Hey everyone, it's Mark Wiens I'm in Chichi Castenango Central America and today I'm going to take you on an ultimate food tour throughout this incredible, vibrant, energetic Mayan Market Very good, really crispy. The chicharron is one of the most packed sections of the entire Market Hey everyone, hope you're having an amazing day! It's Mark Wiens and we have just arrived to Chichi Castenango or also locally named known as shortened to Chichi But this is one of the biggest indigenous markets in all of Guatemala and all of Central America and it happens two days per week. It's a colorful, vibrant, just flea market of everything that you can imagine and so along with just about everything you can imagine to buy. this is also a cultural Gathering of traditional Mayan culture.

And then the other great thing about any Market is not only the shopping, but it attracts so many people that you'll find a lot of food pre-cooked to eat as well and people come together to socialize. We're gonna eat some of the local food. We're going to see some of the sites the vibrant colors, the Mayan culture and I'm going to share it all with you. Coming up right now in this video my God people here I speak and not speak Spanish I speak Mayan language.

Okay and my language. This is welcome in the local Mayans It is a long Market local here language. Okay so it only happens two days per week. Yeah, two days for the week.

Okay yeah but this is Sunday and today is the last people in here. Okay, Okay, sitting here. Foreign. Oh yeah.

nice. It's getting getting busy. You see the beautiful colors color here. That's the favorite color.

This isn't the red and the pink color. Okay, we're going up many many. I mean Outside Lanes Narrow Alloys Passages Ways: I mean to to navigate. You'll get lost within the market.

It's a maze, but we're stepping into this indoor area. um where we can get a view downstairs of some of the vegetable market. Oh beautiful. You can see all the vegetables of the area mostly.

Tomatoes Yeah, so this view is absolutely incredible. All the vegetable vendors selling the local The Local Harvest From the mountains that they grow that they probably grow themselves. Things that are I mean mandatory that are just essential in the Guatemalan diet. What's interesting about this is it's kind of like a community center.

I Mean they even have a it's actually a gym floor. You can see the basketball courts, the basketball nets on either side. Uh, when it's not a market? Oh I Can smell it. The pork.

Oh okay, so it's fried pork. Oh, you can smell the aroma of that just crispy pork. Chicharron: So fried pork. You could see the bubbly, crispy skin.

We've got to taste this. Oh, it's A. You can feel the heat radiating off of it too. There's no doubt that the chicharron is one of the most packed sections of the entire Market but also it's kind of like at the doorway of the entrance of the market.

I Will try the Carnitas that is. It's a pork meat. Okay, okay so we got that cheetah run. So would you normally eat this with tortillas? Or just with tortillas and a little bit of salt? But even straighters, even straight.

And you have to you, you know how good it is by how you break it, you see how it crunches. Yeah that you know it's a good chicharron. Okay, great here we go. I'm gonna try the chicharron.

You love chicharron? Yeah. crunchy good. Here we go My first time for a Guatemala and chicharron. Don't break your teeth.

Oh yeah wow. that is so thick and crispy skin fat pig. That's like the real flavor of pig right there. and that is just the straight up.

like really crispy. Really like that type of crackling that's like shattering glass in your in your mouth. So sharp. really tasty.

Really fresh too. Okay and then we also got some other cognitas which is fried pork. They have some Jalapenos in there. They have some onions in there as well that she served us.

So this is carnitas are prepared pork which is uh boiled which is simmered in its own fat and so it retains the flavor. It keeps the moistness. Now this is a whole piece of meat. Oh green onions in there as well.

Mm-hmm Oh wow. yeah Salty, tender, just moist from being boiled in its own fat. Oh man, you taste the flavor of like sweet onions in there. The jalapenos.

The green onions. oh it's so tasty now. I know why so many people are ordering that. Thank you! I'll try that jalapeno.

Oh sweet. oh there's some of that pork oil. very good. Oh look at all this fresh produce, all the plantains, oranges and then next stall is all Fabrics Beautiful colors, more fruits, bananas, all the different bananas we have.

