Holy Week - Antigua Guatemala

So this was the reason that we were in this part of the world - Semana Santa!! In fact that's why every hotel in town was bursting to the seams with both foreign tourists and locals...

One of the legacies the Spanish conquistadors left (apart from small pox, coffee and rum) was Catholicism - and not just the go to mass once a week Catholicism, this stuff's old school with the whole hellfire and damnation and "let's re-enact the Crucifixion"...

Each church in the district has it's own set of "floats" which set off around town at all hours, filling the town with huge processions. The celebration begins on Ash Wednesday and reaches its climax on Good Friday. The processions consist of big floats, or 'andas', bearing statues of Christ with a cross, that are carried by hundreds of purple-robed men. A float with the Virgin Mary Follows by women dressed in black clothing. The processions move slowly through. Antigua cobblestone streets, the feet of the bearers cushioned in the sawdust carpets, which are destroyed as the procession passes over.

As a show of devotion, wealth and just good community spirit, families and groups of people slave throughout the night to make Alfombras or "carpets" out of flowers or fruits or intricate coloured saw-dust designs. These were absolutely AMAZING and it was such a pity that they were destroyed. But no sooner had the procession passed and the cleanup crew scoped them up with a back-hoe, the families were out again re-building another one for the next procession...


ALFOMBRAS (67 photos)



The Holy Week parades are definitely something to behold. These floats must weigh tonnes - yet they are carried around town for up to 14hrs per parade (with as many as four parades a day - some starting at 4:00am)

The full "stations of the cross" are demonstrated for all to see, as the\y start with Romans coming out (some on horses) then Jesus carrying the cross, then after his "death" Jesus appears in a plastic coffin, then finally he's resurrected... all backed by dirge-like brass band music (and men carrying generators for the night parades...)

It's impossible to describe and we took hundreds of photos, so here's a few

PARADES (97 photos)




STREET HAWKERS (25 photos)



We also managed a few videos, yo can here the heavy brass band music and the chocking clouds of incense as well as the slow sway of the heavy floats...

Chichicastenango Markets

Every week up in the mountains around Guatemala, provincial centres host market days where traders, farmers and artisans from the surrounding villages come to sell their produce and resupply for their families.

We took a bus up to probably the most famous of the lot - Chichicastenango. Whilst some dispute that it has become too touristy here, with Holy Week in full swing and plenty of amazing textiles on display it was hard to agree...

Granted, the prices quoted were absolutely ludicrous (though plenty of people were paying them) But a bit of old school Nigerian haggling would wear any one down after ten minutes so we walked away with some amazing hand woven rugs for $25 a piece. We actually ended up having to pop down to the markets in Antigua a buy two extra suitcases so we could get all this stuff home!! Props to George and Sarah for propping up the Guatemalan economy...

CHICHI MARKETS (19 photos)

Antigua - Women's weaving co-op

Gail, the kiwi expat that owned the hotel where we were staying had been helping a women's weaving co-operative in a nearby village and had organised a couple of utes to take us out to have a look and learn about the local Mayan culture and see the weavers in action.

It was really quite amazing that this group of women had got their act together and were making real money selling their crafts and textiles in town and by allowing groups to come and visit. The were terribly cute, as everyone in Guatemala is about 4ft tall (seriously ALL midgets) and they showed us how to weave, make baskets and grind maize etc.

Interestingly they were also interested in how we do things (in particular how to get into the US) - but I couldn't help thinking about all the illegals around Texas where we live and how many of them are exploited and that whilst poor, their life in rural Guatemala may be a better choice..

WEAVING CO-OP (23 Photos)

Tikal

After a hectic few days of what seemed like no stop parade viewing, we got up way too early to catch a little plane up into the jungle at Tikal - one of the largest Mayan sites discovered.
National Geographic have a cool website about the Mayans here, and there's info about Tikal here.

It's really hard to describe places like this, you literally walk for miles thought the jungle and there's these MASSIVE structures appearing from nowhere - it's like you're in an Indiana Jones movie - absolutely amazing.

Unfortunately it was so hot I got a little sun stroky and had to collapse in the shower, but this place was definitely worth it - you could spend days here exploring all the nooks a crannies. Though tonnes of people visit, it's so bloody big you barely even notice.

