Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
guard post and a sign 'Ingenio El Baúl Bienvenidos'. Tell the guards that you would like
to visit the museo, and you should be admitted. Pass the sugar refinery buildings to arrive
at the museum on the right.
MUSEUM
Museo Cultura Cotzumalguapa
(admission Q25; 7am-1pm & 2-4pm Mon-Fri, 7am-1pm Sat)
At the headquarters of another sugar-
cane plantation, Finca Las Ilusiones, you'll find this museum. The collection of sculptures
found around Las Ilusiones' lands has some explanatory material and you'll probably be
shown around by the caretaker.
It includes a reconstruction of a sacrificial altar with the original stones, and photos of
some fine stelae that were removed to the Dahlem Museum in Berlin in 1880. The most
impressive exhibit, Monumento 21, is actually a fiberglass copy of a stone that still stands
in the fields of Finca Bilbao (part of Las Ilusiones' plantations), depicting what may be a
shaman holding a sort of puppet on the left, a ball-game player in the middle with a knife
in one hand, and a king or priest on the right holding what may be a heart. Another copy
of this stone, along with one of Monumento 19, lies on the ground across the street from
the museum. Along the road just before the bridge to the
finca
house are copies of some
of the sculptures from the El Baúl museum.
About 1.5km east of the town center on Carretera al Pacífico (Hwy 2), shortly before
the Tecún farm supplies depot, take a side track 400m to the left (north) to find the mu-
seum.
Bilbao Stones
Monumento 21, whose copy is in the Museo Cultura Cotzumalguapa (
Click here
)
, still
stands with three other fine sculpted stones dotted about the Finca Bilbao cane fields to
the northeast of El Calvario church, on the north edge of Santa Lucía town.
In the past, tourists have regularly visited these stones, often guided through the tall
cane to Las Piedras (the Bilbao Stones) by local boys, but this is an isolated area and as-
saults on tourists are not unknown - ask around to find out what the current safety situ-
ation is.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE
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