Chichicastenango

A poor person's grave...note the dirt mound but at least, on this one, there is a cross with a name. Sadly, there were mounds like this of dirt covering the dead, with no markers. Over time, with rain and wind, all is eroded.

We met Bill and Paul, friends from the Riecken Foundation for a couple of days in Chichicastenango which is a huge market town. Here you can see the mix of foreigners and indigenous out shopping in the afternoon. It was a huge crush of bodies and tents full of interesting things to look at and buy. We did leave some money behind to help spur on the economy in Guate.

This lady is carrying live bird off...either to sell or she had just bought them. Kids thought that rather, "gross."

Although I have seen people carrying huge bundles of materials in many countries in Latin America and in Africa, I have not seen the size of bundles being carried in relatioship to the minute size of these people. Here in Chichi the people are often carrying more than their body weight or size. Look at this bundle.

We visited this cemetary and this is a photo from aways away so you can see the various colors of the mauseleos. They were ornately decorated and apparently, this is not a safe place to be after dark.

Up close...these really are beautiful but sadly, the whole cemetary was filthy dirty with trash strewn about. Bill reminded me how long it took us in the US to enforce anti-littering laws.