Sábado de Ramos

Bfast @ Fernando's. Walking back toward our apartment afterwards we noticed many people heading to the church with huge bundles of pine needles on their backs or balanced on their heads. We're wondering if they are to be part of the alfombras or if they're for something else. Hopefully we'll find out eventually.
After breakfast we walked to San Felipe to visit the impressive gothic church & see their amazingly detailed alfombra, which runs the length of the church and is surrounded by gorgeous fresh fruits & vegetables. Don Benjamin, our landlord, had encouraged us to visit this one & when we saw him there, he took us outside the church & told us the story of the history of the church in this town where he grew up. It seems that the wooden sculpture of Jesús was originally in the church in San Lucas Cotzumalguapa, the home of many poor people. When their area was overwhelmed by bats, the people moved to San Felipe. Some time later, the Jesus appeared in the church in San Felipe. It was returned several times to its original home but always reappeared by miracle in the new town. The people from the two towns fought over the sculpture but it was eventually decided that it would stay in its new home, since clearly the miracle indicated that was where it belonged.
Written records tell the story a bit differently, indicating that the neighbors brought the statue to Antigua (then called Santiago) and that the priest subsequently had a church built for it. I prefer Don Benjamin's version, with the sculpture miraculously appearing in the middle of the night. At any rate, apparently the faithful have been praying to the Jesus sculpture since 1620.
After seeing the church and it's amazing alfombra, we talked to woman from Tennessee over cokes at a table in the market. She's here for 3 wks to study Spanish to renew her teacher certificate.
We walked back to Antigua and were walking from the grocery store to our apartment by a very indirect route when we came across a wonderful place called El Sitio. It seems to be an art museum/gallery, theater, exhibition hall and cafe. We had a wonderful lunch in the little cafe and spent some time viewing a big roomful of photography by Jeffrey Foxx, a wonderful artist who has specialized for many years in Maya people, culture and villages. Awesome stuff. We plan to go back again for lunch and to find out what events might be planned while we're here.
In the evening we wandered around the church plaza on the corner. Throughout this time of the year the plaza is filled with vendors supplying the crowds with food and drink. I love "street food" wherever we go. A great opportunity usually for a good supply of grease at cheap prices, and sometimes a learning experience, trying local foods. We had some sort of meat in sauce thing, served on a tortilla and topped with a choice of avocado, cabbage, tomato sauce, etc. As always, I asked the vendor for the name of the dish. And as is usual, I immediately forgot it. Anyhow, it was good! Other things offered are fried chicken, empanadas (but all fruit filled rather than meat or veggies), potato chips, french fries, chicharones (fried pork), sausage, pizza, pupusas (delicious flat things filled with meat, beans and/or cheese - a specialty from El Salvador), chiles rellenos (stuffed peppers), and tons of candy/sweet things.
While wandering around, we ended up talking to a family from the US who come to Antigua every year for Semana Santa. It's easy to see why people would want to return year after year. I think we will.
While at the plaza, I bought one of the palm bouquets. There is one big section of the plaza, directly in front of the entrance to the church, where the sellers of the palm arrangements sit and make the arrangements. It is a beautiful sight, as the women are all dressed in their colorful traditional indigenous outfits. There must be over a hundred people making and selling the bouquets, which are made of special palm leaves brought in from a specific area of the country, along with various other colorful flowers. Some different from the dinky little bow made of a piece of palm leaf that I recall from Palm Sunday in Florida! I was planning to wait until Sunday morning to buy one of these beautiful arrangements, but someone reminded me that the plaza would be so crowded tomorrow morning that I wouldn't be able to get there. So I asked what the price was. I was shocked to learn that these beautiful things sell for 5 quetzales (about 65 US cents), so I "splurged" on one.

Procesión de Los Niños

Breakfast around the corner at Fernando's again. Walked to la Catedral de San Jose on Parque Central to watch the Procesión de los Niños. While waiting for the procession to begin, we watched the creation of one of the beautiful alfombras (made of colored sawdust and sand) on one section of the floor of the church. Fascinating to watch this piece of art come together as stencil after stencil was used to apply different colors. We came across a freelance guide, Don Oscar, who showed us through the churches & ruins at Catedral San Jose as well as Iglesia San Francisco. Both left a huge impression on us, realizing the destructive force of the earthquakes which, along with other disasters, both "natural" and man-made, have left such huge scars on this country. We plan to return to spend more time at these sites.
After our guided tour, we returned to the Catedral as the niños (young people) prepared to lift the huge floats (with their statues) onto their shoulders to carry them out of the church and through the streets of the town. You're going to hear a lot more about these processions, how they are done, how many people participate, etc as I learn more about it over the next week. For now let me say that the girls were so fun to watch. While the boys wore traditional purple robes and head coverings, the girls were dressed in black skirts and white blouses. They wore head coverings and white gloves. It was clear that they took their jobs seriously and some were quite nervous. The boys' float, carrying the sculpture of Jesús Nazareno del Desamparo (made by the Guatemalan artist Salvador Posadas in 1913) is carried on the shoulders of 40 young boys. The float with the sculpture of the Virgin de Dolores is carried by 24 young girls. We watched the procession depart the Catedral through the huge front doors. Followed by the bands and hundreds of onlookers, they descended the massive stone steps and continued down the steet, swaying to the music under the weight of their heavy loads. None of my schedules and books told me how long this procesión was, but it passed our apartment 2 1/2 hours later, so it had to be at least 4 hours total.

