Chimaltenango

About Chimaltenango:

Chimaltenango borders Quiché and Baja Verapaz to the north, the departments of Guatemala and Sacatepéquez to the east, Escuintla and Suchitepéquez to the south and Sololá to the west. Its 16 municipalities are Chimaltenango, the departmental capital, plus El Tejar, Parramos, Zaragoza, San Andrés Itzapa, Patzicía, Patzún, Santa Cruz Balanyá, Tecpán Guatemala, Santa Apolonia, San José Poaquil, San Juan Comalapa, San Martín Jilotepeque, Acatenango, San Pedro Yepocapa and Pochuta. The Inter-American Highway, the CA-1, comes in at El Tejar, a municipality that runs only from kilometre 48 to kilometre 52 and is cut in two by the road, then leaves to the west past Tecpán towards Sololá and Quiché. Since 2019 a bypass of about 14 kilometres, between kilometres 47.5 and 62, has taken through traffic around the south side of the city of Chimaltenango. It made crossing the department far quicker. It has also had landslides and a road collapse in the rainy season, so check its state before you build a daily commute around it.

The departmental capital is the service centre, with the regional hospital, the Centro Universitario de Chimaltenango of the Universidad de San Carlos, banks and government offices. Since the bypass opened, shopping centres have followed, among them Interplaza at kilometre 50.4 and Paseo Andaria in the city. El Tejar and the capital have the highest human development scores in the department, helped by sitting next to Sacatepéquez and on the road to Guatemala City. Up on the plateau the money is in vegetables. Chimaltenango, Sololá and Sacatepéquez between them grow around 85 per cent of the snow peas, sugar snaps and baby vegetables Guatemala exports, and an exporter runs a packing plant in Patzún. Maize, beans and coffee share the land around Tecpán, Santa Apolonia, Comalapa, Patzún, Patzicía and San Andrés Itzapa.

The department sits on the Sierra Madre, and the ground breaks into deep barrancos, valleys and wide fertile plains. The largest stretch lies at around 2,000 metres, in pine and cypress country, and the municipal seats range from 2,310 metres in Santa Apolonia down to 926 in Pochuta. To the north the land drops towards the Motagua and Pixcayá rivers, dry country of thorn scrub and cactus. To the south it falls through the coffee of Acatenango, Yepocapa and Pochuta into humid subtropical forest. Two volcanoes stand on that southern edge: Acatenango, at 3,975 metres, and Fuego, which Chimaltenango shares with Sacatepéquez and Escuintla. On the high plateau frost is a working fact. Cold nights have wiped out potato and broad-bean crops around Patzún, and the frost decides what a plot up there can grow.

Close to eight in ten residents are Maya, most of them Kaqchikel, and the history runs deep. Iximché, 3 kilometres from Tecpán, was the last Kaqchikel capital and on 25 July 1524 became the first Spanish capital of Guatemala. San Juan Comalapa has some 500 painters working in the primitivist style and the longest mural in the country, and the Acta de Patzicía of 1871 opened the way for the Liberal Reform. In 2018 just over half the population lived in urban areas, with 96,985 people in the cabecera and 91,927 in Tecpán. Buyers are mostly local families buying or building a first home, people who commute to Guatemala City or Antigua, and investors after farmland or commercial frontage on the highway.

Houses in Chimaltenango:

Most homes for sale are in the departmental capital and El Tejar, where colonias and residenciales line both sides of the Inter-American and the bypass. Newer houses come in gated condominiums with a guard and parking, often two storeys on a narrow lot, a few minutes from San Lucas Sacatepéquez. One project in El Tejar alone is building 140 two-storey homes. In Tecpán, Patzún, Patzicía and Comalapa the stock is mostly family houses in and around the town centre. When you compare houses for sale in Chimaltenango, ask who built the structure and how, because this is the department the 1976 earthquake hit hardest and a sound frame is worth more than a fresh façade.

Rentals in Chimaltenango:

In the cabecera and El Tejar, tenants are mostly hospital and public-office staff, students at the university centre and people working in the shops and businesses along the highway. What they rent is usually a small house, a room or an apartment inside a family home. Around Tecpán, cabins and country houses in the pine forest take weekend visitors from the capital, and in Acatenango lodging is built around the hikers who climb the volcano. Before you sign, ask how many hours a day the municipal water arrives and time the drive on the CA-1 at rush hour.

New Developments in Chimaltenango:

New building follows the road. Gated residenciales and condominiums cluster in El Tejar and on the edges of the cabecera, and lotificaciones keep spreading out along the access roads. For years El Tejar filled up with lotificaciones, residenciales and colonias that went up without municipal planning rules; the town now has a land-use plan that sorts its ground into categories such as urban expansion and rural, so ask which one the project sits in. If you are paying a deposit on a house still under construction, see the building licence, find out whether the water comes from the project’s own well or the municipal network, and get the drainage plan in writing.

Land and Lots in Chimaltenango:

Land changes hands in three settings. On the CA-1 and the bypass between El Tejar and the cabecera, frontage is bought for shops, warehouses and other commercial use. Around Tecpán, San Martín Jilotepeque and the other market towns, lots big enough for one house are sold inside small projects with drainage, municipal water and power, or on their own beside an aldea road, and sizes are still quoted in varas. On the plateau, farmland for vegetables and grain is sold by the manzana. Walk the land before you buy: a barranco can open up right behind a lot that looks flat, and higher up it pays to ask what frost has done to that field in recent years.

Coffee Fincas in Chimaltenango:

On the southern slopes of Acatenango, Yepocapa and Pochuta, coffee grows under dense shade up to about 2,000 metres, in sandy volcanic soil that ash from Fuego keeps rich in minerals. This is the Acatenango Valley, one of Anacafé’s eight coffee regions, and its coffee carries a denomination of origin. Fincas range from family plots to estates reached by rural roads, such as the one that runs down from Patzún and Xepatán towards Pochuta. Ask how the harvest gets out in the rainy season, whether the finca has its own water, and how close it lies to the ravines that drain Fuego, which carry ash and debris after eruptions.

FAQ:

• How far is Chimaltenango from Guatemala City?

  The departmental capital is 54 kilometres west of Guatemala City on the Inter-American Highway, through San Lucas Sacatepéquez and El Tejar. Through traffic can skip the city on the bypass, which runs along its south side from kilometre 47.5 to kilometre 62.

• Which towns work for commuting to the capital or Antigua?

  El Tejar and the cabecera sit on the CA-1 at the eastern end of the department, closest to Guatemala City. Parramos lies on the road that drops from the cabecera towards Pastores and Antigua. Tecpán, at kilometre 88, makes for a long drive every day.

• What should I check before buying a lot in El Tejar or the cabecera?

  Start with the local risk: many lotificaciones here went up without municipal rules, so confirm the project’s licence and the plot’s land-use category at the municipality. Then check at the property registry that the lot is registered on its own, in the seller’s name and free of liens, and look behind it for a barranco before you agree a price.

• Does frost matter if I buy farmland in Chimaltenango?

  On the high plateau it does. Frost has destroyed potato and broad-bean crops around Patzún, so ask the neighbours how the field has done on frost nights and choose crops for the altitude. The coffee land of Acatenango, Yepocapa and Pochuta lies much lower and warmer.

• Where is the coffee land in Chimaltenango?

  On the southern slopes of Acatenango, San Pedro Yepocapa and Pochuta, below the Acatenango and Fuego volcanoes. It belongs to the Acatenango Valley region, whose coffee is sold under its own denomination of origin.