Some strange parade in San Andres

For the last two weeks, the nursing supervisor Tia Rosa has been telling me about this upcoming festival in San Andres, the tiny town that neighbors the orphanage. She lives in town and is fiercely proud of it, her uncle was the Mayor for a few years and she's friends with a lot of the local business owners. She didn't try to hide the fact that she was hoping to stir up some tourism revenue for the town, she encouraged me to bring as many of the other volunteers as I could to help spend some money in town. Lucky for her, I don't need to be pushed very hard to blow money on junk food at a fair, so I brought a clan of volunteers and we hoofed the two or three miles to town. I've been to San Andres a few times but I've never seen it so packed, people were coming into town by the busloads. We missed the beginning of the festivities but were able to catch the parade. Like all the other parades that I've seen in Guatemala so far, there didn't seem to be a theme or anything, just a bunch of people in different types of costumes performing choreographed dances. I give them credit, they danced the whole time (and that was one slow-moving parade.)

It's funny what cultural things come over from the States...

Hooray for marching bands!



I tried lots of different food there but sadly I shoved it all into my mouth before I could take pictures of it. First we had tacos (kind of like Mexican tacos except they shells are soft and wet with meat juice. They lay flat and then things are piled on top of them. Sloppy to eat, but very good). After that I had a piece of fried chicken but gave most of mine to this little starving Border Collie that reminded me of my old dog Bonnie. Then Charlotte and I ate HUGE ice cream sandwiches from a cart. We had no idea they'd be so big.

Beer and ice cream :)

I couldn't finish my ice cream so I dropped it in the street for a dog to eat. Charlotte told me later that she saw a lady pick it up and walk away with it. That made me sad. I wish I saw that so I could have offered to buy her a new one, or at the very least given it to her without putting it on the ground first.

When we were leaving town a few of the farmers were coming back from the fields. Here's one bringing back his hay.