The Indian market wasn’t until the following day, Sunday, and I expected to find Chichicastenango still a sleepy mountain hamlet, traffic-free and almost deserted. Instead, it looked like a cross between a country fair, flea market and a Mayan version of a powwow.
People were streaming in from the countryside laden with goods, some arriving in ramshackle trucks and buses, but many on foot. The women walked with bundles on their heads and wore huipiles, brightly colored and richly embroidered long dresses, the colors and patterns denoting different villages. The men had big straw hats and most carried enormous loads on their backs, the great weight eased by a supporting strap across the forehead. Stalls were already set up on sidewalks all over town and whole families were preparing to camp overnight in the covered arcades around the market square.
According to the map in my guidebook, the center of Chichicastenango was laid out in the usual, logical Spanish colonial grid pattern. But I could make no sense out of the rainbow-colored chaos of the market in the making, which totally swamped the street plan, and I got lost as soon as I drove into town. I was rescued by an enterprising small boy who, in exchange for the ballpoint pen he spotted in my shirt pocket, ran ahead of the car and guided me down cobblestoned alleys and through what seemed more like shopping aisles than streets to my hotel.
“If this is what Chichi is like before the market,” I wondered, “what must it be like during it?” The answer, it turned out, was the same-and much more besides.
About a three-hour drive from Guatemala City over the Central American Highway and up a potholed corkscrew of an access road, Chichicastenango sits on a misty plateau more than 6,000 feet high, surrounded by mountains and deep valleys. Seemingly isolated and remote, it is nevertheless the hub of its region and has been an important market town since before the Spanish conquest in the 16th Century-which in the Guatemalan highlands doesn’t seem all that long ago.
The town’s population is 8,000, the great majority Indians whose first language is a Mayan dialect, but on market days the population easily quintuples. There are two weekly markets, on Thursdays and Sundays. Both markets are large and colorful but the Sunday one combines religious pageantry-a mix of pagan and Christian worship-with frenetic commercial activity.
My hotel, Posada Chuguila, was three blocks from the market square and built in the Spanish manner around a garden courtyard, an oasis where the outside world is kept at bay. So, I was surprised when I walked out of the hotel after breakfast to find that the market had spilled out of the plaza and was lapping at the hotel gates.
The street was lined with vendors selling shirts, dresses, blankets, sweaters, bags and jewelry in colorful Guatemalan designs. Many of the street merchants were women with little children at their feet (and sometimes at the breast) and while they waited for customers wove the kind of brilliantly hued textiles they sold on small hand looms.
The closer I got to the market square, the thicker the crowds became, until it was difficult to move. The central plaza was completely covered with rows of canvas-roofed stalls, the aisles between them jam-packed. The arcades around the square, dormitories by night, were mini-malls by day and also lined with vendors.
While much for sale, such as texiles and jewelry, is of interest to both locals and tourists, the market definitely belongs to the Mashenos, as the people of the Chichi area are called. Local farmers sell fresh fruits and vegetables, hauled down from tiny terraced hillside plots above the town. Many Masheno dealers specialize only in utilitarian goods such as machetes, enamel pots and pans, harnesses and saddles, plastic sandals (preferred footwear of Indian women,) leather saddles and harnesses. Also, chunks of chalk that is mixed with water and used to soften dried corn, a staple of the Guatemalan Indian diet since the dawn of time.
Although I am not, to put it mildly, an avid shopper, no one can escape the Chichi market without making a purchase. Not even me. The vendors, particularly the local Quiche Mayans, are affable but persistent, for one thing, and make a good-humored game out of bargaining. Only fools and gringos-foreigners-pay the first asking price at the Chichi market. Guatemala is one of the dwindling number of countries where the buck still has a lot of bang to it, which makes almost anything you buy a bargain by United States standards.
Stylish, well-made men’s shirts in eye-catching traditional Guatemalan colors that would probably sell for $25 or more in an American city boutique or suburban mall, for instance, can be had (with only a very little haggling) for about 30 quetzales-roughly $5-in the Chichi market. Other locally made goods are similarly priced. A good bargainer can do even better. And, in Chichi, where merchandise must be brought a long way, often on someone’s back, prices drop drastically toward the end of the day since dealers would rather sell something for less than have to carry it home again.
Fortunately for my budget, I was saved from a shopping spree by the bell, the bell of Santo Tomas church calling the faithful to mass. Abandoning shopping, I headed for church. Built around 1540, Santo Tomas is a large whitewashed church on the east side of the plaza.
