Memories of Guatemala.

Me, Valiant, Mark and Soon standing in front of La Merced Church in Antigua, Guatemala. 

This is the diary of my trip to Guatemala with my brother Mark and my friends Soon and Valiant in the summer of 2010.

Antigua. Spanish charm and Mayan color.

Of all the postings in this travelogue, this one was the hardest one to put together. I started with my usual style of describing my day was like and then using photos to help the story along. About two paragraphs into writing the posting, I trashed the draft because it wouldn't have conveyed what I wanted to say about Antigua.

Birthday Boy!!

Everyone was in on the plan except the Birthday Boy, of course. We would go to a deli to pick up food for lunch and then head over to Posada Los Bucaros to eat. Waiting there would be dessert. A birthday cake and other treats for my brother because today was his birthday!!

I got Sue in the act about a week ago when told her I wanted to have everyone help him celebrate the day. She organized everything and turned it into a wonderful surprise party for him!

Food Porn. Street style.

Usually, my food porn pics are all of food placed nicely on dishes. I try to get a good angle to take the picture so as to show off the food at its best.

We ate at restaurants and we had good meals and we so-so meals. I only had one meal that no amount of money in the world would be sufficient reward to try it again.

Semana Santa Processions. Easter Sunday at Iglesia San Pedro.

Today was a day of joyous celebration for it was the day that all of Antigua celebrated the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and I was lucky to have been a part of it.

Only one procession was scheduled and that was the one leading out of San Pedro Church.

Panoramas.

Soon created these panoramas using photos taken on his Canon point and shoot camera.   It's amazing the images you can capture without a wide angle lens.  I thought they were so cool that they deserved to be showcased and so I'm posting them up.

Hiking up Volcan de Pacaya.

What was I thinking when I said I wanted to hike up Volcan Pacaya which is an active volcano? Yes, it still erupts on a daily basis....lava flows and all. I blame it on the guide books and websites that say that the hike is a "must-do" activity and that the hike is moderately easy. Moderately easy, my ass!! Well, let's not jump ahead of things. Let's start from the beginning.

Alfombras of Semana Santa.

One of the unique features of the Holy Week celebrations in Guatemala is the creation of *carpets* (alfombras) made from flowers, vegetables and colored sawdust. Often the rugs were often adorned with other materials. We saw eggs, bottle caps, plastic balls just to name a few.

Going to the mercado!

Eyeing the mangoes.  The variety was astounding.  We tried as many different ones as we could.

We found the mercado on our first day in Antigua and thanks to the Fruit Obsessed One aka my brother, we returned nearly every day we were in Antigua to buy fruit.

The Sound of Music.

This small entertained while we ate dinner at a restaurant in Panajachel.

Everywhere we went in Guatemala, we could the sound of music coming from the marimba, the national instrument of Guatemala.

The marimba is in xylophone family of instruments and we saw it being played solo as well as accompanied by other instruments including maracas, woodwinds, drums and the cello. The marimbas we saw also varied in sized - from two people playing the same instrument to seven.

Semana Santa Processions. Good Friday at Catedral de San José.

Fifteen different processions took place during Semana Santa (Holy Week). Processions varied in size and duration.  Today's highlight was the Good Friday procession leading out of Catedral.

The procession was scheduled to start at 2pm so we made our way to Parque Central after lunch and arrived before the procession started.

Semana Santa Processions. La Merced.

The La Merced procession is the one that kicks off the Good Friday celebrations and so it is THE one to watch. For that reason, the group, minus Sue all decided that we would get up bright and early and meet in the lobby to catch the procession. We actually saw the procession twice that morning....the first time it was around 6am and the second time around 10am.

Cerro de la Cruz.

On the way back to Antigua from Santiago Zamora, Sue had had the driver take us to Cerro de la Cruz which sits high on a hill above the town.  Saved us the 30 minute plus walk from town center.  From Cerro de la Cruz, we had sweeping views of the town below and Volcan Agua in the background.

Santiago Zamora. When women come together.....

Great things can be achieved. That was the lesson I was reminded of today when we visited the town of Santiago Zamora, located just a short chicken bus ride outside of Antigua.

First, the journey to Santiago Zamora.

Semana Santa Processions. San Felipe de Jesús

On our way to dinner tonight, we saw procession heading towards us from the direction of Parque Central. What's more important, dinner or doing that once-in-a-lifetime thing of watching an amazing event unfold before your very eyes. Yeah, it was a no brainer decision. We hung around for the procession.  This was just the second one we had seen a procession since our arrival into town so every second of it was exciting to watch.

Semana Santa Processions. Children's Procession.

Today, it was the kids turn to showcase their devotion to Christ.

It all started earlier in the day when the boys and I were visiting La Merced. As we entered the church courtyard, we heard the shouts and pitter patter of a lot feet. We had no idea what was going on until we asked a woman who, in very good English, explained to us that the children were at the church to pick up their badges to march in the procession.

Horseback Riding with Mark and Mo.

After throwing myself off a cliff this morning, I decided to end the day by doing something a little less life threatening. I went horseback riding with my brother and Mo.

3 Men & 2 Tubs

While I was busy flinging myself off a cliff paragliding, the guys went fishing. Both Soon and Valiant took photos and videos of their time on the water so I decided, for fun, to compile them and tell a tale of their time on the water.  Someone has to preserve the memories :-)

Come fly with me!

So excited when I woke up this morning. Yesterday, Maria had Sue arrange for us to go paragliding. I've not done this since my trip to Turkey and I was very much looking forward to doing it again. Maria had never been and was absolutely terrified....not surprising considering she's afraid of heights. I understand the need to do things outside one's comfort zone and tried to help calm her down.

Cruisin' around the lake.

The landscape around Lake Atitlán is dominated by three volcanoes.  On the right is Volcan San Pedro.  On the left are two volcanoes - Volcan Tolimán in the foreground and Volcan Atitlán slightly obscured in the background.

Today we left Pana to visit several of the villages located alongside Lake Atitlán - Santiago Atitlán, San Pedro La Laguna and San Juan de La Laguna . The only way to reach the villages is via boat so we started out this morning headed towards the boat docks.