We arrived in Chichicastenango on a Saturday, the day before the big market day, to see the town´s regular as well as touristy face. At 6:30am it was freezing cold and, without much activity going on, the perfect time for a snooze. We found a hotel one block from the plaza, and banged on the door until a sleepy lady with a big smile came out to see what the hell was going on. She was the "poster-child" for hospitality, and soon had us installed in a gorgeous room complete with tile floors, Guatemalan artwork on the walls, a fireplace and a lovely sunny courtyard outside. We went to bed with thermals and fleece, but couldn´t get warm. We only thawed out in the sun several hours later...

Chichi is a bustling little town full of women wearing their traditional clothes; beautiful embroidered blouses (huipiles) and woven skirts. They all have long black plaited hair and little snazzy hats perched on top of their heads. Even some of the men are decked out in a space cowboy-like outfit complete with sequinned shirts and seriously decorated cowboy hats.

Unfortunately, Chichi is also full of little children whinily trying to sell souvenirs or beg a coin. Some of them are really persistent, entering cafés and restaurants and refusing to leave the table of their chosen "victim".

We spent the day wandering around, did some warm-up shopping (how could we resist?) and tried some of the numerous street snacks sold on the plaza. I particularly recommend the veggie tostadas and chicken tamales. Mmmmm...

When we woke up on Sunday morning, the town was transformed. The plaza market had spilled over into pretty much the whole city center, as hundreds of peasants had come into town to sell their goods, be it produce or some of their gorgeous textiles. We were in shopping heaven, our only problem being that it was incredibly hard to make our minds up and almost as hard to resist buying too much. I was "in control" and "only" ended up buying four tablecloths, one embroidered wall hanging and a set of placemats / napkins which I mailed home the next day. Two months later, my stuff still hasn´t arrived...

With the increase in market size, there was also a massive increase in the number of gringoes, from just a handful on Saturday to several hundred today... With huge cameras around their neck, dozens of pasty people in safari gear methodically made their way around the market taking close-up pictures of whatever and whomever they liked. Whatever happened to being discreet and / or asking for permission? I realize that this is a stereotype that doesn´t encompass all visitors, but it really irked me... It made me want to be invisible, and to stash my camera far far away and not take any pictures. But who am I to judge? I am a tourist just as everyone else, just with a smaller and less-used camera, and less skin on display. Judgemental paragraph over.

For all shopaholics out there, I definitely recommend Chichi for a good shopping spree ;-)