We were told that the New Year's Day procession was something to see, so we went over to a little town called Santa Maria de Jesus. I have to say that this was probably the least exciting day we had spent in Guatemala. When we got to the down, no one really knew when the procession was, so we had a couple of hours to kill and walked around a bit. There was a market where all sorts of food was being sold, and the flies were buzzing around like crazy. The weirdest food I saw sold, is a tie between fried gators and fried iguanas. Yummers!
As we waited on the main square we noticed that there was a guy who set up backgrounds and was taking pictures. Imagine my surprise and amazement when I saw that one of the backdrops was a picture of the twin towers, where one tower has smoke billowing out of it and a plane is flying towards the other one. In front of this display is a plastic donkey that you can sit on. I am not an emotional person, but seeing that picture in that way made me sick. I can not fathom why this is a fun holiday background for a photo.
The procession finally started and it was very colorful. It started in a church and went to all of the corners of the square. Incense smoke was everywhere. I would describe it as a mix of a Catholic Mass and a small town parade. The whole parade consists of the one float that you can see in the picture. On the float are: Mary, Jesus, and a wise man. The whole procession is accompanied by an extremely sad, off tune sounding band and the locals explode incredibly loud confetti bombs. The parade also has a queen, la Reina de Santa Maria de Jesus. We were stuck in the town for a little bit, since transportation is pretty unreliable, but eventually made our way back to Antigua and did a little more walking around the town and sight seeing. I was amazed to see some synagogues there. Apparently our people are everywhere.
On our last full day in Guatemala we went on a day trip to Lake Atitlan. Atitlan is considered to be one of the most beautiful lakes in the world and when you are there, you never want to leave. The lake is surrounded by three volcanoes and the nature there is absolutely gorgeous. Mike and I had some time there, and since we didn't want to hang out at the beach and shop in Panajachel, we took a boat to the village of Santa Lucia de Atitlan, across the lake. If I ever win the lottery, I will build a house on this lake and will drink coffee on my deck gazing at the volcanoes. We had a very pleasant walk around Santa Lucia and even got a little lost. True to ourselves we ended up almost missing our bus back to Antigua, but to tell you the truth, I wouldn't have minded being stranded there. Our pictures don't do it justice, but I highly recommend that everyone go there at least once in their life. What a wonderful day to finish off our Guatemalan adventures. I found some pictures online that might come close to showing what it looks like. We came back to Antigua, and had our last Guatemalan dinner, in a restaurant with an inside courtyard of course. I will miss this place, Adios!
As we waited on the main square we noticed that there was a guy who set up backgrounds and was taking pictures. Imagine my surprise and amazement when I saw that one of the backdrops was a picture of the twin towers, where one tower has smoke billowing out of it and a plane is flying towards the other one. In front of this display is a plastic donkey that you can sit on. I am not an emotional person, but seeing that picture in that way made me sick. I can not fathom why this is a fun holiday background for a photo.
The procession finally started and it was very colorful. It started in a church and went to all of the corners of the square. Incense smoke was everywhere. I would describe it as a mix of a Catholic Mass and a small town parade. The whole parade consists of the one float that you can see in the picture. On the float are: Mary, Jesus, and a wise man. The whole procession is accompanied by an extremely sad, off tune sounding band and the locals explode incredibly loud confetti bombs. The parade also has a queen, la Reina de Santa Maria de Jesus. We were stuck in the town for a little bit, since transportation is pretty unreliable, but eventually made our way back to Antigua and did a little more walking around the town and sight seeing. I was amazed to see some synagogues there. Apparently our people are everywhere.
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