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Published: February 12th 2009
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Tim Version:
* Took the beautiful trip to Chichicastenango from my lakeside paradise, set for some party time.
* Experienced the festival of Saint Thomas in all its incredible fireworked and fine food glory!
The version that should have lost an eye with all those fireworks going off:
After my delicious very early Pancake breakfast in San Marcos, I hopped an early morning Lancha to Panajachel. The views from the boat early in the morning with the mist on the lake is picturesce (I can't spell that...) beyond belief. Its just awesome. The water is all calm, people are quieter and the world is just waking up. I could see the 3 volcano tips, all in a row, in enough shadow just ti give their silhouettes. The 3 blues of the lake, mountains and sky blending, with the mist rising from the lake.... mmm.
From there, a bus up to the other little town, and a few more to Chichi and I was in the centre of it all. My parents visited Chichicastenango, as well as other spots in Guatemala, a long time ago and I've seen their photos so I wanted to see if and
how it had changed. I wasn't planning on staying the night but when a guy showed me a hotel for not much money for cheap with a view of the central fireworks area I took it. From my balcony I could see the market and see when things were going on so as not to miss anything but not to have to hang around down there all day. A couple of awesome German girls also happened to be staying next to me, a couple more perks. Not only was is the famous Sunday market, but the end of the festival of Santo Tomas, meaning huuuge celebrations everywhere all day long!
Now the market, despite being touted as incredible, was to me typical of any other... Guatemalan handy crafts though always add so much colour that its a feast for the eyes. Unfortunately, thanks to possibly modern influences of the tourist trade and modern production techniques, much of the totally identical in every way "handmade" goods were the same at ever stall. Wood carvings though were better, with many sporting small imperfections that gave them much more personality and uniqueness. All I bought was 2 cheap necklace thingos since I
Who wants to get fat eh?
Deep deep deeeep fried chicken lost mine a while back. I expect to break or lose them in a month as I seem to do but they're cool for now.
Now the festival of Santo Tomas, crazy! I never got to see the people flying around the pole so will have to find a video of that but the rest was incredible. In front of the church of Santo Tomas were 3 large effigy thingos, all done up with all the colours of the rainbow in feathers and other materials, quite mardi-gra-ìsh. Measuring maybe 3 metres tall and 2 wide, the centre piece has a glass encased Saint Thomas where people prayed and lit candles. The entire front steps of the church and some of the ground was used all day and night for lighting off fireworks of all different sorts and getting past it was a mission in waiting for a time where none were going off at which point dozens of people made a mad dash! Steps were constantly catching on fire and having to be put out while the crowd was pelted with little concrete like bits from the firecrackers. Good safe fun heh.
Drunks unfortunately were also as numerous,
many laying on the steps under the fireworks, one guy nearly catching on fire.
Behind that big church on the way to the other were the dancers, dressed in big gold and silver costumes with coloured feathers and person masks, dancing around to a certain style of music. They were covered from head to foot and so were all totally anonymous. They danced in a circle unfortunately usually meaning you could only see their back, but it looked like they were dancing for the elders and priests of the festival. Past that was a weird procession of people in funny costumes from cartoons and other stuff totally random doing funny dances and keeping the crowd amused! Why? Coz its fun!
While the handicrafts were great, I gotta say the food wasn't so great! Its possible to get good food, but with so much deep fried and seriously unhealthy shit everywhere it becomes a bit of a search if you don't know where to go! Pupusas (with nothing inside), rice and ensalada was the safest bet for no heart disease today.
Late in the night there was a huge fireworks display that went for ages, all being launched
Smaller church at the opposite end
Complete with copal burning rituals from a wooden frame with the fireworks attached to it that would be maybe 1 metre away from the crowd. It was nothing short of spectacular to see so many going off so close to your head! Also a little daunting at times when one would fail or go off too early. By about 7:30 most was finished up and the desserts came out so I stuffed my face and headed home.
The next morning the streets were littered with very tired people and I had a relaxed breakfast with the German girls before we all headed off to our various destinations. Good party, good company, and so glad I got to see the festival!
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