“Gesundheit!” – as Ali Stevenson replied when I mentioned this destination on my Facebook status on Thursday, April 2, 2009. Of all of the locations that we visited in Guatemala during our trip, I think both Bob and I were the least enthused by going to Chichicastenango. The draw of this city was the gigantic open-air Indian market where residents and tourists far and wide came to barter their goods. I was interested in purchasing absolutely nothing except for a magnet. And naturally no one had any of those.
We departed nice and early once again after one of our now patented (but never tiresome) giant breakfast buffets. Our bus left the Guatemala City Barcelo at 7am and we embarked on the long journey, traveling about 85 miles northwest. Chichicastenango was in fact only about 20 miles north of Lake Atitlan, which we had visited two days earlier.
Bob and I, along with our tour guide Steve, had actually sought out an alternate activity for the day which may have allowed us to visit another country in El Salvador, but we were a bit late in trying to alter the plans on the day before. But it turned out that we were able to see some very interesting things in Chichicastenango that we weren’t expecting, so I’m glad that we got to visit it.
Again, because of the insane traffic and road stoppages, it took us over three hours to get to Chichicastenango, and again stopping at Restaurante Katok both on the way there and back for our ‘biological stops’ as we had grown accustomed while traveling to Lake Atitlan. When we arrived in the city at around 10:30, we were told that ‘legitimate’ young guides would ask if they could walk around with us and help us find anything that we might want to purchase. They didn’t charge for the service, but of course would hope for a tip. These guys flocked the bus when we first arrived, but our guide Antonio told them not to crowd and to meet up with us after we toured the church.
The Church of Santo Tomás was located at the edge of the market area and was an interesting 400-year old building erected atop a Pre-Columbian foundation. Although it had been ‘suggested’ that we not wear shorts in some of the other churches we visited, Antonio was adamant about this one, so we were forced to endure long pants on this day.
Sitting on one of the eighteen steps in front of the Church of Santo Tomás, each one symbolizing a month of the Mayan calendar
Waving from the steps of the church
Santo Tomás was the only Catholic church in Latin America in which both the original Mayan rituals were performed alongside of the Spanish-influenced Catholic principles. Even as we toured, we saw Mayan priests praying with Mayan farmers for successful crops and going through the odd rituals of setting up candles and pouring gin around them. Then we watched the same fellow pray to one of the Catholic Saints – and throw gin on him as well! Even Antonio, who had studied the Mayan Popul Vuh didn’t have an explanation for all that they were doing. When asked why the Catholic church tolerated the Pagan rituals, Antonio reminded us that it was the Mayan church who had tolerated the infiltration of the Catholic church.
After touring the church, we made our way over to where we would be having lunch that afternoon at the Mayan Inn. This way we know where to meet up after having some time to walk the city. Here we also selected our ‘helpers’ who would go around and help translate for us. We chose Carlos (who went by Charles), but when Bob and I both went for a restroom break, he was nowhere to be found – so Ricardo (who went by Richard) joined us. But after beginning our descent down a huge hill toward the Chichicastenango cemetery, Carlos came trotting after us. Always the soft-heart, Bob told them that they could both come along with us.
The Mayan cemetery simply named the Cementario General was quite interesting. From a distance it looked like a miniature version of the town of Seaside, Florida, with most of the graves, mausoleums, and memorials painted in bright pastel colors. It was such a different culture from the dreary, gray cemeteries we are used to in America. The cemetery was on the brink of a huge valley, and when we looked down there and saw piles and piles of trash typical of many areas of Guatemala that had been hauled to the cemetery and discarded over the cliff.
Your typical walk-to-the-cemetery street cow encounter
Cemetery or miniature golf course?
Among the colorful graves
Gentlemen performing a Mayan ritual in the cemetery
Another interesting grave monument, obviously modeled after the pyramids of Tikal
The poorer section of the cemetery
After leaving the cemetery we stopped by the city’s second church, El Calvario, which was smaller, newer, and less famous than Santo Tomás. There were definite Mayan influences in this Catholic church as well, and like all the others had been adorned in purple for Holy Week.
On the streets of Chichicastenango
On the steps of the Church of El Calvario
On the steps of El Calvario overlooking the marketplace with the Church of Santo Tomás in the background
One thing that Bob, as a teacher, had hoped to see when we were in Antigua was one of the local schools. We asked Carlos and Ricardo if there was a school they could take us to. In fact, I actually exercised what little Spanish chops I had remaining to get this info out of them: donde esta la escuela?
Unlike anything you’d ever dream of in America, we were simply able to walk onto the school’s outdoor campus and peer into the rooms while the classes were in session. One group of cute kids were in music class. One of the other teachers let us come into the class and get a photo with him at the front of the room. Other kids seemed to merely roam around on the school property – and ask us for ‘dollars’.
What hill?
At the entrance to the elementary school
Music class
Called to the head of the class
Guatemalan girls are just as giggly
We made a quick stop at the Hotel Santo Tomás just to look around (inside of which the photo at the top of the posting was taken) and then walked a good distance back to the market in search of a magnet that bore the name of the city on it. Ricardo and Carlos misunderstood me and took me to the market at first. They found one kid who had a magnet for sale, but it wasn’t what I wanted – so Bob bought it, feeling sorry for the kid. I’m such a heel.
An overview of the magnet…er market
Finally, we made it back to the Mayan inn just in time for lunch. We tipped our two new friends and bought them sodas and then sat down to lunch. I had a nice variety of parallada (or mixed dishes) including carne de merrano, pollo, frijoles, queso, guacamole y arroz, and a nice ice cream finish.
Bidding farewell to Carlos and Ricardo
A nice array of eats at the Mayan Inn
With our colorfully clad waiter
It was then time to make our way back to our bus, with a number of peddlers following along with us. It was around 2:30 when we left, again through the crazy traffic and making our pit stop at Restaurante Katok. The only thing to distinguish this bus ride was that we finally were able to see a chicken bus wreck, with one of them turned over on its side. Antonio regaled us with tales of horrible accidents which occur at least monthly, sometimes with mutilated bodies lining the streets. Bob and I never did get the chance to ride one. Crying shame.
We got back to our hotel in Guatemala City around 6pm. Bob and I decided to be even braver that we had already been, this time taking a walk in the dark to find a restaurant in which to have dinner. We chose a nice place called the Los Ranchos Steakhouse. It was obvious how bad the economy was here as this very nice and spacious eatery was completely empty. Bob treated me to a great meal complete with an appetizer sampler and a filete de lomito con cebollas (tenderloin served with savory sauteed onions), and even a Pepsi.
Dinner at Los Ranchos
All good things came to an end that night when I went to get on the internet and found that the computer’s mouse had been dislodged and the prongs were bent, rendering it unusable. Although I reported it to the front desk, I had to go down to the business center to get on the internet. Since I was still there when they closed up at 10pm, they had shut down their register and computer and decided to not charge me. All was well that ended well.
The Guatemala trip will conclude in the next posting…actually in another foreign country…
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