Aside from 3+ hour masses, the rest of the week was uneventful until Good Friday came along. And man, was it worth the wait! I have never in my life witnessed something so spectacular. In Guatemala, it is tradition to create alfombras (carpets) on the streets made of dyed sawdust. Santiago in general is a very colorful place, which is one of the things I love most about it, and the carpets made the city look absolutely magical. Groups sign up and each has an allotted space to decorate. The process starts with hand drawing the image with chalk and then the design is filled in with the sawdust, all the while being sprayed with water to solidify the work. I assumed that there would be a few here or there or one street but I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw blocks and blocks of them! There were literally hundreds of carpets created with every color of the rainbow. Each design was unique and it was so fun to see the creativity flowing through Santiago. Later in the afternoon, there was a massive rainstorm. Don’t even get me started on how I despise rain when it ruins events. I was convinced all the alfombras had been washed into gutters :( To my relief, later in the day when the rain stopped and we went back a lot of the carpets were true survivors and weren’t ruined too much! As well, many of the groups started redoing them. As the sun poked out of the post-rain clouds, the main event began: the processions. Starting in the church, men tediously walked with an elaborate casket holding the crucified Jesus inside on their shoulders and continued for 13, yes that’s correct, 13 hours!! It’s a painstakingly slow process in which the men take a couple steps forward and many steps back very, very slowly. In the first hour they were already dripping with sweat and putting on some intense game faces. As the sun went down and we watched with equal enthusiasm as an hour before, incense engulfed the air and candles flickered in the light breeze which made for an eerily beautiful scene. The music that echoed through the plaza, the sheer number of people, the beautiful attire and the richness of it all made for an absolutely unforgettable experience.
Along with the excitement of Semana Santa, I had a lot of other memorable experiences. On Tuesday a group of us hiked up another volcano, Toliman. I will admit, I did vow that I wouldn’t be the first person to sign up again for a hike, but I thought why not?! When will I ever have 3 volcanoes in my backyard ever again? Plus, I hadn’t been hitting the muffin shop as much as in the past (did I mention they cost 15 cents each? Who can blame me) so off we went! We left at 5:30 in the morning to ensure visibility and were up in a couple of hours. At the top was a gigantic crater! It was really impressive. Getting up, there were some really steep, slippery portions (no surprise there) that we all were a little afraid of going down and when the time came, it was crazy! At times, we were basically surfing down the steep path trying not to take out the person in front or crash into trees. We all tried to use braches as support, though sometimes they were a little low on the reliability scale. One time, I grabbed one and broke off an entire hunk which left me laughing hysterically, probably due to the fact I could have almost died (not really, but honesty it was super intense).
On Wednesday, Maggie and I went to visit a family she stayed with in Xela, which is also known as Quetzaltenango. It was my first chicken bus ride! A chicken bus is a recycled American school bus which basically has escaped a mundane, slow-paced, kiddo-toting life to become a massive, more times than not-frightening, speed-racing, music-pumping, colorful road demon. They pack surprising amounts of people on them (chickens sometimes too, hence the name). I had a wonderful time people watching, even though I was riding on only one, numb butt cheek. In an odd reminiscent way, the fumes reminded me of high school sports trips (kind of sad?) haha.
We arrived in Xela two and a half hours later and made our way to the house. Once we arrived, Doña Marina greeted us. She is the cutest, little old Guatemalan lady and she sat us down immediately for a lunch feast. We ate tamalitos, which are kind of like tamales without the meat, beef, quesadillas fried in egg, mangoes, fresh squeezed blackberry juice and my favorite, pan dormido. Pan dormido is a sweet bread that is eaten during Semana Santa. When asked if I wanted chicharones, I happily responded “si!”, not remembering what they actually were. Bless her soul, Maggie gulped down one and half while I just stared at them, repeating in my head “ahhhhh pig skins!!!!”. After lunch, we went with a few of the kids and Marina to a graveyard. I did a whole project my last semester about how death is perceived in other cultures and had researched Guatemala because their graveyards are really colorful and unique. The graveyard was basically a small city of colorful tombs crawling up the green mountainside. It was truly beautiful. Later, Maggie showed me around the city. We enjoyed churros and poncha de frutas while people watching in the European-esque central square. It felt so different in comparison to Santiago and was really relaxing. We got back to the house before the rain set in and were greeted with homemade hot chocolate and more (!) pan dormido. The lights went out and we sipped by candlelight. It was Marina’s birthday so our next course was chocolate cream cake. My stomach kept yelling at me “no more food!!” but it was all too good. Marina then brought out more tamalitos and fried bananas. Being there was a true food marathon and sadly, I wasn’t able to make it to the finish line because even looking at the tamalitos made my stomach bulge in pain and my pants shrink a little.
On Thursday it was our friend Liz’s last night in Santiago so we decided to have a night out wearing the traditional traje that women wear here. I have an obsession/addiction to textiles here so I was so excited to wear my own! We met at Liz’s house and were helped by some of her Guatemala friends on how to wear them. The top is called a huipil, which is intricately embroidered in stunning designs. They take months to finish. Here in Santiago it is common to have stripes and birds but it is different around other places in Guatemala, which I think is really cool. You can tell where a woman is from by looking at her huipil. There are huipils in every color, every style and with every sort of embroidery you could imagine. Seeing all the women here is like being in a museum or something, it is so beautiful to look at! Little girls wear the traje as well, which just about makes me the happiest girl alive. They are SO CUTE! As a bottom they wear a corte, which is a long piece of woven material that is wrapped around the body. Lastly, they wear a faja to keep the corte on, which is a belt. Some are embroidered and some are beaded. The tops are slightly baggy and they wear the faja really tight so you have a nice, hourglass figure. It almost felt like a corset! It really keeps you in. We had so much fun wearing them. Out of all the places I’ve traveled, I’ve never seen so many beautiful textiles and crafts. I will never stop singing their praises, Guatemalans do the most amazing work! I’m going to buy a whole outfit but it is the hardest thing. There are way too many options and they are all stunning. How can I ever decide?!
To my dismay, we all have the idea that the rainy season may be starting earlier than usual. The past few weeks have followed the same pattern of being really sunny in the morning and rainy in the afternoon. Normally, the rain hits with force at the beginning of May but who knows.
Two of my closest friends here will be moving out of Milpas at the end of the month :( and I’ll be here alone so I’m going to move into the city with another one of my friends next week. I’m excited to see a different perspective of Santiago. Though I will miss the gardens and everything here a lot, the house in the city is really nice and we will be right in all the action.
This weekend a group of us are going to Semuc Champey, which is a really beautiful place with natural pools, tubing and caves. I’m looking forward to seeing another part of gorgeous Guatemala :)
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