Todos Santos Cuchumatán

The most traditional Maya town in the highlands, known for vivid textiles and the All Saints' Day horse race

Two hours by road from Huehuetenango, Todos Santos sits in a valley at around 2,500 metres surrounded by steep mountains. It is one of the most traditional communities in Guatemala: the men wear the town's distinctive red-and-white striped trousers and embroidered shirts, and the women wear elaborate huipiles in indigo and red. These are not costumes for tourists — they are everyday clothes, worn to the market and the fields.

The town itself is small but has a lively Saturday market, a few simple guesthouses, and weaving cooperatives where you can buy textiles directly from the weavers. The scenery on the drive up is extraordinary. Shared buses and pickup trucks run from Huehuetenango throughout the day, but the last vehicle back leaves in the afternoon — either go early or plan to stay the night.

things to do sight
A story
On November 1st every year, the men of Todos Santos borrow horses and spend the day racing back and forth through town — drinking as they go, so that by afternoon the race has become something between a circus and a survival test. The event is not staged for tourists; it is a genuine community tradition of considerable antiquity, and the crowd that lines the route is almost entirely local. Riders who fall off simply climb back on.