Getting to Know Antigua

Discoveries of the Day: The shower works great, they have donuts in Antigua, parque central is beautiful, el mercado (market) is huge, crowded, colorful and fun, and one can have a very tasty lunch of chicken or ribs with side dishes for 10 Quetzales ($1.30 or so) in the market. Lots of walking around again, looked at a lot of woven things in the shops, bought 2 books about Antigua.

La Antigua

We Could Live Here!
It's love at first site with the unique colonial city with its cobblestone streets and friendly people. Its citizens have set an example for the world, I think, having laws forbidding any signs extending outward from the buildings. It makes it tough to find places but helps to preserve the colonial charm of the city and saves it from the threat of the ugly urban blight of so many cities of the world.

Don Benjamin

Don Benjamin
"That's a good question." It's our first conversation with Don Benjamin, our neighbor and landlord and, we hope, new friend. He has stopped us on the street to chat. He wants us to know how wonderful his town is. He wants us to ask him anytime that we have questions about Antigua. He has lived here his entire life, he says, and he's now 83. It's our first day in Guatemala and when I ask him what kind of work he did before retiring, he tells me "That's a good question." Expecting to learn that he was something exotic like a freedom fighter, I am unprepared for the obvious. He worked for the city of Antigua - in the tourist office. It seems we have found our own private encyclopedia of all knowlege about this incredible city! And someone to practice our Spanish with, too, although he dances back and forth between Spanish and English at a dizzying rate.
On Saturday, our new mentor tells us, we must walk to La Iglesia de San Felipe de Jesús. The alfombra (carpet) that the faithful prepare there is one of the most incredible, he says, and the vigil held there is a wonderful experience. But the most important thing, he says, is "la gente," the people. We definitely agree. The people here are incredible.

We Made It!

Getting here last night was fun but weird. First off the thing about getting fed on an airplane was cool. Thank you Lacsa. I'd forgotten what that was like. Then when we'd hardly finished our little snack, we were landing. I think within an hour and a half of take off, we were on the ground in Guatemala City. By the time we got through immigration, which took a half hour or so, picked up our backpacks, and went through customs, which involved a friendly person accepting our customs declaration form and welcoming us to Guatemala, I guess it was 8:30 or so. Then we exited the airport to a mob much larger than the one that normally awaits arriving flights at the San Jose airport - and much more colorful, too, with many women dressed in traditional Mayan attire. It definitely made an impression, as did the soldiers with their huge guns.
We quickly spotted Roberto, holding a sign with our names. While driving us to Antigua, he told us a bit about Guatemala, the city and Antigua, and gave us a little Spanish practice. In Antigua we were met by the friendly Julio, the owner/director of our school. He introduced us to his mother and she showed us our apartment, which is off her patio - and next door to the school. This arrangement should work well. Dona Maria Linda, Julio's mama showed us that we had a gas stove, a bathroom and a lot of other handy items in the apartment. After the introductions, we walked a block or so and had some nachos and beer before returning to our little apartment and a good night's sleep.
The town looked beautiful last night, but it was dark and we really couldn't tell much. Today it's been confirmed. This town is fabulous! After breakfast at an adorable place around the corner from our apartment, Kaffee Fernando's, where they grind their own cafe (Cappuccino 9 Dbl 11 Tipico Desayuno 12 w Onion y tomate 14; cafe 45 a pound..), we went to the bank to get some quetzales, did the grocery store thing to get supplies for the apartment, paid our tuition for next week, walked some more, rested, then had dinner at a neighborhood Salvadoran restaurant. Life is good. I could live here.

Time To Go!

It's 6:15 pm and we're taking off, after pulling away from the gate at exactly 6:05. This wouldn't seem totally inapproprate but for the fact that our scheduled departure time was 6:05. Does this really happen?
What promised to be our first rainy season shower greeted us just as we exited the house to wait for our taxi. It was mild however and by the time we were halfway to the airport it was over and our beautiful sunny day had returned.
Lacsa actually served lovely little pastry things with nicely flavored chicken or something. Tasted good. No charge. Cool!
Oh, my God! We're landing already. Seems like we just got in the air! Hasta Luego!

We're Ready!

One week from today is the departure date for our Guatemala trip! We are excited. I've wanted to see Guatemala for many years, and now that we've lived in Central America for 5 years, we've decided it's time to see some of our neighboring countries. We will be arriving the week before Semana Santa (holy week), and will spend the first month in Antigua, which I hear has the most impressive Semana Santa processionals in all of the Americas. We will be staying right in the heart of Antigua for the first month, and will be right there where the holy week processions will be taking place.