Bordering the southeast corner of the handicrafts market area is the unusual Mayan-Catholic hybrid church, Inglesia de Santo Tomas. While the Colonial Spanish expansion saw much of the indigenous culture's sacred lands and temples rechristened or demolished, the unique location of the El Quiche region of Guatemala and the tolerance of some forward thinking priests helped preserve some of the Mayan beliefs and ceremonial practices. The grateful Mayans showed their appreciation by adopting Catholic ideals and theologies into their spiritual communities, and a truly hybrid religious practice was born.
Visitors need to enter the church through a side entrance, as the traditional stairway entrance is considered quite holy, and a number of "services" are conducted on the steps with incense sticks and unfortunate chickens. Inside the church appears familiar sites like the altar and pews, but the incantation circles in the back of the church are certainly unlike any Catholic service I've attended.