33266
                                                                A


Wow! What a Christmas in Antigua and Guatemala City.  Click to see a bunch of photos.


September 2023 trip to Scotland icluding a boat ride on Loch Ness, where I took this photo (No Photoshop!)
Click to see lots of photos from Scotland


September 2023 in the Botanical Gardens on the Mall of Washingtom D.C. with Dave & Brie & Esme, now 6-1/2!


Angkor Wat, Siem Rep, Cambodia. April 2023. Click on the image to see a lot of photos from Cambodia.


Angkor Wat, Siem Rep, Cambodia. April 2023. Click on the image to see a lot of photos from Cambodia.
 
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September 2022 Argentina.  Visiting our friends Martha & Jim Mast for their 70th wedding anniversary in Buenos Aires and then trips to Salta and Mendoza.  Click to see more.
Click on the photo or here to see many more.
 
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September 2021.  Prague.  Working in my mother's house in Cologne, but taking side trips, this one to Czech for a smalll funeral for her.  Also to see friends in Czech and Austria.  Click to see more.
Click on the photo or here to see many more.
 


June 2021.  Germany.  Working in my mother's house in Cologne, but taking side trips, this one to Bavaria. 
Click to see more.


April 2021.  Visiting Washington D.C. to see David, Brie and little Esme and the famous cherry blossoms.
Click to see more.


August 2020.  A two-week trip around Colorado.  This is at Arapahoe Basin, one of the highest ski resorts in North America.  Please click to see many photos of our trip, with open-air restaurants, mountain-top pic-nics, masks and hand-sanitizers.


July 2020.  Visiting The Parthenon ... no, not in Athens, but in Nashville.  A full-size replica built for a 1897 "centennial exhibition".  It certainly is in a better condition than the original, and as you can see, they are again repairing it.  See more photos of our trips around the South, with masks and hand-sanitizers.


June 2020.  Visiting Longvue House in New Orleans.  See more photos of our trips around the South, with masks and hand-sanitizers. Click to see more photos of our short trips.


July 2020.  Visiting the USS Alabama in Mobile.
See more photos of our trips around the South, with masks and hand-sanitizers.


Covid-19.  During over 9 months on our golf course, in a forest near Abita Springs, when we have so far walked 700 miles (10 times what we did on the Camino a Santiago), we often talk to family and friends.  Here we are talking to my grand-daughter Esme in Hyattsville, Maryland, and her parents, Dave & Brie. Click to see more of our Abita Springs photos.


Covid-19.  In March 2020, we went, as usual, to Austin, TX and with Jenny to Canyon Lake in the Texas Hill Country and San Antonio.  She had a good birthday.  See photos.  After that, we were heading, again as usual, to Louisiana for Lorraine's mother's 99th birthday. For over 9 months now, we are in a small time share on a golf course that closed some years ago, deep in the forest over 5 miles north from the small town of Abita Springs. A very extreme form of Social Distancing.  Click to see many photos of our environment. 
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A superb family 2019 Christmas ... near Orlando, 10 adults, 8 granchildren, Airbnb.com house, 8 bedrooms, some theme parks, a splendid time for all.  Everybody had a night to cook for the family.
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This was in New York City in July 2018.  Click on the photo, or here to see many more photos of Esme, my grand-daughter!

May 2018 ... click to see many photos of our trip to Alaska, Washington and British Columbia May 2018 ... click to see many photos of our trip to Alaska, Washington and British Columbia
May 2018 ... click to see many photos of our trip to Alaska, Washington and British Columbia.
Click here to see a larger image

February 2018 ... on top of La Danta, a pyramid in the north of Guatemala, the largest in the Americas, and the largest, by volume, in the world, with archeaologists Marion Popenoe, Richard Hansen, Director of El Mirador (right) and Carlos Morales (left). Also friends Frank Peterson and Liz Bell. 21 friends came on our trip. Click to see more photos (and videos) of this exciting trip.

