Cobán

About Cobán:

Cobán lies 212 kilometres north of Guatemala City. You follow the CA-9 towards the Atlantic for 84 kilometres as far as El Rancho, then climb the CA-14 for another 128 through Tactic and Santa Cruz Verapaz; allow four to five hours. The stretch of the CA-14 between Santa Cruz Verapaz and Cobán is being widened to four lanes. The municipality is far bigger than the city, at 2,132 square kilometres. San Cristóbal Verapaz, Santa Cruz Verapaz, Tactic and Tamahú border it to the south, Chisec, San Pedro Carchá and San Juan Chamelco to the east, and across the Chixoy river lie Ixcán, Uspantán and Chicamán, in Quiché. On the ground the city has grown into Carchá and Chamelco, so a house advertised as Cobán can sit in the next municipality over.

Dominican friars founded the town on 4 August 1543. Its full name is still Santo Domingo de Cobán, and it keeps the title of Ciudad Imperial from the reign of Charles V. Coffee built the modern city. German planters started arriving in 1863, opened their club in 1888 and a German school in 1935, and numbered around 2,000 by 1930; they also ran the Verapaz railway towards Lake Izabal from 1895 until 1963, and the Ubico government expelled them in 1941. You can still pick out German touches in some older buildings, and the Dieseldorff coffee farm takes visitors. Coffee and cardamom remain the crops that employ the most people, the rural aldeas are full of poultry farms, and the city works as the department’s storeroom, with groceries, medicines, cloth and fuel arriving from Guatemala City and Quetzaltenango and going out again to the rest of Alta Verapaz.

Around 212,000 people lived in the municipality at the 2018 census. Q’eqchi’ and Spanish are what you hear most, with some Poqomchi’ too. The University of San Carlos runs its northern campus, CUNOR, in zona 6, the Universidad Panamericana sits near the Cantón Las Casas bus terminal in zona 8, and the Hospital Regional is in the city as well. Plaza Magdalena handles the big shopping trips and the market handles everything else. In the last week of July the city fills up for the Festival Folklórico Nacional and the crowning of the Rabín Ajaw, held here since 1970, and on 4 August it celebrates its patron, Santo Domingo de Guzmán.

At this height the air stays cool all year, and you will not need air conditioning. What shapes a house here is the chipi-chipi, a fine drizzle that can hang on for days. Deep eaves, working gutters, cross-ventilation and a covered spot to dry laundry matter more than a view. North of the city the municipality drops through limestone hills riddled with siguanes, sinkholes some of which are more than 100 metres deep, down to about 300 metres, where Laguna Lachuá National Park sits in lowland forest. Closer in, El Calvario church crowns a long stairway above the rooftops, Parque Nacional Las Victorias has pine-forest trails right beside it, and the Vivero Verapaz nursery grows orchids on the old road into town. Cobán is also the usual base for trips to Semuc Champey, in Lanquín.

Houses in Cobán:

Near the centre the typical family home has two storeys, a flat terrace roof and a garage, like the houses of Barrio San Marcos in zona 4, half a block from the central park. Newer houses go up inside residenciales with a guarded gate. Residenciales Cacic is one of the better-known names, with three-bedroom homes, a front garden and a side patio, and a few recent projects add a clubhouse and pool. Zona 3 and zona 4 hold some of the roomier family houses and quieter residential streets. Before you commit to any house in Cobán, check behind the wardrobes and under the windows for damp, and ask when the terrace roof was last sealed.

Apartments in Cobán:

The cheapest apartments are in the centre, near the market and Plaza Magdalena. You can walk everywhere, but market days start loud and early. Newer stock is on its way: a 72-unit tower with a guarded entrance is selling off plan in two-bedroom units of around 50 square metres, and some condominiums offer compact three-bedroom units. If you buy off plan, ask to see the municipal building licence and get the handover date in writing.

Rentals in Cobán:

The steadiest tenants are students at CUNOR and the Universidad Panamericana and staff at the Hospital Regional who want to live close to work. Houses for rent come up in most zones, for example beside the Cantón Las Casas bus terminal in zona 8, a few minutes from the Panamericana. A lease here normally means a signed contract and a deposit. Put in writing what the rent includes and who pays for repairs, because in this climate a leaking roof is a question of when, not if.

Land and Lots in Cobán:

On the exit road to Chisec, past Gualom in zona 11, small lots of 9 by 22 metres sell with water, power and registered deeds, often with a down payment and monthly instalments. Bigger parcels line the highway on the approach to the city, some of them over a hectare. Inside the city, corner lots on quiet residential streets in zona 4 are snapped up for small developments. Towards San Pedro Carchá plots get larger and cheaper, with fewer urban services. Limestone ground can hide cavities, so on any rural plot have an engineer look at the soil before you design the foundations.

Commercial Property in Cobán:

A city that supplies a whole department needs shops, offices and warehouses, and in Cobán they change hands. Buildings of around four storeys in zona 1, a short walk from Plaza Magdalena, are sold as investments. On the edge of the city, Sasay in zona 9 has complexes of warehouses. Before you change what a building is used for, check the municipal land-use plan at the town hall.

FAQ:

• How long does it take to get to Cobán from Guatemala City?

  Four to five hours for the 212 kilometres, on the CA-9 to El Rancho and then the CA-14 north. Monja Blanca buses leave the capital roughly every hour through most of the day, so you can get here without a car.

• How does the weather in Cobán affect a house?

  Expect drizzle on many days of the year and damp air the rest of the time. Look for good ventilation, sealed roofs and eaves that keep rain off the walls, and expect lower electricity bills than in the capital because nobody needs to cool the house.

• What should I check before buying a lot on the edge of Cobán?

  First, which municipality it really belongs to: on the Carchá and Chamelco side the city runs straight into the neighbours, and the building licence and property tax follow the line, not the address. Then confirm at the property registry that the deeds are registered in the seller’s name, and have the soil checked, because the limestone under Cobán is full of sinkholes.

• What kind of property can I find in Cobán?

  Two-storey family houses in the older zones, homes in gated residenciales, apartments in the centre and in new towers, rooms and houses for rent near the universities, building lots on the roads to Chisec and Carchá, and commercial buildings and warehouses.

• When is Cobán at its busiest?

  In the last week of July, when the Festival Folklórico Nacional and the Rabín Ajaw bring visitors from all over the country, running into the patron saint’s fair on 4 August. Late in the year the Vivero Verapaz hosts the national orchid festival. If you want to see houses at those times, book your stay well ahead.