Each one has a different flavor, one flavor mostly but one each. one of these bananas has its own taste. As I mentioned previously, this is the biggest flea market indigenous Market in all of Guatemala and actually in all of Central America and just it truly is an overdose of colors, the busyness, the energy. it's really, really fascinating.

The poor. Oh, the blue jeans section. look at those radishes. Those radishes are huge, like the size of oranges.

Roberto is leading us now through the market through these. I mean it's just a amazing Labyrinth of a market, but he's leading us to the some of the famous pre-cooked food stalls. You could smell the smoke in the air and we're going to one of the most legendary comedor. one of the favorite comedors eating places within the market.

We're already starting to see fried chicken, grilled things, tortillas are everywhere. Oh yeah, we're in for something tasty coming soon. What is this place known for which here? I Take on their food? local here? Okay? Fried Chicken Okay, you have soup chicken? All right. Yeah, thank you.

Oh, this is good. She's making a fresh batch of the the fried chicken. Nice. You can see there's some kind of a red marinade on it, maybe some achiote as well to give it that red deep red color.

Then it goes into just a dusting of flour, then directly into that oil where it slow. Cooks Kettle Fried Over a bed of fire here Clap The handmade tortilla making in Guatemala will just never get old. I Mean they just taste so good when it's that fresh? Masa When they pat It Out by hand into the very remarkably circular shapes, you're guaranteed. Fresh Tortillas As I've been mentioning throughout this entire tour of Guatemala, they have a few different meals that you can order here.

A lot of people come here for the soup I Think it's a hen soup, which is one of their most popular dishes, but then they also have fried chicken that's also very popular. A lot of people get the fried chicken plate. They also have a fried fish plate so we're going to try a little bit of each and this is just vibrant, colorful, energetic. And they're cooking everything right here at the front in the market.

A chicken soup there. You can see how thick how rich that is. All those green onions in there. Oh hello down there.

Oh there come the Fresh Tortillas I Had to try two different dishes. One is again the color. You know. This is a soup made with the hens, served with rice or vegetables on the side, serve with avocado.

Yes. and then the other thing that I could not resist that A lot of people order here is the fried chicken. and fried chicken is actually something that's very important. Very popular in Guatemala And and the soup is simmer down.

look at how thick and Rich it is green onions in here. Oh there's pasta. There's even pasta on the bottom. nice but that broth looks incredible.

It's the best way to it's here. the local people here you have party, you have different celebrations. Yes, the chicken, the soup, the chicken. This is one of the most important dishes.

Okay, simple, but it's really like flavorful. Yeah, really like chickeny thick and you can tell that I mean it's a dish that could be cooked for a lot of people. It stretches the flavor of the chicken in that broth. and I mean we are in a high elevation on the top of the mountains here in Guatemala and this is just straight up what you want to be eating in a high elevation situation when it's cold.

This soup is just straight up soothing. Um, love the flavor of those green onions. Just simmer down until they melt in your mouth. Let's see, we have two different types of tortillas here.

This one is a more of a white corn. This is a yellow. Yeah, yellow corn. Yeah, okay.

Oh again, you cannot underestimate the quality of tortillas in Guatemala They're always good. You can take some of these vegetables, carrots, avocado, avocado, chayote I think and even put some of the rice. Yes, and then some of the avocado. So what you can do with this is take a bite.

Foreign going in for the fried chicken. Oh oh, you can tell how crispy that's gonna be. That is. A that's a beautiful piece of fried chicken.

It's so crispy. Again, it's Kettle Fried shallow fried. It might even be fried and fat, but that's just so flavorful. Yes, really good.

Yeah, really crispy. Not a maybe just a light flower coating rather than a heavy batter. Eat with that tomato sauce. Almost like a homemade version of ketchup.

And then they have wool. Look at the size of this spoon. and then this is the the pickled jalapenos. Yes, this is something.

we need. some of these pickled jalapenos. I Love this Simplicity of it. And I think in order to get that broth, they boil all of these vegetables with the chicken in the soup and then they pull them out.

So I mean that gives the stock the broth such a natural sweetness to it along with the chicken. try some of this hen. Oh, it's so tender. Oh and it's just been absorbed by that broth.

you can just fill up. I Mean that's like natural. the texture? not. yeah, that's good.

