Photoblog: Visit Guatemala from the sky

Since January, I have been working for an French travel agency named Quetzal Motivo. We're doing incentive tours for clients from France & Belgium. Incentive means money and means traveling in a different way from the other tourists. In Guatemala, the fastest way to travel from a point to another point is by helicopter and I had the opportunity to go with a group to Chichicastenango and the Lake Atitlan by helicopter from Antigua.

Heliport of the Cerro de Santo Domingo, beautiful view on Antigua

Bell 407, just ready to take off!

Chimaltenango, on the way to Chichicastenango

The Highlands

View on Chichicastenango and its colorful cementery

On the way to the Lake Atitlan

Panajachel, the biggest city on the shore of the Lake Atitlan

The Lake Atitlan and the volcanoes of Santiago & San Pedro

Ready to take off!

Santiago Atitlan known for its naif painters and Maximon

The white church where woman every year dress up the statues

Lake Atitlan in the clouds

Bye bye and see you soon!

Arriving back at Antigua

The red church of Jocotenango

Antigua's stadium

The Chuch of La Mercred (yellow)

The Church of La Mercred and Convent

View from the top

Central Park

In front, the Cathedral and on the right the Palacio de los Capitanes

The Church of San Francisco

San Francisco

Sunrise on Antigua

Palm Sunday in Antigua: the making of the Palms

Palm Sunday celebrates the day when Jesus entered into Jerusalem and in Guatemala it's a colorful celebration to begin the Semana Santa. 

The palm leaves (palma real or manaca) are collected in Escuintla, Suchitepequez, and Quetzaltenango and delivered to the vendors, generally women from San Juan Sacatepequez.
These industrious women make the arrangements bunches-like adding some purple estaticias (Limonium sp.), red carnations, corozo (Corozo oleifera)flowers, and some other elements.

During the night of the previous Saturday or very early that Sunday, these women arrive to the churches with their precious cargo and before they start selling the bunches, these are blessed by a priest.

 making Palms

Palm Sunday in Antigua: art with flowers

On Palm Sunday, the streets of Antigua are decorated with beautiful carpets before the processions wash them away. Decoration is the key to make your carpet unique and flowers are ingeniously used. Carpets are full of colors and smells of flowers.

The Lent in Guatemala, a long series of processions, carpets (alfombras), and vigils (vigilias)

With the beginning of the Lent, starts the long series of processions. In Antigua, you can assist to vigils every Friday with its respective procession on Sunday in some villages and municipalities.

The processions consist of floats, or 'andas', bearing statues of Christ with a cross, that are carried by purple-robed men commonly called Cucuruchos. A float with the Virgin Mary follows by women dressed in black clothing.
Being in a procession is taken very seriously by Guatemalan and this is a very serious matter. For the biggest processions during Semana Santa people have to book their space one year in advance and pay for it.

Along the way of the procession, people make sawdust carpets. During the Lent they are really simple but during Semana Santa carpets are really elaborated.

These are the pictures of one the first processions in Antigua:

 The Romans walking into the Colonial City

 the little Helper or "ayudante"

 Jesus carrying his cross

 then came the women all in black to represents the sadness of Mary

 Mary

 and at the end... the cleaning train! To clean the street after the processions, especially when there are carpets

Street sellers