Chichicastenango is a town in the highlands of Guatemala, famed for its bi-weekly markets. It had always been the site of a large traditional market on these days, but in the 1930s, an entrepreneur opened up the Hotel Maya Inn realizing the opportunity available for busing in tourists from elsewhere in Guatemala. Since then, it's become more of a tourist attraction than a traditional market, where you can buy wood carvings, embroideries, and other souvenirs, though locals still do much of their shopping for daily items in a different area of the market. Amy and I picked up a few masks and other things for ourselves and for friends and family. Haggling is a necessity, and you can usually end up getting the seller down to less than half of their original asking price.
Many of the locals are practitioners of syncretism, a blending of traditional Mayan beliefs with Catholicism, and on the Sunday morning soon after we arrived, we witnessed the Mayan procession start from the steps of the church of Santo Tomás, complete with fireworks and a cloud of incense. The church itself was built on top of a Mayan spiritual site around 1540. On our way out of town some hours later, we saw the procession still going, miles away from where it had started. The cemetery to the west of town is incredibly colorful, and while we were there, many people were paying their respects to the dead through prayer and sacrificial burnings. Other great pictures of the town can be found at Eve Anderson's website.
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