San Andres Xecul

The church at San Andres Xecul is small and its facade is impossible to miss: painted a strong yellow and covered from the door to the gable in modelled figures, saints, angels, climbing vines, fruit, animals and jaguars, in a scheme that mixes Catholic iconography with imagery that is plainly not European in origin. It is one of the clearest surviving examples of how highland Maya communities took the forms of the imposed religion and worked their own into them. A smaller chapel painted in the same manner stands on the hill above, reached by a steep climb, with a view over the village and the valley. The interior is comparatively plain.

What you actually see

• The painted yellow facade - figures covering the whole front of the church.
• Saints, jaguars and vines together - Catholic and Maya imagery combined.
• The hill chapel above - the smaller building painted in the same style.
• Views over the valley - the village and the fields from the hill.

When to go

The November to April dry season. Two hours. Festival days in late November fill the village. Morning light suits the facade for photographs.

Honest expectations

The interior is plain and the whole visit is essentially the facade, which takes twenty minutes. The climb to the hill chapel is steep. The village has almost no facilities. Services take precedence over visitors.

Nearby

San Francisco El Alto is north; Quetzaltenango lies south-west.