You Can’t Buy a Sunset
Thursday, December 27th, 2007Day 52
Chichicastenango is set beautifully in a high valley surrounded by green mountains. To reach the city the final accent is a series of sharp turns on a steep hill, it feels remote and isolated. All that isolation is lost on market day, Thursday and Sunday. This is one of the largest markets in Central America. Both local and tourist. We arrived the night before the market and watched the transformation of the city. First we thought it was only the main square, but no it seemed like stalls had popped up on every street overnight. The entire town had become a giant market. Rickety wooden stalls lined the streets selling everything from pirated versions of The Simpson’s movie to traditional masks to fruits and vegetables. Around the perimeter was mostly tourist souvenirs, however in the centre was all local and quite interesting. There was a food section where tables had been setup and pots of food were cooked. Didn’t look like they had any veggie options and these stalls were far from being remotely clean so we moved on. Of course there was a meat section. Not much different than the scene I described back in Antigua. You know, meat covered in flies with a few odd heads and organs lying around. We left the market without any meat nor any souvenirs. We did pick up some practical items. Jordana a handkerchief and I a hat. I now proudly support the Mexican futbol club, Pumas.
Besides the market the other attraction in Chichi is the traditional mayan beliefs mixed with Catholicism. Very similar to what we saw back in San Juan Chamula, Chiapas. Its a bit different here but the only real difference we saw was they had seating in the church. We entered the church and quietly took a seat near the rear to just watch the happenings. After about 5 minutes two children made their way over to us. We said “Hola” and they responded with, ” Uno Quetzal?” We said “no, lo siento”. (No, I’m sorry) but they persisted. As we got up to walk around the church they followed continuing to beg. By this point Jordana had given up on seeing the front of the church and turned back. I was determined to continue but one cheeky kid no more than 5 years old had now attached himself to my leg. “Uno quetzal! Uno quetzal! Uno quetzal!” It was if he knew no other words. It looked as if these kids father was at the front of the church so I could only imagine him telling his children to go ask the tourist for money. I turned back to leave and when the kid realized I was about to go ran up and hung off my shirt. It made me mad to see this, first that these children were probably being made to beg by someone else and that here was a perfect example of the ills of tourism. Obviously tourists have given money to these kids before, but if they were feeling generous than donate money to a local school or one of many programs here that need the help. There are no easy answers but giving to people begging even if they are kids won’t solve a thing.
We finished the day on the roof top of our hotel with a cold cerveza Gallo. Chichi looked beautiful from there. We gazed over the red tiled roof homes with the occasional sonic boom from a firecracker. Smoke from cooking fires in peoples homes floated across the horizon, the sunset was a bright orange over the surrounding green mountains and hummingbirds buzzed across the roof. It was so beautiful and peaceful it was one of the moments we didn’t want to end, I could have watched this scene for hours. As darkness fell and we walked downstairs to our room I knew that when we talked about Chichi years from now it wouldn’t be the market we would remember. We’d recall that evening on the rooftop, these are the travel memories that make you want to quit your job and go explore the world.
Michael Coroneos