Festival de Sumpango- Barriletes Gigantes

Every year on All Saints' Day (November 1), there is a big event called Festival de Sumpango. Festival de Sumpango is all about showcasing giant kits (barriletes gigantes), and it has been a tradition for more than 300 years. The kites really are GIANT. In the biggest class, they can reach up to 20 meters in diameter! All the volunteers had the day off work and were really excited to go check it out. Luckily, it was close to us, so after a few short bus rides we were there at this crazy cool cultural event like it was no big deal!

The festival was spread out on several big hill sides. When we first walked in, we could only see people sprawled about everywhere, mostly chilling on blankets and having picnics with their families. Vendors were stationed sporadically selling food and cheap-y kites. It was pretty cool to look up and see about 40 to 50 kites flying high in the air (these were normal-seized kites, made out of tissue paper or plastic). After walking for a few more minutes, we stumbled on to the glory- the GIANT kites!

BOOM. Kites. We have arrived.

It was quite a site to see. Even in the smallest category, the kites were still taller than me. Every kite was absolutely beautiful, truly a work of art. There were all soooo colorful. There was was so much for my eyes to take in! We walked through row after row of kites, admiring each one. Here are some pictures...

Roommate bonding :D

Do you see how little the people are next to the kites?!

awesome sauce all over these kites.

GIANT and COLOR. YES.

One of the most giant giant kites :)

After I had snapped so many pictures that I felt like my finger was going to fall off, we reached the end of the display. The view looking back at all the kites stacked one after another was pretty incredible.

special memories :)

By that point, we had spent a couple hours at the festival on our feet in the sun. Now, we were HUNGRY. Everyone found some comida de la calle (food from street vendors). This is the kind of food you should avoid eating because it puts you at a higher risk for food poisoning/parasites, buuuuut when in Guatemala... Not gonna not. ;) It's fun to live on the edge a little bit and just be a local. We even found the ice cream man!

happy, well-fed volunteers

In the afternoon there was a competition to FLY some of the kites from the smaller sized categories. It was completely unsafe because there was zero crowd control/partitioning of safety areas. We all just stood on this giant open field while the teams tried to launch their massive kites. The kites were all constructed out of giant wooden spikes, which made it terrifying when they came crashing down to earth (which was happened frequently). The thrill of dodging death was... fun? ;) It was an experience haha! Believe it or not, many of the kites did eventually take flight, even if it took a couple tries to get them up in the air. It was pretty cool to see those massive things just soaring around, waving their color all over the sky. I have to say, I was pretty proud when the kite from the all-female team cleaned house in the competition. #girlpower

Who would've guessed that it could actually fly?!

ahhh pretty :)

Festival de Barriletes was aweosme. I just kept thinking that I will probably never, ever be able to see something like this in my life again. If I have to be away from home for a year, at least I'm stuck in a place that has an incredible culture!