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Going to a wedding party in Collioure, south of France.  Congratulations Raffaella & Gregory!  What a splending part of the world for a wedding.             ..

Click here to see many more photos from Argentina

Going to a fancy dinner in Buenos Aires.  Wintertime.  Here for Ashley's "Bat Miztvah", skiing in Bariloche, opera and sightseeing.  Please click on the photo above or here, to see 65 photos.

Click here to see many more photos from "Czechia"

We had a fabulous family Christmas in Guatemala.  Please click on the photo above or here, to see over 30 photos.

Click here to see many more photos from "Czechia"

September 2016: A trip to the other Cernikovsky's Diamond Wedding, Sasha's birthday and to travel in "Czechia", with side trips to Poland and Austria.  Please click on the photo above or here, to see many photos.

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May 2016: Second honeymoon.  Taormina Greek Theatre, Sicily.  At the British Museum, at the start of the trip, we saw a "Sicily:  Culture and Conquest" exhibition and the next day we flew to Sicily.  Fascinating.  Click here or on the photo to see many more images of our trip. 
 

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May 2016: At the British Museum, there is an exhibition (see behind us) of "Sicily:  Culture and Conquest". 
We saw it on Sunday and the next day flew off to Palermo.  Click here or on the photo to see many more images of our trip. 
 

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September 2015: Our honeymoon trip to Berlin.  Here by the Brandenburg Gate.  Click here or on the photo to see many more images of our trip. 
 

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June 6, 2015.  A fabulous wedding with Lorraine.  Cheers!  Only a few photos here, but almost 200 are at http://www.lorraine-tomas.com/

 

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June 6, 2015, La Antigua, Guatemala.  A fabulos wedding with Lorraine.  A superb setting in the ruins of San Jose el Viejo. 
Only a few photos here, but almost 200 are at http://www.lorraine-tomas.com/

 

Click to see a larger image.

June 6, 2015, La Antigua, Guatemala.  A fabulos wedding with Lorraine.  Almost 200 photos are at http://www.lorraine-tomas.com/

 

Click to see a larger image.

June 6, 2015, La Antigua, Guatemala.  A great wedding dress, a good cake and a fabulous party.
Almost 200 photos are at http://www.lorraine-tomas.com/

Click to see a larger image.

May 2015: Dr. David Cernikovsky ... Psy.D, graduated from Rutgers University. Wow, congratulations! 5 years at University of Rochester (UR!), two years in Korea and Guatemala, now 5 postgrad years at Rutgers University (RU?) and now a freshly minted Doctor Cernikovsky! May Brie have helped you along the way to keep going ? With Brie's parents, Laura and Steve.  We are all proud of you, Dr.David!!! 

 

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April 2015:  Yet again, being tourists in my home town of Antigua. Here, you can get a new experience so often ... this time a visit to the Santa Teresa monastery, which reopened 2 weeks ago. It was used as a jail for over 50 years and in reconstruction the past five. Beautiful, yet few know about it.

Click to see many photos from our trip to Europe in September 2014

This is Amalienborg, Copenhagen.  See photos from our September 2014 trip around France, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Holland ...
... please click here or on the photo to see many more images.
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June 2014.  MoMa and Warhol.
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June 2014, Little Italy, with Dave, Brie, Laura and Steve.
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June 2014.  New World Trade Center Tower, finally finished.  The common thread in all the photos here is the old building on the right with a rounded corner and, on the right, a flag for "Cables and Chips".
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World Trade Center Tower, nearly finished, September 2013.
Click to see more Sep 2013 NYC photos.
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World Trade Center tower, July 2013
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World Trade Center tower, June 2012
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World Trade Center tower, August 2011 ...
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... and the same place in the morning of 9/11/2001
Coming back from Europe, we had lunch with a bunch of good friends.
One used their iPhone to take a photo.  Click to see a larger image.

