Pochuta

About Pochuta:

Pochuta runs down the south side of Chimaltenango, with Patzún to the north, Yepocapa and Patulul in Suchitepéquez to the south, Acatenango to the east and San Lucas Tolimán in Sololá to the west. The land falls from 2,550 metres in the north to about 600 in the south. Up top the Nicán river has cut a deep canyon through the mountains; lower down the slopes open out and flatten toward the coast. That shape explains the roads. The only paved way in comes up from Patulul and the CA-2 at Cocales, which puts Guatemala City 138 kilometres away by the southern highway and the department seat, reached by way of the capital, at 192. The 21 kilometres north to Patzún and the 40 to Acatenango are unpaved, an old road to San Lucas Tolimán was abandoned years ago, and the municipality is pressing to have the Patzún road paved end to end.

The town started out as aldea Caprera, part of Patzún, and became a municipality on 6 July 1882 under a new name taken from the Nahuatl for “place of ceibas”. A ceiba still stands in the middle of the central park, and the tree and the walls of the old colonial church, between the cemetery and the secondary school, are both protected as national heritage. Coffee carries the economy. It covers around 70 percent of the land in use and employs most working people, while SICASA, which mines silica for glassmaking a kilometre from town, is the other big employer. Macadamia, plantain, banana, avocado and cacao grow on the side, some fincas have weighed a switch to African palm, and local workshops still turn out clay roof tiles and ironwork by hand.

Three rivers cross the municipality, the Nicán, the Jiote and the Madre Vieja, and three springs feed the town’s piped water. Rain is what you plan around here. In heavy storms the Nicán, which passes right behind the Catholic church, spills into the neighbourhoods on the edge of town, and landslides have left Unión Victoria, La Bendición and San Eduardo cut off more than once. Most rural roads are dirt and hard going in the rainy season; La Bendición, the farthest aldea, is 15 kilometres out. Power reaches close to nine homes in ten, but seven places still have no piped water, among them Santa María, Santa Emilia, Mirandilla, La Torre and El Retiro.

A little over 10,000 people live in the municipality, roughly four in five of them Kaqchikel, though the traje is rarely worn day to day. Around the cabecera lie three aldeas, 11 caseríos, four communities and 15 fincas, and San Miguelito and Villas de Guadalupe sit within a kilometre of the centre. Some fincas are villages in their own right: El Pacayal, high above the Nicán with Acatenango and Fuego on the skyline, has its own church, shops and football pitch and holds up to 700 people at harvest time. The patron, San Miguel Arcángel, is celebrated on 29 September, and visitors come for the Cuevas de Venecia, set in a caballería of forest, and for El Retiro, a private reserve of nearly three caballerías five kilometres before town on the road up from Patulul.

Land and Lots in Pochuta:

The plainest offer in town is a subdivision 200 metres from the central park. It sells residential lots of 9.5 by 15 and 6 by 15 metres and farm plots of 20 by 20, with a small down payment and up to seven years to pay. Beyond the town, parcels come up along the paved road from Cocales and Patulul, and sellers make a point of that asphalt. When you look at land for sale in Pochuta, ask where the water comes from first, because several communities still have no piped supply. Then walk the slope. Much of the municipality is steeper than 45 percent, ground better suited to forest than to foundations, and near the town you will want to know where the Nicán reaches when it floods.

Coffee Farms in Pochuta:

Fincas are what Pochuta is known for, and some of them are big. One estate on the market covers 17 caballerías with several springs and a river, and smaller farms mix coffee with macadamia, banana or avocado. Large estates come with workers’ quarters, and the biggest, like El Pacayal, are settlements with their own services. Before you buy a coffee farm in Pochuta, ask for recent harvest figures and how the trees have stood up to roya, which has cut both yields and the wages of the families who pick. Drive the internal roads in the rainy season if you can, and find out how the farm sits against the Atitlán reserve’s zoning. Water is part of the value here: finca La Torre has its own waterfall.

FAQ:

• How do I get to Pochuta?

  By car, come up from the south. The paved road leaves the CA-2 near Cocales and climbs through Patulul, some 20 kilometres to the town, and Guatemala City is 138 kilometres away on that route. The 21-kilometre road from Patzún is dirt, used by pickups and motorbikes, and so are the 40 kilometres from Acatenango.

• Is the town inside a protected area?

  Yes. The whole cabecera lies within the Reserva de Uso Múltiple Cuenca del Lago de Atitlán, which CONAP manages, and the reserve’s master plan treats the urban area of Pochuta as a sector of its own. Before you build, clear trees or change what a parcel is used for, ask the municipality and CONAP what that sector allows.

• What should I check before buying a parcel outside town?

  Start with the ground: whether the access road has been closed by landslides, how close the parcel runs to the Nicán, the Jiote or the Madre Vieja, and how steep it really is. Then go to the property registry. Much of the rural land here was carved out of fincas or divided into parcelamientos, so make sure the lot you are shown has its own registered entry rather than a share of a larger title, and that its boundaries match what you walked.

• What kind of property is for sale in Pochuta?

  Mostly land. There are residential lots near the central park, some on instalment plans, small farm plots, rural parcels along the road from Patulul and coffee fincas, some of them with springs and rivers.

• What services does the town have?

  Piped water from three springs, electricity, a market, a health centre and an IGSS clinic for affiliates. Beyond that the town is modest, with few shops, banks or public spaces.