Popayan is a very beautiful city, with a surreal atmosphere, particularly in the main plaza, due to the fact the most of the main city is painted white. The ethereal plaza was blinding in midday sun, but unfortunately this was muted by afternoon rain, throughout our stay. The city is home to the largest Easter celebration in Colombia, and the presence of presidential candidates, TV reporters and thousands of people definitely reinforced this reputation. However, the actual festivities were pretty controlled and basically consisted of religious music concerts (all at high costs) or nightly processions. As neither Kadie or I was interested in coughing up $20 to hear religious music we pretty much planned on watching the nighttime processions. As could be anticipated, the processions were solemn, but surprisingly lacked music or dirges. The few bands that participated in processions, particularly the police band, was ridiculously out of tune, and played the same song over and over, every night. Aside from the processions and pretty buildings, Popayan is pretty dull as we found out during our four day stay there.
What was impressive was peoples' dedication. They were obviously in great pain as they carried immensly heavy, several hundred year old wooden floats on on their shoulders. And the crowds' willingness to watch these floats carried around town in processions that took at least 3-4 hours to complete was impressive. Here is a brief day by day summary:Thursday, Day 1.
Kadie and I line up near the beginning church (which changes nightly) and watch a couple floats go by. Because people are walking alongside the floats we decide we should join them in search of another viewing spot in town. Unfortunately, we failed to realize that the people walking in the streets are accompanying a particular float and must carry candles for the duration of the procession. Additionally, because the streets are all blocked off, once we began walking it was very difficult to get back out of the procession. Feeling awkwardly out of place, we walk in the procession for about 12 blocks, get refused exit by a girlscout with a stick, and after being scolded by a priest with a large wooden cross we finally get back into the regular crowd. We retreat to a local bar with an excellent elderly dj playing romantic argentinean songs on vinyl. Kadie realizes that $0.50 hot dogs are pretty gross, I realize that $0.50 arepas with condiments are pretty gross as well.
Friday, Day 2.
We successfully find empanadas de pipian (potato empanadas with peanut sauce) and grandilla del queijo (a special sweet passionfruit served only during semana santa in Popayan), both are quite tasty. The nightly procession is much longer and it takes almost two hours for all the floats to leave the starting church. With a different strategy, Kadie and I wait until there all gone and position ourselves at the ending point of the procession to hopefully catch all the floats at the end of the night. Unfortunately, about a half hour after the last float leaves it begins pouring rain, forcing all the floats to b-line back to church for shelter. This created a surreal atmosphere of panic as thousands of people seek shelter, floats are covered in plastic, and men in extreme agony rush to get a giant wooden crucifix into shelter. Kadie and I get soaked and decide to just walk down the middle of the empty streets in our t-shirts back to hostel. As we do this the crowds along the sidewalks cheer and heckle us as we´re the only people foolish enough to try and walk through the torrential downpour through flooded streets. This may end up being the strangest experience during our entire trip..
Saturday, Day 3.Aside from visiting the beautiful National Orchid Show, and Colombia´s largest collection of taxidermied birds at the Natural History Museum, the day is pretty relaxed. Expecting a big party to celebrate the resurrection, we find the streets strangely empty and the procession very short (but with much better music). Evidently, the crucifixion is a much bigger deal than resurrection.
Sunday, Day 4.
No easter eggs, no bunny. Just empty streets, closed shops and a day of rain.
The tombs were very interesting, but after seeing about a dozen of them, we're pretty much ready to be on our way to Ecuador.
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