Day Thirty-Seven, Antigua

Milady, Casey, and Annie sitting at breakfast

On Sunday morning we all ate a lovely breakfast right on the lake! It was a beautiful morning and we were all relaxed from our time off from class and work. At 8:30am we piled into the bus and headed over to Chichicastenango for the day. Chichi has a famous market and we also visited two religious sites, one a church and the other a Maya ceremonial site.
We all talked about our evenings and relaxed on the bus. We had to backtrack to get to Chichi and it took about an hour, hour and a half. The road to Chichi is extremely windy and wraps around mountains, going up and down. The bus ride was slightly frightening but also exhilarating.

Chichi Market, from the steps of the Catholic Church

When we got to Chichi we walked through the market to the Catholic Church. The market was crowded and crazy. I had left my bag in the bus and only had what I needed in my front pockets. The church was in the middle of mass when we got there so we went to the second site we were visiting, first. The site that we went to was on the top of a hill passed a small museum/house. The trek up the hill wasn't too bad and on the way we saw another smaller alter where the Maya shamans perform some rituals.
On the top of the hill is where larger more in depth rituals are performed and when we got there we got to see the tail end of a ritual being performed by a cofradie.

Maya rituals on a sacred hill top in Chichi

The ritual required fire, alcohol and the sacrifice of food (breads in particular) for the gods. We watched the cofradie and our tour guide explained some of what was going on. It was fascinating, after seeing Maximon the day before and the rituals preformed for him in a little shed like building, to see rituals performed outdoors in the open air. There were also animals that wandered the ritual site and added a layer of interaction that was unexpected but interesting to see; there were two doves, bees, and dogs.

The Cofradias changing of the saints
in the Catholic Church

After we stayed on the hill for a while we went back to the catholic church. In a wonderful coincidence we showed up at the church right as a cofradia procession started underway. As we learned afterwards, the Catholic church in Chichi has become more of a mixed religion building, both for Catholic prayer, mass, and worship and the worship of Maya religions and the performance of Maya worship. Because of this, the Maya cofradias in Chichi use the Catholic church for their worship and rituals one of which we were lucky enough to witness before going into the church.
Inside the church there are alters for both Catholic prayer at the front of the church and alters all along the aisle for ritual worship in the Maya religions. The building has become an intriguing juxtaposition of Maya ritual and Catholic worship. We spent some time in the church talking and watching, but there were still many rituals being performed so we left after a short time.

The Bustle of the Chichi market

Out side we all split off and had a good hour to do some shopping in the Chichi market and experience the atmosphere. I managed to get lost for a short time in the hustle and bustle, but the experience was wonderful. I purchased a bag and a pair of earrings for very little money and ended up purchasing a bookmark from a VERY persistent young girl whom I had a funny conversation with in Spanish.
When we left the Chichi market we went straight back to Antigua and were dropped off at the Casa. We each went back to our home stays to rest for classes on Monday.