Monday morning we were awakened at 6:00 a.m. by blaring Guatemalan marimba music, which sounded like it was coming from next door. The music continued for 20 hours until 2:15 a.m., only interspersed with brief respites of someone talking into a microphone, which we couldn't quite understand. The bass was so loud it vibrated our house and fence all day, even rattling the mirror and circuit-breaker panel door in the kitchen!
There are only three types of music blared loudly here in Chichicastenango: current contemporary worship music played by evangelical Christian churches, old-fashioned chorus style music with a K'iche' twist played by evangelical Christian churches, and marimba music and latin-beat music played by traditional Mayan religious groups. This particular music was the latter style, very lively and high-speed, making for an exhausting day!
Heather and Veronica already had plans to go to a park that afternoon, and this is what they saw in the road, a couple of houses down from us. There were a few hundred people crowded together with hardly any masks. We are concerned for the lack of caution in the middle of a pandemic which is hitting Guatemala pretty hard right now.
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| The big black rectangle in center-left is a stack of 20 speakers. No wonder it was so loud! |
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| The men lined up are wearing the fabric headdress of the traditional Mayan religion. We weren't sure what this particular event was celebrating. |
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| Heather and Veronica enjoy going to hang out at a small local park where hardly anyone goes. We don't leave the house much these days due to the pandemic, so it is nice to get out. |