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Published: October 7th 2013
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National geographic candidate
One of those weathered faces that deserve a zoom lense and close up. Where did all those Guatemalan kidnappings take place back in the 60s-80s? Which area gets the most reports of children suddenly disappearing. Which region is most famous for tourist buses being hijacked. I don't know. But for the sake of argument lets say that's the Guatemalan western highlands. And that's where we were off to today.
The Guatemalan highlands are where you get to see the real heart and soul of Guatemala (and I don't mean kidnappings and hijackings). This is where tradition and culture are clearly visible and where paganized Catholicism runs at full strength. Or at least that's what the guidebooks said anyway. Our destination for the day was Chichicastenango, a mountain village which has become a tourist hub due to its famed market - a central gathering point for the local villages to trade their wares.
The drive up was slow going in a mini van and though scenic, was nothing amazing. We did get to stop over at a few rest stops for some views and food, but alas not much to make the drive interesting. We pulled into Chichicastenango 3 hours later eager to stretch our legs and explore.
Chichicastenango was much smaller
Village produce I think not
The main parts of Chichicastenango market is filled with items that definitely look far from hand made - and on closer inspection I'm sure there would be a few made in china tags. But they were very pretty and didn't stop my wife from buying a few . than we had expected and the market had a slight 'made for tourism' feel to it. On the surface we saw way too many trinkets and not enough local produce and real stuff that locals would buy, which made us feel that perhaps this day wasn't going to be as culturally exciting as we thought. However, persistence paid off and as we delved our way deeper into the stalls and into the side alleys, we did come across just regular folks doing regular things. We had a nice meal in a tiny little eatery where we were entertained by giggles and stares from the waitresses (they seemed to like our daughter).
Most memorable were all the colorful Huipil (native dress). Men and women alike were decked out in dark cloth splattered with vibrant colors, and from the looks of it, they weren't wearing them just for the tourists. It made for great photo opportunities, particularly the older folks with their tough weathered skin and wispy grey hair and distant looks in their eyes - I could just picture some national geographic magazine out there probably had these exact photos.
Near noon we headed over to the Church of
The steps of Saint Thomas church
During the day, also the site of a vegetable market Saint Thomas to gawk at a procession of the Brotherhoods. Brotherhoods - so mystical and spooky sounding. But in essence, each village elects religious elders called cofradias to head their local brotherhoods. And then they get together occasionally and do processions. The processions are indeed not what you would immediately expect from a church procession. Lots of smokes, some chanting, a guy dancing around with a white horse image and all along devotees bringing sacrifices of corn and laying them at the entrance to the church. The cofradias looked more like shamans to be honest than catholic priests. It turns out that Guatemalan Catholicism was watered down with local pre-Christian Mayan practices to make it more palatable to the locals, and since then, has evolved into its own sub-religion. Lets just hope they still believe in the Bible and Jesus (not sure about that part, as the next day we saw Judas' effigy being paraded about).
We walked through the church itself and felt highly disrespectful because people were actually there for a service. The floor was covered in sand art - colored sand put together into pictures like mosaics. Corn was the dominant theme once again, with the
occasional depiction of Jesus. And a few guys chanting and swinging tins of smoke. It felt kind of spooky ... no disrespect intended to any Guatemalan readers out there!
After lunch we hopped back in the bus and made the descent back to Antigua. Alas I developed a sudden fever and nausea which made the bumpy trip a countdown to hell. I was thoroughly relieved when we pulled into Antigua. And strangely enough as soon as I jumped off the bus I was back to normal. Weird. Must have been all that smoke and corn from Saint Thomas Church.
That night we had a great meal of a chimichangas. Its here that we discovered the true delights of picante and the varied options around this variety of hot sauce. If you've had tabasco, this is just one type of picante. Guatemala is full of different types of hot sauces, ranging from green to red to brown. And all with their unique flavors and most filled with enough explosiveness to make your head sweat just thinking about it. The suitcase was promptly filled with bottles of picante that night.
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