In Guatemala, nearly every town has an annual festival. The festivals are typically held on the saint’s day for the town’s saint — and Santa Cruz’s feria is in mid-May. The festivities consist of the election of a town queen (a teenage girl who is then the town’s representative for the year), a coronation ceremony attended by the town queens from other villages around the lake and in Guatemala, a parade, live music, a disco (held in the municipal building that houses the police station and the mayor’s office), and lots of fireworks.
Apparently, usually the weather in early May is still beautiful…but this year, the rainy season has not only hit early, but hard. From the day we returned from our vacation (May 5), it has absolutely poured every day. This has some unfortunate effects — fungus growing on the walls again, the clothes never quite getting dry, a leak in the middle of the bedroom ceiling, muddy boots and wet jeans on the way home — but it’s also sort of a nice change. The field-burning-induced haziness of March and April has been swept away; morning are sparkling clear and beautiful again; and, maybe best of all, we have been getting some simply spectacular thunderstorms.
Definitely an unfortunate side of the early, heavy rain was that our trips up to the festivities in town were extremely wet. We have access to the second-floor balcony at the clinic, so we can generally watch what’s going on without getting too wet, but the hikes to and from the house often include crossing impromptu ankle-deep muddy rivers that crisscross the stone path. We did make it to the coronation, but we were soaked to the skin by the time we made it home that night. The parade was more of a success, as it was held in the morning when the skies were sunny and clear. And given the Guatemalan affinity for serious sound systems, even when we were at home — a 25 minute walk away — we could hear the music loud and clear.
As we enter our final week of work, we’re definitely beginning to feel nostalgic about our time here — and in that way, the rainy afternoons and evenings are nice in that they provide plenty of time for contemplation and make us feel not quite so sad about leaving. (Of course, the next morning it’s spectacular again…so it’s probably a good thing we’ll be leaving the lake in the afternoon.) We’re of course excited to get back to the States and to move on to the next step in our professional and personal lives, but it’s also going to be very hard to leave — Santa Cruz is a pretty special place.
