Chichicastenango...the shopping Mecca

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The largest market in Central America, people flock here in their droves to buy crafts at hugely inflated prices. Inspecting a fluffy blanket, I was offered a starting price of 600Q and told that tomorrow (actual market day) they would be asking 1200Q. Further evidence of the abundance of dollar happy tourists was the flock of small boys that hounded me as soon as I got off the bus, offering to guide e to a hotel then chasing me around with dolls and fridge magnets, even lying in wait as I toured the museum.

Another aspect of the town is it's strong mix of ladino and Mayan cultures, the parallel governments and the hybrid Catholic and pagan worship. The church of Santo Tomas is a perfect example of this. On the steps cofrades (the holy men) swing incense in perforated cans and small fires burn. The church can only be entered fro the side door, the front being reserved for priests and cofrades only. Carved wooden saints line the walls in glass cases and gaudy mannequins wait to receive your offerings of bank notes. The wide aisle is full of melting candles, lit or the ancestors and the saints. Opposite is El Clavarios, a smaller version of the same apparently good for confessions and pardons.

Out of town and up a small hill is the religious site of Pascual Abaj. A blackened patch of grass with a rock altar and a pre-comlumbine stone idol.

The cemetry here is a place to visit and celebrate in colour rather than mourn in cold greyness. Every tomb as painted a bright pastel shade, and I imagine, better decorated than most people's houses.

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Photos

Iglesia Santo Tomas
The site of pagan Mayan worship mixed with Catholic devotion

Mayan mural in the square
¨Today and yesterday¨