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On Sunday, November 21st, we arose early to catch the 6:45 a.m. bus to the famous Sunday market at Chichicastenango, better known as ChiChi. In our travels to date through South and Central America, we have seen numerous markets. Indeed, we almost did not go to ChiChi because we thought that it would just be another market. However, the ChiChi Sunday market was the best, most lively, and most interesting market we visited.
After enduring a ridiculously crowded school bus ride to ChiChi, we endulged in a hearty Guatemalan breakfast. This one includes two eggs atop corn tortillas, black beans, chorizo sausage, cheese, and fried bananas. Freshly squeezed pineapple juice, bread and delicious Guatemalan coffee was also included. The cost for this meal was 20 Quetzales, the equivalent of roughly $2.72.
After our delicious breakfast, we were ready to enjoy the market. The market is enormous, consisting of hundreds of merchants selling everything imaginable, including, as you can see from this photo, chickens. People from surrounding villages travel every Sunday to this market, as evidenced by the bus load upon bus load of people that arrived at the same time we did.
Livestock is also available at the market.
What makes the market so fascinating is its blend of indigenous people conducting commerce, amidst the tourists and travelers and the booths that cater to tourists and travelers.
This man is selling corn kernels, presumably for grinding into tortillas and other foodstuff. He weighs the corn manually as seen here.
The center of the market lies at the foot of Iglesia de Santa Tomas. Though this is a Catholic church, many of the rituals and worshipping is more Mayan in nature. Here on the steps of Santa Tomas, a man tends to burning incense.
The Iglesia de Santa Tomas.
This brightly painted school bus is typical of the school buses that serve as the backbone of the Guatemala transportation system. As retired United States school buses, their seats are the same ones you remember: small and uncomfortable and designed for school children. Now consider if you will, stuffing three adults into each of such seats, and having the aisle similarly packed with standing passengers, and perhaps you can imagine what riding in these buses can be like. There are many private, more comfortable alternatives, but for a dollar, together with the cultural experience, we would not have it any other way.
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