Museo Miraflores – Guatemala City

Museo Miraflores

Museo Miraflores

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Museo Miraflores

The Miraflores Museum contains artefacts and finds from the Mayan city of Kaminaljuyu – upon which the modern city of Guatemalan City now stands. Much stands to be discovered at some time in the future.

The modern museum, therefore, sits upon the structures which it seeks to represent inside its walls.

The collection has also been augmented by donations from the Santa Clara Foundation.

How to get there:

Only a few minutes walk from Boulevard Liberación (the PanAmerican Highway), behind the Miraflores shopping mall.

Opening times;

Tuesday to Sunday: 09.00 – 19.00

Entrance:

Q30

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Popol Vuh Museum – Guatemala City

Popol Vuh Museum

Popol Vuh Museum

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Popol Vuh Museum – Guatemala City

The Popol Vuh Museum is housed in a modern building which is part of the Francisco Marroquín University, in Zone 10 of Guatemala City.

It is one of the finest collections of Mayan art in the world and definitely worth the effort to visit if you are in the city. But not an easy place to get to.

The university promotes neo-liberal/neoconservative thinking but you can ignore that and admire the artefacts on display – and then leave all that crap behind.

How to get there:

There’s no real public transport to the university campus so either a taxi or walking – depending upon from where you might be starting. When entering the university site look for the signs for the ‘Ixchel Museum of Indigenous Textiles and Clothing’. With that museum on your right head for the stairway into the university ahead of you towards your left. Entrance to the museum is on the first floor, up the stairs. Make sure to have a look at some of the sculptures and pottery that are in the public areas, next to lecture rooms, at ground level when you come out.

Entrance;

Q45

There’s an extra charge of Q15 if you want to take pictures – and you get given a permission sticker. Worthwhile paying the extra.

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Estanzuela Museum

Estanzuela Museum

Estanzuela Museum

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Estanzuela Museum

The Estanzuela museum is very small (basically two rooms, one for Palaeontology and another for Archaeology).

For those interested in Palaeontology there’s a very interesting fossil of a giant sloth – not sure how something that moves so slowly was able to reach such a size, unless a giant sloth was much more aggressive and the species only became what we know as a sloth much later in the evolutionary process.

For those interested in Archaeology there’s a small room downstairs with a few items which are very different from some of the other museums already visited. The museum’s collection of Mayan objects are supposed to number in the thousands (I don’t know how accurate that claim is) but there is only a small handful on display.

However, some of the items on show (especially the carved stones) are fairly unique and worth the effort of a visit.

But Estanzuela is a somewhat dire location. There’s no accommodation (which is a good thing) as the town is one of the most uninspiring, bleak and uninviting so far visited.

How to get there:

From the main road leading to Chiquimula on arriving at Estanzuela take Calle 4 (west) for about half a kilometre until you arrive at the school (with a mural). The museum is just a few metres further on the right.

Entrance.:

Free

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