Second week in Xela

Saturday 11th October.
During this week apart from school we had a trip on Tuesday to the nearby town of Salcaja, renowned for having the church of San Jacinto which is the oldest Catholic Church in Central America, built in 1496. It was relatively drab on the outside but had some interesting decorations on the front like bunches of Bananas! The Spanish giving thanks for the bounty of the New World I suppose. Inside was quite nice with lots of wooden beams and a beautiful altar.












On Thursday we went to another nearby town called Zunil (founded in 1529) which is an agricultural town in a valley. It was raining and the river running through looked quite high and muddy. On the flats by the river were fields of crops. We crossed the river and walked up the hill into the town. First stop was a co-op which sold traditional clothing and fabric made by the local women. One thing we noticed about Zunil was the women and girls were predominantly wearing the colourful traditional clothing. Very different to Xela.




Up the hill a little way was the large church which dominated the town. We had a look inside and noted more mannequins including another glass Jesus-in-coffin display. This one had piles of money inside to accompany Jesus to the afterlife.




Walking further up the hill we were taken to see “San Simon” which we had read as being referred to as a cult. The Lonely Planet describes him as a “local Mayan hero venerated as a saint by the local people“. Every year they have a festival of San Simon and he moves to a new house. The house we visited was up a muddy little path and we were taken into a dark room lit only by candles at the feet of another mannequin sitting in a chair dressed in colourful clothing wearing a cowboy hat and sunglasses! We were charged 5 Quetzal each (90cents) to enter and another 10 to take photos. It was dark and kind of creepy inside so we didn’t stay long. Outside I noticed a woman setting up a new fire to make offerings. There were the coals of the previous one beside her and I could see the remains of a chicken. The new fire had some eggs arranged among the kindling and she had a number of cigars ready to go on as well!



Saturday morning we headed back to Zunil and took a van another 8 km into the hills to go to “Fuentes Georginas“, which is the “prettiest, most popular natural spa in Guatemala” according to Lonely Planet.
www.lasfuentesgeorginas.com






It was a beautiful place. A little waterfall running down into a steaming pool surrounded with tropical vegetation. There were three pools, the first one with the little hot waterfall running into it. This pool was the first one Sarah and I got in and it was VERY hot. Like a bath that you dip your foot in and have to take it out. Oddly enough in the couple of hours we were there we were the only ones to go swimming in there! Everyone else just stuck their feet in and then went to the cooler pools. From the hot pool the water ran into two other small pools which were cooler. Very relaxing to wander between the pools with a cold shower in between with water from the creek.










More pictures from the trip so far on Facebook.