Guatemala 2025 - Days Four And Five - Market Days In The Mayan Highlands

Thursday - 02/13 - Chichicastenango

We Checked out of our hotel and left the city.  We were the only people with our guide/driver Marco.  We had a two to three hour drive to the town of Chichicastenango (Chichi for short).  Chichi, located in the Mayan Highlands, is famous for their market.  Every Thursday and Sunday the town fills up with stalls selling handicrafts and food.  I'd been there several times in the 70s before it became too dangerous due to the civil war.

A display of Mayan rituals.

The drive up to Chichi, located at 6,500 ft (1,965 m), takes you through Guatemala's mountainous countryside and is very twisty and turny, especially near the end.  The Wife has been known to get a little queasy when she's on twisty roads.  At our first rest stop where we bought some snacks and used the facilities, the Wife brought up her issue with the driver.  He suggested a 'home remedy' which consisted of putting a folded newspaper on your lower abdomen over your belly button.  We all smiled at this, including the guide, but the Wife did it anyway.  For the remainder of the drive the Wife had a lively conversation about politics and religion with the driver.  By the time we reached Chichi the Wife realized she felt fine.  Was it the newspaper on her abdomen or was it the fact the driver kept her distracted the entire drive up through the hairpin curves?  We may never know.

The Chichicastenango market.

We checked into our hotel, located in an old convent, before walking a hundred feet to the city square.  The square was filled with market stalls.  Originally there were two Mayan temples on the central plaza - roughly on the east-west axis.  The stairs of the temples still exist but churches were built on top by the Spanish.  The 'church' of the west is primarily used as a Mayan temple where locals worship using a mixture of Catholic and Mayan rituals.  The church on the east is an active Catholic church though some Mayan rituals are also performed there as well.

After visiting the churches, our guide left the afternoon for ourselves.  We ate a good lunch at the hotel restaurant and admired the gardens, parrots, and decor of the historic hotel.  Then we got our shopping on.  We walked through the stalls looking at huipiles (Mayan embroidered blouses), carvings, Mary figures, and of course, magnets.  We came out with a bag full of treasures.

The colorful Chichicastenango cemetery.

The fireplace in our room.

We dropped our purchases in our room and then walked to the nearby colorful cemetery.  The cemetery is known for being the most colorful cemetery in Guatemala.  The mausoleums and crypts are painted in vibrant colors.  Sadly the trash between the graves was a bit distracting.  I mentioned that Guatemala City is very clean but the countryside, and this cemetery, has a major litter problem.  On the way back we grabbed some snacks from a tienda and went to the hotel bar.

At Chichi's altitude, it gets pretty cold in the 'winter'.  Our room had a wood burning fireplace and we took full advantage of that fact.  We spent the evening sitting in front of the fire and eating our snacks.  It was a near perfect evening.

Friday - 02/14 - Solola

We were picked up by our driver/guide after breakfast and we headed to the town of Solola.  Here we were visiting another market which was more of an everyday food and grocery market with some handicrafts on the side.  It was really crowded and I didn't really handle it so well.  I didn't take any pictures and we didn't buy anything that I remember.  All I remember was I was happy to get out of the crowd and back into our van.

We ended our day in a very nice hotel on the shores of lake Atitlan.

Pictures can be found in my 2025-02 Guatemala Google Photos album.