Nuestro Sueño Antigueño

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Having survived the volcano climb of death we spent our last week in Antigua enjoying some of the city's more relaxing attractions. Not content with proximity to one volcano Antigua is surrounded by three others, one of which has a habit of rumbling ominously and belching out dark clouds of smoke. We admired all 3 from the relative safety of a hilltop viewpoint several miles away. Continuing the theme of admiring dangerous things from a distance we took a trip to the local bus station where we marvelled at the brightly painted former schoolbuses and the number of people they managed to cram into each seat.

Easter is a big deal in Latin America, and nowhere more so than in Antigua where people travel from around the world to join in the Holy Week celebrations. Being in the city a whole 6 weeks before the Easter weekend we didn't expect to see any of these festivities, but we had clearly underestimated the Antiguan dedication to all things paschal. On the first day of lent several local churches rolled out some of the city's Easter showpieces: alfombras - brightly coloured "carpets" made of dyed sawdust, flowers, seeds and pine needles and surrounded by elaborate arrangements of fruit and vegetables. During Holy Week itself hundreds of these carpets are created along the city's cobbled streets, and along them walk processions of purple-robed devotees carrying 7,000lb floats or "andas" topped with enormous statues of Jesus and Mary. A solemn soundtrack is provided by a large brass band playing funeral marches. We were treated to an only slightly smaller scale version on our last weekend in Antigua - the streets were packed and we later learned that the procession participants were processing for 12 hours straight. Pretty impressive.