On the Sunday morning after our visit to Lake Atitlan, we took a minibus from Panajachel to Chichicastenango, whose main claim to tourist fame is its enormous marketplace for Mayan handicrafts.

Where to begin? Chichicastenango was a tumult of impressions.

First, the tourist market: Chichicastenango is famous for its profusion of handicrafts. Streets throughout the center of town are blocked off for the vendors. There were textiles in red, brown, blue, yellow and green; sashes and tablecloths and headbands and wristbands and skirts and pants and blouses and blankets, stacked and piled and hung on hangers. It was totally overwhelming. There were stands with hundreds of carved wooden masks; stands with toys; stands with t-shirts or socks or worn-out tools. We didn't buy anything, and although there were many tourists, supply evidently exceeded the demand.

There are other areas of the market that deal in more ordinary items, TV sets and used cell phones and belts and kitchenware. In Guatemala all the tortillas are made by hand, so here and there women stand next to a comal, carefully patting the masa into neat disks, one by one. We saw limestone for sale in chunks, and bags of dried corn in many colors. It was somehow more pleasant to see the locals shopping for their ordinary needs than to be barraged with trade goods we have no space for on our little boat.

The market presses up against the steps of the big Catholic church, where they burn incense in a big tray that wafts through the crowd. Up at the doorway itself, two people maintained candles burning on the threshold, spread flower petals, and swung pungent, smoky incensarios. Inside the church, two long lines of parents presented dozens of dressed-up infants to be baptized by the busy priest. Signs warned tourists not to use their cameras, while proud relatives videotaped the whole event. The priest intoned in Spanish with occasional digressions in Mayan for the benefit of the monolingual.

But the market itself was somehow less impressive than the Mayan people thronging the town. The women wear more traditional dressâ€"the woven and embroidered huipil, the headscarves, the belts; bare feet. Men wear a mixture of traditional and modern clothing: Woolen vests over polyester shirts, and tennis shoes. Tiny girls are dressed in elaborate handmade costumes with glittering thread woven through. Like their ancestors, the Maya like their teeth adorned, so golden caps flash on front incisors, with the occasional star or cross in the middleâ€"we even saw a dentist's shop whose signs showed these offerings.

A few hours was enough in Chichicastenango, and eventually we retreated to the fancy old Santo Tomas Hotel for lunch. We dined in a tourist-colonial splendor and watched the parrots, having come to the largest artisanal market in Central America and bought nothing. What were we doing there?