Iximche

Last weekend we spent a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Tecpan with brother Lucas, one my co-workers. Tecpan, the initial capital of the Spanish (though it was quickly abandoned for the Almolonga valley where the city of Antigua lies) is right off the Pan American highway, and boasts the closest Mayan ruin site to Guatemala City. The ruins of Iximche (pronounced ee-sheem-chay), a former Kaqchikel stronghold, are not nearly as dramatic as those of Tikal, but it has numerous plazas and mounds, and is situated on a pine and oak mesa surrounded by ravines and mountain ridges. It’s beautiful. The few altars where human sacrifices once took place were a little unnerving if you think about it, but it was one of the only public places we’ve found where our kids could run around at will, climb the mounds and low platforms, and enjoy the sunlight out in the open.







We saw no tourists, just local Mayans spending the afternoon, like us, with friends or family, enjoying the sun and light breeze. A few prayed by the ceremonial fire pits, and a priest Kaqchikel priest performed various ritualistic hand gestures over the smouldering fires, and spoke with some of the locals.


(Cristian in front of sports arena where the Kaqchikel used to play a game similar to basketball, with ground-level baskets, but players could only use their hips to play the ball. Losers, according to Lucas, were executed.)




(Cristian with brother Lucas)


(A Kaqchikel priest)

Back at Lucas’s mother’s house, we ate pepian (traditional Guatemalan chicken dish), and Mallory and Cristian played with Lucas’s cousins, all beautiful little kids that spoke both Kaqchikel and Spanish.


(Mallory holding a kitten with Lucas's cousins)

Leaving the over-crowded and polluted streets of Guatemala City, even for an afternoon, was hugely refreshing.