Semana Santa Processions in Popayán

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I mentioned already that I had to check out of Campobello because they didn't have room. But I didn't post up any pictures of the place so I thought that I'd do that in this post. Campobello really was a lovely place and, despite the fact that I felt a bit out of the way of the action, I got used to that and was ultimately pretty sad to leave. Anders and Myriam (the owners) and Maricel (the lady who basically runs the place) are really super hosts and I couldn't recommend the place more highly. Myriam told me that they were considering selling the house - if they do I hope that the new owners continue to run it as a hostel because it's just such a lovely place. If you're in the market for a huge, beautiful house with loads of bedrooms, lovely reception rooms, great terrace with amazing view of the city (and a couple of self-contained flats thrown into the bargain) in a super-secure and quiet part of Popayán, give them a shout!

Thursday night (April 1st) we decided to head into Popayán to check out the Semana Santa (Holy Week) procession.

The processions are held every night during Holy Week. Giant statues are carried through the streets - each statue representing some point in the story of the crucifixion of Jesus. As the week progresses, more of the story is told - so the processions of Thursday and Friday are the longest and most impressive.

We got a cab into town and met up with a couple of Yissel's friends (Carlos and Angelica) near at the Banco de la Republica. Then we set off to find a good spot to watch the procession.
The first task was to find out the route that the procession was going to take (apparently it changes every night). We walked down Calle 4 towards Iglesia San Francisco (we knew that this was where the procession would start) and then stopped to ask the police the route.
Already the streets were pretty full. Near the church itself, groups of military musicians and robed men congregated, together with the general public. And the police were everywhere - there was a noticeable upscaling of security during Semana Santa. It's amazing how quickly you get used to seeing lots of young kids in uniform walking around the streets with guns!

We got as far as the church and then carried on another block before turning left and then left again. I guess that this means that we ended up on Calle 5. En route we had to stop for a quick toilet break. There's a real industriousness about the Colombians - so it wasn't surprising to see all of the food shops open for business and all of them charging between 500 and 1.000 COP to use their bathroom. Our choice of facilities involved squeezing into a tiny shop (that seemed to house two different businesses) and then squeezing through the split counter into a tiny cupboard of a toilet, where it seemed impossible to close the door. Next to the bathroom, a vat of oil was being used to cook empenadas and the smell from the oil was almost as alarming as the not-particularly-safe-looking cylinder of gas which was situated in the bathroom itself (presumably being used to feed the oil-heating device next door). I was pleased to get out of there alive! 😊

Anyway, enough of that. We found a spot big enough for four on the pavement outside a Mexican restaurant (called Tequila's). Being next to the Mexican was handy in two respects - it made it easy to buy beer, and it made it easy to dash to the toilet again should the need arise (as paying customers, we didn't have to pay for the toilets at this place). It also gave us a quick place to run into to get food after the procession itself.

We'd arrived at about 7.15pm I think and already the streets were busy. In another show of industriousness the Mexican restaurant was hiring out chairs / stools for 1.000 COP a piece - we were OK standing. But there was a line of seats in front of us which meant that our section of narrow pavement was only 2 deep with people.
In the UK the streets would have been barricaded off. No such formalities here, though. And it was nice not to be penned in.

At about 8.15, we heard the first rumbles of beating bass drums. A single BOOM followed by military snares rasping an answer...then another BOOM and so on.
Eventually we saw a line of scouts spanning the width of the road, hands joined as the proceeded. There job was to clear the people from the road itself. Behind them, an army of street sweepers cleaning all the litter from the street. Quite a slick operation really. All the while, you could hear this BOOM...snare...BOOM...snare. I've actually got a video of the start of the procession - hopefully I can get it uploaded.
Behind the street sweepers, a row of private security guards (again spanning the street, hands held) - presumably to be absolutely sure that there wasn't going to be anybody in the way of the procession.
BOOM...snare...BOOM...snare...getting closer and closer. And a strange rattling sound - you'll hear it on the first video. It turned out that this sound was coming from a two lines of robed kids who were carring what looked like wooden chopping boards with swing-type door handles attached. They would shake the boards and produce the rattle. Very odd indeed!

And then finally, I could see the military band. And as they approached the BOOMs would shake my insides, they were so loud. It was really pretty impressive stuff.

What followed was a line of huge statues, each atop a platform of gold (presumably not solid gold!) and wood. The platforms were surrounded with candles and flowers and each had a canopy covering the statue itself. Protruding from the front and back of each platform were 8 (4 each side) wooden struts that were shouldered by 8 robed men in order to carry the platform along the route of the procession. These things looked darned heavy! So you could forgive the statue bearers their frequent (and fairly long) breaks as they rested the statues on shoulder length sticks before the leader would decide that it was time to move on and signal to the other carriers by making a slapping sound on his supporting beam. The statue would be hoisted once again and shifted with some pace to the next resting point.
In front of each statue was a girl (dressed in robes of course) carrying a bouquet within which burned incense - the smell lingered in the air as they passed.
Along each side of the procession, hundreds of members of the public walked single file, each carrying a burning candle (sponsored by Carrefour or Exito - how very holy!).
And between each statue, would be the non-statue bearing members of the procession - marching bands, orchestras (yes - orchestras! check out video #2), veterans of the armed forces etc.

In all the procession lasted for over an hour, and I have to admit that, after a couple of hours of standing in the same spot, I was ready for a bit of a sit down. The final statue passed and the crowd began to disperse. The four of us dashed into the Mexican restaurant whose owner (he now almost knew me by name, since I'd been in a couple of times for beers) welcomed us with (literally) open arms.

We sat and ate a delicious meal (I went for Tacos - the others favored Burritos, as I remember) and drank beer. As we sat and chatted, the evening seemed to disappear. Somehow, some beers, mojitos and tequilla shots later, we found ourselves leaving the restaurant at about 1am! What a great night!

And what a short blog posting! Well, you get videos with this one and they say that a picture speaks a thousand words. So at 25 frames per second and over four minutes of video, I reckon that's worth about 6000 words 😊

I've had to shrink the quality of the videos just so that I can make them small enough to post up on the site. If anybody wants to see the full HD versions when I get back, give me a shout! 😊 On another technical note, I'm afraid that I struggled a bit to get decent shots of the statues - it seemed that, with the flash on, the statue bearers were just moving too fast and all I got was a blur. With the flash off, things seemed a bit better but the photos turned out dark. Well, I hope that you can at least get some sense of how Holy Week is celebrated in Popayán.

Hasta luego!

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Photos

01 - Popayan Theater at night
....sponsored by Carrefour!

03 - The shower head at Hostal Campobello
Not the first time that I've seen this contraption...and not the last. Supposedly it heats water up but if it works, it doesn't work well...ever!

07 - Iglesia San Francisco
The starting point of the procession

Comments

[Eric]

I enjoyed your Semana Santa post. I have always wanted to see the processions. My blog is looking for travel photos, stories, accommodation reviews, and food reviews. If you have the time and have some to share, email us at [e-mail] or check us out at dirty-hippies.blogspot.com Continued fun on your travels, Eric