Museo Cultura Cotzumalguapa


At the headquarters of the Finca Las Ilusiones sugarcane plantation, you’ll find this museum, which holds a collection of sculptures found around Las Ilusiones' lands. There is some explanatory material and you'll probably be shown around by caretaker René Hernández.

The museum includes a reconstruction of a sacrificial altar with the original stones, and photos of some fine stelae that were removed to the Dahlem Museum in Berlin in 1880. The most impressive exhibit, Monumento 21, is actually a fiberglass copy of a stone that still stands in the fields of Finca Bilbao (part of Las Ilusiones' plantations), depicting what may be a shaman holding a sort of puppet on the left, a ball-game player in the middle with a knife in one hand, and a king or priest on the right holding what may be a heart. Another copy of this stone, along with one of Monumento 19, lies on the ground across the street from the museum. Along the road just before the bridge to the finca house are copies of some of the sculptures from El Baúl museum.

To find the museum, head about 1.5km east of the town center on Carretera al Pacífico (Hwy 2). Take a left shortly before the Tecún farm supplies depot and travel about 400m north.


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