Festival De Las Flores – Antigua

Guatemala is known as the Place of Trees, but the town of Antigua is the City of Perpetual Roses or as some say, the City of Perpetual Spring.   

To celebrate that lovely name, several years ago a local marketing expert and online business owner, Andrea Contreras, suggested creating the event as a tribute to the people and flowers of Guatemala.  She also said the event would promote the diversity of flowers and their producers and turn Antigua into the cultural headquarters for floral art.  Only six years old, this annual event has become the most important celebration in Guatemala second only to Holy Week.   

This year’s theme was Alice in Wonderland.  Floral depictions of the Mad Hatter, that infamous rabbit hole and the Chesire Cat were everywhere.  Pretty young girls, all made-up and dressed as Alice posed with tiny tots also dressed as Alice as the little girls’ parents snapped away with their phones.   Kids weren’t the only ones looking for photo ops.  Anyone willing to stand in a long line for a commemorative photo could pose with Alice, the Mad Hatter, or the Queen of Hearts for a gorgeous photo captured by a friend or family member – no tip, no charge. 

The event started with a parade of beauty queens, flower-laden floats, and decorated vintage cars. In town artists busily decorated doorways, fountains, businesses, restaurants, and important historical sites with displays of flowers transforming the city into a place of glorious color.  Some flower experts worked far into the night preparing for the big event on Saturday.   

We had been advised to go early, take photos, and get out because of the expected crowd.  We were ever so glad to live within walking distance of the town center since all streets were blocked for pedestrian traffic only. 

Even at 10 am, the town was packed with people.  Street traffic was backed up for miles as people tried to enter the city.  Side streets and parking lots were filled with parked cars, shuttles, and tour buses. 

The crowd was nothing less than enormous.  Like one gigantic being, it seemed to move in unison.  There was little choice but to go with the flow. All the craft vendors were out selling hats, hair garlands, and novelties for the ninos.

The no-expense-spared colorful flower displays featured red and white roses, mums, lilies, larkspur, orchids, ferns, and almost every beautiful flower imaginable.  There were no carnations.   

Stan and I do not do so well in big crowds.  While this one was gigantic, we managed to stay somewhat together.  In a crowd of Guatemalans, I blend in at just their size, but Stan is tall which helped me to be able to find him even when he was a few layers of people ahead of me plus he was wearing a bright pink shirt.  It is my favorite.

We tried to capture the beauty and art of the flower displays in our photos but nearly each one has a bunch of people in the scene.  No way to prevent that! 

Finally, we sat on a step of an old church’s ruins where a wedding was about to take place and had smokey grilled street food made in the busy park in front of us.  We had a lunch of chorizo with caramelized onions, tortillas, ensalada, frijoles, and salsa handed to us on Styrofoam plates.  No forks.

Our daughter, Cody reminds us often to be cautious of street food. So far so good, street food has been no problemo, but then again, we do not often indulge.   I suspect that spending the last 6 months in South and Central America may have toughened us up. Maybe we have become conditioned to the bug that can lurk in the fragrant, tempting, delicious-looking food cooked by women on a hot grill in a park.  But with only three weeks left in this journey, word to the wise: Be thankful and not cocky.  Who wants to be surprised this late in the game? 

As our time here winds down, we remain amazed at the richness of Antigua’s nature, culture, and color!