Semana Santa

Semana Santa was CRAZY. My first thought was to escape from the mess and travel to El Salvador and relax on the beach. Since it was only 3 hours away, this seemed like the prefect mini vacation. Well, this didn't happen ... bummer!

Since lent, every Sunday has been a mad house in Antigua, with heaps of people, processions and loud music.
The "processions" =were those carrying a large platform with Jesus on top. The processions were followed by people, and a marching band playing music the entire time. This procession would begin Sunday at different times and walk up and down every street. EVERY STREET.!
This sounds cool, and it wasn't that bad on Sundays, but I was dreading Semana Santa because I could only imagine what it would be like.
It seemed every Sunday the processions would begin earlier and earlier and last longer and longer. Coming closer to Semana Santa they started on Fridays.

It was a mad house here in Antigua. If you tried to leave your house and walk ANYWHERE you got caught in a procession. The first day I learned my lesson... I was walking home from town and spotted one ahead of me a couple of blocks. I thought it wise to beat it by walking down different streets in hopes to pass it before it got to that section of town. I WAS SOO WRONG. I would go 2-3 blocks in a different direction, only to hit the tail end of it, the beginning of it because I didn't know the direction they were going, or to run into a completely different one. I was thinking that there was only one at a time, ohhh no...many, at all once. You couldn't walk around town anywhere without running into AT LEAST one.

Once you have made the decision to man-up and try and get through the people and around the procession, it became hell. If you were lucky enough to not be going in the same direction as the procession you had a good chance of making it across or away from it within 10 minutes or so.

Unlucky for me, I usually found the procession going toward my house. So I had to walk with the hundred other people up the street to my house. Not to be rude but Guatemalan's are the slooowest walkers I have ever met. SERIOUSLY. But on this day, wow ... I moved a step like every 5 seconds. And then you had to push your way through people that were standing on the sidewalks watching it pass. Thank goddness I am short and skinny. The procession took up the whole street, so there was no way of walking with it on the road.
If you got gusty, you could cross the procession while it was stopped. Everyone would look at you bc clearly this was against everything .. but, hey sometimes you have to do what you do.

So imagine it usually taking me 10 minutes to walk home. During this time it on average took me around 30-40mintues to get in my house.

I really, really wanted to get away ... but we just couldn't manage it.
I am glad I saw it. I really only needed one day of it, but I couldn't possibly stay in my house the whole time, I would have gone nuts.

Below are some of my favorite photos of the day I took pictures.

Below are some carpets. The people would begin these things around 6am. They were very impressive and very detailed. These pictures are too small to show you the detail work they do. They would begin the process with some basic colors. Then they would lay down pieces of stencil work and pour/place the wood chippings inside to create the beautiful designs. They were made out of wood shavings.Then after they created these beautiful pieces, the processions would trample all over them, completely destroying them. Leaving nothing but some colored road to remember what once was created.
It was amazing!