Some pics from the other day in Panajachel, Guatemala. The float type thing was odd.
So in the busiest part of Panajachel there was a procession from, what I believe, one church to another or maybe a round trip. I could hear some loud music from a P.A. system so I made my way over to discover this procession. There was about 30 people carrying this platform with a couple of different Jesus' on it - one Jesus with a cross, another with doves, etc.
They were led by kids with incense shaking, clacking wood instruments while the 30 or so people carrying the float would rock it purposely side to side and back and forth. The one guy in the front was trying to steady it. They were leading a large church procession along with this display. You can see how large it is in the pics. A transit cop in a police tuktuk was trying to keep order with the traffic as there was a line of vehicles behind the display waiting to proceed down the road.
I think this whole affair was unexpected to all of the tourists and maybe some of the locals. As the procession creeped by the main bar area of town, people came out and took pics and videos and just observed. You can see in one of the pics people at the Pana Gym out on the balcony taking pics and videos. It was definitely a unique surprise.
After seeing the procession turn a corner, which was an event in and of itself as it required a lot of coordination, it proceeded up another street in Pana. I'm fortunate enough that I'm staying at the Hotel Montana which is right next to the oldest church in Panajachel. I could hear the music from the procession for a long time later, even after I had returned to my hotel.
So, why do I stay at the Hotel Montana, the same place I stayed over 5 year ago? Well, it kind of feels like a home when here. People are super friendly and there is the birds and plants. There are so many birds, so many loud bird calls and the parrots next door that start yelling in Spanish at dawn. Plus I'm down a sweet alley off the plaza of the oldest church. You can barely see that there is a hotel down this narrow alley off a busy corner near the locals market (no tourists here) so you proceed down this narrow alley, through the gates of my hotel and it opens up to this three story courtyard with tropical plants everywhere. I'll have to take some pics to illustrate this fact alone. For now, I can kind of take you down the alley from the position of the church, to my corner before the alley, down the alley, to the hotel entrance to where my bike is parked in front of my room. For the first night I was the only one here. Over the weekend maybe about 4 rooms occupied. I love this place - both Pana and the Hotel Montana. 170 Quetzales a night (about $22.50 U.S.). I'm here on day 4 I think.