Every June and July on Lake Atitlán, the towns that surround the lake celebrate the patron Saint's days of their respective towns with about two weeks of a city-wide celebration called "La Feria". Complete with ferris wheels, gambling games, fried food booths, and live music, if there wasn't a large volcano looming in the distance behind the festivities, you might not even know that you are in the quaint evangelical town of Santiago Atitlán when La Feria comes to town. The normally quiet town at night livens up to celebrate, and luckily for me I am here to experience La Feria in my last week in Santiago!
All of the towns around the lake have the festivities, but the event corresponds with each town's particular patron Saint's Day. For Santiago Atitlán, the Saint is Saint James and the festivities cumulate on July 25 each year (thanks to my boyfriend Patrick for his wiki-investigation that provides a bit more detail on the Saint and the meaning behind the festivities:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James,_son_of_Zebedee).
The games and booths have been up for about a week now, but Tuesday was a parade kicking off the final week, and Wednesday and Thursday nights were parties, packed streets, live music, beer tents, and tons of fun! Here are some photos! Enjoy!
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| Ferris wheel with volcano views |
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| Ferris wheel at night |
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| Games |
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| The music truck preparing for the parade |
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| Parade clowns on stilts |
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| All of the local schools had performances |
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| So many bands! |
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| There was a dragon... |
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| And Jesus, of course. |
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| Boys dressed as men from the countryside |
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| Crazy masks |
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| Hawaiian girls |
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| The gringo crew at Quilas |
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| Limbo! |
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| Live band at a bar on Feria night |
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