Yo estuve en Antigua

Saturday morning at the crack of dawn (6am) I was on a van with ten other people heading to Antigua Guatemala. I was travelling with Jason (Northern Ireland), and Kristin (Vancouver), who both work with UPH. I actually stayed awake for most of the ride because: A) The scenery is pretty hard to ignore, B) It is impossible to keep your neck in a steady position when you are rounding 90 degree corners every 500 meters, and C) When traffic is backed up behind construction all rules of the road seemingly disappear, and it becomes a free-for-all extravaganza. Because of some delays it took us nearly 8 hours to arrive in Antigua. . . a mere 266 kms away from Copan.

From the van window

The hostel we were staying in was very small and lovely. We had private rooms, and there was only two other people staying at the hostel. We even had breakfast cooked for us in the morning. Once we checked in we enjoyed one of the many delightful restaurants in the town, and then spent the rest of the day gazing at beautiful old architecture.

Around town

Antigua is the “capital city” of Central America, and is very special to Catholic Christians. I took a couple photos in one of the large churches, and the structures took my breath away. It is hard for me to come to a balance between: A) A human’s best attempt at a beautiful creation to honour God and B) Colonial conquest pillaging land, culture, and indigenous people. I think ultimately no matter how beautiful the structure, or how good the intentions, it is simply impossible to let that out weigh the pain and damage caused. In fact, I have never been convinced of the merit to spend big on appearance. I am pretty sure Jesus was a little more concerned with other things.

Excuse my thinking out loud. . . 

One of the Churches

Another at night

Day 2:

We started off the morning going on short hike to “The Cross” which overlooks the city, and then stumbled upon one of the coolest things I have seen in awhile. Whenever there is a large procession in Antigua (and many other places as well) they cover the roads with beautiful art to pave the way. Some large square "carpet" is made entirely out of plants, or others are intricate designs using coloured saw dust. If you remember a big "Art Attack" you are getting close. They are really beautiful.

At the cross

Plant version

Hard at work with saw dust

Since it was the weekend before Semana Santa, (basically a week long holiday filled with processions, and celebrations leading up to Easter; it is very big in Central America) we got to experience the surprise of one of the biggest processions of the year. The city was absolutely packed with people, and we were told this is when most of the locals visit before it is even more insane next week.

We ended up making some friends with some of the people designing some of the “carpets” and they invited us to join in! We made our best attempt at “gringo art” . . . which was nothing good compared to the rest.  

Attempting . . .

Then came the very large procession. A couple marching bands, hundreds of men dressed in purple robes, and then a bunch of “floats” of various sizes carried by people. The largest one was carried by 100 people, and they switched who was carrying it very frequently. Even still the people carrying the "float" looked like they were in a certain amount of pain. Pictures don’t seem to display the size very well, but believe me, it was huge! 

The haze is incense burning

And just like that it is all gone

We enjoyed a tasty taco dinner, and headed to bed early because the bus left at 4am Monday morning. 

On a side note, there was a guitar at the Hostel so I got to play again! =)