Finishing the Carpets & The Procession

The outer parts of the carpet went much faster.

Texture picture.

It was so good to see the progress.

Laugh so you don't cry. Haha. We were so exhausted and borderline miserable in the morning hours. Plus the smell of fried plantains was drifting our way...

Putting the finishing touches down.

We were finished with everything we could help with! By 8:30am, all that was left to do was stencil in the flower on the bottom as you can see the lady behind us doing.

They misted the carpets to keep them looking nice and holding together.

This carpet was much different--made with large wood chips, seeds, pine cones, and more sand.

This one had fresh flowers on it. The design was very pretty, but I would like to point out that they used stencils for the whole thing.

This one was by far the neatest carpet I saw! The outside may have been made using stencils, but they actually molded the inside with their hands to make 3D figures. Wow! They still had quite a bit of work to do.

This was the main float in the procession. The men looked so creepy! I guess it was especially bad since I associate the pointy hats with the KKK.

After the procession went over the carpet, kids would rush to collect the colorful sawdust for a souvenir.

It's a lot of hard work for such a brief moment..but it's a part of the big Catholic culture here. Definitely a ONCE in a lifetime experience for me.

Our finished carpets! What a lot of work. We got back to them before the procession came to trample them.

The streets were so crowded. After we got home, we showered and took nice long 5 hour naps. I think I'm still dealing with the after-effects of that sleepless night. Overall, we did it for the experience. I didn't realize what a big Catholic thing it was when we agreed to help. However, it was good to be able to help our friend Rosemari and it was neat to see such a rich cultural tradition first hand. I'm glad we did it, but I can't say if I'd want to do it again.