Museo El Baúl


This museum, about 2.75km on foot or 5km by vehicle from El Baúl hilltop site, comprises a very fine open-air assemblage of Pipil stone sculpture collected from around Finca El Baúl's sugarcane fields. A large stone jaguar faces you at the entrance.

Other figures include four humans or monkeys with arms folded across their chests; a grinning, blank-eyed head reminiscent of the one at the hilltop site; carvings of skulls; and, at the back, a stela showing a personage wearing an animal headdress, standing over a similarly attired figure on the ground: seemingly winner and loser of a ball game.

To get there, if driving, leave town northward on the road passing El Calvario church. From the intersection just past the church, go 2.7km to a fork in the road just beyond a bridge; take the left fork and follow the paved road 3km to the headquarters of the Finca El Baúl sugarcane plantation. Buses trundle along this road every few hours. (If you're on foot, you can walk from the hilltop site back to the crossroads with the paved road. Cross the road and continue along the dirt track. This will eventually bring you to the asphalt road that leads to the finca headquarters. When you reach the road, turn right.)

Approaching the finca headquarters (6km from Santa Lucía's main square), you cross a bridge at a curve. Continue uphill and you will see the entrance on the left, marked by a guard post and a sign 'Ingenio El Baúl Bienvenidos.' Tell the guards that you would like to visit the museo, and you should be admitted. Pass the sugar refinery buildings to arrive at the museum on the right.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby attractions

1. El Baúl Hilltop Site

1.19 MILES

With two great carved stones, this archaeological site has the additional fascination of being an active place of pagan worship for local people. Maya…

2. Las Piedras

2.79 MILES

Monumento 21, a copy of which is in the Museo Cultura Cotzumalguapa, still stands with three other fine sculpted stones in the Finca Bilbao cane fields to…

4. Museo Cultura Cotzumalguapa

3.1 MILES

At the headquarters of the Finca Las Ilusiones sugarcane plantation, you’ll find this museum, which holds a collection of sculptures found around Las…

6. Museo Regional de Arqueología

11.46 MILES

Facing La Democracia's main plaza – along with the expected church and palacio municipal (city hall) – is this small modern museum that houses some…

7. Plaza

11.47 MILES

At the archaeological site of Monte Alto, on the outskirts of La Democracia, huge basalt heads and pot-bellied sculptures have been discovered, probably…

8. Casa del Tejido Antiguo

19.74 MILES

This space is like a museum, market and workshop all rolled into one, with exhibits on regional outfits and daily demonstrations of backstrap weaving…

  • placement: superzone
  • path: Destinations/POIs/superzone
  • possible size: [970, 250], [970, 90], [728, 90], [1, 1],
  • targeting:
    {
      "url": "guatemala/the-pacific-slope/santa-lucia-cotzumalguapa/attractions/museo-el-baul/a/poi-sig/1330856/358431",
      "position": "superzone"
    }