Antigua

High in the winding canyons surrounding Antigua, Guatemala, mom, me, and two other Iowans on our volunteer service team bounced around in the back of a rusty pick up on our way to build a house in a village that didn’t have street names, addresses, or organized traffic flow. Whoever drove fastest had the right-of-way down the single-lane streets! As the low-riding truck zoomed up a steep cement hill, we did a double take at one particular ramshackle lean-to constructed from scrap wood, corrugated metal, and twine. There, in the rain-soaked slums—where electricity was rare, smoky fires roasted corn tortillas, and children wandered barefoot—giggling chicos and chicas filled a video arcade that pinged and dinged with each level won. Mom and me flashed grins and shrugged. Our build site didn’t even have a hookup for power tools, yet these children miles off the grid had found their video games. Though we were a long ways from Iowa, the words “If you build, they will come” indeed rang true.

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The residents of Antigua, Guatemala, begin crafting “carpets” in the cobblestone streets on Thursday, before Good Friday. You may be tempted to sleep until 6am on Friday, when the La Merced procession begins. But drag yourself up by at least 3:00am to witness the true beauty of the sand carpets. Every street is a canvas; people lie on elevated 2x6s toiling over their elaborate designs, meticulously filling in stencils with different colors of sand; or arranging fresh flowers and fruit into patterns and portraits. Working by streetlight, flashlight, lantern-light, stunning works of art emerge throughout the wee hours of the morning. And when dawn breaks, the procession begins, and all are sacredly trampled beneath the feet of the traditional parade, carried out here since the 1700s. The artists are left with the transcendental beauty of a masterful creation whose posterity is irrelevant.

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Pinks, yellows, turquoises, and sun-kissed limes paint the psychedelic color scheme of Antigua, a volcano-enclaved Spanish colonial town 45 minutes away from the bustling center of Guatemala. Home to local and international artists and having retained much of its historic architectural landscape, bohemian chic is the overarching flavor of this UNESCO World Heritage Site. A 30-minute stroll along the cobblestone roads can take you from a 16th-century cathedral turned concert venue, to a lantern-lit Andalusian tapas bar with live flamenco dancers, through a colorful artisan street fair, into an upscale Meso-American house of jewelry, and to the foothills of the active Pacaya Volcano. On a good day, you'll get to climb it, pick a wild orchid at the peak, and stand on floating lava before the easy descent. No joke; any of the meandering tour guides can tell you when it's best to go. Before you leave, don’t forget to pick up a bottle of Antigua’s world-class rum to share with your friends back home.

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