The road for Chichicastenango and the department of El Quiché leaves the Carretera Interamericana at the Los Encuentros junction, thirty kilometres past the Iximché turnoff. Heading north from Los Encuentros, the highway drops down through dense, aromatic pine forests, plunging into a deep ravine before bottoming out by a tributary of the Río Motagua.

Continuing upwards around endless switchbacks, the road eventually reaches CHICHICASTENANGO , Guatemala's "mecca del turismo". If it's market day, you may get embroiled in one of the country's very few traffic jams - a rare event outside the capital - as traders, tourists and locals all struggle to reach the town centre. In this compact and traditional town of cobbled streets, adobe houses and red-tiled roofs, the calm of day-to-day life is shattered on a twice-weekly basis by the Sunday and Thursday markets - Sunday is the busiest. The market attracts myriad tourists and commercial traders, as well as Maya weavers from throughout the central highlands.

The market is by no means all that sets Chichicastenango apart, however. For the local Maya population it's an important centre of culture and religion. The area was inhabited by the Kaqchikel long before the arrival of the Spanish, and over the years Maya culture and folk Catholicism have been treated with a rare degree of respect - although inevitably this blessing has been mixed with waves of arbitrary persecution and exploitation. Today, the town has an incredible collection of Maya artefacts, parallel indígena and ladino governments, and a church that makes no effort to disguise its acceptance of unconventional pagan worship. Traditional weaving is also adhered to here and the women wear superb, heavily embroidered huipiles . The men's costume of short trousers and jackets of black wool embroidered with silk is highly distinguished, although it's very expensive to make and these days most men opt for Western dress. However, for the town's fiesta (December 14-21) and on Sundays, a handful of cofradres (elders of the religious hierarchy) still wear traditional clothing and carry spectacular silver processional crosses and incense burners.