Deer Park

About 200,000 people attend Holy Week in Antigua. The town has a population of 35,000.

Yesterday, Good Friday, was the final procession. It started at 4:00 am and was still, incredibly slowly, parting vast crowds at midnight.

Claudia tells me that Jesus died at 3:00 pm so instead of the purple gowns the anda bearers wore, and the purple awnings hanging from the buildings, everything somehow, somewhere, changed to black. It’s very likely, but I don’t know, that there was a massive change over of the people involved, although logistically if this was the case it must have been a challenge.

There were two andas, the first for Jesus and the second for his Mom, as Claudia put it, which somehow came across strongly but unsurprisingly.

By luck we found ourselves almost at the front of the crowd in Parque Central after dark. We waited for a hour or two, listening to the beating of drums in the distance.

Hundreds of black hooded men and black veiled women respectively protected and bore the weight of Jesus and Mary’s andas.

Apologies for the poor photo’s.

Waiting

Hooded men first

Swinging large burners of scented charcoal

And

The first, Jesus’s, anda

It rounded a corner of the Parque in front of us. Occasionally it stops.

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Then, about fifteen minutes later, Mary’s

The day crowd and the volcano

Ride update:

The bike parts missed the flight two Fridays ago, then, when they finally got on the plane they got stuck here in Guatemala waiting for commerce to resume after Holy Week. There should be a significant update on Tuesday night. Meanwhile, ready to go as usual and trying hard to stay relaxed.

We headed south early, away from the crowds to the very southern edge of town, towards the volcano

Far south, the walled town opens up to grand avenues

Until you arrive at El Calvario

The yellow and white are as vivid as La Merced. It’s spread out low in an enclosed courtyard

After reading Elizabeth Bell’s story, the history is comparatively unremarkable. But the location is precise and at the end of the distance from itself to San Francisco church at 1322 steps – the distance Jesus took (if you like) on the way to his crucifixion. It was built in 1618 or 1619, destroyed by an earthquake in 1717 and rebuilt 3 years later. Needless to say it’s beautiful.

We had a late breakfast at the foot of these deep gardens (also a plant nursery) at Vivero de le Escalonia and if you ever come here, this is as good as the food can be in Guatemala.

Oh Claudia stop with that already

We were talking about food and I’d forgotten to mention to her that after school yesterday (I’d gone to the village of San Bartolo, which is actually attached to Antigua and is just a ten minute walk from the school building) and had pepain de pollo for lunch. She was horrified I did that. I hadn’t thought it was a big deal. It looks like this

The problem with this dish and with the another ubiquitous dish, chili rellino, is that this is public market, or roadside, food. This doesn’t work for Claudia. But it works for me. For a couple of reasons. I’m no great foody but if you haven’t eaten a carrot or any vegetable really down here somewhere you haven’t lived. Like oranges and cantaloupe the produce explodes with flavour. Everything roadside or in a market is fresh, except maybe the meat. It may not be safe is the problem as you know and this complex subject is for another post. But one thing worth mentioning is that Helge told me he doesn’t get sick because he brushes his teeth in the tap water. Well Marty took that advice and he looked like he nearly killed himself vomiting. And Bill, his sidecar ballast and navigator, after the same advice, started the whole huge drama over again the day after Marty recovered. Amazing really. My turn soon I guess. I’ll take photos.

Here’s a typical but safe-looking market set-up

And this section of the market is nearly all food stalls

Tomorrow is another long walk after an early start, so an early crash.

Saludos

I’m getting some email heat about not being out on the road.

I’m two weeks late. The plan was for six weeks at school in Antigua and now it’s eight.

Well today Taz told me, when I visited Lucinda, that the shipment of parts had been returned to the L.A. dealer because the crate was insufficiently strong. You can imagine my reaction. The final parts list was written weeks ago. I won’t bore you with details but it’s been, er, a bit difficult.

So we’re looking at about two more weeks before getting back on the road. The route is planned. Gear has been sorted. And I continue to go to school five days a week. I have a friend, Claudia Josephine, an aristocratic Guatemalan girl, who wants to improve her english as I want to improve my spanish, and I’ve asked the staff at my hotel to never speak english to me. So the extra couple of weeks has been valuable. And my previously broken body has appreciated the extra time.

