Guatemala part 2

Wednesday, April 8
We slept in for the first time in nearly a week, and it was delightful. Since we left early the day before, we had not yet had the opportunity to take advantage of our hostel’s free breakfast. It wasn’t the most exquisite thing I’ve ever had, but it was very good, and it was certainly nice to wake up and have someone make us a good (free) meal instead of munching on the snacks and sandwiches we had brought from Costa Rica.
We didn’t really have much of a game plan for the day, so after breakfast we took a look at Ash’s travel book to get some ideas. Supposedly there was a really old but well-kept colonial house nearby that we decided to check out, and after getting a bit lost on the way we finally found it. Unfortunately, it was closed. Keeping to our freestyle itinerary, we happened to look down the street and see what looked like a pretty impressive cathedral – “Whatever, let’s go over there!” It was, in fact, a very impressive cathedral, famous because buried there is a famous saint/monk whose name escapes me at the moment. Anyway, there were some very pretty gardens and statues leading up to the room in which this guy’s sepulcher is. No photos were allowed inside, but the architecture and displays were definitely pretty enough to remain in my memory for some time. On our way out, we passed by the lines of people waiting for their turn in the confessional booths – what a crowd! Wednesday was the last day to confess, apparently, and it looked like a good fifth of Antigua had showed up to take their turn before Easter rolled around.
Outside, we found an entrance to another part of the cathedral which was basically a huge area of ruins from parts of the church that are no longer kept. Since it was only a little over a dollar to get in, we did it, and I’m certainly glad we did. The area was huge, and very fun to explore. I’m not entirely sure what all the empty spaces were, but the mix of crumbling walls and semi-maintained flower gardens made for some pretty cool sights and pictures. Part of the ruins included a tiny museum mostly dedicated to the saint who was buried there, so we spent some time learning about him and looking at some things he had touched, worn, and that sort of thing.
After leaving the museum/ruins, we strolled around the cathedral’s plaza for a bit, where there were even more shops with more cool stuff to get (I bought a little something, but I can’t say what it is otherwise the recipient will know it’s for him). Ashley held off, but when there are so many pretty things at such relatively low prices it’s sometimes hard to resist! Turning our attention and our spending ideas towards lunch, we walked to a bread shop we had passed on our way to the colonial house and picked up some delicious banana bread to hold us over for dinner. While enjoying our light lunch and popping into various shops that caught our attention, we decided we wanted to head to Volcán Pacaya for one our day trips, so we dropped into numerous tour companies around town (there are TONS of them in Antigua, offering to bus you just about anywhere from down the street to Mexico) until we found a good price and signed up for the next day.
Having to figure out a few things going on back home, we hopped into an internet café in which I did some academic planning, summer job searching, but most importantly received some exciting news – I was offered a Peer Advisor position in East Hall at Augustana next year! So that made me pretty happy, because I was worried that a late application and being out of the country might hinder my chances. Anyway, afterwards we headed into a bookstore we’d been meaning to check out where I found a ton of books I would have loved to buy, but I unfortunately had neither the money to pay for them (books are expensive down here!) nor the physical space to bring them back to Costa Rica. I did make a short mental list, though, and I’ll have to do some searching when I get back to the U.S.
For dinner that evening, we found a great Italian restaurant whose prices were remarkably reasonable despite the restaurants location on one of the busiest streets in Antigua. Having put down some excellent bruschetta (how do you spell that?) and pasta, we walked just a few restaurants over where there was a fantastic salsa group playing live. Unfortunately, neither of us had much cash on hand, so when the place got a little more packed we felt a little awkward taking up a table having bought only one drink between the two of us. Nevertheless, we thoroughly enjoyed the music they played. Guatemalans, it seemed, are not as apt to dancing as Ticos, and that made the ambiance a little different. Granted, we were not in a dance club, but even I felt compelled to move a bit to the great music we had the pleasure of listening to. Around midnight or so we finally headed out to rest up for another outing.

