curb. yr. excitement. guatemala.

hola!  this probaly won't be long, but hopefully it'll have some neat pictures and hopefully even a couple videos for people to check out.  i'm still uploading as i type this so we'll see when i get to the end.  anyways, the last two days and then tonight have been a festival here in my pueblo, it's been nuts.  last night music and fireworks went until 3am, which sucked because i was up at 6 today to goto Guatemala City.  let's talk about that before we get into Dulce Nombre de Jesus (the name of the festival).

Guatemala City is.... AWESOME.  holy shit i don't know why Peace Corps doesn't want us to go there, okay it's super dangerious, but we only hung in the safe districts while we were there.  the mall was killer.  totally chowed down on some fast food, the best burger and fries i've ever eaten.  god i miss preservatives and processed meat.  god bless it!  but Guate City was neat and i enjoyed the day.  will return to make my outlandish purchases in the future.

anyways, Jesus-Fest or Dulce Nombre de Jesus (loosely translated to "The Sweet Name of Jesus") was here.  it was nuts and really made absolutely no sense.  everyone i asked couldn't tell me why they were doing it, what the dancing/costumes meant, or even why these days were selected.  they just do it and have tons of fun.  too much fun.

GET READY FOR THIS

these old-boys led it off:


then it got weird...


like...really weird....



then it was like sorta normal?


but it didn't last!


then i met up with rob in front of the church


i have some more videos and such. but i didn't upload them. i've got some even more insane stuff, but i didn't want to come on too strong. it was, without a doubt, the weirdest day i've ever had. it was capped off by a guy wearing fireworks running down the street with them going off on his body... and a horse-back sword fight... absolutely ridiculous. this whole thing started on saturday and is still going tonight even. i thought it was neat at first, but i do sorta miss normality here.

anyways, that's what i was up to this weekend. last night was a live concert so i was doing a little dancing in the central park and came home early. it was absolutely unforgettable, so i'm glad i got to enjoy it live and up-close.

finally, so you can feel like you were there:

okay and one more so you can see the important stuff in action