san andres archeology site

layout of the site

a tree at the entrance to the site

goats kept us company on our tour

this hangs from the metal piece below and the boot goes inside for riding

a metal stirrup

indigo bath with water wheel

skull showing a jade tooth inlay in the front - they placed boards on the foreheads of babies to elongate the skulls as a sign of status or royalty

cocoa pods on the tree

San Andres, in Santa Ana, El Salvador, shows four good-sized Mayan structures. During the Spanish conquest San Andres was part of a colonial hacienda-type cattle farm. In modern times the Salvadoran government has created the San Andres archaeological park that includes a museum not limited to the Maya archeology, but shows examples of the colonial era. We saw the La Gran Plaza, an L-shaped complex which highlights Cerro Campana San Andrés. Most of the Maya business was done around this building.

joya de ceren, el salvador

gift shop skulls

gift shop ceramic reproductions

getting the juice out to eat the fruit




i've totally forgotten the name of the fruit

one of the ginger plants on our way to the excavation

dried leaves everywhere

it looks small but it's really quite large, remains of a building

the village center with home in the front and the sauna in the background - it looks small in the picture but it's really a full scale village

the sauna

Joya de Ceren (“Jewel of the Ceren”) is a humanity heritage by UNESCO. It’s the only place in the world that shows the daily life of a pre-Columbian Mayan farming village. You get a sense of what every day life was like for the great majority of Maya who were not priests or officials. We saw adobe houses, communal baths and public structures. Because Joya del Ceren’s building materials were susceptible to erosion and quick decay, it took ash from a nearby volcano that erupted around 600 A.D. to bury the village and protect it from the elements. The excavation resembles the process of excavation at Pompeii and Herculaneum.