Chichicastenango, Guatemala: Self-Guided Walking Tour

The best things to do in Chichicastenango include exploring its famous market, visiting Iglesia de Santo Tomás and its archaeological museum, and walking to the sacred site of Pascual Abaj. Set in the highlands of Guatemala’s department of Quiché, the town offers a vivid encounter with K’iche’ Maya traditions and a landscape of hills and mixed forest. Neywo has a free audio guide for Chichicastenango with 4 narrated places.

What to see in Chichicastenango

Chichicastenango Market

Chichicastenango’s market is the town’s defining experience. It spreads through streets, plazas and indoor market spaces, where local commerce takes place alongside displays of Guatemalan craftsmanship.

Stalls offer woven fabrics, traditional clothing, pottery, carved masks, jewelry, flowers, fresh produce and other handmade products. The market also provides an opportunity to observe the daily presence of Maya traditions in clothing, rituals and community life.

The atmosphere is particularly lively on Thursdays and Sundays, when traders and shoppers arrive from surrounding communities. The colors, scents and constant movement make the market one of the most memorable places to visit in the Guatemalan highlands.

Iglesia de Santo Tomás

Iglesia de Santo Tomás rises directly from the marketplace, combining Roman Catholic and K’iche’ Maya traditions. The church was built around 1545 on the platform of a pre-Columbian temple, and the original steps leading to that earlier Maya site are still venerated.

The entrance has eighteen steps, each representing one month of the Maya calendar year. Their role is both architectural and ceremonial, giving the church a significance that goes beyond its colonial history.

The church is also home to the Chichicastenango Regional Museum, making it possible to explore the town’s religious and archaeological heritage in the same place.

Chichicastenango Regional Museum

The Chichicastenango Regional Museum, also known as the Museo Regional, contains more than 500 pre-Hispanic artifacts from municipalities across the department of Quiché. Its collection includes Maya pieces from the Preclassic and Classic periods.

Some objects are more than 3,000 years old, offering a glimpse into the depth of the region’s history. The museum was founded in 1949, five years after the death of Idelfonso Rossbach, a German Franciscan priest who served in Chichicastenango from 1894 to 1944. Most of the collection was donated by him.

Pascual Abaj

A forest clearing on Turk’aj Hill leads to Pascual Abaj, a pre-Columbian Maya stone idol that continues to be venerated by the local community. The site is about 1,200 meters from the center of Chichicastenango.

At the summit, the idol stands on a stone altar in the middle of the clearing. Two Christian crosses are positioned alongside it, creating a distinctive meeting point between Maya and Christian religious symbols.

Pascual Abaj survived the Spanish conquest of Guatemala and is considered the best-known example of this type of Maya image. It was badly damaged in the 1950s by members of Catholic Action, but it remains an object of local veneration. The site is also known as Turcaj, Turk’aj, Turuk’aj and Turukaj.

Chichicastenango’s highland setting

Chichicastenango lies about 70 kilometers northwest of Guatemala City. The surrounding landscape is mostly hilly, with flatter land to the north and extensive mixed forest. The highest nearby point reaches about 2,384 meters.

This setting is part of the experience of visiting the town: the market and sacred places are situated within a highland environment shaped by hills, forest and long-standing local traditions. Chichicastenango can also form part of a wider journey through Guatemala, alongside destinations such as Guatemala City, Antigua Guatemala or Quetzaltenango.

Explore Chichicastenango with a self-guided walking tour

Neywo’s Chichicastenango audio guide includes 1 walking tour: “Steps to the Maya Gods: Chichicastenango’s Sacred Hill and Church”. The route covers 1.14 km, takes about 36 minutes and has 4 narrated stops: Chichicastenango, Iglesia de Santo Tomás, the Chichicastenango Regional Museum and Pascual Abaj.

The app tells the story of each place as you reach it, at your own pace, with no group and no schedule. Download Neywo to explore Chichicastenango with a self-guided walking tour and narration available in 11 languages.