11/30/24

We recently started hiking with a group based in Lo de Marcos (three towns up the coast from us). I was super excited about today’s hike, because we were visiting the petroglyphs in Altavista– on my bucket list of Archaeological Sites Close to Home. It’s an hour and a half north of us near the tiny town of Chacala.

Because it’s off the beaten path, it’s one of those places that’s best done with a group. We were fortunate to find Memo who leads weekly hikes to places like this. Lurko came too so that was a bonus. We all enjoyed this hike, and I’m going to let the pictures do most of the talking.

What you’re looking at: these rock engravings were made by the Texcoquines, who died out when the Spanish arrived. There are estimated to be 2000 carvings spread over a 200 acre area, mostly along the sides of a creek. Because it’s located at the top of a mountain that gets a lot of rain in the wet season, it is believed that the symbols represent prayers to fertility gods for a good harvest. Nobody knows for sure.