When I booked the flight from Cartagena to Antigua I did not realize that it was to be on Good Friday and that the Easter period is a holiday and religious festival in South and Central America. The journey from the hotel to the airport in Cartagena only took 20 minutes and the taxi driver even took my bags into the airport for me without being asked. At Guatemala city airport everyone had to press a button to go through the customs area, the button operating a traffic light type signal. If it was red then the bags would be searched; green then the passenger could go straight through. I was told that this was to make the searching of bags completely random. The owner of the hotel picked me up at the airport as arranged and after just over an hour I arrived at the Casa Del Cerro Hotel, about ten rooms and in a very quiet part of the city with about a ten minute walk to the main square.
I was given a booklet with details of the street processions during the Easter period which extended for about ten days. This detailed the time and place of the start and finish of each procession and which group would be carrying the biers/floats (for which I was told they have to pay the church to be allowed to carry the float).
As it was Good Friday I went out in the evening to see the processions which were quite colorful and noisy. Some of the floats were very big and obviously heavy as one needed 52 people to carry the float. Each float was accompanied by a marching band, people dressed up in various ways and children swinging incense burners (censer) making the streets quite foggy at times. Women and girls were dressed mainly in black. As it became darker the floats were lit up by electricity supplied by mobile generators pulled behind the float.
Prior to the procession the cobble-stoned streets were covered with ‘carpets’ made of dyed sawdust, pine needles, vegetables and flowers. These are made by local families or businesses and are large and elaborate. Once the procession had passed over the carpets the rubbish men clean up everything so it was hardly noticeable what was there before.
Processions continued over the weekend when I was amazed how the people who carried the floats were able to change bearers and keep the float moving at the same time.
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| Antigua from the top of Cerro De La Cruz |
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| A typical street |
I was given a booklet with details of the street processions during the Easter period which extended for about ten days. This detailed the time and place of the start and finish of each procession and which group would be carrying the biers/floats (for which I was told they have to pay the church to be allowed to carry the float).
As it was Good Friday I went out in the evening to see the processions which were quite colorful and noisy. Some of the floats were very big and obviously heavy as one needed 52 people to carry the float. Each float was accompanied by a marching band, people dressed up in various ways and children swinging incense burners (censer) making the streets quite foggy at times. Women and girls were dressed mainly in black. As it became darker the floats were lit up by electricity supplied by mobile generators pulled behind the float.
Prior to the procession the cobble-stoned streets were covered with ‘carpets’ made of dyed sawdust, pine needles, vegetables and flowers. These are made by local families or businesses and are large and elaborate. Once the procession had passed over the carpets the rubbish men clean up everything so it was hardly noticeable what was there before.
Processions continued over the weekend when I was amazed how the people who carried the floats were able to change bearers and keep the float moving at the same time.
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| Incense fog |
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