Eat Your Heart Out Hoover and Oreck; You Can´t Touch These Carpets

The Cathedral in Comayagua where a bunch of Peace Corps volunteers stood around and looked lost.

The oldest clock in the Americas located in the tower of the Cathedral

Bags of colored sawdust in preparation for the big day

For some of the bigger alfombras, the process started around 10pm on Holy Thursday and lasted until the carpets were destroyed by the procession on Good Friday. Here they´re laying a foundation of plain sawdust before starting the layers of colored sawdust.


Here´s an example of an alfombra up close. Each group had their own technique for making their sawdust smooth, but to do the designes, everyone used homemade stencils made of cardboard. Some families have been making alfombras for decades and make a different one each year.

One of the smaller alfombras about the cultural aspects of Comayagua

This is a good example of the scale of many of the larger alfombras

Although traditionally the alfombras are made of sawdust, some include rice, dried beans, grains, leaves, pine needles, and whatever else the designers think up

Here is the full scale example of the one using non-traditional materials

A great deal of planning has to go into the process since those making them have to start in the middle and work their way out.

After the procession