My (Czech) father used to say, coming back from a trip (in English):
"East-West, Home is Best!" 
Click to see a larger image
Click to see many photos from our trip to Europe in May 2014

Piran, in Slovenia, was on our May 2014 trip to Venice, Vienna, Budapest and parts of Hungary, Slovenia, Trieste and Rome. 
We saw churches, museums, visited opera houses, had mostly good weather and enjoyed a great trip. 
We used seven apartments booked through Airbnb.com, with kitchens, wi-fi and a touch of home, all very nice.
Click here or on the image above to see many photos from this trip.
Click here to see more photos from Mexico

"La Venta" park, Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico, April 2014.  See more photos from Mexico.
Click to see a larger image Click to see a larger image 
March 2014.  She was not happy with me as I made her climb the 313 steps up to the Cerro de la Cruz, the "Hill of the Cross" ... but when we got there, the view was splendid.  We had a sunny pic nic lunch with a tablecloth, glasses, plates, looking over Antigua at Volcano Agua.   This is a beautiful town.
Click here to see more photos from Madrid, January 2014

El Escorial in the New Year 2014.  See more photos from Madrid.
Click here to see more photos from Prague over Christmas 2013, New Year 2014

Prague in December.  Good weather, good food, good company, a good Christmas vacation.  Click here to see more photos from Prague.


October 2013.  Verona Arena, 2,000 years old. 
 

Cologne cathedral
 

Munich Town Hall


Mad Ludwig's Herrenchiemsee castle, a copy of Versailles.  Some details here are even bigger than the original near Paris.


Beer and food ... last day of Oktoberfest.
Click on the photo to see a larger image

August 9.  Celebrating our anniversary.  In six months, we have done a few things.  Since that long-ago first night open-air concert in Antigua, we have seen the Rolling Stones in Boston, "Tosca" at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, "Annie" with Lorraine's grand-daughter Ashley in it, a play by Jane Austen in London and "Mamma Mia", which is currently running in Guatemala City.  We have attended a couple or archeaological conferences and had people take photos of us under a full moon in the central Plaza of Tikal and the old town square in La Havana.  We did a lot of sightseeing in and around Antigua, saw the Statue of Liberty, spent a week in Barcelona and stayed in a Louisiana plantation house.  We threw parties large and small, met my mom at Lake Atitlan and in Barcelona, met Jenny in Austin, David & Brie in NYC and "the other Cernikovskys" in Boston.  We met Lorraine's mom and her brothers in New Orleans, where we are headed for our third visit. I got to cook dinner for Lorraine's three children and 6 grandchildren, whom we see often.  In the photo above, biking down La Reforma in Guatemala City last weekend.  They close it to traffic on Sundays so that people can walk, run, bike, skate.  We'll be doing it again, it's good fun!

Click to see a larger photo

View of Barcelona from the Montjuic hill.  What an interesting city.  Click to see many more photos of this visit.
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... also on the way to Barcelona, we stoppped off in the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden for a sold out "Tosca". 
Click to see more London photos.
Click on the photo to see others from the Boston trip

On our last night in Boston, we saw the Rolling Stones, on their "50 + counting" tour.  Click on the image to see more photos from our Boston trip.
Click on the photo to see others from the Cuba trip

The "Capitolio", a major landmark in Havana, is, like much of Cuba, in a poor condition and closed down.  We spent several interesting days in Cuba ... see photos.
Click on the photo to see others from the Texas trip with Sasha and Jenny

The "Grassy Knoll" at the end of Elm Street, in Dallas (where JFK was shot almost 50 years ago).  May 2013, a trip with grandma Sasha and Jenny.  See photos from our 10 days in Texas.
Click on the photo to see a larger image

Being tourists around Antigua ... this is in San Cristobal el Bajo, just outside Antigua ...
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... and this in the market of Santa Maria de Jesus.
Click on the photo to see others from the Louisiana trip

March 2013.  A romantic weekend in New Orleans, visiting some old plantation houses.  This is at Oak Alley.  Click on the photo to see more.
Click on the photo to see a much larger image

April 2013:  A dinner party "in honour of Tomas & Lorraine"
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February 2013
Click on the photo to see a much larger image

2013 March, Antigua Parque Central, with Lorraine.

College Station, TX.  Jenny wins gold in Texas state-wide bocce ball competition, Special Olympics.  Last year, she won in swimming.  She is enjoying her sports and says that at Marbridge, she will pick a different sport each year.  Well done, Jenny!

