Sunday in Antigua

This morning I awoke around 8:00 a.m. after a short night of sleep, took a dose of home-brew cough syrup (poison, more likely) that Linda found on-line and went back to bed and slept until 11:00 a.m. I just didn't have the energy or the desire to harass other folks in church with my persistent coughing. By about 2:30 p.m., I was feeling good enough to walk down to a fairly close tienda for a medicinal ice cream bar, which felt heavenly on my sore throat. From there, we walked over to Belen park to sit outside a while and enjoy the pleasant afternoon. Around 3:30 p.m., we decided to go back to the casita to pick up our Spanish and English missals and head over to El Calvario Church for the 4:00 p.m. Mass. Since we were cutting it close, we couldn't stop to take pictures. The following pictures, although taken after Mass, have been slightly rearranged to better describe the sites.

This is what you see when approaching El Calvario. It's not the church, but a free-standing entryway that connects to the wall around the compound.

This is the actual front of the church. Arriving as we did, five minutes before Mass was to start, we had no trouble finding a place to sit. People continued to arrive, some as late as the homily, and, like every other church we've attended in Guatemala, the place was packed.

After Mass, we went out the side door and saw this sign. This might be an idea that Father Tony might want to consider. The church has its own tienda (store) and cerería (candle shop). The cerería is really quite important, as Guatemalans use a lot of candles in church, although some might be used for Maya spiritual offerings instead of the usual purpose. Oh, they also charge a fee to use the baños (restrooms), which insures a clean facility and the appropriate paperwork.

Hermano Pedro, the first canonized saint in Central America (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_of_Saint_Joseph_Betancur), lived and worked in Antigua.

He had a special relationship with most of the churches here and planted lots of Esquisuchil trees. Here's one he planted in the courtyard of El Calvario.

This cross is located immediately at the street in front of the church entryway.

If you look to the right, however, you see all the vendors who have set up to take advantage of the people who attended the Mass.

This is Calle de los Pasos, the street we walked along to get to El Calvario. We live just around the corner from this street on Calle de los Remedios. In a moment, you'll understand why I told you that.

This is where we walked. It's a nice, flat walkway. It's that way for a reason, which I'll get to in a moment.

We passed this ancient fountain along the way.

Now to begin the explanation. Calle de los Pasos (Street of the Steps) actually refers to the steps taken by Christ on his way to Calvary. Beginning at San Francisco El Grande, there are these free standing chapels dedicated to the fourteen Stations of the Cross. This is the nineth station. I've still not found all of them. I'm actually only up to the eleventh station, which is in the courtyard of El Calvario. I'm hoping to take part in the Stations during Lent and, therefore, discover where the missing three are hidden. By the way, inside the chapel is an altar, which is decorated during Lent, and a large painting of what is taking place during that station.

Along the way, we pass this former church, Nuestra Senora de Los Remedios (Our Lady of the Remedies). It's fenced off and for a very good reason.

Also located on this site are many of the barges carried during Cuaresma and Semana Santa processions. Note, even though there are wheels underneath these barges to help in manipulating them, these wheels are not used during processions. These barges are carried on the shoulders of up to 120 men, each of whom pay for the privilege.

 This isn't all of them, as there are others stored at other sites, often in outlying villages, where they are sponsored by confraternities (associations that maintain and present their parish procession each year).

In case you missed it, the street we live on gets its name from this church.