Santa Lucia...In the steps of the bounty hunters..

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I wanted to spend a day exploring this region before heading up to Lago Atitlan, so I visited the little frequented Santa Lucia Cotzumalguapa. Not expecting too much from this city I was pleasantly surprised that the town was clean, friendly and bustling with activity. I was in search of a lost Olmec City hidden in the sugar cane fields. The taxi drivers wanted $20 for a lift to the sites, so I took Shank's pony and a rudimentary map looking for good fortune. Trundling up the road I found good fortune who went by the name of Ricardo and had a motorbike. He stopped and asked if I was looking for the archaeological sites - he could give me a ride if I wanted as they were difficult to find without transport. This is the good thing about being the only tourist in town; you stand out a mile and are treated as a bit of a novelty! He appeared a nice, normal, old guy so I jumped on the back - at the end of the day most of the people in the world are nice people eh?

These sites are incredible, I think what makes it so amazing is that the carvings are hidden away in a sugar cane plantation and stalking through the crops and finding them is like alighting on hidden treasure. Two of the sugar factories have small museums with some carved stelae and stautes but the best are to be found in-situ, still worshipped by the Maya. These black granite rocks are surrounded by the blackened scars of many fires and remains of rituals are found on the pieces themselves: flowers, candles, cigars and incense.

When the canes are hervested the fields are ploughed ready for next season, this is when Ricardo scours the furrows looking for lost treasure churned up in the earth. And there it is, just ripe for the taking. It's finders-keepers over here and no one else is bothered by it, not even the land owners, so why not salvage his own history?

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