It’s true that the market at Chichicastenango is plenty busy with travelers, but the town isn’t completely given over to tourism, and the snippets of local culture make it worth the journey. The steps of Iglesia de Santo Tomás are stacked with vendors selling flowers and the air surrounding them is thick with copal incense. The church is Catholic, but more deeply infused beliefs stretching back millennia are still alive here (the church was built on the site of a former Maya temple). On this day, the Cofradia de Pascual Abaj was performing rites at the entrance.
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Censing Copal
It’s true that the market at Chichicastenango is plenty busy with travelers, but the town isn’t completely given over to tourism, and the snippets of local culture make it worth the journey. The steps of Iglesia de Santo Tomás are stacked with vendors selling flowers and the air surrounding them is thick with copal incense. The church is Catholic, but more deeply infused beliefs stretching back millennia are still alive here (the church was built on the site of a former Maya temple). On this day, the Cofradia de Pascual Abaj was performing rites at the entrance.
