THE WESTERN HIGHLANDS - Guatemala - page 252

Foryourbankingneeds,Banruralisonthetrapezoidalplazaatthecenteroftown.Thepost
office and police are also here. Along the main street leading out of town is Café Internet
(tel. [phone]), charging $1.50 per hour for a somewhat slow Internet connection.
Todos Santos's two language schools charge about $120 per week for 4-5 hours of
instruction per day plus homestay with a local family. Living conditions are very basic
and most host families speak Mam, with a select few opportunities for homestay with
Spanish-speaking families. Both schools also offer instruction in the local Mayan dialect.
The two schools are Academia Hispano Maya (opposite Hotelito Todos Santos,
www.hispanomaya.org ) and Nuevo Amanecer (150 meters west of the plaza, es-
[e-mail]).
Getting There
There are seven daily buses to Huehuetenango (2.5 hours) that leave from the plaza, the
last one leaving at 4:30 P.M.
SAN JUAN IXCOY TO BARILLAS
From the Paquix Junction, the spectacularly scenic road heads north to several mountain
townsintheheartoftheCuchumatanes.Alongtheroadaresomeexquisitepastures,which
have been grazed since colonial times. Large, gray boulders are also strewn about and the
frigid mountain scenery is at once beautiful and inhospitable. At the edge of the plateau,
the road begins its steep descent shortly after passing a local limestone outcropping in the
shape of two pointy teeth known as the Piedras de Captzín. The stones are sacred to the
local Q'anjob'al.
San Juan Ixcoy is the first village you'll come across as you begin the descent from the
plateau. Its women wear long, white huipiles with embroidery at the collar. In the vicin-
ity of town are the Los Jolotes waterfalls, which got their name from a corruption of the
Spanish word tecolotes, meaning “owls,” which are said to be abundant in the surround-
ing forests. The waterfalls are part of the Río San Juan, a tributary of the Río Ixcán, which
eventually flows into the mighty Río Usumacinta.
San Pedro Soloma
Another seven kilometers down the road is San Pedro Soloma, a fairly prosperous and sur-
prisingly sizable town given its remote location deep in the mountains. It looks rather at-
tractive from the surrounding mountainside as you descend into the green valley it occu-
pies. The Mayans here also speak Q'anjob'al. Many of them have family members living
in the United States, adding to the town's prosperity.
Solomaisagoodplacetobreakupthejourneyifyou'reheadednorthtoBarillas.Among
the options for accommodations is Hotel Caucaso (3a Calle 3A-37, tel. [phone], $7 d),