Chichicastenango

Lying at an altitude of 2030 meters above sea, misty town of Chichicastenango is surrounded by picturesque valleys and framed by jagged ridges of mountain ranges.

Chichicastenango is known since pre-Hispanic times as the largest shopping center of the Mayan empire. Sufficiently isolated city on Thursdays and Sundays turns into pandemonium. On these days Chichicastenango is an important market center, the largest and most mountain market in Central America. They say that the market today is the same as a hundred years ago! Religious brotherhood "kofradias" on these days organize the colorful processions around the church of Santo Tomas and the sanctuary Pascual-Aba (an ancient Mayan temple dedicated to the god of the earth). And on Day of the Dead all residents of the city go to the cemetery to commemorate their ancestors.

According to local ethnographers, nowhere else in the country they did not find such a well-preserved Mayan rituals, as in Chichicastenango. And there’s no wonder: the church of Santo Tomas has a copy of an ancient book Popol Vuh ("The Sacred Book of Creation" or "The Book of the People"), which contains the entire system of Indian cosmography and history. The Regional Museum of the town is keeping an extensive collection of archaeological objects.

As a souvenir, you can purchase masks, colorful fabrics, high-quality woolen products (jackets, ponchos), Indian bags, figurines, amulets, etc. And all the products are made according to ancient Mayan techniques and using only natural dyes.