Christmas shopping Guatemala style

The central market is just a block from my hotel in Coban, and there’s a lot of action there on Christmas Eve.

There are sellers of toys for children, of flowers, clothes, and tables with mountains of firecrackers. The firecrackers here are huge and no doubt would be banned in Canada — there’s enough of them to start a small regional war, and I hear them banging quite often.

I took a number of pictures — some surreptiously of the general action, and some posed, like the one of the lady selling flowers, who took off her jacket for the picture. At one bookstore where I tried to find a map, the young sales women asked me to take a picture of them, so I did, as did several other people in the street. I then went to a place that does instant digital pictures and got some 4 X 6 prints to give to the people who posed. They were thrilled, and one little girl (about 10) gave me a hug, and “Gracias. Feliz Navidad.”

Speaking of which, the song Feliz Navidad plays everywhere, as do a number of other Christmas songs. It’s been strange hearing them sung or played in different styles in different places — the reggae Christmas carols in Belize, and now various Latin styles here.

The main square has a Christmas tree that I’ve pictured below, sponsored by Gallo (rooster) Beer.