The ancient Mayans believed corn was a gift of the sun god and the source of all life. Their descendents still attach mystical significance to corn and call themselve Hombres de Maiz-the people of corn.
An imposing flight of stone stairs leads from the plaza to the main door of the church, but mass attendees used a side entrance. The steps are reserved for offerings (usually ears of corn ritually sprinkled with rum and set on fire) and private prayer ceremonies.
Shamans called chuchkajues-“mother-father”-stood on the steps of Santo Tomas, facing the altar, and swung smoking cans filled with pungent incense made of copal resin, chanting Mayan prayers to their ancestors and the protective spirits of the elements.
The interior of the church was filled with lighted candles, the main aisle covered with offerings of corn, flowers and pine bouanish missionary, had filled the cavernous church with a thick cloud of copal incense did the service begin.
Bare-legged in traditional Mayan dress, the dignified leaders of the 14 Masheno cofrades-brotherhoods dedicated to different saints-solemnly stood guard around the altar, each holding an ornate silver staff of office. Hymns were in Spanish but sung to sprightly Guatemalan tunes and accompanied by a 12-piece marimba band. Prayers, gospel readings and the long sermon were given in both Spanish and the local Quiche Mayan dialect.
Throughout the service, Indians wandered in and out, making offerings and lighting candles. Many seemed in a world of their own, praying in all likelihood to a different god-or gods-than the one being worshiped at the altar.
The Mayan influence is strong in Santo Tomas Church but it’s total at Pascual Abaj, “the sacrifice stone.” This is an idol, hundreds perhaps thousands of years old, representing Huyup Tak’Ah, the Mayan earth god.
The sacrifice stone, one of the few such Mayan ritual sites still in use, stands on a pine covered hilltop on the outskirts of Chichi.You must walk through a field of standing corn before climbing the hill, which looks out over the green countryside and the red tile roofs of the town.
On market days, the hike up to Pascual Abaj can be a social experience. The path is frequently crowded both with camera-toting international tourists-who greet each other with a cheerful “Bonjour,” “Guten tag” or “Hi”-and Mashenos, who smile shyly and softly say “Buenos dias.”
Squat and smoke-blackened, the earth god, who looks like a cruder version of an Easter Island figure, sits crookedly in a rough fieldstone altar, surrounded by floral tributes and the remains of burnt offerings. Huyup Tak`Ah’s favor ensures fertile fields and good crops and farmers and chuckajues come to Pascual Abaj to make corn sacrifices and sometimes, if the need is particularly great, also slaughter a chicken or two.
Standing before the powerful, primal image of the god, the air redolent of old burning and new incense and the wind whispering Mayan messages through the shadowing pines, the cheerful hubbub of the Chichi market seemed an age away. So did the entire modern world, for that matter.
Pointers on how to make market day memorable
Getting there: Chichicastenango is about a three-hour drive from Guatemala City, most of it over the relatively smooth and well-maintained Central American Highway. However, the last 10 miles or so is up a twisting, rutted, pothole-dotted mountain road constantly under-and in need of-major repairs. It is not a road for the faint of heart.
Local buses are very cheap and ply the route regularly but are usually jam-packed and often in worse shape than the road. A popular compromise is to take one of the vans or mini-buses run by tour companies from Guatemala City and resorts such as Antigua and Panajachel.
Indian market. The famous Chichi Indian market is held twice a week, on Thursdays and Sundays. Both markets are large and colorful, with plenty of bargains-particularly textiles, jewelry and handicrafts-and photo opportunities. On Sundays there is also often a religious procession through town. Mass in 450-year-old Santo Tomas Church, where the service is in Mayan and Spanish and a Marimba band provides the music, is a memorable experience.
Both markets start early in the morning. So, if possible, stay in Chichi the night before and tackle the market first thing before the tourist vans and buses arrive.
Hotels. The best hotel in Chichi-and one of the nicest in Guatemala-is the Mayan Inn, which incorporates several restored colonial homes and has lush tropical gardens and a good restaurant. (Singles are $75, doubles $85 a night.) Less posh but very pleasant is Posada Chuguila, which has an attractive dining patio. (Singles, $27; doubles, $32.)
More information. For general information about Guatemala, write to: the Guatemala Tourist Commission, Suite 510, 299 Alhambra Circle, Coral Gables, Fla. 33134. Or call 800-742-4529.
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Most of the hotels and other buildings in Chichicastenango are accessible; streets are paved with cobblestones and there are no curb ramps. In general, getting around is somewhat difficult for handicapped travelers, but not impossible.
