Bert and I get a kick out of what a big bunch of whiners the people in the U.S. and Canada are over COVID-19 restrictions. They have no idea! Guatemala goes over the freaking top when a new rule comes out. Back when coronavirus started, they were arresting and fining people who didn't wear masks. Arresting them! Compliance rates increased quickly, as you can imagine.
The latest development here in Guatemala is that, due to rising cases of Covid-19, President Gianmattei decreed that bars are no longer allowed to sell liquor after 6pm. And they were NOT kidding!
Below is a photo taken last night by the press. It is just down the street from our house -- just a couple hundred meters away. There is a little cantina there. Guess they didn't hear the news.
A police office with a machine gun and a police dog enforcing COVID-19 rules
Can you imagine if this happened in the U.S.? People would lose their minds! And this was probably at 6:05 pm. No leeway! We said you close at 6, you close at 6!
Here's another photo of how many cops showed up at this tiny little bar. Overkill much?
Police in Panajachel enforcing new Covid-19 rules
They had brought in cops from other districts to help enforce the new liquor restrictions. There were trucks all over town visiting all the bars. And there are a LOT of bars here. But the message got out pretty quick and everyone just shut their doors and went home. The cops will probably cruise around again tonight (Saturday) and give menacing looks to everyone, then leave town for the week.
On the one hand, it's nice to see the government taking the pandemic so seriously. (The President is a former doctor, so that has a lot to do with it.) On the other hand, holy authoritarianism, Batman. Chill, dudes. Maybe kick back and have a beer ... but not after 6! 👮
Woke up late today and decided to go for a walk to the lookout on the way to Santa Catarina. I chose to ignore the dark blue clouds on the horizon as I set out.
Didn't huff and puff too badly on the long upward walk to the mirador. I remember the first time I walked up there, six years ago, and I hadn't yet adjusted to the altitude and felt like I had a bad hangover -- dizzy, breathless, and pain in the back of my head. Now it's just regular pain from being out of shape and climbing a big hill for 45 minutes. Totally worth it though, as you can see from this picture.
View from the lookout (mirador) near Santa Catarina Palopó, Guatemala
Just as I arrived at the viewing area, the rain started. I took some video, gazed around a bit, then figured I should start walking back. The thing with rain in Guatemala is that it could stop in 10 minutes or it go on all night, and it's hard to predict which is going to happen. So it's often just best to get it over with, even if you get soaked.
The rain got heavier as I walked downhill at a brisk pace. It's the end of dry season, all the leaves are brown, (hmm, that's a song, isn't it?), so it feels warm like summer but it smells like fall. I was wearing a tank top and shorts, but it wasn't that cold until I entered an open area where the wind blew off the lake. Brrr. I was happy I wore a baseball hat too as it kept the rain off my head. I'm sure I would have been a lot colder if my hair was wet. As it was, the most irritating part of walking in the rain was that my feet slipped around in my sandals.
About halfway home, it actually hailed for a little bit. The hailstones were pretty small, about the size of Nerds candy (weird size reference, sorry) and they pinged off the steamy asphalt and stung my arms as they fell. I figure that's the closest I've been to a snowstorm in six years. Luckily, it didn't last for long. I think I would have taken shelter if I was going to get pelted with hail for more than a few minutes.
Was soaked to the skin by the time I got home. It was nice to warm up with a hot coffee. It's a weird thing here when the weather is so nice all the time. Any change, even a supposed negative one like getting caught in the rain, seems exciting. I always thought that winter makes summer feel better. Here in Guatemala, the rainy season makes you appreciate the dry season.
A very subdued Semana Santa this year. Lots of food booths and vendors set up, but no big alfombras -- the religious carpets of colored sawdust they usually put down in the streets for the procession to walk through. The only one we saw was in front of the church. I saw on Facebook that there were carpets in other towns around the Lake though. Maybe next year it will be back to normal.
The big church in Panajachel showing Easter decorations.
Bert and I took Big Boy & Chunk for a walk to the church near sunset on Good Friday to see what was going on. Not much, to be honest. There was only a tiny procession with no band. The music came from a speaker system dragged behind. Perhaps we missed the big parades? We've been here six years and neither of us can ever remember what happens when.
Big Boy taking in the sights.
Chunk was super squirrelly on the walk. So much excitement!
We strolled down a very crowded Santander Street but Bert actually bailed before the Lake because there were too many people. We went back again on Saturday (minus the dogs) to see more sights and eat some yummy carnival food. Everywhere smells like barbecue -- so mouth-watering! People walk around eating corn on the cob or pizza or cotton candy. There are a lot of extra booths but they all seem to sell the same old touristy stuff like tshirts, sun hats, jewelry, toys, local textiles, and crafts.
Near sunset at Lake Atitlan showing the volcanoes.
In the picture above, you can see in the bottom right, there is a guy selling tiny bags of cotton candy. They only cost Q1. That's about 16 cents Canadian or 13 cents American.
Granizadas are slushies or slurpees. These ones are made with alcoholl. A michelada is beer with tomato juice. Very strange.
Delicious fried platano (plaintain) with cream and sugar.
Churros! They need to sell these year-round, rather than just during fairs.
The party boats were kinda quiet this year. Usually their music is painfully loud.
Walking across the river delta from the Pana side to the Jucanya side.
A chicken bus passing under an Easter arch in Panajachel.
Easter (known here as Semana Santa -- Holy Week) is a pretty even split between fanatic religious traditions and insane drunkenness. On Santander, the bars were all pumping out crazy-loud music and the "sexy dancing ladies" were back in town. They're attractive women hired by the alcohol companies to dance and sell booze. They were dressed rather modestly this year, I thought, plus they were wearing masks and face shields, which was nice.
There we tons of cops hanging about, plus I saw a few young people wearing special shirts that said something like "Pana we protect you". They were giving people hand sanitizer and masks. There were signs posted on the way into Panajachel that reminded people to wear masks and keep distance. The mask-wearing was pretty well adhered to but social distancing certainly was not. But I mean, it's the biggest festival all year, so... can't really blame them. I saw a newspaper article that said they estimated there were 100,000 visitors to Panajachel on Saturday. (The town has less than 20,000 residents.)
Anyhoo, here's a very short video of the Easter procession from some footage of how crowded it was around town.
I had a strange realization -- there are no Easter activities for kids here like we do back home in Canada. No coloring eggs or hunting for hidden jelly beans. No Easter bunny. The only Easter chocolates I saw in the store were imports like KitKat and M&Ms. I wonder if non-religious Easter traditions will eventually start to catch on here like Halloween has?
I hope everyone had a nice Easter weekend. 🐰
In case anyone is wondering, here are the COVID-19 numbers for Guatemala.
COVID-19 Situation in Guatemala
Quick translation:
Active cases - 8,592
Accumulated cases - 195,471
Registered deaths - 6,891
I would beseech any tourists who are visiting Panajachel, please please PLEASE wear your mask whenever you are out of your hotel room. Tourists are bringing more of the virus into the country and being blatantly disrespectful by not wearing masks. Guatemala can't handle this pandemic. I read that the local hospital has only two ventilators. TWO. They don't have enough beds for everyone and sick people are literally sleeping on the floor in the hallways of the hospital. You may not be sick, but you could infect a local person and they won't get the medical help they need. The "registered" deaths listed above is a huge underestimate. Most Guatemalans in the Lake Atitlan area don't trust doctors and will die in their homes. Lake Atitlan's biggest income source is tourism, so they need foreigners to come and spend their money. But PLEASE show some respect to the country that has accepted you as a valued guest. Wear your mask! 😷
