The best laid plans and all that...

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The best thing about not making any plans for this trip is that I never need to change them. I was going to leave Antigua after one week of spanish classes but on Friday I registered for another week. I´ve made some good progress and feel another week will do me good. My current plan is to take classes through Thursday, and then travel with some friends to El Salvador for the weekend on Friday - but of course things could change again.

Anyway, back to what I have been doing on my trip - after classes on Thursday some of us hiked up to Cerro de la Cruz (Hill of the Cross), which is a clearing on a hill overlooking Antigua. The hike up was quite easy and only took about 15 minutes. As the name implies there is a large cross in the clearing, and the view of the city and Volcan Agua in the distance is amazing.

Yesterday was Dia del Diablo in Guatemala, which is the day the devil is banished for another year. This is accomplished by burning effigies of the devil. Apparently in Antigua, the best place to do this is in the street right between two gas stations, with fireworks thrown in for good measure. It was interesting to say the least.

To celebrate dia del diablo some of the students and I took a chicken bus to Ciudad Vieja, a suburb of Antigua. For those that don´t know chicken buses are old school buses from the US supped up and used for public transportation. The buses are crammed full of people, at least 3 to a seat with children piled on laps. The aisles are also completly full of people so that no one can move an inch! Of course the drivers drive very carefully to avoid accidents - ok, that was to reassure my mother - the thruth is they drive like crazy blaring loud music, passing around corners, and always honking the horn. I follow the lead of the locals, they don´t seem to mind at all so neither do I - plus I really like the music!

Ok, back to the reason we went to Ciudad Vieja in the first place. The town was throwing a dia del diable parade we wanted to check out. It was very interesting with floats built on the back of flatbed trucks. To me it seemed like a history of the country mixed with religion. They had floats that depicted the Spanish ships, conquisedores, campesanos (farmers), Mayans in traditional dress, and of course devils, lots and lots of devils. It is difficult to explain, so maybe just take a look at the pictures.

Well, I need to run - heading to the mercado to buy party supplies. Today is one of our roommate´s birthday so of course we´re having a party. We invited everyone from class so it should be a good time. Hope you are all well and surviving the rain!

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Photos

Studying
This is where I study spanish for 4 hours a day - my maestros name is Angel - he gives me some vocabulary as homework and then we spend most of class time talking. Typical topics include politics, religion, meaning of life - you know the basics. Photo by Terry Jones

Cerro de la Cruz
Sacha from Canada, Floyd from the UK, and me at Cerro de la Cruz - just behind Sacha is Christian from Germany and Matias from Holland in the blue shirt. Photo by Terry Jones (Sacha´s father), otherwise known as Yoda

Cerro de la Cruz 2
View of the cross and the city in the distance - supposabley there have been robberies on the trail to the cross but we made it fine, maybe it was the armed escort we had.

Floats 1
The floats were created on the beds of trucks. They were amazingly well done as were the costumes and masks.

Children with Maiz
Maiz is a staple of the Guatemalan diet, and was well represented in the parade.

Santa Maria Float
The spanish were also well represented in the parade, there were conquistidores, religous leaders, even spanish dancers, here the spanish galleons named Santa Maria and La Nina.

El Diablo!
And of course, the man of the hour, el diablo. They were everywhere, on floats, dancing in the streets, harrassing the crowd who lined the streets. I thought this one looked particularly frightening!

El Angel
Of course you can´t have the devil without angels - this one waved to the crowd as she sat atop a float that must have been 2 stories high!

Angel Float
Not a great picture because it was under exposed, but it does of good job of illustrating how incredible the floats were.

Another Float
Another example...

Young Campesino
Float depicting a field of maiz and the campesinos working the field.

Comments

[Bret]

Cougs
John, not so much a comment but rather an update - Go Cougs! WSU to hire Wulff as new football coach By Craig Smith Seattle Times staff reporter Related Talk about it in the Cougars forum Paul Wulff bio Washington State has scheduled a 3 o'clock press conference in Pullman tomorrow to introduce its new head football coach. Sources indicated that the new coach will be Paul Wulff, 40, the former Cougar player who is head coach at Eastern Washington University. Ciao,

[John W. Sr]

Wed 12/12 schedule
John, We are attending a program Wed night which Daniel is part of. We won't be home Wed night until about 8:30 pm. Dad