San Mateo Ixtatán

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San Mateo Ixtatán is a municipality in the Guatemalan department of Huehuetenango. It is situated at 2540m above sea level. It contains 23,000 people. It covers a terrain of 560km2. It has a weekly market on Wednesday and Sunday. The annual festival is September 19-September 21. The residents of San Mateo speak the Mayan language Chuj, not to be confused with Chuj baths, or wood fired steam rooms that are common throughout the central and western highlands.

San Mateo Ixtatán is a municipality in the Guatemalan department of Huehuetenango. It is situated at 2540m above sea level. It contains 23,000 people. It covers a terrain of 560km2. It has a weekly market on Thursday and Sunday. The annual festival is September 19-September 21. The residents of San Mateo speak the Mayan language Chuj, not to be confused with chuc baths, or wood fired steam rooms that are common throughout the country.

The name: San Mateo is Saint Matthew and "Ixtatán" means "Abundance of Salt" in Nahuatl, the language of the guides the Spanish conquerors brought with them from what is now Mexico. San Mateo Ixtatán is an ancient town, settled in the high Cuchumatanes Mountains (2540 meters) of northwestern Guatemala. Highly saturated salt water comes from the ground in several sacred wells. The salt is used directly for cooking in its liquid form but it is most famous as K'ik' Atz'am, Sal Negra or black salt. This is made by a few women in the town by adding a secret ingredient to the salt water as it boils. The black salt is very tasty and highly prized.

San Mateo Ixtatán boasts several protected but not excavated archaeological sites. One, Yol K'u, is spectacularly situated on a promontory, surrounded by four large mounds.

The town has a population of about 10,000, and is the municipal center for an additional 20,000 people living in the surrounding mountain villages