One of the great things about an avocado and it's perfectly ripe in Guatemala The skin just completely peels back. Oh so sweet. Avocados are incredible. This is like I think potatoes, carrots, green beans in here.

Yeah, maybe not my favorite. It's really, really like that tomato sauce. The fries and the Fried Chicken are delicious. So that lunch was fantastic and those are some of the really typical dishes that you'll find that a lot of these Comeros eateries throughout this.

Market But there's s'more that we're gonna eat. Hello, there's definitely more that we're going to eat. So we're going to navigate our way through the market and find some other unique dishes that are served here. Oh man, So many food stalls this year.

Okay, oh oh, there's so much. Fried Chicken It's never ending. Fried Chicken Roberto What is what are they famous for here? Oh, Fried pork chop. Okay, it's a fried pork cutlet.

Okay, four. we have two, two different. Oh, the beef and pork. So this place is famous for their Fried Chicken Oh, that's kind of a dangerously close pan of boiling Lava Hot Oil and fried chicken.

Yes, she's frying chicken. But they're also famous for their choletas here. and that's like a fried cutlet of beef or pork. so we're gonna get a mixture of both.

Okay, foreign, pretty packed in here. Um, pretty tight quarters and it's There's not a lot of airflow in here, but you smell the aroma of all those fried meats. and so I got a whole like a chuleta plate. Oh even got another drumstick.

A fried drumstick on this plate but mainly came for the chuleta of beef and pork. There's some fried shrimp on it too with rice with some of the more of that mayonnaise salad and a little bit of a lettuce salad. and then also Roberto said they're also well known for their blue blue corn tortillas here. I'll try the pork.

The pork chuleta I think is the one of their most famous things here. Oh look at how moist that is. Oh wow oh that is amazing. Oh man, that was like unexpectedly tasty and delicious.

and it's so tender. I think how do you say delicious in the your local Mayan dialects? Oh man, that's stunningly yeah. okay, wow at all. and it's so tasty.

Okay okay then we also got the beef chuleta as well. Like deep fried beef? excellent too. Oh man. so greasy and so much flavor.

We got some fried shrimp. it's all pretty. Gucci Pretty crispy and really tasty. Oh he's Gracias.

He just refilled my plate with some more some more. Meats Yeah okay, what is this one? Roberto this is another two letter okay oh another piece of chuleta. This one is thicker and like more breaded, almost right off the griddle. Let's try it.

Yeah, that's really good. That I mean that's straight up like a pork chop deep fried pork chop and then back to that kind of like nugget. Oh yeah, this is straight up like a like a chicken nugget. Really crispy but it has some good seasoning in it as well.

Maybe some pepper in there. Okay, oh man. I'm like dripping in sweat even though it's not really that hot. I Think it's just there's not a lot of airflow back in this market.

but man, that was some fried pork on the next level that was so tasty. And then right here you could see how important corn is. the different colors of corn. Oh here's some of the purple corn and the candles.

Are they for ceremonial ceremony? my ceremonial purposes. Okay for the Mayan calendar. Oh okay the Doctor Mayan here this coming here I Want to buy you buy the kopal sugar Copan candle liquor in from the church here. Okay, we're taking a little break from the eating.

We're gonna go see one of the iconic churches here and as uh well we'll learn more about it once we get there. Masks Okay and we have just emerged from the market to the Church of Thomas Oh this is beautiful. You emerge from the alleys, from the depths of the market into a courtyard and immediately it just kind of opens up into the church lady selling flowers. The aroma of incense burning has this kind of like medicinal herbal Aroma to it.

Pablo you were mentioning this is this is also the the site where it was. It is an ancient Mayan Religious yeah religious place right? Yeah exactly. It used to be a Maya temple. Okay, the Spanish ordered a church to be built into castenango because it was also an important place for the Maya.

So the Maya did it. But what they also did is that they hide one of the most important books underneath the church. so they kept him praying to what they actually know instead of you know a Christian God that came from overseas. They mixed both and they added God to the to the mix.

but in the end it's their own culture and their own way of praying that they do. That's why there's so much incense because with the smoke of the incense you send a message to you know to the sky. So that's the way when you pray you have to have smoke for it to go up. That's something very very Maya Very from the islands actually.

