Lago de Atitlan...a vacation from our vacation

After our week of school in Xela, Torrie and I headed to Lago de Atitlan for the week of Semana Santa. Easter is very different here (and in most Catholic countries). Here the whole week before Easter is a major holiday...but strangely enough they do not celebrate Easter Monday. To celebrate, most guatemalan towns hold ¨processiones¨- religious processions in which massive statues of Jesus at various stages of the Easter story are mounted on heavy wooden boxes and carried by at least 40 men in a circuit that leaves from and returns to the cathedral or church. Children act as the twelve deciples walking along with the procession and other people are dressed to represent other biblical characters. There are generally at least 2 major processiones - Good Friday and Easter Sunday - but in some places, like Antigua, processiones are held every day of the week.

Because we didn´t see any actual processiones, I can´t upload any photos of one. Instead, here is a picture of my room at my homestay in Xela.

Seeing that the whole week is a major holiday throughout Guatemala, we headed to the lake for a bit of quiet admist all the craziness. But even in the small towns around the lake processiones were held and we were lucky enough to see a bit of the event in San Juan de Atitlan. A carpet of brightly coloured sawdust is created for every procession to walk on. In San Juan, Torrie and I had a spent a really great afternoon watching the construction of the carpet. The carpet is built in sections and different groups of people were assigned to constructing each section. Some were families or neighbours, but other groups were made up entirely of teenage boys. That was really the most amazing thing... One section was being created by a group of abuelitas ( old grandma-type ladies). Their pattern involved very traditional, catholic designs. Right next to them however, was the group of 20 or 25 teenage boys creating graffiti- inspired designs.

I loved San Juan for other reasons as well... The weaving there is completely different from elsewhere in the country. The women have formed a number of weaving co-ops and they use only natural dyes and materials for their weaving. One image that comes to mind when I think of Guatemala is the bright colours and intricate patterns of the women´s (and in some communities the men´s) clothing, but in San Juan the weavings being sold are all light, natural plant colours and the style of weaving is different as well.

San Juan was also the cleanest town that we have been to in Guatemala and overall was so great that we went back twice.

We stayed at a hostel/hotel (la Iguana Perdida) in another small town on the lake, Santa Cruz de Atitlan.

 Volcan San Pedro, cloaked by clouds

The Iguana´s laziest resident, Bosco the German Shepard

 Swimming!!!

 A jungly pathway at the Iguana 

The town of Santa Cruz is about 15 minutes uphill from the lake front. It is a pretty little town with very windey, very steep streets. Torrie was sick with a cold the day after we arrived so I took advantage of my free time to take a weaving class up in the village. The women of Santa Cruz must be among the strongest  in the world -  walking those streets everyday (usually with a big basket on their head) and back-strap weaving for a living!

 (this picture is from San Pedro, but it is a nice photo and it ïllustrates the heavy basket!)

Santa Cruz is like many of the towns on Lago de Atitlan though, and it is really a little sad that the majority of lakefront property is foreign-owned (hotels, guest houses, private homes). Because of this, there was very little opportunity to practice our spanish at our hostel, as English was definitely the lingua franca. But we viewed the week as a little vacation from our trip and had a great time there! We made some great friends, enjoyed the sauna (!), ate delicious, home-style food (something I really hadn´t realized I missed so much) and took part in the weekly Saturday night cross-dressing party. Tor really enjoyed changing his identity throughout the week - first sporting only a moustache for a day and a half and then dressing as an Elton John inspired woman for all of Saturday night!

 (try and miss this face Mom!)

 (sadly the portion of the night where Tor was in a very short mini-skirt had come and gone by the time we took this photo with our friends Sarah and Simon)

One thing that we have come to realize is that our niche friend market is definitely young thirty-somethings, usually who have lived in the UK for at least 5 years (and who enjoy the card game Yaanif more than life itself). 

We are now back at home in Xela for a second week of spanish lessons. We will be sure to write again soon, but it is getting dark quickly and threatening to rain so I will leave you here. 

With love, 

Lisa and Torrance

A final photo of us for my (Torrie´s) Mom, who claims to have forgotten what we look like.