April 9 – Maundy Thursday
Around 6:00 in the morning we were picked up by our tour company’s shuttle, which had already picked up 8 or so other tourists set to make the same hike. On the ride to the volcano, two things became clear to me; first, all the other tourists in the bus knew each other and two, they all were speaking French. Ashley, coincidentally, is nearly fluent in French, having both grown up with it in an immersion primary school and lived in France for some time. Consequently, she is passionate about all things French and jumps at the chance to do French-related things, in this case, making some new friends and practicing the tongue she hadn’t used much in so long. The French folks were more than happy to talk back with her – most of them did speak various amounts of English as well, but naturally they only resorted to that when speaking directly with me. While not extraordinarily bothered by all this, I was in fact lost for much of the day. *sigh* I’ve gotta learn French someday….
The hike itself was great. It was a little cold in the morning (which I was not dressed for), but eventually the sun decided to show up and grace us with a little heat and better views from the trail which began the day enshrouded in fog. One of the more interesting parts of our way up was a steep hillside which was not part of the official trail at all, but our tour guide had led us up a little higher so we could “ski” (the guide’s word) down to get back on track. We literally just skidded down hundreds of feet of volcanic hillside, skidding through loose rock and dust until the terrain leveled out a bit at the bottom. It’s a little difficult to describe the sensation, but I suppose skiing is about as close I can get.
After that little adventurous bit we walked further up the trail where we (along with the multitude of other tour groups that go there daily) were lucky to come across an impressive “river” of lava coming down the mountainside. It was incredible to see – it looked like a large chain of volcanic rock like the rest of the landscape we were walking around on, except it was spotted with glowing orange gaps and slowly moving down the incline. Sometimes, what looked like (and I suppose it was) solid rock simply melted into the rest of the mass as if it suddenly just lost its solidity. Another amazing aspect of that particular sight (which was a huge “duh” moment but was still striking) was the intense heat! We stood several meters (a good 20-25 feet, at least) away from the lava, but even at such distance it was difficult to bear. For safety reasons the guides earnestly encouraged us to take only a few pictures and then turn around to head back down to the “safe zone” (hillside instability, or something like that – “NOW you tell us,” I thought). After snapping my fair share of shots – more than “a few,” anyway – I regrouped with our guide and the French brigade to start making our way down back to the bus.
Back in town, we headed to Antigua’s supermarket to get some basic food for lunch along with some mangos we bought from street vendors. After eating Ashley decided to take a nap while I went out and did some more exploring and hopped in another internet café for a bit.
Thursday is when the serious Holy Week events start happening in Antigua, including the alfombras (carepts). As part of the processions that take place all week long, but particularly in the last few days, people create alfombras right in front of their house or business. They are not literally carpets, but rather decorative works of art made directly on the street using flowers, grasses, colored sands/sawdust, and absolutely whatever else one feels like using. The subject matter of the alfombra varies just as much as the creator’s choice of materials, but normally people give them religious themes, such as creating flower crosses or crucifixes, portraits of Christ, depictions of the Host, or other such images. As the alfombras are not at all regulated, some people choose to go different routes both in terms of image (one we saw simply had a colored backdrop with flower petals forming the word “HOLLAND”) and of materials (some put actual loaves of bread and goblets of wine on theirs, another included a model of St. Peter’s Basilica, and still others were made entirely out of fruit or vegetables).
Alfombras are only constructed on streets where the processionals will pass by. When they arrive, normally the front section of participants keeps to the sides of the street and avoids the alfombras entirely. When the floats/platforms come on the scene, though, they simply walk right over them, effectively trampling and destroying beautiful works of art that have only been in existence for a matter of hours. For me, this was perhaps the most curious aspect of the alfombra tradition, that after working so very hard and meticulously on these things, they are simply destroyed by the procession for which they were made. Topping it all off, after the entire procession has passed by it is always followed by dump trucks and other construction site-style vehicles along with a group of men with brooms, all of whom whose job it is to gather up what remains of the alfombras and quickly dispose of it. In other words, after both the procession and these guys have passed by, there is absolutely nothing left. Crazy.
By the time I got back to the hostel, the staff had started making one out on the street and invited me to help. Ashley promptly came down too to join us. Even though our little alfombra was hardly the biggest or most extravagant, it was very fun to help make one. Rather than sticking around to wait for the coming procession to swing by, Ashley and I grabbed a camera and headed out, taking literally hundreds of pictures of all the beautiful alfombras we could find. Our hostel owner told us that the best time to go find some amazing alfombras would be the following day, Friday, very early in the morning, and so we made plans to not get much sleep.
For dinner we went to a place closer to our hostel, but actually got stuck on the way. One thing you learn quickly about the processions is that the city literally stops for them. If you’re trying to cross a street but are cut off by a procession, you simply must wait until the whole thing goes by – it is prohibited to cut across them. That having been said, these things can last up to an hour or maybe more, so you just find yourself on one side of the street for a long time. Furthermore, people pack the sidewalks to watch these things (or perhaps, in some cases, to wait to cross the street), and sometimes they get so full one can’t even go up or down the street on the side he or she is already on. This happened to us in our search for dinner, but it wouldn’t be the only time.
After dinner we went to a place on the other side of town where supposedly there was supposedly some live Reggae music going on. Unfortunately, we arrived right as the band was finishing their last song. Not wanting to waste the cover charge we paid to get in, we stuck around and enjoyed the decent selection of reggae and similar music the place put on for the rest of the night, even though it was not live. After we tired of Bob Marley and people watching (which actually entertained us for a surprising amount of time!) we made our way back north towards our hostel. On our way there, we stopped by a large county fair-style assortment of food vendors going on outside one of the major churches in Antigua, La Merced. We had seen this set up for the past couple days, but hadn’t yet explored it at all. Picking up some cheap dessert-type food, we browsed the more substantive options and resolved to have at least a few meals here for both the experience and to save significant amounts of money. By the time we got back to the hostel it was nearly 1:00 am, which was just lovely as we would be getting up in a little over three hours to find some more great alfombras before the Good Friday morning processional, one of the grander spectacles of the week.

Hope you’re enjoying the updates. I realize this post only includes two days of travel, but it got a bit long for just two days and the awesomeness of an Antiguan Good Friday will take some serious descriptive initiative to do it justice. Check back soon!