I’ve seen this graffiti artist’s work around, but haven’t actually spotted him working anywhere.  My sense is his style does not involve a brush, but that from a guy whose art knowledge is limited to, I like it/it doesn’t do anything for me.  So there ya go.

I’ve seriously limited my procession stuff as promised, but Saturdays during Lent are kids processions.  Smaller peeps, smaller floats, smaller distances.  Here’s a crew preparing to take over carrying duties.  I regretted not making a video of the switchover, ’cause it was the cutest chaos ever.  Maybe another opportunity will arise.

I never cease to be fascinated by the resourcefulness of Guatemalan people for ways to make money or extra money.  This man had probably reversed engineered a DIY tracing device and was demonstrating to some potential customers how he could turn a photo into a sketch.  His work was quite good I thought.  There I go with the art critiquing again.

And here’s a bit of cultural history.  Still in small rural villages there is often only one or two access points to water.  Invariably where the water is are pilas.  Pilas are wash basins, usually made of poured concrete, and usually grouped together in anywhere from two to five or six.  These then become community gathering spots for women to visit and do laundry.  I know what you’re thinking, and most Guatemalan men wouldn’t be caught dead doing laundry. 〈Insert digressive tirade about perpetuating stereotypes here〉      It really was a good one, but I took it out.  Everyday I pray to walk gently on the earth, and some days I think I actually do.  Let’s get back to the pilas shall we?

These are a fancier version of pilas.  They are at the end of a small park that everyone just calls Tanque.  It’s actual name is Union Square but the name is rarely used.   These pilas have been somewhat in disrepair for a long time.  As many times as I’ve walked past this place, I don’t think I’ve ever seen women actually washing clothes here.  Until this trip.  But the Tanque has been spruced up and fixed up, and my take is that the community has been encouraged to return to this age old cultural practice at this particular site.  Good photo ops for tourists, ya know?

This is looking down the length of Tanque.  You can see the pilas and basin at the far end.  Behind it, and across the street are the ruins of the Convent of Santa Clara.  It’s now a museum and event center.

There are lots of church ruins in Antigua.  Many of the oldest ones  were destroyed by massive earthquakes and landslides in the 1500s.  As I walk around Antigua there are a couple of sites that seem to have restoration work being done everyday.  This is a peek inside St. Augustine Church from a side opening.  The work here, as with most, probably has an eye on making it safe so that tourists can go inside the ruins.

Back to Tanque briefly before I go.  I was walking over to San Francisco for noon mass and caught a chance to film these kids practicing for something.