Spanish school continued in the mornings then home to Olga's for lunch which is the major meal of the day for the Guatemalans. Olga was looking after her elderly mother during the day (and some nights) so Nurea, Olgas's eldest daughter, would cook traditional Guatemala cuisine each day. The food consisted of rice cooked in stock with vegetables (carrots, chocos, squash, broccoli), frijoles (black beans either mashed or cooked whole in a sauce), fried plantains, finca cheese (a salty farm cheese similar to feta) and some type of meat/chicken dish. These dishes included Chilli Rellenos (stuffed capsicum/bell peppers), Pepian (chicken stew), Pollo Guisado (chicken soup/stew), Chuchitos (meat/chicken in masa, which is a maize/corn dough, and this is wrapped in corn husks and boiled), Hilachas (shredded beef in a red sauce). Corn tortillas or bread rolls are served with every meal. Breakfast consisted of fresh fruit (papaya, pineapple, watermelon), scrambled eggs with onion and tomatoes mixed through it, negro (black) beans, finca cheese and bread. Avena (oatmeal porridge made with milk and water - quite sweet and runny). Pancakes with honey or maple syrup were also on the breakfast menu several times. Dinner was a lighter meal of beans, fried plantains, chuchitos or similar and bread or tortillas. We ate well and really enjoyed the cuisine.
Nurea and Dani preparing our lunchtime meal. Dani spent the second week doing cooking school while we went to Spanish school.
Nurea and Jennifer cooking the Saturday BBQ. Ringo, the family dog, hanging around just on the off chance some will come his way.
Nurea has 3 gorgeous niñas (girls) who would kept us amused and would help with my Spanish, correcting mispronounced words, that is when they could actually work out what I was trying to say.
We took this photo of the girls and had it enlarged and framed and gave one to Nurea and one to Olga when we left.
These 3 photo labs are positioned on 3 corners of an intersection. I naturally wanted to do the print of the girls at the Kodak but they only had instant prints, no lab as was the case at the Konica store so Fuji got our business. The girls were helpful and the prints were of a reasonable quality. What amazed us is that each of these stores still sold film and Fuji had a film processor. We thought that we wouldn't ever see one of these again after we sold ours from the Rocky store. Yes in a previous life we owned 2 Kodak stores.
The Guatemalans love to celebrate. One of the more noisy traditions is to let off 'bombas' or fire crackers, the loud and multiple 'bang' type (tom thumbs) very early in the morning to celebrate someones birthday. It was not uncommon to be woken at 4am with fire crackers exploding on the street outside the 'birthday' boy or girl's home. This continued on and off for several hours as other well wishers came by the house and set off their own round of crackers to say 'felix cumpleaños'.
The Guatemalans are extremely religious, Catholicism being predominant, so Lent and Easter are major events with not a chocolate easter egg to be seen anywhere. Semana Santa in Antigua is one of the largest celebrations in Central America, if not the world. In the lead up weeks to Easter, each of the pueblos (villages) surrounding Antigua have a vigil at their local Iglesia on Friday afternoon/evening followed by a procession on the Sunday. The Iglesia is decorated with flowers, petals, fruit, bread and coloured sawdust. We visited Santa Catalina on the Friday afternoon to see the church and experience the community festivities and food stalls.
Purple is the colour signifying Semana Santa
Inside the church decorated in a 'carpet' of coloured sawdust, flowers, pineapples, melons and further to the front there was bread in the shapes of animals (a crocodile).
A stall selling mangoes - ripe in bags, green in bags and cut-shaped on a stick.
This is a dough similar to doughnuts. It is deep fried then broken into pieces about 8 inches long, then drizzled with a chocolate sauce.
While in Santa Catalina we saw these 'puffs' coming out of the top of a nearby volcano. A little unsettling but none of the locals seemed to be worried.
