san pedro

dec 8 - witnessed a wacky religious procession in san pedro la laguna a few nights ago. people crowded the centro to catch a glimpse of the shrine they call maria. her heavy float-like carcus was carried by 20 elderly women who slowly made their way around the streets. the most entertaining aspect of this procession was not maria herself, but the firework display leading her on. every 10 feet she would settle and the ´pyro-technicians´ (kids) would unroll carpets of fire-crackers. they must have lit millions of them because the sound didnt stop.
after 20 minutes of loud and smoke and earplugging, things got a little tiresome.. good thing it was a 3 hour ceremony! and in the not so far distance, la policia and others were setting off mortors into the powerlines.. smart.

and that´s when the bull came out.. just strapped with dynamite, a man dressed like a bull ran through the crowd. his explosives would occasionally fall off near our position and we would do our best to protect our eyeballs.

the highlight was when they busted out the big mortors that misfired. i only caught the after-sights, but a man got blown into a store by a faulty fireball. he came out ok but his sombrero was all chard up.
(a few shitty pictures to come)
_______________________________________________________________

finished with school for now and bounced over to antigua, an old colonial style town surrounded by active volcanoes. feels really good to take control of my diet again. no more tortillas.