La Cruz

Surrounding the city of Antigua are some impressive volcanoes, which are not something I am used to experiencing in my topography coming from the state of Michigan and living in the swamp of Washington DC. To the south is Volcan Agua, which gives great views each morning as I walk to work and the sky is clear of any clouds.

To the northern end is not a volcano, but some serious hilly terrain (I hesitate to use the term "mountainous" as one of my brothers now lives in Nepal, surrounded by the Himalayan Mountains, which put any Guatemalan "mountains" to shame). Anyhow, a quick 10 minute walk from my house and I am at the foot of said hilly terrain, called Cerro de la Cruz, or hill with the cross (sounds more elegant in Spanish, eh?). A footpath snakes its way up the hillside and within a quick 10 minutes a lookout can be found. A clear view overlooking the city of Antigua from the north is your reward for a the quick jaunt up the mountain's stair-master.

  View of Antigua from Cerro de la Cruz (Volcan Agua in the background)

Overlooking the city you get some exquisite views of the colonial town of Antigua vibrant with its bright yellow buildings and red roofs peppered throughout the town. 

La Cruz

Hiking up the hill is not very demanding and reaching the top offers a quaint place to relax, read a book, soak up the nice view, and enjoy a nice breeze. Although I have now been up to the cross 3-4 times now, I can't recall the exact date it was erected, nor the backstory as to its significance or why it was placed on this hill in the first place. Some quick research tells me it might date back as far as the 1620's, but another trip in the near future will have to be made to confirm that.

View of the Cross/Lookout from Antiguan streets

Walking through the streets of Antigua it is not hard to spot the cross as it sits perched above the city keeping watch. I snapped this photo around 4th or 3rd Avenue while walking home from work the other day, which helps give some perspective. The cross is faintly visible in the cleared patch of land on the hillside just above the second lamp post to the left of the photo.

Hippy Look-Out

The other weekend two friends and I embarked on a Sunday afternoon journey to see Earth Lodge. Sounds pretty cool, right? Hitting the nose on the whole "green" thing these days and catering to the inner hippy/backpacker in us all, Earth Lodge is a nice little hostel nestled up in the mountains above Antigua.

Given it was a lazy Sunday with plenty of sunshine, my friends and I decided it would be a worthwhile use of our time to walk up the mountain pass to Earth Lodge and see what it was all about. Rumors of a laid back scene complete with horseshoes, live music, beer, and free spirits aplenty, we were excited about what lied ahead.

Originally we planned to attempt hitchhiking up the mountain, which I'm estimating would easily be a 45 minute uphill jaunt, but upon first sight of a tuk-tuk we bargained a decent price and made our way up the beast of a hill.

Guatemalan tuk-tuk

While the engine almost gave out carting 3 grown men (plus our portly pilot), we eventually made it to the top after about 12 minutes. Some more weaving through the dirt paths atop the mountain and we arrived at Earth Lodge. Thinking to myself that this place must have one hell of a reputation if people are going to trek all this way for a place to crash for a few nights, I had high hopes.

My friend ran into an acquaintance immediately as we walked onto the Earth Lodge patio area complete with some picnic tables and wooden lawn chairs, who told us we had made it to the last Sunday Picnic in what they had been doing each Sunday for a a few weeks/months. Now that rainy season/"winter" was coming (May-September), this would be the last picnic for a while. We put our burger order in with the grill master, grabbed a few beers, and enjoyed the live music that was put on by a local band.

As we sipped away a man approached us with his spiel on raising money for a local school that Earth Lodge partners with and does some really great work for. Employees and friends of Earth Lodge seem to have single handedly built this school with volunteer hours and fundraising drives, so we listened intently as he gave us his latest pitch to raise some cash for the school. 

"For 30 Q ($4.50) you can take this slip of paper and write any suggestion you want for our drawing," he told us. "Our friend came up with this crazy idea and he's ready to go through with it today, so we're taking suggestions for the next hour or so with your donations." I took a glance at his jar-o-tips and pieced it together that this friend he spoke of was getting a tattoo for charity and apparently with your 30 Q donation you were entitled to enter your suggestion for his ink right there in that little jar he carried around. Where was he going to get the tattoo? On the inside of his lower lip (ouch).

Having the freedom to suggest anything was crippling. It was a blank check that I was ill prepared to take advantage of. "Anything you want, man..." repeated the guy, which only brought upon more pressure. "'I like boys,' 'Viva Guatemala,' and my personal fav, 'Enter here,'" were just some of the examples the guy listed for me to get my creative juices flowing. Pressure, or the guilt of ruining that guys life/lip forever, overcame me and I thought it wiser to pass on the opportunity.

Unfortunately, we didn't stick around long enough to see the tattooing of the guys lip and thus will never know what the final message was, but we did catch some peaceful views from high above Antigua.

Misty view of Antigua

Colin (short hair) pensive, Earth Lodge above (red roof), hippy bunker made of sand bags to the left

Colin (long hair) contemplating the meaning of life

More Holiness

Semana Santa came and went in Antigua and overall the experience was pleasant. Generally, the streets were more alive than is regularly experienced during a normal week and there was even a vibe that I got which reminded me of a good old county fair back at home during a Michigan summer. This had nothing to do with the Easter celebrations nor the exaltations surrounding Jesus being resurrected, but instead, and more simply, everything to do with all the street vendors in the parks.

 Food Vendor in "Pila Park"

Delicious, delicious food. Vendors fill parks around town and people flock for socializing and a good bite to eat. Normally - and this is what we advise all of our Habitat volunteers - foreigners avoid all street food. If you've ever had food poisoning or Traveler's Diarrhea (or perhaps better known to you as "Montezuma's Revenge," "The Aztec Two-Step," "The Gringo Gallop," "Gandhi's Revenge," "Delhi Belly") than you know where I am coming from.  

Fortunately, for this gringo street food is not an issue, so dig in I must. Steak sandwiches smothered in mayo, ketchup, guacamole, and any fix'ns you want, hot dogs done latino style, tacos, pupusas (which my good Salvadoran friend will argue are done ALL WRONG here in Guatemala), and elote loco ("crazy corn" on the cob covered with mayo, ketchup, mustard, and cheese - disgusting, right? WRONG) are just some of the tasty treats you'll find for cheap. Top all that off with a sweet churro (deep fried dough covered in sugar) and you can't help but feel like you just took a stroll through your local county fair on a summer night. Complete with hawkers selling trinkets, toys, and balloons to all the little kids, all that seems to be missing is the ferris wheel (and thank God, because "public safety" or "regulation" are terms not exactly in the Central American vocabulary). Someday I'll have to share my extraordinary experience about the time I survived on a Matterhorn-ish ride in Mexico....

 Locals enjoying street vendors & the park

Throughout the week various processions passed through the streets with floats of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. I was even lucky enough to catch the ridiculing of and eventual death of Judas':

 Judas' public shamer

Dead Judas

Processions carried on with devotees carrying large floats upon their shoulders:

Cucuruchos carrying a float of Jesus bearing the cross

And Semana Santa culminated with Easter Sunday celebrations with much the same fanfare:

 Easter float

Children carrying a small Easter float

Alfombras continued to be made in the streets and we even had a group of Habitat volunteers in town for the celebration, so we made two Habitat themed alfombras (using saw dust dyed by hand, pine needles, chocolate, flowers, etc):

 Habitat For Humanity Alfombra

So, while disappointed to learn there is no such thing as an Easter Bunny down here in Guatemala and even though I didn't have a single Reese's Peanut Butter Egg, the new customs were a pleasure to experience and the churros more than held me over.