We can smell the incense, the corn cooking on the grill, the sugary sweet candyfloss stacked up high above the head of a street seller. We can hear bells ring out from churches, sellers call out their wares, hand-pushed ice-cream carts rattle and jangle as they pass, and people chatting to each other in excitement everywhere you turn. I’m watching my step to not trip on the cobbles, and not step on the sawdust decorations. On every street people are offering things for sale, asking would we like to buy a palm leaf bouquet, or a candle in the shape of a pilgrim, or how about some delicately embroidered cloths or hats or shoes?
Antigua Guatemala was probably the busiest and most colourful place we went to on our trip. Semana Santa, or Holy Week, is the week around Easter and is a very important celebration in Latin America. We’d already seen processions and preparations in El Salvador, but nothing on the scale of Antigua. Semana Santa in Antigua is actually on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List, and attracts visitors from all over the world. We had coincidentally managed to time our arrival for Palm Sunday, having carefully avoided being there for what we thought would be the busiest time over Easter Weekend. It was quite an incredible experience.
We had booked an early tourist shuttle from Juayua in El Salvador direct to Antigua Guatemala. Although this felt a bit of a cop-out compared to taking local buses, we’d found out it would take most of a day to travel by public bus as you have to go via Guatemala City, so we decided we’d rather have more time to explore Antigua. Our driver turned up 5 minutes earlier than the 45 minute pick-up window we’d been given, so we had a scramble to collect everything in the dark at 4:40am! We set off in a small car just the two of us, watching a gorgeous colourful sunrise over the hills, then we met the shuttle at the passport control office / petrol station at the El Salvador border. Another seven people were on board waiting for us already. They had come all the way from El Tunco in the south east of the country, a very long journey missing out on so much of El Salvador. There was the now-familiar process of handing your passports to a random official to take away for stamping, with no real checking of whether we matched our passports. Then our shuttle set off for Guatemala, the driver waved the passports at us and explained in Spanish that we didn’t need to worry and he’d keep them until Guatemala. The border controls were very quick and we were soon on the way to Antigua with our passports safely back in hand.
Our shuttle dropped us on the outskirts of the city because the central roads were all closed to prepare for Easter processions. Thankfully the climate in Antigua was pleasant (in the 20s) and it was a nice 20 minute walk into town even though we were loaded up with our bags. We were getting close to the hostel when we passed a brewery called Antigua Brewing Company, already open at 9:30 on a Sunday morning, there was a large sign advertising breakfast. We didn’t need any more of an invitation! Breakfast was delicious, and we promised ourselves we’d go back for a beer at a more suitable hour.
We set off to walk the final few blocks to the hostel. It got busier and busier, and we were soon walking alongside some beautiful street decorations known as Alfombras. These are carpets on the street made of coloured sawdust or sand, decorated further with leaves and fruit. There are really intricate and beautiful, and so much work for something that will be walked over and destroyed during the processions!
We reached our hostel, the lovely Yellow House. We were greeted with a refreshing hibiscus flower tea and given a couple of lockers to leave our bags in for the next few hours before check-in. It was probably the cleanest hostel we’ve stayed in, employing a team of staff constantly maintaining the place. It didn’t matter that we had a shared bathroom here as it seemed to be cleaned between every visit! The breakfasts here were also the best we’ve had so far, a long table laden with food and staffed by friendly locals dishing out generous portions.
Antigua Guatemala is a beautiful place, full of cobbled streets and old colonial architecture painted in warm colours. It was also very busy whilst we were there, with lots of people dressed up for the occasion: men and children in purple robes with either white or purple head coverings (they are known as Cucuruchos, and are usually involved in the processions); the women accompanying them were dressed in what looked more like black office wear, with white shirts and a black lace shawl or head covering; traditionally dressed local people wearing beautifully embroidered fabric tops and skirts; and finally a mix of local families and tourists. On the Sunday many people were carrying palm leaf bouquets, with the leaves woven around small emblems of Jesus or crucifixes.
We spent the first afternoon exploring the city. There are numerous old churches and convents in various states of repair, all fascinating to wander around. We started at La Merced Church where there was an excellent view from the rooftop across the city. We spotted a few interesting looking buildings and worked out where we would go next, including the half ruin, half church San Jose Cathedral. I won’t detail all of the different places we visited in our three days in the city, but safe to say our step count has been very high this week and we’ve seen a lot! Here are a few photo highlights.
After a long afternoon walking that first day, we checked into our hostel and settled in. Just before sunset we were back out to get cash and a few essentials. We realised we must have missed the Palm Sunday procession, as there was a constant stream of people leaving the centre. All the delicate carpets we’d seen earlier had gone, with the only evidence being a riot of colour in the gaps between the cobbles.
We headed to another brewery for dinner, this time at an amazing open-air place in a small woodland called Antigua Cerveza El Bosque. There were some food stalls and a flight of beer to taste. We spent a nice evening by the fire pit, which was actually needed as it was chilly after the sun went down.
We spent half of Monday trying to work out the logistics to catch our flight home. There were so many options, and we were feeling like time was squeezing us a lot. We had originally booked the flight home from Mexico City assuming we’d have four weeks in Mexico to travel and be able to do a leisurely few days seeing museums and buying souvenirs in the city at the end. By this point though we’d taken a slower journey and seen more on the way, so it felt very jarring to be looking at having to take two flights to get to Mexico just a day or so before taking two flights to get home! Having slept on it, we then ended up spending half of Tuesday sorting out new flights, cancelling old flights, extending travel insurance, sorting out trains home etc. It’s always surprising how much time stuff like this takes! The end result was we’d be spending a few extra days away and would finish our journey overland and come back from Belize.
Despite all the admin, we still had a great time in Antigua. Having missed the Palm Sunday procession we thought we wouldn’t catch any others, but on Monday afternoon we stumbled across another one. There were groups of people in different outfits, Roman soldiers, purple robes, army uniform, and even some dubious looking hooded outfits. There was a band and a huge float carried by about 40 people. It moved slowly back and forwards over the carpets on the street. It was an amazing spectacle, accompanied by sombre music from a marching band. The whole procession was followed by some people brushing the remaining sawdust and clearing up.
On Monday evening we went back to Antigua Brewing Company for live music. This was great, all Blues and Country stuff with the occasional Latin twist.
On Tuesday afternoon we explored the huge local market and craft market, there was so much to see. We haggled for a few little presents, and another not-so-little painting which we’ve had to try and fit in the backpack! On Tuesday evening we had dinner with Laura, Kasper, and Nanna. Nanna had been recommended a smaller empanada place a little way out of the centre, we walked over there and sat at tables on the pavement, eating delicious empanadas whilst watching the brightly lit-up buses pass by on the road outside. We caught up on what we’d been up to since seeing them the week before, as well as talking about our next big hike together, more on that in the next post!
