Slow and difficult return to the capital for Saints’ Day activities in Sumpango and Santiago, Sacatepéquez
After two years of living the activities for the Day of the Saints virtually or with restrictions, This 2022 normality invaded Guatemalans who decided to travel to municipalities that carry out festivities full of color and tradition such as giant kites.
This is the case of Sumpango and Santiago in Sacatepéquez, where for months they have been preparing to receive thousands of visitors to their traditional activities where they raise giant kites full of colors and images characteristic of the ancestral culture.
Nevertheless, the exodus on this official holiday on November 1 was massive and people had to stand in long lines on the Inter-American route, CA-1 West, to be able to arrive early to the two municipalities near Guatemala City and the metropolitan region.
On the morning of this November 1, the queues went towards the West and some people had to stand in long lines for more than two hours to enter Santiago and Sumpango, Sacatepéquez. This impacted the transit of other people who traveled to the rest of the departments in western Guatemala.
The transit authorities of the aforementioned municipalities did not report additional incidents to the congestion. There were no reports of landslides or traffic events that exacerbated the road impact in the area.
In the afternoon, after 3:00 p.m., the population that resides in the municipalities of the department of Guatemala, They began to return to their homes, but the transit was much more complicated.
The vehicle load took up to three and a half hours to get from Sumpango to Ciudad San Cristóbal in Mixco, According to some users of social networks.
Even after 6:00 p.m. traffic was much slower and drivers opted to use alternate routes in the municipalities of Santo Domingo Xenacoj, Sacatepéquez and Bárcenas, Villa Nueva, Guatemala, to reach their destinations.
#Guatemala This is how this 1 of #November more than 5 kilometers to enter the giant kite festival in #Sumpango #sacatepequez Drone: @express_foto / @free Press @soy_502 pic.twitter.com/GO1WL9l3wC
– The Express (@express_foto) November 2, 2022
Guatemalans were able to live that November 1, 2022 without any restrictions after two years of absence due to the covid-19 pandemic. Not only did the giant kite festivals gather, but they also packed general cemeteries throughout the republic.
In the latest map of infections of the new coronavirus, the Ministry of Health did not report any municipality on red alertonly a few in orange and the vast majority in yellow.
For now, the concern of the health authorities has been based on monkeypox or the monkey, which reaches more than 70 infections in the municipalities of the central district of the country, mainly.
