El Palmar, Quetzaltenango
Encyclopedia
El Palmar is a municipality
in the Quetzaltenango department
of Guatemala
El Palmar is mostly an agricultural municipality, with coffee being one of its main products.
Many years ago, El Palmar was nearly destroyed by a volcanic eruption of the Santiaguito volcano. Nuevo El Palmar was founded a few kilometers away where most people re-settled. Some inhabitants chose to stay or go back to the original town.
The original town was nearly destroyed again by another volcanic eruption in the late 90's. The inhabitants were given the alternative to re-settle in El Nuevo Palmar by the Guatemalan government. Those who chose to stay would do so at their own risk. Those who re-settled in El Nuevo Palmar did so into the suburbs of this town. A few months later, the entire town was destroyed by another flood of mud from a volcanic eruption. The old town is still declared a risk zone and anyone who enters does so under their own risk.
In October 2005 a bridge was destroyed here by Hurricane Stan
, cutting off a large portion of the southwest region from the rest of the country. It has since been restored.
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...
in the Quetzaltenango department
Departments of Guatemala
||Guatemala is divided into 22 departments :#Alta Verapaz#Baja Verapaz#Chimaltenango#Chiquimula#Petén#El Progreso#El Quiché#Escuintla#Guatemala#Huehuetenango#Izabal#Jalapa#Jutiapa#Quetzaltenango#Retalhuleu#Sacatepéquez...
of Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
El Palmar is mostly an agricultural municipality, with coffee being one of its main products.
Many years ago, El Palmar was nearly destroyed by a volcanic eruption of the Santiaguito volcano. Nuevo El Palmar was founded a few kilometers away where most people re-settled. Some inhabitants chose to stay or go back to the original town.
In October 2005 a bridge was destroyed here by Hurricane Stan
Hurricane Stan
Hurricane Stan was the eighteenth named tropical storm and eleventh hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. It was also the sixth of seven tropical cyclones to make landfall in Mexico. Stan was a relatively weak storm that only briefly reached hurricane status...
, cutting off a large portion of the southwest region from the rest of the country. It has since been restored.