Christmas Week

My mom came down to visit for Christmas and we took a quick trip over to the Rio Dulce/Livingston area on the Atlantic Coast.  Unfortunately, it poured the entire time we were there, with the exception of the last morning as we were leaving.  So instead of beaches, kayaking, and waterfall hikes, we finished some books and hide under a palapa. 

On the way back to Guatemala City we made a quick stop at the ruins of Qurirgua, on the 23^rd, just missing the celebrations for the end of the long count Mayan calendar.

Christmas Eve in Guatemala is capped off by an amazing display of fireworks at midnight.  Living on the 18^th floor, I have a pretty good view of part of the city and it was literally fireworks for as far as you could see (plus the ones that were nearly exploding on my balcony).

On Christmas morning we headed to Santa Cruz, one of the towns on Lake Atitlan.

Burning the Devil

The night of Dec 7^th is known as Quema el Diablo or burn the devil where Guatemalan’s burn devil piñatas and whatever else happens to end up in the bond fire (parking tickets, bad tests, old love letters) as a way to cleanse all the bad spirits prior to the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on Dec 8^th.  I was invited to a coworker’s house on their family compound for all the burning festivities.