Monseñor on parade

Not sure which one though. (Not Quezada Toruño.)

Do you want absolution with that?

Good Catholics are permitted one good meal on this day after all.

Emergency repairs

This was the moment yesterday — at the end of turno 4 — when the Escuela de Cristo anda had to be lowered to the cobbles and a ladder hastily procured, so that one brave man in black could ascend to replace the little gold cross which had toppled from the the roof of the somwhat wobbly pavillion which sheltered the urna. This bore a striking resemblance to Bernini's Baldacchino in the basilica of St Peter's in Rome (see below) and set the tone for the decorative style across this year's procession, which eschewed the peachy marble-effect constructions of recent years.

The cause of this mishap? A gust of wind, Felipe reported to me. He'd been one of the devotos cargadores when the incident occurred.

Alfombra to go

Intruder alert

Santos Tamalitos

Every day this week — water pressure notwithstanding — has felt like a Sunday.

Right now there are hordes of little old ladies wandering around outside delivering their pre-ordered tamalitos. As with frijoles, if you're brave enough to include this particular Guatemalan delicacy in your breakfast, you really ought to have a clear idea how the rest of the day is supposed to pan out.

The viejitas who sell us our Chapin snacks every Wednesday — which we have singularly failed to consume in snackish quantities — offered us some wonderfully moist tamalitos con chipilín this week for Q5 each. These are an annual highlight.

Meanwhile, Doña Mari's are super-sized and cost Q8 each. She makes them with two varieties of cheese, but I find them a little bland and masudos in comparison. The trick here is to serve them sautéed with a dusting of pepper, pimentón and a few aromatic leaves, as seen in the pic above.

We were tempted to add some yaki nori again, but we've found that it gives of its best as an alternative herb when lightly cooked as part of a salsa. (Tequila and honey seem to go especially well with this.)

I've been out front this afternoon reading from the device V calls my 'Swindle'. A tuctuc has just passed me for the umpteenth time, an apparent victim of directions dished out earlier by R.

I somehow doubt whether R could provide accurate instructions on how to get to his own house from the other side of the street. Everyone from Álvaro Arzú to Domino's Pizza (30 mintos o gratis...hehe) has fallen prey to his unique talent for confounding inquirers.

An alfombra of dry stone construction

The Sandoval family, proprietors of Antigua's one and only authentic Peruvian eatery — Inca* —- created this eye-catching ceremonial alfombra for the San Bartolo procession last Sunday. I've not come across one before which makes such clever use of the underlying texture of the empedrado.

* If you like your ceviche with added camote and lots of chile, then this is the place to go. They also offer a range of interesting platos típicos from the land of the Inca.

Oveja Perdida

Long-bearded Rene fabricates a mechanical alfombra every year outside his home in San Luquitas. Felipe and the boys were out there helping to construct the 2010 version from around 9pm last night.

This year's was perhaps a little less ambitious than some of his previous contraptions...and the same must be said of the San Bartolo anda. And what's with those shiny new centurion outfits? They all look a bit Carry on Cleo dressed like that.

Semana Santa: Pic of the Day

Los Cucurazzi.

The economics of Antigua's Holy Week processions have become a bit of a talking point on this blog. One opportunistic vendor I spotted trailing behind the cortejo for most of the morning was a bloke selling DVDs. So if you got blistered and bored early on, you always had the option of buying one of these and going home to watch last year's procession on the box instead.

All over for another year...

So, Semana Santa is over and Antigua is back to its habitually tranquil self...perhaps even quieter than usual because many of the inhabitants left behind by the hordes will be that much poorer having spent the whole of last week chucking their money away on a range of crap they can ill afford. If oil painting was my thing, there's an image I witnessed on Friday which I consider worthy of commitment to canvas: Campesino with Capuccino.

Easter here really is a classic system for making the rich richer and the poor poorer. The big winners are the hotels and restaurants, the Muni and of course the Catholic Church.

But for the households who participate by carpeting the cobbles with unique, multicoloured alfombras made from coloured aserrín (sawdust), Easter will surely have portended the very opposite of a seasonal windfall.

There's also a great deal of hard work involved as the dyes are purchased separately and appplied over a period of several days in advance of the passing of the processions.

My brother-in-law recently explained to me how sawdust has become almost prohibitively expensive over the last few years with the result that there are now fewer ceremonial carpets and more of those that you do see are made with pine, coroso and flowers. I rather facetiously remarked that in that case all the carpet-makers of Antigua should go on strike and refuse to come out on Thursday night unless the Muni and the Church agree to subsidise them!

Devotion aside, they would appear to have considerable leverage in this respect, and it strikes me as a tad unfair that they're not raking it in like the aforementioned institutions. It's hard to see how Antigua would have been voted best foreign destination this year without the spectacle of Semana Santa. The city is lovely all year round, but the processions are a core part of its international reputation.

Indeed, if I were the Mayor I'd investigate the possibility of offering all households below a certain income level a voucher entitling them to a discount on the purchase of sawdust and other key materials. The current incumbent of the Ayuntamiento obviously thought it was a smart move to keep his pre-election promise to cobble all the streets of our colonia in order to shore up support round here, so the alfombra-subsidy idea might also appeal to his strategic sensibilities. And Antigua itself can only benefit (and that means all those salesmen of opportunity too) from measures which slow up any degeneration in these age-old traditions.

Semana Santa: Pic of the Day

This little chap seems to have borrowed Russell Crowe's Maximus Decimus outfit.

Semana Santa: Pic of the Day

A detail from the ceremonial carpet designed by V's mate Jorge Mario, who was recently chosen to paint the official portrait of Guatemalan Vice President Rafael Espada.

Semana Santa: Pic of the Day

It can be a bit like living next door to South Africans...

Semana Santa: Pic of the Day

Semana Santa: Pic of the Day

Not a very contact-lens friendly environment...

Semana Santa: Pic of the Day