Colourful and Vibrant Chichi

We’re up early to have a quick look round the town before it gets going. We’re lucky to get a look in another ruined church while it’s being tidied up from a wedding yesterday; when we pass it a few minutes later, it is shut. Some nuns are out for their morning stroll; people looking for breakfast. We settle on Bagel Barn – they claim to have the best bagels in the country, they’re certainly very good.

We’re on the road again at 9:00 – a 3.5 hour drive to Chichicastenango ahead of us. Chichicastenango is a small town in the hills, it’s main attraction is a large market which sells all sorts of items in traditional cloths and colours, primarily for tourists, as well as clothes and food for locals.

The first site we visit is the multi-coloured graveyard, nothing sombre about this place – everything is painted in clashing primary colours.

We walk through the market place. The stalls are piled high with bags, trousers, ipad covers, ponchos, belts and many other things in bright traditonal patterns.

We stop for a quick lunch – it takes ages to come and has ham instead of cheese in the omelette so we just make do with the side dish of guacamole.

There are two churches in the corner of the market square, these are built on the site of older Mayan temples. Mayan people still enact rituals on the church steps which look like they may be remains of the older buildings. They wave large incense burners and chant incantations to who knows which gods.

Tonight we’re staying with a family in San Jorge la Laguna. It’s recommended we buy some food for them from the supermarket – so we do!

We only have three hours in Chichicastenango – not nearly enough, we’re soon on the way to San Jorge with a quick stop to watch the sunset over Lake Atitlan on the way.

San Jorge is compact town of 4,000 cascading down the hillside towards the lake, it has one church and one bar, we pay a brief visit to both.

We’re introduced to Christiana, she takes us back to her house and shows us to our room. She is quiet but friendly and helpful, she shows me how to make tortillas, I try it but it isn’t as easy as it looks – two of my three make it to the table, one is discretely discarded.

Dinner is simple but tasty, rice, potatoes and green beans. There is also a very hot homemade chilli sauce – Christiana and her son are amused by the large spoonfuls we take, it’s hot but bearable.

None of the family speak much English, their first language is Kaqchiquel, one of 22 Mayan languages still spoken in Guatemala. They also speak some Spanish which they use to communicate with speakers of the other languages. Conversation is tricky but we get by between us with a bit of Spanish, a phrase book and the Google Translate app.