Today is Sunday, which means the mercado will be in full force. We thus fortified ourselves with a good breakfast and almost immediately got immersed into the labyrinth of streets and walkways that have been taken over by all sorts of merchants. There were lots of people selling beautiful multi-colored weavings and traditional costumes, as well as all sorts of handcrafts, meant to delight all sorts of tourists. The problem is that except for us and a handful of tall people the rest of the crowds packing the market were short indigenous and local folks, so I am not sure how these merchants will be able to make the day pay for them. On the periphery were clothes and shoes merchants, hardware and electronics sellers, and of course lots and lots of tasty looking food. Turns out that people here love tamales, atole, and tortillas filled with tasty cooked meat, chicken, or chorizos, so there were many places devoted to feeding the milling crowd.
On the stairs of the church of Santo Tomás there was an extensive flower market, and as we peeked inside the church we found it was packed.
Following one of the long corridors lined with vendors we reached the perimeter of the market place, at the point where all the fowl were being sold. There were big baskets filled with live hens, and many ladies were just standing there holding a couple of roosters by the tied legs, while the customers inspected the birds. The ones that were bought were stuffed inside canvas sacks, and will probably be thrown in the pot by tomorrow. There were scrawny turkeys and small quails, plus any number of individual hens with which brisk trades were being made.
At some point a book called my attention: It was a facsimile copy of the Madrid Codex, one of the four books of the Maya culture that survived the purge made by the Spanish missionaries. The codex has beautiful painted scenes that represent daily activities, preparation of the fields for planting, hunting, the care of bees, the trips of merchants engaged in trade, rains and droughts, and the meagerness or abundance of crops. It also includes long rows of Maya script naming dates of feasts and celebrations, and predictions made by the Counter of Days according to the natural energy of each day. The codex was painted on a single strip (formed by joining pieces of amate paper) and counts 56 pages. Once finished the strip was folded to form a type of book, to which the priest could refer to perform the rituals and ceremonies suited to the particular activities of the community. It is a beautiful reproduction and, despite my reluctance to load myself with souvenirs as I travel, I just had to have it. Please ask me to show it to you next time you come visit me.
Jolene and Tom also contributed to the prosperity of the market by buying a bolt, 8 yards long, of a beautiful blue weave that they will use to decorate the headboard and side panels of the bed in the guest room. Happy with our purchases we made a last round of the park and then headed back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and car.
From Chichi we headed toward Quetzaltenango (aka Xela), but before getting there we made a few stops. The first one was in the town of San Andrés Xecúl, whose claim to fame is their yellow church. The facade of the church is indeed very yellow, but is unique in that it was decorated by indigenous artisans who, imitating the style of other colonial temples, built in plaster their own version of twisting Salomonic columns covered with roses and vines, niches where saints look over the community, and any number of angels and archangels welcoming the faithful. It reminded me of the amazing church of Santa María Tonantzintla, in the state of Puebla, in Mexico, which was also the work of indigenous artisans.
We then drove up the Cerro El Baúl, one of older volcanoes that overlooks Xela. According to legend the mountain belonged to a rich family that was slowly dying, so the last of the line hid the family fortune in a "baúl" (a trunk) buried within the mountain. One of their servants was a goblin, who was left in charge of the mountain, and who moves the "baúl" anytime someone is close to finding it. We looked for the "baúl" as we walked through the cool pine forest, but all we found were happy families having barbecue picnics in the grassy areas. From the top the view of Xela was truly spectacular.
Coming down from the mountain we drove to Almolonga, a fertile valley that has been dubbed the salad bowl of Central America because of its large production of vegetables. Numerous springs and fertile soils developed in volcanic tephra are a blessing to this region. At the end of the valley we reached the town of Zunil, which also claims a beautiful yellow facade on its church, this time the product of highly skilled craftsmen. The inside of the church is attractive, with clever use of lighting to highlight its statuary art.
Finally we came into Xela, found our hotel, and went for a walk to visit the Central Park, where the cathedral is located. It is a peculiar park because it is elongated rather than square, but of course that doesn't stop it from being a place where the Quetzaltecas can find solace and repose. We found a good restaurant a few blocks from there (a Mexican fusion restaurant) where the game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Philadelphia Eagles was being shown in the TV, and I soon discovered that Jolene is a font of knowledge when it comes to football, and is really enthusiastic about the game. We finished dinner coinciding with half time and hurried back to the bar of the hotel to finish watching the game. It was a nail-biting single elimination game in which the winner will go to the playoffs and the loser will go home. The 49ers won!
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