Oldest (maybe) church

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Trip Start Jan 23, 2010 Previous
Entry Trip End Mar 28, 2010 Next
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  Salcajá, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Salcaja is a relatively poorer good sized town east of Xela, famous for two things:  either the oldest or third oldest church in Central America, depending on who you listen to, and the manufacture of a home brewed fruit and sugar based alcohol called sopa de fruta.  It is fermented and buried in the ground for six months with the fruit in it, then the fruit and wine are separated.  The wine is about 20% alcohol, according to the wine maker we visited, and tasts somewhere between plum wine, sangria and port.  The fruit is pretty potent to eat.  The man who had the wine was also a weaver of the traditional pattern cloth used for the women´s skirts, and he showed us his loom and wove a few warps or wefts for us.

The church is small, simple and has a pretty wood altar and some ornately carved wooden saints, Jesuses and Marys.  The photo shows two large buttreses at the front corners of the church.  With all the earthquake activity in the area I can´t imagine that much of the church is from 1555, but that is the date it was established.

This was another chicken bus ride, and I really enjoy them, but the system is impossible to understand.  The buses marked Xela we ignored on the way home, and instead got on a totally unmarked bus.  I´m sure any of the Xela buses would get us somewhere in Xela, but it is a big, spread out city, so it could be a long walk or cab ride home if one took the wrong bus.  We were guided by one of the teachers who knows the buses.

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Old church detail, Salcaja	Old church, Salcaja, note buttreses	Church, Salcaja	Weaver at his loom, Salcaja
Sopa de Fruta and fruta, Salcaja

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