San Pedro Fail.

          Just wanted to share a story about the adventures of traveling through Central America. Tuesday afternoon, Travel Buddy and I set off on our journey from Antigua (again) to a village on Lake Atitlan called San Pedro. It should be about a 5 hour bus ride. San Pedro is the last stop of many villages on the lake for the bus driver, and as we approached, there was obviously some situation causing a traffic issue.

         

Keep in mind, the inhabitants of this bus were as follows: two fellows from Spain who spoke very little English; 5 guys from England who spoke literally zero Spanish (one of which had a broken foot), and David and me. The Spanish guys helped for a few minutes, then disappeared. David and I struggled for a while to figure out what was happening/translate, and basically figured out that we were going to have to walk (bags and all) up a small mountain from San Juan to San Pedro. So, we collected our things (and the crippled guy), and set off on our journey.

Turns out there was an argument between the tuk tuk drivers in the two villages, during which one set of drivers got angry and decided to make their own road block. It consisted of wood and burning tires. (A tuk tuk is a miniature form of public transportation). Basically, we walked to San Pedro, found a tuk tuk, had them take us to the school, and everything worked out.

That is how 7 hours, some broken translations, one killer hike, a road block, and a tuk tuk ride later, these two exhausted gringos finally made our way into San Pedro. It was worth it though, because this is where I studied with my teacher today:

Semana Santa

        Last week in Antigua, I was able to participate in the 2^nd largest Holy Week celebration in the world. It was unreal. All week long there were reenactments, displays and processions (which are parades where men and women dress up in special costumes carry platforms with different scenes that contain Jesus or Mary around the city). People spend hours before hand preparing the streets with “alfombras,” (carpets made of grass, pine, flowers, and colored saw dust) for the procession to walk over. People came from all over to pay their respects to our Lord, and to thank Him for the beautiful gift that differentiates Christianity from other religions-- Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection. Processions and displays happen every day in different locations all over the city. There is a constant reminder of what Holy week means to us.

One of the processions. 100 men carrying this platform.

Alfombra made of flowers.

          By the end of the week, it seemed like we had all seen about 10 processions. Some friends here and I stayed up late Thursday night to watch people prepare for the huge procession that begins at 0400 Friday a.m. We didn’t make it that long, but we watched people work tirelessly over their alfombras all over Antigua. Friday night, we happened to leave dinner at the time that one of the large processions passed the restaurant. It was raining and cold, but still there were thousands of people packed into the street to watch the procession (and the marching band that followed in their rainjackets). This particular procession was special because it was symbolic of Jesus’ funeral march. It was incredible. The music played by the marching band was amazing, and there were probably thousands of people lining the dark, rainy streets with candles. Christian or not, it was a sight to behold.

Procession in the rain, so Jesus has a rain jacket

         

          Semana santa (Holy week) is such a huge cultural experience here, and since I’m not Catholic or Latin American some of the tradition is lost on me. With that being said, I am SO glad that I got to experience it here. I was amazed constantly by how intently everyone devotes their time, energy, and resources to thanking God for His gift to us, and I was able to see some very beautiful art in the form of colored sawdust and very temporary displays in the streets. So, thanks Antigua, I will probably never think of Easter in quite the same way as I did before.

Distractions

I'm not positive that I'm actually learning a great deal of Spanish, but I am having a blast trying. Here are some of my favorite distractions:

Roommates and the family we're staying with.

Field trips, like this one to the coffee museum.

The next set of roommates.
(Yevginey?-New York, Joel-Michigan, David-AL, Peter-Denmark)

Volcano climbing.
(With David and Joel)

I think my favorite distraction is speaking in English so that I can hear all the other accents. That is strange, but every one else sounds so great! Alright that's it for now. Miss everybody!