Welcome to Antigua, Guatemala, the land of eternal Springtime and our house ... click to see a larger image

On a Saturday morning in the market, right behind the house, Sonia spends about $15 on all these flowers, as well as a week's worth of oranges for fresh OJ, and lots of other fruits and vegetables.  Last month, in a Houston supermarket flower section, I saw the bunches of tiger lilies were $15 each, without some of the added colour!  We are lucky!




In September, Guatemala celebrates independence in 1821.  There are processions with school bands and a lot of playing of the very long, very cheerful national anthem.  Felix & Benigno always hang out lots of Guatemalan flags in the street.
View from Barry & Nannette's house ... click to see a larger image

April 2012 ... Catarina Palopo, on Lake Atitlan. This view from the terrace shows volcanoes, from left to right, Toliman, Atitlan and San Pedro.  

Antigua, Guatemala:  "The situation was ravishingly beautiful, at the base and under the shade of the Volcano de Agua, and the view was bounded on all sides by mountains of perpetual green;  the morning air was soft and balmy, but pure and refreshing.  With good government and laws, and one's friends around, I never saw a more beautiful spot on which man could desire to pass his allotted time on earth."  So wrote John Lloyd Stephens, visiting Antigua in December 1839, in "Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan".  We quite agree with his assessment, and the government is still working on its part, too.  And many friends are already here, while others visit from time to time.  Please come and visit us, too.

"Antigua Guatemala, the old capital, thirty miles to the westward of the new, is still a place of considerable importance, and its time was far superior to the present capital in size and appearance.  Previous to its destruction in 1773 there were but two cities on the American hemisphere which compared with it in population, wealth and magnificence.  These were the City of Mexico and Lima, Peru.  New York was then a commercial infant, Boston a mere village and Chicago yet unknown.  But here was a city in which were centered ecclesiastical and political interests of the Central American colonies, where millions of dollars were spent in erecting churches, convents and monasteries, which covered acres of ground, and beautiful residences whose shattered portals still bear the escutcheons  of the noble families who ruled the city and cultivated plantations of coffee, sugar and cochineal.

Antigua, as it now called, was not only the scene of wealth and influence, and the commercial metropolis of the country, but the home to the most learned men of all Spanish America, the seat of great schools of theology, science, and art, for two hundred years the Athens and Rome of the New World, the residence of the university, as well as the Inquisition and the headquarters of those untiring apostles of evil, the Jesuits.  The population is said to have been about one hundred and fifty thousand."

From "The Capitals of Spanish America", by William Eleroy Curtis, late Commisioner from the United States to the governments of Central and South America, New York, Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square, 1888

More and more spectacular kites in Sumpango ... please click to see a larger image of this photo

Sumpango, Sacatepequez, 1.11.11 ... more and more giant kites, and more elaborate, there is "new product development" even in the kite business. 

The Cernikovsky's family 9/11 memories ...
.... for the 10th anniversary, click here for a long page of our photos and experiences of that day in 2001

 
Click to see a much larger image of lots of flowers ...

June 2011.  Felix can certainly make plants grow.  This is our garden.  A few rows below this photo is the new one, which is also growing.  Click to see a big image.  They call Antigua the town of eternal Spring  ... you can see why!


April 2011.  Jennifer moved to live alone in Austin, TX, at http://www.marbridge.org/.  She is loving the activities, two "classes" in the morning, two in the afternoon, trips offsite to shop, to movies (she has 800 movies, right behind her), Lady Bird Johnson's botanical gardens, and looking forward to a September Caribbean cruise.
January 26, 2011.  Flying into El Mirador.  Click to see more photos

January 2011.  We visited El Mirador, a huge, very remote early Maya city, from 650 B.C. to 200 B.C.  With 20 friends, we flew in on helicopters.

