Semana Santa in Popayan

Semana Santa (Easter Week) is BIG in Latin America as they are predominately Catholics. Easter in Latin America doesn't mean Easter Eggs or presents but it does mean a week off. Usually with big Latin American holidays the cities empty and everyone heads to smaller villages. This time we were prepared so we booked ahead to be in Popayan. 

Popayan is .... ok. There's not a whole lot to do there, a few museums, a small colonial city, a nice bridge to look at and a mirador (I wonder if they know this because their tourist information representatives were out in force trying to understand what it was you were doing there). However, it's one of the prime spots in Colombia for Semana Santa as well as being a UNESCO World Heritage site for Colombian food. 

Semana Santa seems to be mostly celebrated with different but similar processions throughout the week, starting from a different church each day. A procession seemed to vary from 2 hours to 4 hours, we usually only had enough of an attention span for about half an hour. The processions are made up of marching bands, police units, groups carrying what looked like very heavy statues of religious figures and everyday people with candles. Even with the average size of Colombians it was still hard to see much within a crowd so we headed back to the hostel to watch from the window. 

The Processions were being broadcast on TV

I had read that the processions would be creepy but this was about as close as it got

When Jesus came out there was a huge applaud from the crowd. The applause followed Jesus around as he made his way through the streets. It was a bit weird. 

Some tributes at alters near one of the churches

View of Popayan from the Mirador

The church on the main square with all the action. Our hostel was those windows on the left. 

I don't find Colombian food to be very good (not enough vegetables, too many deep friend pastries and huge portions of dry meat) so I was a bit confused by the UNESCO world heritage status. Turns out it's because in Popayan they've keep the traditional processes for making Colombian food. Our first attempt to find some nice food at a nice restaurant was a failure - a plate of mostly gross fried things. By the end of the week we managed to find a few winners.

Empanadas with a Peanut and Chilli sauce. They were amazing. 

Obleas - a Colombian version of Stroopwafles. Most people wouldn't put these in the winning category (and they don't hold a candle to stroopwafles) but I enjoyed mine. They are thin wafers with you're choice of filling - usually Jam, Caramel or Cheese. I had all three fillings. 

These have become one of my new favourtie fruits and they only come out around Easter Time. Granadillas are related to passion fruit and are super fun to eat. 

You crack them open like an egg and peel them to reveal the delicious goodness within. 

Close to the border of Ecuador, near Ipiales, there's one of the coolest churches I've seen. We stopped off on our border run between Popayan and Otavalo.

A wall of Acciones de Gracias plaques

One of the doors of the church

How often to you see a church that spans a gorge?