Colour, colour, colour
Trip Start
Feb 01, 2006
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14
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Trip End
May 01, 2006
Chichicastenango,
Guatemala
Friday, February 24, 2006
It is a beautiful and fascinating place...with shamanistic and ceremonial undertones despite all the tour buses. Mashenos, as the locals are called are famous for their adherence to pre Christian beliefs and we saw versions of the old rituals on the steps of the church Santo Tomas, with tons of incense, fire and even animal sacrifice.
Eventhough there are busloads of tourists, it is a huge market ablaze with colour and costumes representing traditions of towns all across the highlands. It really is a site to behold.
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Sorry for the lack of photos recently. We certainly wanted more pics but photography is a sensitive issue here. We always ask permission before taking a photo since I for one hate to have a camera shoved in my face. Here however, it is not surprising for the answer to be no and even if the answeer is yes, some type of payment will be expected in return. Many Maya churches and ceremonies are completely off limits and there have even been some bizarre incidents in the highlands of foreigners being attacked and even killed when locals heard rumours of satanists and thought the foreigners were wanting to steal the kids they were photographing...good reason to avoid it altogether...
In any case, when we get back to Antigua we will throw up the photos we have and may even get a few more from other travellers in the meanwhile. Chichi was worth the visit, but now we head back to Pana to get ready for the beginning of Spanish classes on Monday.
