Buenos noches friends and family!
Sorry for the lag between posts over the past few days! They've been jam packed with stuff and things. I know that you're all probably waiting at your computers night and day for this next one to appear, and we appreciate your die-hard dedication to our whereabouts here in Antigua. Since the only detailed post in our blog so far is from our first day on Saturday, I will do my best to back-track and keep the days' activities straight as I try to recall Sunday, April 1st. (Side note: we didn't do any April Fool's Day pranks. Or at least if someone did, none of them worked out).
Sunday morning kicked off with what has turned out to be our typical breakfast here: coffee and toast. As with most things in Antigua, the coffee, bread and jam were locally made, so it's muy delicioso! Milady, the on-site coordinator for Casa Herrara, and world's best and cutest guide for the city, and Rene, a Guatemalan archaeologist and all-around cool guy at Casa Herrera, gave us an early morning orientation to try to prevent some unfortunate events (such as robberies and amoebas) and recommend some fortunate ones (such as good restaurants and shops).
Following orientation, we were all excited to see our first procession emerge out of La Merced, informally known as the wedding cake church because of it's ornate, exterior plaster work which resembles frosting! As we got closer and closer to La Merced, the streets filled with the noise of street vendors and wooden flutes, the scents of ever-enticing, yet forbidden street food, and a crowd of people comparable to ten of the most oversold U2 concerts combined (I've never been to one, but it seemed like the right comparison). Squeezing our way through families and affectionate couples, we found a warm and sunny spot on the lawn in front of the church to watch the anda (most similar to a parade float) be carried out of through the front doors by 100 men dressed in purple gowns. It's an amazing sight as the anda sways from side to side through clouds of incense, glistening in the sunlight with a life-size Jesus in the center. A band marched directly behind the mens' and womens' processions. As you might imagine, a 7000 pound float doesn't move so swiftly, so after it finally passed, we escaped the crowds to check out some of the city's Palm Sunday alfombras before the procession made it's way around to them.
I'm not sure how well what our eyes saw can be translated into words, but I'll do my best to describe the alfombras. It might be helpful to first describe to you what an alfombra is in order to better understand their purpose. Alfombra literally translates to carpet in Spanish. The people of Guatemala create these "carpets" using a variety of materials from pine needles to flowers to dyed sawdust on the cobblestone streets for the procession route to walk on. Not only is the making of alfombras a familial and cultural tradition, but it's a spiritual ritual as well. These vibrant and elaborate creations are walked over by the many men and women carrying the andas. What is left of the alfombra afterwards is believed to have been blessed by the procession, and people are eager to collect flowers and other remnants as blessings. We have videos that we hope to post that might show you this phenomenon much better than I can tell you.
After walking a few miles doing some alfombra sight-seeing, we headed back to Casa Herrera for a lunch of pepian, a traditional Guatemalan dish prepared for us by Dona Chila (who lovingly makes most of our meals!). Pepian is a stew. Pepian is good. I think it's a mystery why it's so good. Eager to spend our fresh, unused quetzales and put our bartering skills to the test, the gang headed over to the open air market around the block. For some of us, the bartering worked to our advantage, but for the majority, lack of knowledge of the Spanish language hurt our wallets. Oh well, we'll get em next time!
Continuing our walking tour of the city, we checked out a few more alfombras being made, and saw many at different stages in the process. We were definitely taking mental notes on what we saw the seasoned alfombra makers doing. Dona Chila prepared a lovely pasta salad for dinner that night, and after stuffing ourselves, we clung to the window bars on Casa Herrera to see the exact same andas that left La Merced in the morning pass by at night. Almost 11 hours later, the anda lit up the dark street with it's many glowing lights, and men, women, and children continued the procession back to La Merced. The videos that have already been posted can give you a visual of what happens on the streets of Antigua during Semana Santa (Holy Week), but there's a feeling, an emotion, a subliminal tingle deep down inside that can only be felt in person.
Then we all washed our faces, brushed our teeth (or at least I hope everyone did), and went to bed.
Until tomorrow, keep calm, carry on, and stay classy followers :)
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