Chichicastenango Market & Independence Day

We were fortunate to be in Antigua, Guatemala on their Independence Day and participated in their celebrations.  The schoolchildren paraded in the their school uniforms, marched to the school band and had many floats.  It was neat to see such an outpouring of people celebrating their Independence day, even though they were in the midst of a civil war.  

School children float

Volcano Agua (water)

 The bridge between the sides of the street above was used by the Catholic nuns to travel between the school and their living quarters.  It is one of the more photographed streets in Antigua.  The volcano at the rear of the photo is Agua (water) and behind this photo is volcano Fuego (fire).  They have both erupted a number of times and Agua unleashed a devastating flood from the lake in the crater.

One weekend we took off and traveled to Chichicastenango to see what the Saturday market looked like.  It is mainly for the locals in the countryside to bring their wares and sell them.  It is a very unusual town.  The local Catholic church has two masses each Sunday, one traditional mass and one for the locals who worship a little differently.

Gerry at the market

Typical market scene

Lots of vendors

 There were a number of Jesuit priests attending the language school and one was very friendly and outgoing.  I asked him about the obvious old practices performed by the locals at the church and how I've never seen anything like that before.  He said that the church was gradually converting them to the Catholic faith.  When I asked how long they had been doing that, he said 300 years.  We both got a laugh when my reply was that it wasn't going that well for them.