For those of you who are super keen-eyed little nerdy werdys you may recognise this place as the location of the rebel base in star wars (minus the space ships etc) - and no I didn't know that until our guide Carlos told me (he and George Lucas go waaay back apparently)

TIKAL (24 photos)

The main plaza at Tikal (Temples 1 and 2)
[click on image to enlarge]

The folk at CyArk have awesome 360 panoramas here definitely worth a look

Viva La Revolucion... (pt 1 of 3)

H a v a n a

We'd both longed to get to Cuba, and after moving to the US it was always going to be our first port of call - before Fidel kicks the bucket and Raoul starts changing everything. It just so happened that 2009 is the 50th anniversary of the Revolution, so we figured we should be there over Christmas and new years to witness it...

Havana is a one of those cities that's more legend than fact. Since the revolution and the subsequent embargo by the US, the city has unfortunately in decline. It's probably one of the few places on the planet where you find vintage American cars running off Russian Lada engines, ration shops juxtaposed against once gleaming colonial palaces all dowsed in a liberal coating of revolutionary sloganeering and graffiti


Once the stomping ground for pirates, a heavily fortified slave port for the Spanish and even a lucrative gambling capital for the North American Mafia during prohibition, Havana seems to have survived everything that has been thrown at it...

Habaneros (inhabitants of Havana) love their city - though they live crammed into dilapidated old apartment buildings, everyone maintains their own gardens and chicken on their balconies...

This is a massive marble statue of Jesus that over looks the city from Casablanca
The fort at La Cabaña has overlooked and protected the city for over 100yrs - so much so, that Fidel and Che set up shop here immediately after the revolution. There's an awesome display of che's old office and a whole bunch of his stuff from the early days running the new country

Despite it's relatively high population, there's still not a huge amount of traffic in the old city as cars are too expensive - also you don't park on the street as you'll find your car stripped of everything that is and isn't bolted on, so abandoned lots have become parking garages where someone'll watch your sled for a few pesos...
The balcony really seems to be the centre of a havanan home, as it's from here that you do your shopping by dropping down baskets (with money tied on); it's where you swap things with you neighbours, grow your food , keep your pets, and most importantly talk to your friends... There's a great hum in the evenings as everyone is having loud conversations from the street up to their friends on the third floor!!

Whilst many of the 50's US cars that everyone thinks of when they hear the word Cuba are in pretty good nick, most are barely holding on, often held together with Russian or even improvised parts...
... thus the easiest way to get around is by bike taxi (or in Havana - a coco taxi which is a little round yellow fibreglass blob attached to a motor bike which looks like it's been stolen from a Disney ride....)

Further out , where there's less cars, horse or mule drawn wagon are the transportation of choice

... or you can just build your own, however you want....

One thing that strikes most people about Cuba is that it's still a government run Communist state, and as such doesn't have any advertising or commercial branding anywhere (even on the limited number of shops...) So, while there's no Coke or Pepsi billboards staring down at you wherever you go like the rest of the planet, there are plenty of political slogans and patriotic images all about the place to remind cubanos about their responsibilities as a cuban...

"Fatherland or Death - We will win" has been a slogan since before the revolution when an "oath" was pledged to rid the country of the spanish (at the time). Since then it has evolved to mean more - that every cuban is required to fight for the greater good and the freedom on the country... Here Fidel (in his younger days) is rousing his people...

No one man conveys that spirit of vigilance is fighting against oppression than "El Che" who is coveted almost like a god in these parts. His image (and sometimes a simple "viva el che!" or "viva la revolucion!") can be seen in houses, on billboards, and the side of buildings, in every corner of cuba...




Another group that cubanos are constantly reminded of via billboard is the Miami 5 - five men who were sentenced in 2001 to prison terms of between 15 and 25 years for allegedly acting as Cuban agents within the exile community in Miami. The men and their supporters have consistently protested that they had come to the US to infiltrate and disrupt right-wing exile groups perpetrating acts of terrorism within Cuba and have therefore been jailed unjustly. As for the local propaganda, it's used to help bolster anti-American sentiment (such as the common phrase "Yankee imperialist..."

"The victory was, is and always will be ours! "