14.943438 N 91.11108 W
We took the chicken bus for the 1.5hr ride to Chichi (as it is known by locals). This tiny hilltop town boasts the biggest handcraft market in Guatemala. All the tourist brochures tell tourists to wait until they get to Chichi to buy their trinkets – and bargain hard!! Bargain is something I find very difficult to do – these people have very little and their prices are not unreasonable but it is part of the culture, so like any sook I got Don to do my bargaining for me – and surprisingly he handled it very well. Anyone who knows Don well knows how much he hates window shopping – so do I so that works well – usually. I wanted to browse and browse and of course buy !! I built Don up for days and when the day came I wondered just how he would handle a day of being harassed, pushed and even more difficult – dealing with an indecisive wife. He came out of it with flying colors – he didn’t call it quits until 3.30pm – amazing for him !! An ice cream at midday helped !
We could have spent many dollars on the beautiful embroidery, leather goods, bags etc but anything we buy we have to carry on our trip and security is very lax on buses and in some hotels, so I tend to keep my backpack with me at all times. One particularly persistent seller harassed us up and down the lanes, following, side stepping and pushing in front of us – always throwing her embroidery on my shoulder telling me to buy. She was so persistent that Don actually became rude to her but she shrugged it off and kept insisting we purchase from her. We entered a shop and stayed for a while only to find her still waiting for us when we came out. We ended up going back to our hotel and hiding for a few hours. We only managed a few minutes before she found us again when we returned to the street. Her prices kept dropping and they were good prices so I ended up buying an embroidered wall hanging/table runner from her – the piece is lovely and it did have the extra advantage of getting rid of her.
Our accommodation here was a bit ordinary and the restaurants relatively expensive.
Our room boasted hot water – hot water in this part of the country consists of an upside down mushroom the size of a bread and butter plate – the stem is where the cold water enters, the mushroom has an electrical element in it so if you turn the cold water on hard the result is running cold water – if you slow the flow down drastically the element heats the water as it passes through. Our system had bare wires hanging out and a hole in the stem which directed a flow directly onto the electrical wires – sparks flew!! The similar system in the hotel at Lake Atitlan only gave very hot water – Don pulled the strange contraption apart and noticed that most of the little holes the water passes through were blocked by calcium deposits. The slower the water flows, the more time the element has to heat the water up. Out came a paper clip and Don sat there and cleared all the holes – he did the job too well as after that only cold water came through – next we blocked up ½ the holes again – my first suggestion was to use the inside of our raisins – after trying that and it not being particularly successful Don rubbed soap into the holes – that worked quite well for a while but you had to be reapplied now and then – now back to Chichi ….
This is a lovely highland town surrounded by valleys with nearby mountains looming overhead. Isolated in time and space it has narrow cobbled streets and has shamanistic and ceremonial undertones. The citizens are famous for their adherence to pre-Christian religious beliefs and ceremonies. The local Church caters for all religions particularly Mayan and Catholic – believers stand side by side worshiping their different saints in harmony. The steps up to the Church symbolize the 18 month Mayan calendar, most of the day the steps smolder with incense and Shamans swing censers containing balsam incense and chant magic words in honor of the Maya calendar and their ancestors. Thursday is a special day in the Mayan religion and the Shamans in traditional dress were “doing their thing” on the steps and offering us prayers to those in need.
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