Antigua
Guatemala
Saturday, December 10
The cobblestone road is barely 50 feet wide, with a two foot sidewalk on
each side, and just enough room for two cars to pass--slowly. The slope
seems about 20 or 30 degrees. People are gathered, perhaps 100 spectators
and 30 actor/dancers. Spectators stand and sit in a rectangle covering
the entire road. The action takes place in the middle The actors dance to
music, stop, deliver a moral message, then move on, in rotating fashion,
until a complete story is told by the different characters, all wearing masks
representing key players in a community, such as the wealthy land owner,
the cow boy and the police authority. We are watching the devil dance,
a 400 year old tradition. The messages sound poetic, and the dancing
is lively, with guitar, base guitar and accordion. When the play moves to
fiesta and reconciliation, a young man dressed as a rather harmless looking
bull begins a dance, running through the red cloth of the bull fighter. At
the other end, a three or four year old girl sits in judgment, with a silver
crown, the symbolic virgin of this play. We are impressed.
Pachamama rests securely at Monkey Bay Marina. We came here Thursday
by way of Litegua Bus, experiencing the complete destruction of two rear
tires, smoothly replaced by the bus pilot and his assistant, in hardly an
hour.
Antigua is the old capitol of Guatemala, destroyed by an earthquake, and
rebuilt by the Spanish in the 17th and 18th centuries. A guide book
calls this town "impossibly cute."
We head home for Christmas on Wednesday.