Guatemala: Easter celebrations in Antigua and on the shores of Lake Atitlan

We like to think we make a big deal of Easter in our house. Jim likes to go out a day or two in advance to invariably buy up the equivalent of the UN stockpile of chocolate Easter eggs of all shapes and sizes. Before dawn we head out to set the Easter egg hunt all around the garden, into the house and up to the doors of the sleeping kids. On waking, much fun, squealing and nausea from too much chocolate ensues.

Easter celebrations in Guatemala are on another level entirely, and seemingly devoid of chocolate. This appears to be true across all of Guatemala but especially so in the town of Antigua Guatemala. Of course we didn’t know this in advance, but in retrospect it does explain the oddly expensive hostels. We landed in the afternoon into Guatemala City after a very early morning flight from Lima via Panama. The bustle and traffic of Guatemala City hit us hard after the comparative calm of northern Peru in recent weeks – there was no doubt, we had certainly arrived in Central America.

Easter in Antigua Guatemala

Regardless of the time of year, we are sure Antigua would be a wonderful place to visit. But right now it is doubly so, as it is also the buzzing epicentre of Easter celebrations, the Easter capital of Guatemala. Antigua comes alive for Semana Santa, or Holy Week.

Each afternoon and into the evening one or more parades take place through the town with their destination one of the many churches. To us, the preparations were as fascinating as the parades themselves. Families and neighbours come together to prepare the most colourful patterned carpets of flowers, coloured sand, grasses etc to adorn the route (called alfombras). The parades themselves are often heard before seen as they are accompanied by a brass band on their passage. Just as impressive as the preparation is the clean up. Immediately behind the procession a team sweeps the colourful offerings up and a digger clears it swiftly into a truck. Within minutes you wouldn’t know the parade had happened at all, save for the lingering smell of pine needles which form a large portion of the colourful street art.

Amongst the many Easter parades the centrepiece is the Easter Sunday parade culminating at the Cathedral of Santiago in the main square (Parque Centrale). The hubbub of the night market quietens slightly and we can hear the main processions approaching. Two or three large floats appear, carried aloft and accompanied by brass bands, largely sousaphone-based playing rousing tunes. By a remarkable feat of coordination the float turns ninety degrees and is then reversed slowly up the cathedral steps and carefully through the front door and into the cavernous cathedral itself. An amazing event to experience with its sights and sounds.

Hiking the Pacaya Volcano

The Pacaya volcano has been active and erupting unpredictably since 1961. Exciting – how could we possibly not hike up it? Its location only 23 kilometres south east of Antigua Guatemala also makes it easily accessible. Just over an hour on a bumpy coach and we were there. Although it is only 2.5 kilometres hike to the top it is quite steep and the crater at the summit is around 2500 metres in altitude too. This all presents a business opportunity for enterprising locals who rent out ponies to those unsure if they will make it. We had already resolved that there was no way we would be taking a pony as we are all hardened after recent months in the Andes, and we could do with saving some money too. Unaware of how double hard our kids are by now, Odessa was quickly assumed to be potential weak link in our party and quizzed periodically at the start and up to the halfway point as to whether she was absolutely sure she wouldn’t “like to take a taxi”. Dessa was having none of it and bounded up, to the extent that she had overtaken several adults before the summit crater.

By then the clouds had really rolled in. This was a double edged sword as on the one hand there wasn’t any great wide vistas to be seen. On the other hand the rolling mists added a definite atmospheric quality to proceedings. Especially when intermingled with occasional steam emitted from the crater. Yes you read that right – steam from the crater! We were able to freely roam around in the actual crater on the cooled top crust of the lava, but yet the kids barely had to dig 15 centimetres down for the earth to feel warm to the touch, and not much further to glimpse in through cracks at red hot lava below our feet. Remarkable. As if to prove the heat was real, our guide promptly handed out marshmallows which were quickly roasted on the heat from the ground alone. We all descended with a good dose of “Aberdovey leg” exhilarated at having walked on a warm volcano.

Hobbitenango

Yes that’s right – Hobbitenango, a Hobbit themed park high up in the hills above Antigua Guatemala.

Sadly not one of us has either read the book nor watched the film, so some of it was a little lost on us. But there were certainly highlights – the bouncy ride up from town sat in the back of a pickup truck, crazy golf with mallets on an especially hilly course (crazy croquet?), axe throwing and archery.

Being high up in the hills, there are incredible views across Antigua and into the active volcanoes beyond. These all took our attention, but for most of the other attendees the multitude of set-piece instagram photo spots seemed to be the main draw.

Lake Atitlan – the “most beautiful lake in the world” ™

A three hour bus ride piloted by someone that clearly enjoyed living on the edge saw us arrive in Panajachel, the main town around the shores of Lake Atitlan. After the charming Spanish colonial inspired architecture and Easter rituals of Antigua, Panajachel was a distinct contrast. All the hustle and bustle but little of the charm. It turns out this was because we had been dropped in the commercial centre of town. Later we found that our digs for the next few days were on the opposite side of town south of the Rio Panajachel. This area, away from the touristy centre, felt much more alive with the day to day goings on of life, and we were much more at home here.

Dessa enjoyed a paddle in the lake from the beach, watching small boats beetling around delivering rides across the lake to the various smaller settlements. Whether this is actually the Most Beautiful Lake in the World is up for debate, but we certainly appreciated the backdrop of distant volcanos. Behind us on the coast road a host of colourful market stalls gathered to serve excellent fried chicken (both kids loved theirs) and soft tacos for a large local crowd swelled by this combined Easter and weekend day. The images capture the colour, but we wished we could capture the smells of this area too.

Reserva Natural Atitlan

The unanimous highlight of our time at Lake Atitlan was unexpected – the Reserva Natural. Unexpected because it was so much more than a nature reserve. And such a highlight that we visited it twice. We sped in to this place just to the north of Panajachel aboard a tuk tuk – surely the best way to travel and often a sign that it will be a good day. The tuk tuk lore didn’t fail us here. The park reaches up a hillside from a small visitors centre, with trails and rope bridges crisscrossing the valley of a small river. Towards the top a tall waterfall drops into a pool below. The valley is home to plenty of natural wonders, the most obvious of which are the abundant spider monkeys and coatis. Another park visitor gifted us a couple of bananas which the kids delighted in feeding to the inquisitive coatis. The natural wonders are complimented by two separate zip line trails (one has three super long runs, while the other trail has eight slightly shorter runs). These stretch from one side of the valley to the other and deliver long, high and fast runs compared to most zip lines we’ve tried. As you might imagine we all went on these zip lines and loved it, and our return visit to the park on a second day was primarily for another ride on them. Other highlights were the butterfly house and the small play park, especially the zip line there. The butterfly house was amazing, with clouds of bright blue, red, orange and every other colour of butterfly floating by.