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Easter (Semana Santa, the Holy Week) in Antigua, Guatemala.  The CARPETS are most amazing, some costing hundreds, even thousands of dollars.  They are made of coloured sawdust, flowers, even fruits and vegetables, many other materials, small statues eating the "Last Supper", etc.

Palm Sunday carpet on our street, two blocks long This one was made of "birds of paradies" flowers A team busy making another carpet    Some of the finest carpets are on Calle Ancha, the "Wide Street", leading to Antigua's suburb of Jocotenango.  People get up at 4 a.m. to see the carpets.  By 5, the streets are full of people viewing carpets  This carpet, in front of the San Sebastian park  is made of radishes, lettuces, carrots and other vegetables  A beautiful carpet on Calle Ancha, leading to Jocotenango  In some streets, after the morning carpets is destroyed by the procession, new ones are made for the afternoon or evening This is how carpets are made.  People get up the previous midnight, and work right up to the moment the procession comes up to destroy their work of art. This carpet had to be ready for 2 p.m., so they had some daylight hours to make it.  Others had to be ready for the procession very early ... on the right, Barbara is admiring another carpet in the bright early morning sunshine.  This carpet was in the main square (Parque Central), in front of the cathedral.  The carpet on the left went around the corner, to welcome the procession.  Behind it, you can see Volcano Agua.  Antigua is jammed with traffic coming in to see the carpets and processions.  This is a real, solid, stationary traffic jam at 7 a.m.  Most streets are closed for the construction of carpets, so cars have a tough time entering the town. Yet another carpet in font of our house, this one is being destroyed at 6:30 a.m. on Good Friday by a procession that started very early.  The carpet on the left included elaborate, miniature Last Supper.  On top, there is yet another beautiful carpet that took many hours to make.  On the right, Tomas is admiring a carpet in front of AmeriSpan - a center that arranges language schools and volunteer programs for many visiting students - "a bridge between two cultures".  They even put the bridge on their carpet.  This elaborate carpet, made, like others, out of coloured sawdust, looked like it was woven.  It took all night to make and a big accident happened ... a dog ran across (see on left), leaving a streak across the pattern.  Quick repairs were made, to make it perfect again, before the coming procession destroyed it totally.