Semana Santa in Antigua

Being a predominantly Catholic country, Guatemala (as does most of Latin America) celebrates Semana Santa or Holy Week. Schools have the week off, and I was lucky enough to have my mama com visit. :) We headed to the popular (but not overrated) cities, and enjoyed exploring and eating the week away. First stop: Antigua.

Parque Cenral

My mama arrived late on Saturday evening, so we spent the night near the airpot, and early Sunday morning took a shuttle to Antigua. After freshening up a bit, we headed out to explore. It was Palm Sunday, so we first heard mass at a church called San Pedro, then with that out of the way, set out to explore the city.

San Pedro Apostol

It was fun walking around the city seeing the people celebrating Domingo de Ramos or Palm Sunday. The streets were packed with people, mostly locals who had come from all over. There were also countless vendors selling palms outside the churches, and the sight outside La Merced was an especially pretty one.

The Cathedral

Palm vendors outside La Merced

We had heard all about Guatemala's famous alfombras (carpets), and were hoping we'd see one. As we were walking, we saw the aftermath of one (the procession had already passed, running over the alfombra). At first I was disappointed, because I didn't think we'd get to see another one.

Cleaning up what was left of the alfombra

Oh how wrong I was. We didn't even have to try and look for them, they were everywhere!

The Holy Week tradition in Guatemala is to decorate the streets with intricately designed alfombras made of flowers, grass, pines, and colorful sawdust.

The alfombras are made along the route of the procession.

They are so interesting to see because you see people putting in so much effort into them -- they take hours to make, and some people wake up in very early in the morning to get them done -- and they are then tread over by the processions. Because of this they are thought of as sacrificial.

Since we were in the vicinity (and because we ended up being trapped by the crowd), we decided to stay and watch a bit of the procession happening that day. The processions are another popular Holy Week tradition. There is usually one procession throughout the day, and they last hours, going around the whole of Antigua. We caught this procession in the morning at maybe around 11am, and also saw it later in the evening at near 7pm when we went out for dinner.

The processions are quite similar to the ones I saw in Granada during Holy Week 2015. The tradition actually does come from the Spanish, who introduced it to the continent when they came. Men dressed in purple robes and women in black dresses carry floats depicting varying scenes of the Passion of Christ. I don't know if each procession traditionally has two floats (one carried by the men and the other carried by the women), but this one did. The men had already passed when we stopped to watch, but we did get to see the women carrying their float.

Throughout the afternoon, while walking around and exploring the city, we saw more alfombras being made. It's really so interesting to see how much detail and care they put into making them, how intricate the designs are, and the different materials used in making the alfombras.

We saw many different kinds of alfombras made of different materials, flowers, grass, pines, and colorful sawdust, to name a few.

A lot used the most vibrant colors.

I loved seeing the intense concentration and care that people put into making them.

Such dedication and intense detail.

I can imagine the final one of this below looking magnificent. Such beautiful work!

In between roaming around the city looking at the alfombras, we climbed Cerro de la Cruz. 

Cerro de la Cruz in the distance

I was expecting it to be more of the climb, but it was a quick 15 minute walk up, and there were stairs along the path.

We did get a gorgeous view of the city from the hill, along with a foggy Volcán de Agua in the background. Not quite evident in the pictures, but I love how you can really see how Antigua is laid out in a grid.

Antigua down below

Back down we also stopped by Casa Santo Domingo to just look at the pretty grounds.

We rested a bit in the late afternoon, then headed back out for dinner. We unintentionally caught the procession again, and ended up watching it for a bit since we couldn't pass through. We had dinner at La Fonda de la Calle Real, for some Guatemalan food. We shared some kaqik and chile relleno, both which I hadn't tried and really enjoyed!

The next morning, we made our way to Finca Filadelfia to do a coffee tour.

It was my first time to visit a coffee plantation, and it was interesting to see the coffee making process. We visited the fields where they plant the red beans to make coffee. The seed below is what is used for the coffee, and the skin is sometimes used to make jam.

At a later part in the tour we saw coffee beans being dried in the sun. I was surprised that they were just there out in the open; I had expected them to be in a temperature controlled environment or room.

After the tour, we were dropped back off at the northern edge of the city center, and walked our way down to the restaurant where we were planning to have lunch. While walking, we were amazed at how empty and tranquil Antigua was. It was such a stark contrast from Sunday's frenzy and crowds. It was really nice to be able to experience both days -- festive Sunday and quiet Monday.

with the Arco, without the crowds

 We had lunch at Rincon Típico. A typical "hole in the wall" local Guatemalan eatery. Despite its popularity with tourists, it still retains a lot of its local charm. It's a quirkily decorated place with simple seatings and simple menu of just three dishes.

We both had the pollo asado (roast chicken) which was really good and hit the spot.

We then spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the city, more leisurely this time, and without the crowds. We checked out some churches...

Iglesia de San Francisco

The ruins of the Cathedral

...walked up and down Calle del Arco more than once... (I really love how many women (not just the vendors) still wear the traditional clothing).

 

...marveled at beautiful courtyards....

...and popped into a couple of stores here and there. At one bookstore, someone told us to check out the flowers at La Merced. We thought they would be outside the church (what we were told), and didn't see anything. We went inside and saw a bunch of people crowded around the altar area. So we made our way to the front, and were surprised with this beautiful alfombra.

Alfombra and offerings at La Merced

We lolled around the food market, bought some merienda, then made our way back to the house. We chilled a bit, headed back out for dinner, then called it a night, getting ready for our next destination: Lago de Atitlán.

Food market outside La Merced.

 Antigua, you are so beautiful, and I love visiting you.

♥

Until the next time :)