Easter Was So Different This Year

A poignant article about how Easter celebrations changed this year in Guatemala. This Vogue feature was written and photographed by James Rodriguez and is worth looking at just for the awesome pictures of what life is like in Antigua during the COVID-19 pandemic. Click the link ↓

Holy Week Celebrations in Antigua, Guatemala, 2020

A girl helping at Easter Sunday Mass in Antigua, Guatemala in 2020

I Went Outside Today

A few pics of daily life in Panajachel during the pandemic. Mostly normal, with the addition of masks and the subtraction of some needed items.

Guatemalan women wearing traditional clothing (tipico) plus masks to ward against COVID-19. They are also selling masks that they sew themselves. (Not my photo.)

Masks are mandatory for everyone now. If you get caught without a mask, they take you to the health center and give you a COVID-19 test. If it's negative, you are fined Q7,000 ($1,300). If it's positive, you are fined Q150,000 ($27,500). 😲

 Lots of colourful flowers in bloom right now.

That's pink!

This plant is serious about social distancing.

There are signs around town about how to wash your hands and also the symptoms of coronavirus.

First stop, visiting my kitty friends that I'm taking care of while their mom is stuck in the U.S.

Walking up Santander street. It's so empty. :(

I went to the bank and had to stand in line outside the building with a bunch of other people. Then they let us in as a group. We had to be several feet apart at all times and the guards would come tell you if you got too close.

Kind people have been putting food out for the street dogs.

No flour at Despensa.

A tuc-tuc ride home! I've been taking them a lot more often to support the drivers.

Crossing the yellow bridge. The river workers are still working (with masks on).
Lots of haze this time of year. You can't see the lake at all!

A quick video of the street corner near the grocery store. I would love to take more videos but I always feel embarrassed when I have my camera out.

Because I am petsitting, I have to go out every two days, but often I just go there and back home right away. I don't like going ot Despensa because it's crowded (and far) so I'm going to my local tiendas more often. I haven't been to the market in a long time. It's too crazy. But the local tiendas are now selling more fresh fruit and vegetables, so that's helpful.

I bought two more masks today just because. They only cost Q5 -- less than a dollar. There are lots of entrepreneurial people selling them on the street all over town. I still haven't found a purple one though!

Stay well, my friends!

The Corte Challenge

A corte is a traditional woven skirt. This video shows modern Guatemalan women and girls changing from their "regular" clothes into their traditional outfits. They are beautiful! 

No Easter in Guatemala This Year

Because of this stupid coronavirus, Easter celebrations in Guatemala have been cancelled. This is sad for two reasons. Number one, Easter is a big deal for the many religious people here. Number two, Easter is a huge tourist attraction and therefore brings in a lot of money for tourist-based businesses.

Not being allowed to have Easter events, gatherings, parades or even church services actually presents a difficult moral decision for many people. Think about it: would you rather disobey your government or your God? I know that I have seen some people on TV in other countries who are still attending large church services and proclaiming that God will protect them from the virus. Yeah, sorry, but that's not gonna work, guys. 😳

Panajachel's religious leaders have come up with a clever way to deal with the cancellation of Easter. All over town, there are purple bows and signs with different inspirational messages and Bible quotes. I snapped a pic of this one on my way home from the grocery store.

Messages on poles in Panajachel about Easter.

The sign above says, "Love to our brothers is to recognize that we have more things that unite us than those that will separate us."

Below that in small print, it says, "Holy Week lives and is celebrated in the hearts of all Panajachel."
I really like that!

As for me, I'm not religious but I will certainly miss the fancy processions and beautiful alfombras (carpets). Here is a picture from a few years ago to show you how awesome they are.

Besides prohibiting all Semana Santa celebrations and gatherings, the most recent COVID-19 restriction is that the President has decreed that during Easter Week, no one can travel between departments (provinces or states). All tourist sites and all beaches are closed.

Here in Panajachel, no one who does not live here can enter the town. All roads into the town are guarded by police who check documents to verify where you live. Of course, emergency vehicles can pass and also trucks delivering food or medicine. 

The other big thing is that all sales of alcohol have been prohibited for 9 days. The ban is said to expire after Easter Monday. Can you imagine the party that's going to happen on that day? 😆

In good news, the Office of Migration here has said that there will be no late fees or fines for any tourist with a valid tourist entry stamp if it expires while the State of Emergency is in effect. This is a relief for me as my stamp is expiring on April 17th. It also means that once the State of Emergency is lifted, which could be many months from now, there will be a tonne of expats who need to do visa runs! I've already talked to a bunch of my friends here who agree that it would be fun to all go together to Mexico for a weekend!

So that's life for me in Guatemala right now. Pretty normal actually. So far the restrictions are just minor irritations. And I'm SUPER grateful that I am not sick, and neither are my family and friends.

Stay healthy, folks. Wash your hands, don't touch your face, and keep your spirits up!

Five Years in Guatemala!

Yes, today is our 5th Guateversary! On April 1st, 2015, Bert and I packed up our lives and got on a plane from Toronto to Guatemala. How crazy is that? 😊

I think this is the most interesting, adventurous, life-changing thing I have ever done. Not saying I won't do something MORE life-changing in the future, but so far, this tops the list.

The beautiful Lake Atitlan

I'm struggling to figure out what to say about living for five years in Guatemala as an expatriate, expat, foreigner, immigrant, or extranjera. It's hard because everything right now is about COVID-19, the coronavirus pandemic. Guatemala has taken drastic measures to flatten the curve, which is awesome. So far, there have been only 38 cases in the whole country, I believe. There are zero cases in Panajachel, the town where I live. I am grateful for that, although I worry that if I do get sick, the healthcare system here is not nearly as good as in Canada. But no sense fretting over something I can't control.

So back to the topic of five years as a Canadian expat in Guatemala....it's great! I've written about the pros and cons before but I will sum up.
Biggest downsides -- culture differences, which includes language problems, morality, safety, and racism.
Biggest bright sides -- lovely climate and low cost of living, plus I'm meeting a wide array of fascinating people from all over the world.

What I would say to anyone thinking about leaving Canada to move to Guatemala? Go for it! Honestly, the scariest part was leaving. Now that I'm out of my home country, I feel so free. Like I can go anywhere and do anything. It's not as hard as I thought it would be to live in a foreign country. Daily life becomes fairly routine after a while, even though I still stop and stare at Guatemalan things that would never happen at home. For instance, a family of five riding on one motorcycle, people banging pots in the middle of the night to wake up the moon, a barefoot five-year-old running to the store to buy eggs, and soooooooo many stray dogs everywhere. Life is certainly different here but it is also most definitely GOOD.

Take care of yourselves, dear readers, and keep your eyes looking forward to a better time when you can follow those dreams you've been putting on the back burner. 😀