Weekend Trippin’ Around the Western Highlands

Chicabal

During Dixon’s two-month Spanish study in Xela, we had the opportunity to go on a school excursion to Chicabal, a volcano with an eponymous lagoon within its crater. It was a one-hour drive and a two-hour hike up to the top of the volcano. However,

we were rewarded with incredible views of the neighboring volcanoes and an intimate look down into Chicabal’s crater. After eating lunch up top at the volcano’s mirador, we descended the four hundred or so steps down to Chicabal’s lagoon and beach. Lester, our Guatemalan guide, explained that the lagoon is a sacred site (therefore no swimming allowed) where many Maya come to perform traditional ceremonies. He told the following story of what makes Chicabal a traditional site: In the past, the lagoon

now found in Chicabal’s crater once was located closer to Xela. The lagoon was fed by the rains, and the lagoon, in return, sustained the people. However, the god that lived in the

lagoon became angry over time as the local population littered the lagoon with their trash, human waste, and detergents from washing. As a result, the story goes, the lagoon dried up and was no longer. The Maya walked the surrounding hills and valleys until many

years later they found where the god had taken their original water source – to the crater of Volcan Chicabal. To this day it remains a protected and well preserved area. We could have spent the whole weekend lying on the warm sands of the quiet beach surrounding the lagoon.

Momostenango

The weekend before Dixon’s return to the States, Brenda (Cris’ director) and her family took the three of us on a one-day excursion to Momostenango, about an hour north of Xela.

Ana Laura, Tyler, and Alejandra explore the sandstone pillars.

Momostenango means “the place of the altars”, which may be a nod to Momos strict adherence to Maya tradition. Momos sits atop a hill forested with pine trees and is home to many sheep. For hundreds of years the local Maya population has formed their own type of cooperative through which they care for the pine trees that blanket the hill top, knowing that the trees are necessary to their survival. The wool from the sheep is used to make beautiful rugs, scarves, and blankets, decorated very simply or with elaborate quetzal bird designs. We spent our time in Momos climbing and exploring Los Riscos, the sandstone pillars located on the northern edge of town. We ended the day by drinking hot chocolate and eating fondue at a Swiss-owned restaurant set atop Cerro Candelario, overlooking the city. The hot chocolate was excellent and went well with the light rain that began to fall that night.