Okay and so this is still how it remains today. it is uh yes it is truly Mayan Yeah religion, just beliefs and yet it's it looks it's Catholic it's a Catholic mixed with Mayan religious like if you go to the if you bring the Pope here he will not see this as a complete Catholic Yep yep oh man. it's really, uh an overdose of sensory. Just so many things happening.

So many people pass through this area. the aroma, the ceremonies, the colors. it's really really beautiful. and oh I think we're gonna stop here for some fruit.

Wow what a stall! Okay Gracias so she's really friendly. she's selling. she has all this cut up fruit and I got the the mango cut up and with chamoy on top. Chamoy is kind of a pickle Plum with and it's salty.

it has some chili in it, um very good. The mango is sweet, great texture to it and then you've got that salty kind of pickled flavor that kind of just brings out the flavor of the mango, adds an extra complexity to it so no longer is the mango just sweet and a little bit of shower but it has that saltiness has that chili I Love Jamway! This is really a great place to be like right in the middle of the action, the colors, the vibrancy and the history. Just a five minute walk from the market is where you'll find a traditional Mayan cemetery and so we're gonna go take a look at the cemetery and learn about its importance because it's very unique and very I mean a huge part of the Mayan culture. But you got to come down this hill And already in the distance you can see the colors, the beautiful pastels.

Oh in the Mayan culture death. and also I mean a funerary ceremony graveyard. It has a totally different meaning than in Western culture. Would you say that? Um Pablo It is a little bit more.

uh, we can say it's still grieving, it's still under the human aspects of losing someone. But in a way they try to celebrate it too. So imagine a very special moment in Latin America and I think in the world you know some call it Halloween We call them the Day of the Dead Oh yeah yeah okay, that's the first of. November.

People come here crazy to to eat with their their ones and to like share moments with the third ones and to fly kites because another way to send messages is through a rope and the sky. so they send messages up. but they also send up smoke where they throw chocolates and candies and everything that you know the people who are not here anymore will try in this in the heavens. Okay so and the colors are because this was the favorite color of the person when they died.

so they asked for this color to be painted when they die. Okay yeah. so what is this ceremony for? Is it to remember? Ending on the day you have a different ceremony because you have there's different powers that day. Oh okay okay you will see there's also four crosses made of sugar.

That is the four cardinal points right? So every Cardinal Point has a special special thing. they always Point them out and every color of the candle has also a special message. So the idea is to create a fire to to this is to to sort of understand the message that they're asking for. Okay so always and and Cacao is also very important.

this is chocolate that goes on candles. Cacao is this like a pine needles Pine needle's gone? Yeah okay. we just witnessed one of the the ceremonies which they did a I mean Pablo and Roberto did a great job of explaining the cultural significance in the Mayan culture and just the respect that they have for their ancestors. Really fascinating, really interesting and yet another glimpse into the the Mayan culture.

Okay, great, thank you so much. How do you say thank you again Chichi Castenango Really a fascinating market and a cultural Mayan display of traditions where you can learn. It's so colorful, it's so vibrant. It's really a place to learn and a place that highly recommended when you come to Guatemala.

It's definitely worth it to come on a Sunday and I Think there's also possibly on another day of the week it's open two days per week. Highly recommended and also it was great to be with Roberto Loco Mayen from here and he was able to show us around and really offer a perspective. A local perspective and so I'd Highly recommend it! Well I'd Highly recommend also hiring a local guide also to support the community here. and thanks also to Pablo for being with us and also to Ethnica Travel for arranging this entire tour for us here to Guatemala We're traveling all around and eating some of the best food in Guatemala So make sure you stay tuned and watch all of the videos in this series but that's going to be it.

We are at the end of the market and what a time it's been and I want to say a big thank you for watching this video. Please remember to give it a thumbs up if you enjoyed it. Leave a comment below I'd Love to hear from you and if you're not already subscribed, make sure you subscribe now for lots more food and travel videos. goodbye from Chichi Castenango and I will see you on the next video Foreign.