Chichicastanengo Open Market

Chichi is home to the largest open market in all of Central America. It is a seemingly endless maze of vendor tables splashed with vibrant colors. This was the day I was most excited for on my trip to Guatemala. Need help planning your trip? Read below for details of the day.

Chichi days and hours

The market is open on Thursdays and Sundays. You can arrive right after breakfast, but plan to come before noon. The market will start to shutdown in the early afternoon (around 2PM many vendors were packing up to go home). We spent 4 hours at the market, and that included a stop for lunch and another stop for a drink. While there is so much to look at, a lot of the products begin to repeat so you won’t need to stop at each vendor.

Traditional colors make up blankets, clothes and other items

Getting to Chichi

Many travelers make a day trip out of the Chichi market. I don’t recommend staying overnight. The town was small with minimal hotels. Despite it being about two hours of travel (including a few vehicle changes) I really enjoyed the day of travel and seeing the different towns along the way. The most common way to get to the market is to book a shared van. Most towns will have a tourist shop that you can pop into and book your seat.

Because we were staying in the small village of San Marcos la Laguna, we had to walk to the top of the town and catch a tuk tuk to a nearby town and then hop on a shared van. At the end of the day you meet your van where they dropped you off. Try to remember what your driver and fellow passengers look like because it is easy to forget which bus you are on!

Tuk tuk ride through town

I purchased a pair of earings from a local vendor. The earings were made of a local coin with some beading.

Shopping at the market

I came to the market with a pretty specific shopping list and then of course bought a few bonus items that I saw and just had to have. Be sure to bring a bag that you can carry the goods in! Here’s a few things to keep in mind while shopping:

Haggle Haggle Haggle

The prices are already low, but trust me, you can go lower. A general rule of thumb I followed was offering half of the listed price. And we would typically land at 75% of the original price. Keep in mind that many times you are negotiating over the equivalent of 60 cents US dollars and you forget that because you are just enjoying the back and forth. 10 Guatemalan Quetzales is about $1.30 USD, so while 20 vs 30 seems like a large difference, you realize it isn’t. When I find myself going back and forth over a $1 or $2 USD, I’ll give them their price.

Don’t talk to people you don’t want to be hassled by

If you aren’t truly interested in a product- it’s not even worth looking at because the vendors and their street sellers will follow you everywhere trying to get you to make a purchase. I love practicing my spanish so I was the worst about avoiding people. I would say hello and compliment the item and then boom I was sucked into trying to say no 1,000 different ways. There are also women who roam the market and try to sell items from their booth while you walk around. They all say the same thing “How about a gift for your mother, your boyfriend, your best friend, your enemy. Business is business.” I would engage way too much with them and usually ended up buying something, but not without driving down the price and getting in as much spanish as I could!

Take in the culture

The open market is a popular spot for tourists, but the majority of folks there are locals. They travel here weekly to get clothes, food and other household supplies. I recommend grabbing a drink at an outdoor table and watching the scene. I saw a woman approach a man with a basket, exchange money and the next thing I knew she tucked a live chicken under her arm and walked off. See below for the basket. Now that is something you don’t see everyday at your local farmers market!

I also loved walking through the food vendors. I bet millions of the tortillas are made by the local women. You can actually hear the slap of the tortilla in their hands as they pat it back and forth, over and over again and then slam it on the hot surface. They use their bare hands to flip them too- imagine flipping a thin pancake with just your hand!

My little dolls I brought home

This is a must see spot if you’re visiting the western highlands of Guatemala. You’ll get to experience the more traditional indigenous culture that exists today. I left with so many memorable purchases including a new cooking apron and the traditional Guatemalan munecas (dolls). I hope you enjoy the market as much as I did.

A butcher looks out his window

Iglesia de Santo Tomás