Semana Santa

3/24/2008

Semana Santa is the celebration of the week before Easter. In Guatemala it is celebrated with huge processions, the most famous being held in the colonial city of Antigua. For volunteers, it is the opportunity to explore parts of Guatemala not yet seen. Volunteers are given one weekend out of sight per month, but this is not enough time to do much more than head to Antigua for a night or Lake Atitlan (if, like me, you live in the western highlands). Since most host agencies shut down for the entire week, it gives volunteers the opportunity to see places that are farther from their sites. Marissa, Laura and I used the week to travel up to the Peten, the jungle of Guatemala that reaches up into Mexico and borders the Yucatan and Belize, to see the Mayan ruins of Tikal, and to the Garifuna town of Livingston on the Caribbean Coast. This is much too long to be contained into one blog post, so I have divided into several different sections which are posted below.