Quetzaltenango

Quetzaltenango, the second city of Guatemala, the capital of a department of the same name, is on the Siguila, 95 miles W. by N. of Guatemala city. It contains an ornate church, the handsomest government buildings in the republic, a national college, and a conservatoire. The streets are lit with the electric light; the houses are built of a light-brown lava from the Cerro Quemado ('Burned Mountain'), which overhangs the city. Quetzaltenango is the centre of the trade in native cloths. Its port is Champerico, on the Pacific, from whence a railway extends inland to Retalhulen (27 miles). Pop. 20,000, mostly Indians.