No, not a new restaurant in Antigua ... our new patio.
Our new garden is growing rapidly ... click to see a larger image
Click to see a larger image ...
April 2012:  Felix makes things grow ... what a change!  See below what it looked like a year ago ... and two years ago, a demolished church and a cement parking lot.
Click to see a larger image ...
May 2011:  Garden is growing ...

Click to see a larger image ...
August 2010:  Our new garden ... our house is to the right, with new doors and windows and a patio.  For years, there was a very noisy church, with services many times a week.  It also had an extremely bad rock-band, with drums, practicing several nights a week.  They would not lower the noise and so, in the end we bought the property.  We have now turned it into a garden with a fountain, a patio, parking (and a covered walkway to the apartments), plus a small garden and a new laundry for one of our apartments in the far back right. We started gardening.
Click to see a very much larger image
The plot next door ... our house is to the right.  This is what it looked like in April 2010, after the noisy church moved out. Silence, at last!

Snow on Volcano Acatenango, seen from our house.  Click to see a larger image.

April 14, 2010: Volcano Acatenango, seen from our rooftop, WITH SNOW!  People who have lived here all their lives have never seen anything like it.  And, on the left, Volcano Fuego, puffing.

During Semana Santa in Antigua, hundreds of thousands of people visit for the Easter processions.  This photo was on Palm Sunday in front of our house.

Semana Santa in Antigua: the float, called "anda", carried by 80 men, is passing our house (yellow, on the left) on Palm Sunday. Click to see our photos of carpets and an animated sequence of a procession passing our house.
Click to see a larger image.  Felix is making our garden better and better.

Christmas 2009 in the garden ... it's very sunny ... click to see a larger image
Click here to read more about the 200 gardens that we have constructed in the Alameda Santa Lucia between 2002 - 2009
We have a full-time gardener, Felix, on the right, who takes care of our gardens inside the house, the planted area behind, as well as hundreds of plants in the hallways and the rooftops.  Benigno, in the red shirt, worked for us for several years and, before we handed the 200 gardens and over 70 new trees to the city, took care of the Alameda, watering, planting, fumigating, fertilizing, and so on.  Here they are in May 2009 (our house on the right), planting a new jacaranda tree, in garden #196. 
Click here to read more about the 200 gardens that we have constructed in the Alameda Santa Lucia between 2002 - 2009
 Further down the street, here are two more new jacaranda trees, #199 and 200, in May 2009.  After the photo was taken, the metal "protections" were installed, without which new trees would not survive in the Alameda.  Click here to go to the 7 pages that describe the project and its "members" ... between 2002-2009, we have constructed 200 gardens, which we are maintaining.  We have planted 72 new trees in new places, and as replacements for trees that died.  Of the 200 gardens, in the 7 years, 26 got smashed by crazy drivers and with the help of friends and neighbors, we have replaced them. 
Please click to see many of our photos from Sumpango
Jennifer & Monica, at the "giant kites" of Sumpango, not far from Antigua, 1st November 2008.

March in Antigua ... our garden is blooming ... Felix takes good care of it, and he is growing lots of new amaryllis plants
Our garden in Antigua with a couple of amaryllis plants that Felix keeps on dividing, so we have more and more here and some to give.  


Here is a colourful blessing of the newly paved section of the market behind our house, attended by hundreds of Mayan women in typical clothes.  Behind the priest, who was blessing baskets full of vegetables, is the back of my house.

Jennifer opened, in February 2006, a DVD rental store in one of the shops in the front of our house
Jennifer and Helen on opening day of JennyStar DVD Rentals in our house, February 2006


2002:  We're moving to Antigua !  Click to see photos of our trip with a 48 ft tractor-trailer.  Plan to visit us !

February 2002:  on the road to Antigua, with our new truck

prattsville                  antigua This page was last updated on 12/26/23                                                                                        5525/list.htm