dia de los santos

so tuesday nov 1 was dia de los santos. since i was already hanging around the capital, i decided to visit santiago with some other volunteer friends to watch the famous kite festival. we got kind of a late start; not an uncommon ocurrance 'round these parts, and after breakfasting, noel, bob, and i took the public buses from antigua to santiago. the traffic was surprisingly not that bad. we arrived in santiago aroud noon, i think, and started walking toward the cemetary along with all the other tourists (mostly guatemalan) to see the kite displays. some of the kites were just amazing. huge, a few strories tall, colorful with glued tissue paper and mayan scenes and political commentary, not to mention tazmanian devils and dominoes delievery numbers. we spent a couple hours watching people run around and over graves, kites launch and plummet to the ground. at first i was unsure about walking on people's graves, but then i saw everyone else doing it and, honestly, the way the plots are set up, you don't have much of a choice, especially given the number of spectators on the grounds. it was such a nice few hours with noel and bob. i think noel took 3 roles of film, and i filled my digital card quickly as well. later in the afternoon, a few more friends arrived. they'd gotten even a later start and decided to take a private shuttle to the festival. they had just gotten to the graveyard. we told them we were down below, more in the middle of the action and they should come meet us. one friend's bag had been slashed. she lost her own makeup bag and the camera that one of the friend's had given her to hold on to. not fifteen minutes later, one of the kites started to come down. the "team" on the rope began shouting and running, trying to keep it in the air. i'm not really sure what happened next, but this is what we've pieced together: the guys decided to let the rope go because the force was too strong and they weren't going to be able to save the kite. the rope had been coiled around the ground instead of in a straight line (a cardinal mistake according to noel with all of his boating experience.) the rope started going crazy and kite started to come down. the rope half-wrapped itself around one friend's neck, giving her a massive rope burn from ear to ear and knocking her to the ground. then i think it was the tail of the kite that hit me in the head and i tumbled to the ground after her. finally the rope started flying after the kite, and another friend who had been entangled in it managed to get herself free and only suffer some rope burns on her hand. it was a really bizzare, scary experience and we are very lucky that nothing worse became of it. we made our way out of the cemetary and sat down. the three girls decided to start the walk back to their shuttle to head back to antigua. bob got some ice for them to use during the trip home. my head hurt a bit and i was disoriented, i think more from the emotional trauma than the acutal blow to the head. i, however, decided to stay, because sarah was on her way with her mom. it had been a whole ordeal for them to get to santiago (cancelled flight, taxi ride, etc), and i really wanted to meet her mom. so the three of us stayed, waiting for them under the gallo tent. meanwhile, all of the reinas de la feria came to our table and sat down next to us. they were all in traditional traje, with their sashes and crowns. we moved down to make room and all ten or so sat beside us. pretty soon people started taking fotos and i decided to snap a few myself. then, to my horror, i noticed that standing in the middle of all these young girls, dressed in traditional and conservative, mayan traje, was one of the gallo (national beer maker) girls, decked out in spandex pants and a sports bra. it was astonishing. of course i took a couple of pictures. a few minutes later, sarah and her mom arrived. we headed back into the graveyard (i was more than a little nervous) and sarah and her mom were thrilled with the display. i was relieved since it was such an ordeal for them to make it on time. we didn't stay very long and caught a ride in the taxi as far as san lucas and then bussed it back to 'tigs. we spent the evening drinking wine and processing what had happened that day. we're still in shock, but i think our emotional healing will happen along with the physical healing. it will just take a little time.