Guatemala Day 19 - Even More Ashes

This morning started off quite relaxed due to the current situation. It wasn't until late morning that we split into two groups and set off on a city tour of Antigua with our tour guides.

Emilio explained that Antigua used to be a ghost town where nobody wanted to live. However, since it became a UNESCO World Heritage site, this has drastically changed. Antigua is now a popular tourist town. 60 - 70 percent of the people living in Antigua are Americans or Europeans. The streets are lined with hotel after hotel and restaurant after restaurant.
If you want to open a restaurant here, you have to pay a monthly rent of around 2000 euros. The city is indeed quite expensive but also beautiful and definitely worth a visit.

There are 38 churches in Antigua, but only seven of them are operational. This includes the cathedral where we would be singing in the evening. However, the cathedral is only 1/5 intact, the rest is in ruins due to various earthquakes. On our way through the city, we also passed by a fenced area where the statues for the famous Way of the Cross procession, which takes place every Good Friday, are stored.

Our next destination was a cocoa and coffee shop. There, we could get an insight into chocolate production and, of course, try a lot. Naturally, we took the opportunity to stock up on souvenirs for home. However, we were abruptly interrupted when Emilio received a call - we should immediately return to the hotel as the Volcan de Fuego was once again showing strong activity and emitting large ash clouds.
So we quickly returned to the hotel.
And indeed, you could feel how quickly the visibility deteriorated and the air became worse. Ash flew into our eyes, so we put on our masks or wrapped a scarf around our faces.

So we stayed in the hotel for lunch. The heavy thunderstorms that arrived around 3pm brought brief power outages on the one hand, but on the other hand they also washed away the ash and cleared the air. So at 6pm, we were able to walk to the cathedral mostly ash-free and with clear visibility.
After taking some photos and a short sound check, the concert began.

At the beginning, a prayer was said and a minute of silence was observed for the victims of the volcanic eruption. Then the Mexican choir 'San Lucas' took the stage. Three pieces later, it was our turn. Mr. Kammel once again greeted and thanked the audience, explaining that we would dedicate today's concert to the affected families and friends of the victims. For this reason, we had prepared a less cheerful program. Instead, we took advantage of the church's acoustics and performed some sacred pieces. The beautiful, yet very sad piece 'Good night, dear heart' by Dan Forrest found a good use here as well. At the end of the one-and-a-half-hour concert, we sang 'The Lord bless you and keep you' together with the Mexican choir and received a standing ovation from the audience.

Before ending the concert, Mr. Kammel called Jorge to the stage. Jorge had been with us throughout the entire trip, but would be flying back to Argentina the next morning. We thanked him wholeheartedly for his support and dedication, and sang 'Va pensiero' from the opera 'Nabucco' for him.
Afterward, everyone received a lunchbox for dinner.
Then we marched back to the hotel, where we started packing our suitcases - for the second-to-last time!