El Jícaro

About El Jícaro:

The municipality covers 249 square kilometres on the south side of the Motagua valley, and the town stands at 245 metres. For much of its length the river is the northern boundary, with San Agustín and San Cristóbal Acasaguastlán on the far bank; Cabañas, in Zacapa, lies to the east, Jalapa and San Pedro Pinula to the south, and Guastatoya to the west. Guatemala City is 101 kilometres away and Guastatoya about 30. There are two ways in: the new bridge from kilometre 98 of the CA-9, and the paved RN-20, which runs the length of the municipality from the El Rancho side through El Paso de los Jalapas and the town on toward Cabañas and Zacapa. When the CA-9 is blocked, that traffic is rerouted along the RN-20 and straight through the town centre. The old railway from the capital to Puerto Barrios also crosses the municipality from west to east.

Most households grow maize and beans for their own table and take seasonal work in the fields. A small number of growers hold large irrigated tracts of tobacco, lime, papaya and mango, and export companies plant melon and watermelon on machine-worked land, hiring local people by the day. The irrigation canal has around 1,430 registered users along its route. Plenty of people commute out, to agro-industrial firms in Río Hondo, Teculután and Cabañas or to the maquilas of Guatemala City, and many teenagers finish secondary school in Guastatoya, San Cristóbal or Chiquimula. The town’s feria runs from 20 to 26 December for the Niño Dios, and José María Orellana, president from 1921 to 1926, the years the quetzal was introduced, came from El Jícaro.

This is semi-arid land: the hills carry dry thorn forest, the slopes run from inclined to steep, and the topsoil is a thin red layer. So farming crowds onto the flat ground by the river, which is also the ground most exposed to it. The Motagua margin is a high flood-threat zone, and the municipal land-use plan stops the town from spreading toward the river. In 2010 Tropical Storm Agatha damaged one approach of the old El Palmo bridge, and in heavy rain the runoff from bare, machine-worked melon fields fills ditches and floods the villages next to them. Three protected areas are off the market: the Lo de China municipal park, where a conservation project looks after the endangered Motagua beaded lizard, the Cerro de Jesús municipal park and the private Hacienda Los José Luises reserve.

About 13,100 people lived here at the 2018 census, roughly half of them in urban areas. The town and three aldeas, Espíritu Santo, Las Ovejas and El Paso de los Jalapas, hold most of the population. Espíritu Santo, a short distance from the town, has the best services after it and is the community the municipality expects to become its next centre. Only the town, El Paso de los Jalapas, Ojo de Agua and Espíritu Santo have sewer networks, and in 2024 a 3.2-kilometre concrete road was laid from Las Ovejas to Colonia Mario Barrios Falla. Buyers are mostly local families, people working in the Zacapa agro-industry, city households after a casa de campo in the heat, and growers looking for irrigated land.

Houses in El Jícaro:

Houses here are family homes on their own plots in the town and the larger aldeas, and country houses on wide fenced lots outside them. One casa de campo near El Paso de los Jalapas sits on 631 square metres with about 100 built, right on the paved road between El Jícaro and El Rancho. Another comes as four tiled rooms of four by three metres with a bathroom and shower, ringed by mesh fencing and planted with orange, Persian lime, mandarin, jocote and coconut. Before you buy, ask whether the house drains into a sewer or a pit and where its water comes from.

Land and Lots in El Jícaro:

Lotificación Buenos Aires sells 10 by 20 metre lots with water, power and drainage, either for cash or with a down payment and 55 to 75 monthly instalments, the price depending on which section the lot is in. Near El Paso de los Jalapas, on the El Rancho side, flat lots come with power and a water project under way. Zones the municipality classes as rural housing allow single-family homes and small shops, while high-density housing is barred from the improved-farming zones and all housing from the forest-protection zones. If you are comparing lots for sale in El Jícaro, start with a parcel’s land-use category and its distance from the river.

Farms and Fincas in El Jícaro:

Farmland is sold by the manzana, and what lifts the price is water. A 45-manzana finca on the market has registered title, 400 metres of frontage close to the asphalt, an installed irrigation system, two wells, aloe, milpa and lime trees, a house, a large warehouse and three-phase power with two high-voltage lines across it. At El Paso de los Jalapas a 25-manzana finca has been put up for a quick sale. Flat land has a second buyer too: a four-manzana parcel at La Palma, 70 per cent level, is marketed for solar panels, and the municipal plan reserves municipal land in two microregions for renewable energy. A finca for sale in El Jícaro should be judged on its wells or canal access first and its acreage second.

FAQ:

• Is El Jícaro reachable all year now?

  Yes. Since June 2026 a two-lane, 440-metre bridge with footpaths on both sides crosses the Motagua at the town’s main entrance and meets the CA-9 at kilometre 98. Before that, rainy-season floods could cut the crossing and people went over by canoe. The paved RN-20 is the other way in, from the El Rancho side or from Cabañas and Zacapa.

• What should I check before buying land by the river or at the edge of town?

  Start with the flood line. The Motagua margin and the ground below the melon fields flood, and the municipality restricts building there. Ask at the municipality which land-use category the parcel falls in and whether any part of it is municipal ejido rather than private land, then confirm at the property registry that it is registered in the seller’s name with measurements that match what you walk. If it borders the old railway to Puerto Barrios, find out exactly where the track’s strip ends.

• Does a farm parcel need access to the irrigation canal?

  For anything beyond maize and beans in the rainy months, yes, or a well of its own. The 18-kilometre canal waters the melon, watermelon, papaya, tobacco and hybrid maize grown along it. Ask whether the parcel is on the list of users kept by the irrigation unit that runs the canal, and walk the canal branch that reaches it.

• Should I look in the town, Espíritu Santo or El Paso de los Jalapas?

  The town has the health centre, banks and cooperatives, schools up to university level and buses to every part of the municipality and to Guastatoya. Espíritu Santo is close by, has drainage and is where the municipality wants the next centre to grow. El Paso de los Jalapas is a large aldea of its own on the RN-20, with chlorinated water, drainage and its own feria, and the shortest run to El Rancho.

• Does RN-20 traffic affect property in the town?

  It can. Whenever the CA-9 is shut, traffic to and from Zacapa, Chiquimula, Izabal and Petén diverts onto the RN-20 and through the centre of El Jícaro. The municipality plans buffer strips along the road where nobody lives yet, so check where a roadside lot sits before you plan to build up to the edge.