Happy Easter!

Semana Santa, or Holy Week, the week before Easter, is kind of a huge deal here. There are huge parades in all towns with different themes. However, La Antigua is super famous for these processions, each Sunday in Lent, one of the local parishes sponsor a Procession through the streets of Antigua. Elaborate and beautiful artistic carpets predominantly made of dyed sawdust, flowers and even fruits and vegetables adorn the processions' path. ( I stole that from Wikipedia). However, I did not go into La Antigua as a. I was just there b. I couldn't afford it as the hotels up the price that week c. I was tired from spanish week still d. the tourists would drive me nuts.

That week the city is literally storming with tourists flocking to see the processions.

Instead I chilled in site, and had some friends over to hike up to some waterfalls on the other side of Tena (big mountain in San Vicente) and have a bbq afterward.

We got a ride to the waterfalls from Ferney's Landlord Cerjio, and chilled out there for a while, scaring the locals with our panty and bra "swimming attire" and generally splashing around. We then redressed, and hiked up the other side of Tena, and back down to our site. There was a dodgy moment when Ferney, our rough and tough Bear Grills wannabe guide - was convinced we were hiking up the wrong mountain. - Luckily we convinced him we weren't and continued up to the top of Tena in time to reach San Vicente before dark. It's hard though, as there aren't really "paths" or anything, so it's a lot of bush wacking and looking at the sun. But we made it one piece and had a great cookout afterward with beef, chicken, corn on the cob and mashed potatoes. YUM! We were really hungry.

Anyway, back to work today, up in the primary school in Chipuerta talking about basic hygiene and explaining how bacteria and (oh no I forget the English word!) - parasitos(?) get from the ground/your hands/ the latrine etc into your body, their effects and reactions (aka diarrhea) and how to prevent this from happening. (Oh I remember now! Parasites!)... Anyway that was great, and I'm off the the Alcalde to book a room for tomorrow for a charla I have in the PM with one of my woman's groups!

Happy Easter! (Especially to my family who must be having a great time in Morocco! I'm not envious at all!). xo