We woke to a foggy morning and unfortunately there were no views of the volcanoes surrounding the city. We knew they were there, we could only just see the ghostly shilouettes sitting in the cloud. The hotel had free coffee and 'bread' in the morning and that made up for the lack of view. The coffee was freshly ground Guatemalan and the bread was made into little buns that were more like a cross between between a cake and a scone, delicious enough to have a second one.

We had a wander through the streets to get our bearings and to find a bank and a supermarket. The streets here are all cobbled but not flat, even, neat cobbles - it's more like rocks that have been laid randomly to mark the path of the street. It is so uneven that it is on a par with the Tongariro Crossing in terms of ease of walking (for those unfamiliar with the Tongariro Crossing, it's a hike over a New Zealand volcano with varied and often extremely rugged terrain).

Lunch was at Restaurante Dona Luisa Xicotencatl, probably the most famous restaurant in Antigua and with colonial patio ambience, it's hard to resist. It has a simple menu mainly based around sandwiches because of the attached bakery. The bread was amazing and smell coming from shop was like a magnet drawing you in. Antigua is apparently famous for banana bread and this bakery in particular was doing a roaring trade. The queue was to the door and everybody wanted a Banana Bread which was actually more like a huge loaf. We'll be back another day to get one, or maybe just a half because of the size.

We made our way slowly across the uneven cobbles to Iglesia de San Francisco. This church is imbued with the spirit of Santo Hermano Pedro, a Franciscan monk who founded a hospital for the poor in Antigua in the 1600's. Many people still come to this church and pray by his tomb for the ill to get better. In the adjoining museum there are dozens of crutches and leg callipers of those who must have been cured through Saint Pedro's intercession.

Today's procession was coming from out of town and it was late so we decided to walk to meet it. Fortunately we only had to walk about 10 minutes and saw some of the 'carpets' being finished off. Elaborate and artistic 'carpets' are made of brightly coloured sawdust, pine needles, flowers and even fruit and vegetables. These carpets are made by residents along the procession route, and are walked over and destroyed by the 'cucuruchos' (the float carriers) leaving only a pile of debris.

At the front of this procession were two guys symbolically carrying huge logs on their shoulders. Every 30 seconds or so they were dragged into a run so they could be whipped 3 times on their back. The whipping was for real too, you could see in the eyes of the log carrier that he was mentally preparing for the pain and wincing on every lash. Given that the procession lasted about 8 hours, these guys were undoubtedly going to be in a lot of pain tomorrow.

The float itself was enormous, they can weigh up to 3,000kg and need about 40-60 men to carry it on their shoulders. They swap periodically throughout the route, but they are still carrying a considerable weight for hours.

We had bought cheese & wine for dinner that we we going to eat on the roof terrace. All was going well while it was still light but as dusk set in we realised that the entire town was suffering from a power cut. We finished the meal by torchlight and were rewarded by having the most amazing Full Moon rise behind Iglesia La Merced. When the moon showed itself behind the mountains it was glowing red, as it rose it began to brighten to intense white sitting above church. When the power returned to city, the church was lit up - it was quite a sight, seeing the brightly lit church with the moon above against the black backdrop of the mountains.