Quest to See the World

Well the bus ride back to Antigua was a bit longer than I expected due to a ton of traffic entering Guate City. The severe poverty that I hadn´t seen up until that point appeared on the hillsides of the city as we were entering. I don´t know how they build those structures on those steep inclines. Lots of cinder blocks and rusted metal weaved together to form shelter. 

We got into town around 7pm, but I had to walk pretty far to get to the hotel since the bus couldn´t get to the center of town due to processions and alfombras on the roads. When I finally arrived and walked in I heard “Heather!!” I felt very welcomed and like I actually knew someone. They didn´t know what happened to me because I made my reservations the week before in person and they thought that I was still around in Antigua. Anyway, the room is really pricey since it´s the busiest week of the year, but it´s nice and clean w- new looking tile floors and I feel quite safe which is the most important thing.

On the bus ride from Copan I met a woman from Switzerland who´s traveling around for a year by herself throughout central and south america. she arrived 2 months ago. After we got to our places, we met up for dinner and a drink. 

 Yesterday I slept in a bit until 845, got some breakfast and met up w-Rea (Swiss woman), then a guy she met from France and we walked around town and checked out the people working on the alfombras for the procession of the day. I can´t get over how many processions they have. there were 2 yesterday and there are 4 today. Some of them are really amazing!!! I´m uploading pics as i type so make sure you check them out at the link to the right.

I wanted to go up to Cerro de la Cruz above the city where there´s a cross and a great view, but the tourist police aren´t offering them again until monday due to the holiday. i´ll have to catch it on the way out. i ate a pupusa with pineapple and cheese for lunch yesterday, but i didn´t really like that one too much.  the ones with frijoles and cheese are much better.

a ton of guatemalans come into town from the city and central americans come from other places and a ton of foreign tourists are here now too for the holiday happenings and processions and people party a lot on thursday night. others stay up all night working on the carpets they make in the streets for the start of the 5am procession. I on the other hand decided to go to bed at a reasonable hour so that i could get up at the crack of dawn to check out the progress of the carpets and the procession early before it got too crowded. so people started on the carpets at 11pm and were just finishing up when i was passing by just before 7am. wow!!! I took soooo many pics of carpets, you´ll probably get sick of looking at them, but they are all unique. the kids make simpler ones w- the pine needles and flowers and the pros use the stencils and sawdust. there was one made with daisies and bird of paradise and other flowers. it was so beautiful, but it´s gone now.

this week is really the only time that it´s completely acceptable to take pics of strangers, so i´ve really taken advantage of that. most of them didn´t even realize i was taking the pics because there are just so many people around. for some people it´s completely a religious time, but for others, mostly the younger people, it seems to just be a good reason to party. there are balloons and candy and food stalls and toys and balls for the kids, but it´s really a solemn time for others. i guess like in the states how it´s all about the easter bunny, eggs and chocolate. when i passed my first easter in puerto rico and they didn´t do anything special, no dinner, no chocolate, no dying eggs, it was really hard for me, but now it´s not the same. after that first easter away from home it was different. i don´t feel like i´m missing out on anything even though i do like to be with my family, and don´t get me wrong, i do love the hard boiled eggs and yummy chocolate, but it´s not like missing christmas. last year i was in puerto rico for easter again and it was really nice to participate in the candlelight procession on friday night, although it was nothing like here. it was somber, not like a celebration. i can´t remember if they were singing or praying, i think it was praying. anyway, i enjoyed being there for that.

as you may notice when looking at my pics, i haven´t gotten used to the guys with the big guns everywhere yet. i´ve seen it so much in other places, but i´m still not used to it. some of them kinda scare me to walk past because they don´t all point the weapons to the ground. sometimes the thing is like at my hip level. i hope they have the safety on.

A COUPLE OF RANDOM THOUGHTS:

these cobblestone streets are taking a toll on my ankle. when i was in high school i hurt it playing soccer and sometimes it still bothers me, like when i have to walk on uneven cobblestones for 3 days straight. good thing i got the ben gay last week. i put some of that on it last night and put the ace bandage on today and it´s feeling great!!

abercrombie and fitch must have a sweatshop here ´cause everyone wears that junk here, and i know they´re not paying $50 for a t-shirt.

my plans have changed a bit. i´m really feeling like i want to go to mexico now. my new plan is to go up to the town of quetzaltenango (xela) for a couple of days beginning sunday-check out the church in san andres and the hot springs nearby and then head up to zapatista territory in san cristobal de las casas in chiapas, then head over to palenque and from there to tikal back in guate. I´ll probably travel up to xela with the swiss woman because she´s heading that way too. i may cut out belize because it just seems so over priced and it will require a long bus ride just for snorkeling, although it is the 2nd largest barrier reef in the world. we´ll see, i can decide later. i´m really wanting to get down to nicaragua, but i´ll have wait a bit because i really want to go to mexico too. i´ve heard great things about palenque from other travelers. it´s in the jungle like tikal. the trip from palenque over to tikal sounds cool too. i´ll have to take a bus-boat-bus in the dense rainforest…cool!!

 

 

 

Tags: antigua, Central America 2007, Guatemala, Holy Week, semana santa

This entry was posted on Friday, April 6th, 2007 at 1:31 pm and is filed under Central America 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.