Zunil

Introducing Zunil

Zunil is a pretty agricultural and market town in a lush valley framed by steep hills and dominated by a towering volcano. As you speed downhill toward Zunil on the road from Quetzaltenango, you will see it framed as if in a picture, with its white col­onial church gleaming above the red-tiled and rusted tin roofs of the low houses.

Winding down the hill from Los Baños, the road skirts Zunil and its fertile gardens before a road on the left leads across a river bridge and, 1km further, to Zunil’s plaza.

Zunil, founded in 1529, is a typical Guatemalan highland town. What makes it so beautiful is its setting in the mountains and the traditional indigenous agriculture practiced here. The cultivated plots, divided by stone fences, are irrigated by canals; you’ll see the farmers scooping up water from the canals with a shovel-like instrument and throwing it over their plants. Women wash their clothes near the river bridge in pools of hot water that come out of the rocks. In Zunil, the centuries-old life cycle thrives.

Last updated: Apr 1, 2009