Chichicasteroadblocks

So Sundays and Thursdays are the market days for a Lonely Planet "don't miss" town of Chichicastenango. The outdoor market is massive, and boasted to be one of the biggest in the world. Not sure how true that is, but this past Sunday, we went anyway. Exhausted from our Saturday early-rising and our unexpectedly physical hike, we shook off our school directors' suggestions of heading out early on the 6 a.m. bus. Go figure. Instead, we sauntered over to the mercado bus station at around 8 a.m. with two friends from school -- the much-talked-about and delightfully English Kathleen and another Canadian student, Gabrielle. We wandered through the queue of buses and finally were led to a lovely red chicken bus headed for Chichi, directo, meaning we didn't have to switch buses halfway through the voyage. My guidebook said the trip of 94 km should take about three hours. I thought this a gross overestimation until we found our bus stuttering along the winding mountain roads through three, sometimes 20- or 30-minute, roadblocks for roadwork. Endlessly annoying. While I should be used to time not being of the essence in countries other than America, I still found myself getting pretty impatient.

After trudging through these stops, however, it was smooth sailing or chicken-bussing, if you will (and I think you will). We arrived in Chichi at noon, three hours on the nose, or as Kathleen says, "bang on," after having left and stumbled out into the market. The market was like an amusement park of vendors' stalls of handicrafts, produce and textiles. Gabrielle went off by herself due to stimulus overload and not wanting to travel in a gaggle of gringos, but Tony, Kathleen and I decided to stick together. We chose the massive, white Iglesia Centrale to be our meeting point two hours later; an hour before the market closed at 3 p.m. It was easy to find with its huge ediface, large stone staircase and its light plumes of smoke rising from smoldering wood, incense candles being lit by locals.

Tony, Kathleen and I wove through Guatemaltecos, vendors and tourists traveling alone and in multi-generational groups. Vendors were sometimes seated on stools, at other times on their merchandise, depending on what it was. Objects for sale include hand-woven Mayan fabrics in traditional forms (i.e. wrap skirts, woven belts, woven headwraps, etc.) and some tailored for tourists (tailored skirts in similar fabrics, placemats, table runners, napkins, scarves, pillow shams and so on), wooden masks, stone idols, jade (white, black and green) jewelry, woven bags, nativities, ceramic and wooden bowls and other knick-knacks. For locals, produce and clothing may also be bought at the market, as can be prepared food. Just as a heads up, Guatemala, namely Chichi, has the best fried chicken I have ever had. Holy crap, so delicious.

Regarding prices in the market, many had warned us that things in Chichi would be more expensive as the market is such a tourist attraction. In cases we found this to be true. Another reason that the prices get spiked sooooo very high for tourists is that some don't know to bargain. A friend of ours said that she heard a woman walk into a textile booth she was in, asked how much something was and received the answer of 300 Quetzales (about $40). The woman said, "OK!" and walked off with her purchase. Our friend, who has been here for over a month now, got it for a third of the price -- a good rule of thumb, I've found, when bargaining in tourist-y markets abroad: divide the original price by three, start a little lower and bargain up from there. In our time there, we heard a woman squaking to her lady friend in English that a vendor would give them whatever it was she was trying to buy for the "rock-bottom" price of $250 US. Tony, Kathleen and I all turned to each other with looks of disbelief and figured she must have been trying to buy a Guatemalan and reinstate slavery, because nothing we had seen was worth $250 -- we walked away as soon as anyone tried to sell us something for 250 Quetzales.

All said, Tony and I spent over our budget on presents for four more people on our present list and on a regalo (present) for ourselves, as well -- but it was worth it.

On our way back, we found that there were no more direct busses to Xela, so we took a minibus to the a chicken bus crossroads, Los Encuentros, for just over $1, and then paid just under $2 to catch the chicken bus back to our town. This was THE most crowded chicken bus I have ever seen. When we all tried to cram on, we found all seats full, as well as the aisle. Chicken buses are basically amazingly painted school buses, like those in Juarez, but more entirely more ornate. Here, we seat three adults to a seat, not all of whom neatly occupy just one "space" on the seat. On this bus, some seats were burdened by four (because kids are smaller). We had to fight for standing room in the aisle; or in Kathleen's case, space to hover over the driver; or in Gabrielle's case, near the door-opening aparatus; or in the case of another American getting on with us, Zaki, on the last step of the stairwell. Zaki was uncomfortable with this, but no one seemed to care unless you count the money-collector and route- advertiser-guy, who served as his security belt by standing behind him, hanging fully outside the bus, holding onto the bus' interior handrails.

The bus ride was hot and nauseating, especially for Tony. We found out today from the lab that he's battling amoebas. (Parents, don't worry, we bought the meds today and he should be fine by Wednesday.)

In other news, Tony and I are now toying with the idea of completing this week of classes and then spending our last week traveling to the colorful (and alas, again tourist-y) town of Antigua and to Mayan ruins on the Honduran border before flying out on July 29. We found that it's actually going to save us money, AND we get to cram two countries into this trip! Holler!

Alright, that's all for now. Oh! And the name of the lake we went to this past Saturday was Lago Chicabal for those still cliffhanging on that mystery. More photos to come before the week's end, sop stay tuned!