eKaqchikel 2009 - Antigua and Home Again

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Friday, July 23 & Saturday, July 24 – Lee, Ix'Nal, and I took a tuk-tuk on Friday morning up the street to grab a few market shots. We'll use the footage as intro to our staged market vendor dialogues. Those turned out to be the final video shots of the production. Picked up a lot of great stills there, too. Markets are such colorful spaces full of activity - I think i tried to shoot everything!

After the market, packed the gear, said good-bye to our Panajachel hosts and left Lake Atitlán on the first stage of our journey home. After about 2.5 hours uneventful hours on the road, we reached Antigua, the 500 year old original capitol of Guatemala.

Antigua is an incredibly beautiful locale where homes and business inhabit centuries old structures, side-by-side with ruined colonial churches (there seems to be at least one on every city block). A towering volcano looms over the city. Antigua was partially destroyed on several occasions by devastating earthquakes. After the earthquake of 1776, the colonial government moved the capitol to present day Guatemala City and left Antigua behind. In the end, it was the centuries of neglect that saved Antigua. If it had remained a the capitol city, or even a bustling center of commerce of any sort, the populace would have grown and the pressures of modern living whatever the age) would have replaced the original structures time and time again. Antigua remains substantially unchanged because it was abandoned until its value could be recognized.

After a night in Antigua - staying at the original Hotel Posada do Don Rodrigo - we awoke to the celebration of the feast day of St. James, or Santiago - the patron saint of Antigua. A parade was passing in front of our hotel - a few city officials and brass bands, and wave after wave of costumed school children! It wasn't Mardi Gras, but it was definitely cause for excitement!

Waded through parade crowds, loaded our van and made our way to Guatemala City and the airport. After two planes, and eight hours (and one unruly passenger who would not hang up his cell), arrived home to NOLA.