Sololá

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Sololá is a city in Guatemala. It is the capital of the department of Sololá and the administrative seat of Sololá municipality.

The name is a hispanicized form of its pre-Columbian name, one spelling variant of which is T'zol'joly'a. The built-up portion of the municipality has about 14,000 people, but the municipality also includes the communities of Los Encuentros, El Tablón, San Jorge la Laguna, and Argueta. It is at kilometer 139, just off the Pan American Highway, and takes about two and a half hours to reach by car or "chicken bus." Since nearby Panajachel is Guatemala's most visited tourist destination (after Antigua), and since one normally goes though Sololá to reach Pana, Sololá is one of the most visited towns in Guatemala by foreigners. However, few people who pass through get off the bus.

Nevertheless, Sololá has a spectacular setting. It is on a mountainside overlooking beautiful Lake Atitlán, some 600 meters below. Aside from being a provincial capital and highland market center (the Friday market is to be avoided because of crowding), the other things that put Sololá on the map are its soyfoods factory, and the HQ of the Catholic Bishopric encompassing Sololá and Chimaltenango Departments. Nearby, two kilometers before one reaches town, there is an extension of the University Del Valle. The campus was converted from a military base in 2000. The news that it would become a military cadet school provoked a spontaneous protest among the normally docile and fatalistic Sololatecos, such that the alarmed national government backed down. A visit to Sololá by Queen Sofía of Spain in 2001 drew a crowd of about 75.

The population of Sololá is traditional Catholic-Maya (a syncretistic mixture), though "evangelicos" make up a good portion of the population as well. Almost all residents of Sololá are Kaqchikel Mayas, except for in Argueta, where most are K'iche' Mayas. Very many women and some men still wear traditional clothing.