Today we rose with the sun in order to enjoy the bounty that was laid before us–the glorious Sunday market of Chichicastanenga! Our guide told us that we could start shopping as early as 6am! So that is what we did! We had to leave at 9:45am and wanted to make sure we had enough time, but really can you ever have enough time?
We had visited the fruit market the night before because they start setting up Saturday afternoons. We got some red bananas! You should know by now that thetwinsontour love exotic bananas and of our disdain for the Cavendish bananas from Sam’s Club that go straight from green to brown to the trash. Anyways they were delicious. We got 6 mini red bananas for 5 quetzal which is about 66 cents. That’s 11 cents of tasty goodness there! And they were perfect for a quick and delicious breakfast before our shopping endeavors.
We were determined to not waste a minute of shopping time. We managed to depart our hotel room at 6:22 am, which is right on schedule for thetwinsontour! thetwinsontour love to shop, but thetwinsontour are also big fans of the snooze button. Luckily, all we had to do was set foot in the street and there was the market–right outside the hotel! It’s like this hotel was made for thetwinsontour!
So, we were ready to spend some serious quetzales. Except at 6:00 am a lot of the vendors were still setting up. We found ourselves dodging men carrying bamboo poles and others wearing milkcrates full of fruit strapped to their foreheads. Others were carrying 100 packages of toilet paper strapped to their heads (the 4 packs of small tiny rolls, not the 12 packs of charmin mega rolls). thetwinsontour have no idea how these short, tiny Mayans carried all of this strapped to their foreheads, but one thing is for certain–they must all have bad backs. We were also smart enough to get out of the way when they were charging down the aisles as we had no desire to be plowed into and trip over one of the little Mayan women selling baskets of apples who had set up shop in front of every booth. And, I really do mean little. Some of the little old ladies couldn’t have been more than 4 feet tall.
After an hour, we had dodged, twisted and swerved, zigged and zagged enough to work up an appetite. We had managed to purchase a few treasures and were ready for breakfast. This was a smaller hotel, so there was no buffet. We had the choice of scrambled or fried eggs to go with our 2 pieces of toast and cooked plantains. Time was of the essence because we had more shopping to do. Miraculously, after breakfast everything seemed set up and ready–no more dodging milkcrate wearing Mayans. We did skip parts of the market–like the meat market–where evidently there were people lined up holding live chickens out for your perusal. thetwinsontour are not sad to have missed this as there is no way to get a chicken in our suitcase, and there was not enough time to get one certified as a therapy chicken. And really, would Artichoke appreciate a chicken? No, she would probably just try to eat it. Anyways, that was a long and unimportant tangent. We had just enough time to buy a lot of stuff we didn’t need–like somehow I wound up with a wooden flute, but when this little face with big, sad eyes looks up at you and says “What about me? I need to buy food” there is no way to walk away flute-less. I am just lucky I left with just one flute. Now, there were other children following us trying to sell magnets, pens, and bookmarks–because they need money for school–but their prices fluctuated drastically. They would throw out a price–10 quetzales–then when I wanted to pay in dollars, it was $10, which is 70 quetzales. Then they would offer items for $1 or 2 for $5–because they need money for school. I quickly informed them that they needed to pay more attention in math class.
Anyways the market is a delightful place with everything you could imagine. Most of the local handicrafts can be found in the main plaza, but if you venture down the 4 streets of market, the paths are narrower and you can find anything including but not limited to live turkeys, odorifuous onions, bananas, watermelon, shoes, brightly colored skeins of yarn, used clothing, brooms, miracle eye drops, and a man walking around with a bucket full of forks–he seemed to have all manner of cutlery, but preferred to yell out “tenedores” instead of the appearantly less melifulous “cucharas.” Who knows what treasures and curiosities we could have discovered given more time.
All too soon, we were back on the bus to resume our napping and return to Guatemala City.
thetwinsontour 