Life is Good at the beach: Life is....crowded in a chicken bus and at a market

chicken buses!

Lucia: On Saturday May 24, we went to a town that is by Lake Atitlan, the lake we are staying at. The town’s name is Chichicastenango, otherwise known as Chichi for short. We started by taking a boat to a town called Panajachel. From there we got a old school bus called a chicken bus. The bus was not too crowded. My dad and I sat in a seat together, while Marino and my mom sat in a seat together. We got off the chicken bus in a town called Sololá. We got on another chicken bus just as it was leaving. That bus ride was not too long or crowded. That time we got off in a town called Los Encuentos. From there we got on another bus, and we thought it was going to be another chicken bus, but instead of that we had to get a mini van! Nooooo. Me and my dad were really squished in the very back of the van. Marin o was in the seat in front of us and my mom was squished in the front. We finally got to Chichi. Yeah, yeah, buy then it was about 3pm.

It was the day before the market day. Market day is when a lot of Guatemalans come to the town of Chichi and sell their goods and things like that. I bought four wall hangings, two stuffed pigs for me and Phoebe, and two notebooks for me and Helen. We stayed in a hotel right by the market.

The next day we left about 12:15pm. The first bus was a chicken bus and it was so crowded that I got separated from my parents. The next bus wasn’t crowded. The last bus wasn’t crowded either. We got back to the other town and took a boat back home.

Kim: Dan and I visited this market when we traveled through Guatemala 14 years ago – yikes! We had amazing memories of the night before the market, with vendors setting up, dinner at an outdoor comedor in the market and the Catholic and Mayan church service. The next day full of the craziness of market day! This time did not disappoint. It was quite an adventure with Marino and Lucia. We wandered in the rain, lit candles for loved ones in the church, woke up to flowers covering the steps leading up to the church, watched mayan shaman say prayers and swing incense, ate from big steaming pots in market comedors, and bargained for beautiful handmade goods to bring home. And to top it all off we rode in chicken buses! A colorful and beautiful weekend get-away.