Guatemala once again, and this time intentionally.

Semana Santa, which is the Holy Week leading up until Easter, is a highly celebrated and revered time in Latin America. Businesses close down, families travel, and as for me, I found myself in Guatemala once again with good friends, beautiful surroundings, and more exotic travels and memories than I know what to do with.

After picking up Dan & Ashley from the San Pedro Sula airport at 12:30 a.m., we slept a mere 3 hours before boarding a 7 hour bus to Guatemala City, where we would then take another short bus ride to the spectacularly maintained colonial city of Antigua. Antigua is known for a few things such as volcanoes and language school, but its big claim to fame are the elaborate processions that take place in the streets during Semana Santa. The streets are lined with intricately crafted carpets made of greenery, flowers, and colored sawdust that is meticulously placed only to be trampled by the parades of people carrying statues of Jesus, the Virgen Mary, and Mary Magdalene, not to mention a marching band playing a score of somber music in which to dedicate the event. These carpets are made, only to be trampled on and made again as the parades march for hours upon hours during Holy Week, with a non-stop parade from 12:00a.m. to 11:59 p.m. on Good Friday.

Since the pictures are so gorgeous, I'm going to let them speak for themselves. I will also post our volcano adventures as well as Antigua sights.

Pictures of some of the beautiful carpets

A few of the many historical cathedrals

Street-side breakfast on Palm Sunday--From our breakfast sight we were able to watch the palms being blessed by holy water in preparation for the procession. After walking in the procession, we took part in the Palm Sunday mass, which was simply & beautiful and clearly spoke the message of the significance of this day. We read the whole story of Jesus from the time He rode into Jerusalem on the donkey and was praised as "hosanna" until the time of his crucifixion. Many of you know that although this timeframe was only over the span of 6 days, it is chapter upon chapter in the Bible. We remained standing for the entirety, thinking somewhere along the time of the Last Supper "when are we going to sit down again??" and in the conclusion of the scripture reading the priest asked us if we were uncomfortable standing for so long. Many of us were thinking yes, (especially because it was like 25 minutes or so in the same place) and he pointed out that it was nothing when comparing the burden of being beaten, carrying the cross to your own death, and dying for a crime you never even committed. He then continued by saying that standing during the reading of the scripture is the least that we can do in recognition of the salvation that we have in Jesus Christ, and all of us were touched. I felt really fantastic in being humbled in that manner and the feeling continued on throughout the whole day as we saw the somber processions in which these heavy, cumbersome floats of Jesus carrying his own cross were seen parading throughout the cobblestone streets for hours upon end. These processions were so cool that I would like to dedicate their own special posting to them, which you will see after this one.