Xela (Quezaltenango) and the Ghost Village of Viejo Palmar

Ruins of the Palmar church (both sides)
Originally uploaded by louise_parmenter

Esteban and I reluctantly moved on from warm Lake Atitlan to the cold mountain town of Xela. I took him to the hot springs that I`ve mentioned in my previous Xela post. On the way there we almost gave up and turned back as we were being overcharged for transport, that was until 3 young Guatemalan`s offered to give us a lift there for free. So we spent a relaxing afternoon there with our new friends and walked part of the way back to the next town through misty hills, fields being harvested, passing local women carrying huge heavy stacks of firewood uphill, until we hitched a lift on a pickup truck.

A highlight of our stay in Xela was our visit to a ghost village I had heard about near to the sub-tropical lowlands of Reu. Viejo Palmar (Old Palmar) is located at the foot of an active volcano and is sometimes subject to lava flows, but in the 90s it suffered relentless volcanic and earthquake damage, forcing the villagers to flee to the nearby villages and to found the new village of Nuevo Palmar. The main draw was to see the spectacular and rare site of 30m ravine running through what was the village centre (caused by a lava flow), with the remains of the village church on both sides of the ravine. A subsequent earthquake caused a local river to divert its course and now runs through this ravine and in between the two extremities of the church. It was a fascinating day trip from Xela, made even better by having got to know some locals; I even got to ride a horse bareback for 5 minutes – about as much as my boney bottom could bear!

Here are the photos.

DISTANCE TRAVELED (OVERLAND) SINCE USHUAIA: 30,090KM