Pacaya Volcano

Before the festivities of Holy Week kicked off in earnest, we decided to take the hour bus ride over to Pacaya volcano - one of the apparently many live volcanoes in central america...

It all seemed like a good idea at the time - "let's climb a volcano" - it was only after half an hour of trudging up the side of this thing in the afternoon heat (Sarah was smart enough to hire a horse...) that I was rethinking the whole thing. Whilst the hike almost killed us - it was heaps of fun (though the freshly set lava was actually almost glass-like and really sharp so you couldn't lean on it without cutting yourself, and our shoes melted a bit from standing too long near the hot stuff). It was also a great chance to use the word "magma" a lot

Sitting on the lava field at sunset - absolutely beautiful[click to enlarge]

PACAYA VOLCANO (29 photos)

Here's a bunch of photos (too many to choose from) - you'll see at the end, that as we were about to start to climb back down, a nearby volcano - the aptly named "fuego" - erupted!! I shit you not, a huge plume of smoke shot miles into the air - it looked pretty cool (glad we were miles away from it though...)

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