Guatemala

Market Town: Chichicastenango, Guatemala

Article and photography by Steve Gillick

The idea of visiting a place named ‘Chichicastenango’ was alluring on its own, but as local-market-aficionados, we were literally itching to visit this one! And this was wholly appropriate as the town’s name iterally means “The place (tenango) of nettles (chichicas)”, an onomatopoeic reference to stinging nettles that when touched, irritate the skin causing itching and rashes, and so our enthusiasm was well defined!

After a three hour Sunday morning drive from Guatemala City with our tour guide Julio, we arrived in Chichicastenango, a culture center for the K’iche’Maya who comprise 98.5% of the population in this part of the country. Every Thursday and Sunday this quiet town is transformed into a bustling hive of activity that boasts a lively tourist handicraft market, a busy fresh food market, flower vendors perched on the crumbling, white, stone steps of the four hundred year old church of Santo Tomás, and locals from near and far, who enhanced the energy and atmosphere of market day with their traditional, colourful, clothing.

We arranged to meet Julio in 4 hours at the Santo Tomás Hotel, a prominent landmark that showcases Spanish colonial art, a beautiful inner courtyard full of exotic birds, and even public washrooms, and then we set off to explore.

As photographers and collectors of local masks, my friend and I were in seventh heaven. Hundreds of handcrafted and finely detailed, wooden, traditional dance masks were on display in the vendor stalls. Over the next few hours we chatted (they in K’iche and Spanish, we in a mixed ‘Spanglish’), laughed, bargained and even took photos of our encounters (with the blessings of the vendors). Our backpacks were eventually filled with an assortment of amazing, beautiful masks that to this day, ignite memories of that happy day in the market.

After our mask-buying frenzy subsided (somewhat), we just wandered around the handicraft stalls to see yards of intricately woven, ultra-colourful textiles, and displays of shoulder bags, leather goods, shawls, tee-shirts, hats and even local coffee.

Down an alleyway, inside a non-descript pink building was the food market, where tables were loaded with rainbow displays of bananas, pineapples, mangoes, papayas, rambutan, plantain, tomatoes, and vegetables. Nearby in a street market, more everyday products were sold: dishes, pots and pans, grindstones, kitchen utensils, pottery, clothing and shoes as well as live pigs, ducks and chickens.

And now, closer to lunch time, our senses were bombarded with the absolutely tantalizing smells emanating from the street-food stalls: freshly made tortillas, grilled corn, guacamole, refried beans, grilled chicken, beef and pork, along with rice and vegetables.

We ended up spending an extra hour wandering the streets, talking with locals, taking tons of photos, giving out finger-puppets to the kids (with their parent’s permission) and sitting on the church steps with the flower sellers just absorbing as much of the fascinating ambiance as possible. This was absolutely one of the more memorable market days in all my travels.

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