So what’s first when I’m out of here? The sea. In 56 years I’ve never been far from it. It has a (not inexplicable) hold on me and the route there from here is uncommon and perhaps a little challenging. There’s little or nothing down there except for black sand, incredible heat and vampire bats. Perfect.

Saludos

The definitive book on the architectural history of Antigua was written by Elizabeth Bell, a University professor in Guatemala City. She’s lived here for 44 years.

Last night, a concert at the beautiful Compania de Jesus. Bell says the Monastery was planned by two Jesuits in 1607 and functionally completed in 1626. Like all the building here it’s been tested by the various earthquakes and has of course failed. It survived the quake of 1717 but took serious damage in 1751, was abandoned after the quake of 1773 and became a textile factory in 1865. But the quake of 1976 did it in and what you see below is a simple facade, literally propped up by/with funds from the government and UNESCO. In my opinion it wasn’t designed to seduce like La Merced, nearly everyone’s favourite. It seems to have been designed to scare. It’s power makes it my favourite in Antigua.

Here it is with a sound stage in front of it. My little point-and-shoot does odd things and in this case makes it look small. It’s huge as you’ll see in the following video.

Antigua is now officially crazy, with ten days to go before it explodes with the final procession. I’m not posting the various forms of madness because apparently it gets more intense, so we’ll wait before taking final photos.

Anyway some things come in from out of Guatemala. Last night, at Compania de Jesus, a band with the marketing disaster of a name McNally Smith Fusion played to a rapt local audience, who couldn’t figure them out at all, sat in chairs and didn’t move an inch all night. But the band was good.

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Today the town continues to arm up. On top of the local forces the army and special elite force are moving in.

Army

I chatted with these two guys for a while about nothing in particular so I could soften them up for a photo. Easier said than done because they’re all looking a bit tense

Around the central park (Parque Central) is an elite force. Not only is the gear completely different but so are the individuals, who have the air of being completely on their game.

Today started with school kids in the streets again. The theme seemed to be school athletics. The teachers were maintaining control from scooters. And the huge speakers were pumping out Guatemalan rock. It’s Lent, so the festival spirit is everywhere.

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Like yesterday, this was happening outside of my Spanish school. So back inside the conversation turned to music. I tend to pepper poor Merle with questions and here is what I extracted:

The most popular western male musician is Elton John.

The most popular western female musician is Whitney Houston

The most popular group is Air Supply. Well this was a bit of a shock. Who?? I went to YouTube to check them out and they’re like ABBA but with even less attitude.

The most popular Spanish-speaking musician in Central America is Ricardo Arjona. Merle said his name with reverence. Here’s Ricardo. He was taking a pee at the time by the looks of things. Oh well.

I’m rambling.

After school I head off to the Contessa, a little inside-terrace cafe for lunch

Inside about 100 feet there are tables around a fountain with the Guatemalan equivalent of a crow. They’re everywhere, behaving like crows
The thing about the Contessa and this building is that at one time the Count was away doing Count things and came home to find his wife, the Contessa had been having an affair. This story goes back 200 years. He found the hombre malo and walled him up, alive, in the building. Such is legend. Until 1976, when an earthquake came through town, levelled 3000 buildings, killing 23,000 and lo-and-behold, an upright skeleton was found behind a broken wall right in the courtyard where I have lunch. So keep a chisel in your back pocket I guess.

On my walk home someone had taken a shotgun to the gates of a Hotel. A warning maybe. Or jealousy again. The owner looked scared.

And since we’re on the subject of guns and stuff, here’s the end of the story of the Russian rider in the previous post.

I’ve no comment on whether the crash was his fault or not. But by the guy’s account, when he saw the truck veer left, in his mind cutting him off, he assumed they were bandidos and he was in serious trouble. So as he went down, suspecting the worst, rolled as he fell and reached for the weapon he keeps in his jacket pocket. This is his weapon of choice

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