We left Santa Catalina and climbed onto a 'chicken bus' for a ride back into Antigua (not very far), but as we were enjoying the scenery, old buildings etc it started to become clear that this bus was not going back the same way we had come out to Santa Catalina. After a questioning look at Jens and Dani it became apparent that they also felt we were going in the wrong direction. I think i have told you about how Dani was our interpreter and how we still don't have a reasonable grasp of the Spanish language yet, it was left up to her to ask the gentleman in front where the bus was heading. It turned out we were on our way to another village and not into Antigua. The bus had 15 locals, most of which were older people and once they heard of our plight we had virtually the whole bus offering us their suggestions as to where we should get off the bus and start walking. The bus driver finally let us off at the main intersection on the way out of Antigua, which by coincidence was very close to Dani & Jens favourite chocolate shop. As we climbed off the bus the driver refused take money for our fare saying that we had got on the wrong bus by mistake. That was amazing enough but as we stood on the side of the road and waved goodbye the whole of the bus cheered and waved back. We couldn't believe the generosity of these people. It made for a very special experience and all because we got on the wrong bus.
Dani & Jens are into chocolate (as are we but perhaps not to the connoisseur level). We headed to Hotel Casa Santa Domingo for another look around and for the chocolate. This place is 5 star+. Built in and around the ruins of a church and convent, it is spectacular.
Casa Santa Domingo - hotel, chapel, art gallery, chocolarti and museums.
From the front into this. On the right is a court yard of plants and a little stream.
Main reception room
Candles and pots with rose petals (can't see it but it is the round pot in the foreground)
The Chapel
Bells
Gardens
Purple Status flowers and grain sheafs are part of the Semana Santa offerings
We headed off to Lake Atitlan for a week then back to Antigua for a Sunday prior to heading back to the Rio Dulce. I will describe our week at the lake in the next blog post but wanted to cover the Santa Ines procession to keep with the theme of Semana Santa.
We returned to Antigua on Saturday evening and made our way through the cobble stone streets pulling our luggage to our hotel - Posada Don Diego. We had discovered this little treasure whilst searching for good coffee and WiFi. This became our favourite spot to chill for an afternoon, drink coffee and catch up with the news, emails and in some cases Spanish homework. It is opposite the La Merced church and 2 blocks from the Parque Central.
View from our room at Posada Don Diego - gorgeous little court yard so typical of spanish homes.
Sunday morning in Parque Central listening to 'Artesanos Del Viento' (Artisans of the Wind). Amazing talent and so many instruments including guitars, pan flutes and drums.
The Central fountain adorned with flowers
We weren't the only ones enjoying the music
Dani & Jens went off to take a horse ride up a volcano, where they saw lava and toasted marshmallows. We decided to spend the afternoon site seeing and catching the 'Procession' from Santa Ines.
Walking through the streets of Antigua always surprised us with it's sights, people and architecture.
This young man was more than happy to have his photo taken as being part of the 'Procession' is a big thing.
Street venders preceded the 'Procession'
We were lucky enough to see an 'alfombra' (carpet) being laid in front of the procession.
The 'anda' (float). It is ornately carved wood with statues of priests and Jesus carrying the cross.
The float is carried over the carpet and after it passes people picked up the flowers from the street.
The anda (float) with Jesus carrying the cross - all wooden statues
The band follows playing a 'marchas funebras' (funeral march)
The women follow carrying the 'Madonna' (Virgin Mary).
The procession is closely followed by the clean up crew - very efficient
Food stalls setup in front of La Merced. A real festive feel.
The procession wound it's way through Antigua finally finding it's way past our hotel, La Merced and then back out of town. The following photos were taken whilst standing on the front step of the Posada Don Diego on Sunday evening
Popcorn
She is carrying the balls with her baby tied to her back in a Tzute (Maya wrap)
A mobile generator was pushed/pulled behind the 'anda' for the lighting
It was all a bit surreal
La Merced and the full moon.
I will finish this post with some photos of Antigua.
