Chichicastanango

Another early start - and another long, winding drive - this time to the town of Chichicastenango, which twice a week hosts the second biggest market in Central America.

It is exactly as I remember it- a rabbit Warren of colourful stalls; teeming with people carrying heavy textile sacks on their backs and heads, rudely pushing bystanders out of their way.

We visited the Church, which still incorporated a lot of the indigenous worship practices as well as the very colourful cemetery further up the hill. But mostly we wandered through the market bargaining for trinkets and marvelling at the handiwork of all the beautiful textiles.

On the way back, we stopped for lunch at a more traditional Guatemalan restaurant where we were tortured throughout the meal by a very loud maremba. Back in Antigua, our guide took us past a jade museum and workshop quite close to our hotel. The jade here is beautiful and comes in many colours. It is specific to this area, formed by the local volcanos and quite different from Chinese jade.

We booked into a jade workshop for tomorrow and learned a bit about the history of jade while we were there.

After a short rest back at the hotel, we went for dinner at an Italian restaurant which - like most meals here was adequate. The highlight again- playing UNO.Read more