Chichicastenango Market, Guatemala

Chichicastenango is a large indigenous town, lying on the crests of mountaintops at an altitude of 1,965 m . As of 2012, 98.5% of the municipality's population is indigenous Mayan K'iche. 92% of the municipality's population speaks the K'iche language, with the remaining 8% being monolingual Spanish speakers. 71% of the municipality's population was bilingual, speaking both K'iche and Spanish, and an additional 21% were monolingual K'iche speakers. The K'iche people and language dominate the municipality.  It is located about 140 km  northwest of Guatemala City.

Chichicastenango is well known for its famous market days on Thursdays and Sundays where vendors sell handicrafts, food, flowers, pottery, wooden boxes, condiments, medicinal plants, candles, pom[disambiguation needed] and copal (traditional incense), cal (lime stones for preparing tortillas), grindstones, pigs and chickens, machetes, and other tools. In the central part of the market plaza are small eateries (comedores).

Among the items sold are textiles, particularly the women's blouses. The manufacture of masks, used by dancers in traditional dances, such as the Dance of the Conquest, have also made this city well known for woodcarving.

Source:Wikipedia

Thanks to Ale for this Guatemala Classroom project back in 2014.

Sent from student Jonathan

Sent: 16 June 2014   Received: 23 July 2014   Travelled: 37