Chichicastenango ¨ChiChi¨

Wednesday afternoon we took a shuttle to Chichi so we could see their famous market. The shuttle was full of grouchy people except for us. We got rid of almost all of the grouchy people at the four corners when we had to switch shuttles. We got in our new fun shuttle and enjoyed the ride to Chichi. The roads were twisty, turny, and curvy (almost like taking highway 89A between Prescott and Jerome).
Our driver dropped us off at our hotel which was the Maya Lodge. The front door faces directly into the market. We explored the tiny little village making the famous Santo Tomas church our first stop. We watched as some of the Mayans participated in their rituals on the front steps of the church while burning incense and wood. Flowers were also a part of the ritual.
After watching that, we got something to eat at this really neat restaurant that displayed varies types of art. We decided to have a drink on the terrace that overlooked the park in the center of town and it was also a nice evening. While we were on the terrace, we watched as a few of the vendors set up their booth for the next day. It was amazing what they did with a few sticks and a tarp. In the U.S we see many people that have the pop up tents but not here. We also got to see a few of the local boys skate on their boards and on roller blades. The streets are made of rock and the only cement that was present was in the small park. However, they made due of their surroundings and enjoyed themselves.

The next morning we woke up to the noise of the street with people shopping, setting up their stands and also to no electricity and no hot water to take a shower. Since the check out time was 1, we decided that we would shop for a bit have breakfast and then come back to shower before heading home.

As soon as we walked out of our hotel you could feel the energy of all the people that were shopping and trying to sell to you. We made our way through half of the stands and came across some pretty good deals. I must say, I am a natural born barter. After a couple of hours and a few bags of treasures we decided to have breakfast. Then after breakfast we decided to head back to our hotel to see if we had electricity or water and to drop off collection of gifts. Well, no luck in the hot water or electricity (so we remained stinky for the day). I decided to go back out to see if I could find any other deals while Kathy stayed back to make a list of what she needed or wanted.

In my adventure out, I came to an agreement with one of the vendors and my purchase was very large for the amount I paid. I was so pleased with myself that I had to go back to the hotel to drop off the bag of goodies and tell Kathy. She was really impressed with my skills that she gave me money to go and buy her some as well.

We then went out for our second or third round of shopping. Kathy had a hard time with negotiating the prices. However, after a while she did get the hang of it and bought some really cool items. We realized that what we bought we could not fit in our backpacks so we had to purchase this really large bag (that we could tie to the roof of the shuttle if we needed to) to put all of our treasures (gifts) in.

We then decided that we needed to cool off with a cold soda so we headed to the food court section of the market. We saw some sodas in a cooler and we decided to buy a couple. However, when the young man gave them to us they were quite warm but we were thirsty. While we were sitting at the table drinking our sodas we saw a chicken tied up to a table. I was totally amazed because I have a hard time keeping my dog on a leash and here someone tied up this chicken and it was staying their. Later on, I spoke with my friend and he told me that the chicken was going to be someones food (thanks Erik).

We ended our day with a great lunch, a couple of beers and hot chocolate for dessert.