HALLLOWEEN- guatemala style.

Halloween week is spent a bit differently down in Central America, and it’s quite the celebration.
Technically, they celebrate ALL SAINTS DAY – a 10 day celebration beginning October 21st and ending November 2nd. Here is an excerpt explaining the final day from Xela Who, a local magazine for extranjeros: “What a better way to honor the dead then to drink nothing but grain alcohol for 24 hours and then race horses? That’s right friends, the All Saints Day celebration in Todos Santos is capped by a spectacular drunken horse race. The goal? To stay on your horse as long as possible without passing out. And pass out they do. According to local legend, the death of a jinete, or drunken horseman, during the race is considered a sign that is will be a good year.”

There was a pretty big religious festival/market going on in Central Park starting in Xela on the 21st. The coolest part I witnessed was on Sunday the 28th, which was the Day of the Virgin Mary. I went with my Guatemalan friend Mario to the park to check out the “rugs,” which were basically giant paintings made of colored saw dust covering the whole loop of streets around the park. The rugs were all religious in content, and the day concluded by a big parade around the park carrying the statue of the Virgin Mary. The rest of the week was crazy, since we were leaving for our Mexico journey on November 1st to get there in time for Day of the Dead on the 2nd.

As you all know, Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year, and I CLEARLY was going to celebrate. American style Halloween is becoming more popular around Xela since there are so many foreigners in the town. Making a costume here is pretty cheap, although some resources were limited and we had to be creative. The group kicked off the night at Cuartito – our favorite café in town, mainly because they were giving out free drinks to those in costume. From there we went to Katy & Mojdeh’s house for a little fun before heading out for the night. We spent the rest of the night around the town at various discotecas dancing the night away. We were by far the best dressed so we got lots of looks. By the end of the night I managed to pull off a COSTUME PARTY WIN at the discoteca. I won 50 Quetzales (roughly only 7 dollars, but it goes a long way here), 2 pepsi’s, and a bottle of rum. Not too shabby of a follow up to my amazing Beetle Juice costume last year. The night was long and I was out til about 4am, and the bus for Mexico left at 5am. At least I was able to sleep all 12 hours to Mexico on the worst buses ever.