Chichicastenango and back to Antigua

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With the tour drawing to an end it was time for us to return to Colonial Antigua. However first of all we planned to make a shopping stop at Chichicastenango.

“Chichi” hosts a huge market on Sundays and Thursdays. We arrived on a Thursday morning and joined the myriad of day tripping tourists all looking for that little something special. I’ve never witnessed such chaos in a public place. The competition between the stalls here is fierce and many a stall owner tried to block my path and guide me towards his stall in the hope that I wouldn’t notice that the same stuff was being sold by the guy behind him. With me having 2 months left of my trip I elected to keep my spending to a minimum - I would only have to carry everything that I bought in my backpack later - and so I focused more on taking photographs of things that amused me and checking that the contents of my pockets were still all present and correct.

After a few hours of pickpocket dodging I was back on the road to Antigua where in a couple of days time, the whole trip would terminate. Having already spent a full week in Antigua it was soon my turn to act as tour guide. On arriving I dumped my bags and ventured out onto the streets of Antigua with a small travelling party in tow. Having shown them my old Spanish school (for sentimental reason) and the Parque Central, the impromptu tour took on a new note - which were the nicest churches to view, are there any museums and where can we get a good coffee and a meal - I was starving.

The next day was spent idling around the streets not doing very much I particular. The last 2 weeks had definitely taken their toll on my energy levels. However that evening would again see me grace the dance floor, it was time to Salsa again! This was my third lesson so I was beginning to get good - or so I thought. To anyone that has ever done any Salsa dancing you will realise that the man has to lead. This puts the man in a tricky enough situation as the dancing involves a lot of twisting, spinning and directional stepping. As a group of novices that had spent time in many a European discothèque, the required smooth choreography was sadly lacking and showed little sign of developing and so having happily nailed the basic steps a few times the night descended into a medley of giggles and hip wiggles. I’m sure this did not look as good as the dance teacher had hoped but who cares - dancing is about having fun and as a group we couldn’t think of a better way to send each other off. We had a great time.

The next day the travelling party would all go their separate ways. Looking back this had been a thoroughly enjoyable and eye opening tour, and I’m made some good friends as well. To those of you from the tour reading, it was a pleasure to meet you all and may I wish you the best for the future.

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