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From San Pedro la Laguna we decided to do a day trip to Chichi, famous for its market where hundreds come for a bargain buy (Thursday and Sunday).
Instead of taking a tour, we decided to take the chicken bus (which meant that we had to get onto 3 different buses, but in the end we got there before the tours arrived and it was cheaper as well).
Chichi is a curious blend of mysticism and commercialism. The name derives from the chichicaste, a prickly purple plant like a nettle, which grows profusely, and tenango, meaning 'place of'. About 20,000 Maya live in the hills nearby and flood the town for the Thursday and Sunday market. The town itself has winding streets of white houses roofed with bright red tiles, which wander over a little knoll in the center of a cup-shaped valley surrounded by high mountains. The men's traditional outfit is a short-waisted embroidered jacket and knee breeches of black cloth, a woven sash and an embroidered kerchief round the head. The cost of this outfit, now over USD 200, means that fewer and fewer men are wearing it. Women wear huipiles (vests/blouses) with red embroidery against black or brown and their cortes (skirts) have dark blue stripes.
The town has two churches facing eachother, Santo Tomas (parish church) and Calvario. The steps of Santo Tomas church are blanketed in flowers as the women, in traditional dress, fluff up their skirts, amid baskets of lilies, roses and blackberrries. It is a great sight, but did feel very chaotic as well. After all the markets we had seen in South America this one was nothing special, so we headed for the hill of Pascual Abaj (God of Fertility). Here, crosses in the ground surrounding the shrine are prayed in front of for the health of men, women and children, and for the dead. Fires burn and and the wax of many candles, flowers, chicken and sugar cover the shrine. They use Pepsi or Coca Cola to purify people (not Fanta or any other fizzy drink).
After an hour or 4 we headed back to Lake Atitlan via chicken bus.
previous travel blog entry
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