The Slow Road
Two Women Wandering the World
Religious processions with floats bearing statues of Jesus and the Virgin Mary are a fixture in Antigua during Lent, the 40-day period leading up to Easter
As in Spain, the floats are carried on marchers' shoulders (the pole is for resting the float on during breaks)
Antigua's religious processions have a more festive feel than the ones we saw in Spain, with vendors selling candy and balloons
A float passes the 16th-century Captains Generals Palace on Antigua's main square, the administrative center of Spanish rule in Central America
Some floats can have as many as 50 carriers
Antigua is the only place we've seen floats carried entirely by women
Carrying a heavy float for hours on cobbled streets while wearing heels is an amazing feat
Carrying a heavy float for blocks at a shuffling pace can become a meditative act of piety
The processions include brass bands, which play slow, dirge-like music in somber, minor keys
An alfombra (carpet) made of sand, colored sawdust, and fruit in a church in Antigua
Alfombras are also made in the streets in the paths of the processions
Hours of painstaking work (another act of piety) will be undone in a few minutes by marchers' feet
A night-time procession passes under the Santa Catalina Arch
