Parades parades parades

26 hrs (or, in the case of some of our luggage, 78 hrs) later, we arrived in the very cute colonial town of Antigua, an hour or so outside Guatemala city. It´s all beautiful little cobbled streets and old churches (also many tourists), ringed by impressive (and in several cases still active) volcanoes. Arriving on a Sunday in the middle of Lent meant the town was bursting at the seams with Mayan villagers, domestic tourists and foreigners all in town for one or more of the many parades, vigils and other services going on in the lead-up to Easter (Santa Semana).

This Sunday was the parade of (a saint whose name I can´t remember at the moment) - and these are serious parades. This one started at 7am and finished just after midnight, working its way through every main street and church in town in the meantime. We caught it several times through the day in different parts of town. The costumes and carnival atmosphere made it less solemn event and more Easter show, with balloon sellers and ice cream merchants doing a big trade. On the night before the parade many of the streets were barricaded off (to vehicles) as locals worked by arc lamp, torches and headlights to create amazing pictures from sawdust, fruit and flowers over which the parade would pass. The colour of the day is purple, with hundreds of purple robed devotees filling the streets and cars, buildings and streets done up in purple banners.

Men with long tridents help Jesus under the odd power line

Balloons, fairy floss and purple robes were the order of the day

Monday was a calmer day, letting us poke around at leisure and plan our Central American itinerary. No volcano climbing shenanigans just yet, but they are firmly pencilled in as it looks like great fun (except for the odd tourist who apparently gets whacked in the face with an unfortunately timed eruption).

Then, for contrast, Tuesday saw some kind of ´Miss Antigua´parade work through town. Kinda fun but have no idea what it was. Enthusiasm from the locals was equally great though.

Finally, once Angela´s luggage arrived, we upped camp and headed for the highlands.

It´s Miss Antigua. We don´t know why.

More hopefuls fade off into the distance.