The following excerpt was taken from an article published on NewsOK.com on January 17, 2010. To read the article in full, please click here.
CHICHICASTENANGO, GUATEMALA-It’s hard to miss the handwoven tapestries and delicately carved wooden masks that appear in the hundreds of wooden stalls that line the streets of this southwest Guatemalan city. On Thursdays and Sundays, its even harder to miss the thousands of tourists who flock to the city to shop.
Chichicastenango is the host for one of the world’s largest outdoor textile markets, famous for its handwoven textiles. You’ll find textiles aplenty alongside food, flowers, incense and even livestock.
Outdoor markets are a common sight in Guatemala, although the narrow streets of Chichicastenango offer a special challenge. It can be hard to navigate through the throngs of people that set up their wares. If you aren’t careful, you might get knocked to the side by men carrying tables or sacks of grain, often weighing hundreds of pounds, on their backs.
It’s also hard to say “no”. Vendors often strayed from their stalls, draping scarves around the shoulders of anyone who looked like a tourist. Vendors who didn’t have stalls set up goods on the sidewalk or carried them with them. They would follow groups of tourists through the streets to try to sell their goods.
To read the rest of the article, please click here. To read more about Guatemalan culture, click here.
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