San Juan Ixcoy

About San Juan Ixcoy:

The RN-9N leaves Huehuetenango city, climbs through Chiantla onto the Cuchumatanes plateau and enters the municipality at Piedras de Captzin, a cluster of rock outcrops beside the road at well over 3,000 metres. From there it drops into the valley and the town, then carries on north to San Pedro Soloma. The municipality covers 224 square kilometres, with Soloma and Santa Eulalia to the north, Chiantla to the south, Todos Santos Cuchumatán and Concepción Huista to the west, and the department of Quiché to the east. The highway has been asphalted since 2002, but the rebuild of the stretch from Piedras de Captzin through San Juan Ixcoy to Soloma stalled when the contractor stopped work, and it is waiting to be put out to tender again. Minibuses run from Huehuetenango and leave when they fill up, and most aldeas are reached from town on dirt roads.

Farming feeds most households, and most of what is grown is eaten at home rather than sold. Maize and beans come first, followed by potatoes, wheat, oats, vegetables and the apples the town is known for, and many families fatten a few pigs. Paid work is scarce, so for decades the real income has come from abroad: nearly everyone who leaves San Juan Ixcoy heads for another country, mostly the United States. By the mid-2000s the money sent home was worth more than everything the municipality produced, and it went into houses rather than into the fields. In 1994 most homes here were adobe with earth floors; ten years later, block walls, metal roofs and cement floors had become the norm.

The town lies in a fairly deep, cold valley, ringed by steep forested slopes. That cold is what lets the apples grow, and it is why wheat, oats and potatoes do better here than in the warmer valleys of the department. Rain falls from May to October and the dry months run from November to April, which matters most for the dirt roads out to the aldeas and for any lot cut into a hillside. Landslides have reached the town itself and damaged shops, and strong winds have damaged homes in the aldea of Chanchocal II. Water here comes from named sources: the town draws on the San Juan river and the Xén and Tolin springs, aldeas such as Quisil, San Lucas and Poxlaq share the Pepajau and Captzin springs, and some communities still depend on rainwater cisterns.

About 31,000 people live in San Juan Ixcoy. Most are Q’anjob’al, with Mam and Akateko families as well, and the name comes from Yich K’ox, the seat of a vijaw, a plant whose leaves are used to wrap tamales. The town already appears as an encomienda called Yscos in 1531, and in 1690 the chronicler Fuentes y Guzmán wrote of reaching it over slopes of stone and mud, down to a river whose water ran sky blue. The feria for San Juan Bautista runs from 20 to 24 June, with marimba, tum and chirimía, and dances such as the Kanal Tz’unun. Above the valley the Pepajau falls feed the Quisil river, and on the border with Chiantla lie the five drops of Los Jolotes and the Laguna Magdalena.

Houses in San Juan Ixcoy:

Houses in the town centre are block, nearly all with metal roofs and cement floors. In the aldeas you still find adobe and timber homes standing next to newer block houses built with remittances. Properties on the main road through town are sold with water, power and a drainage connection, which the centre has and the rural aldeas, where families use latrines, mostly lack. When you look at houses for sale in San Juan Ixcoy, check the slope behind the back wall, since the valley sides are steep and the town has had slides. If the house sits down by the San Juan river, bear in mind that the town’s drainage runs into it untreated.

Land and Lots in San Juan Ixcoy:

In town, lots come narrow and deep: a property on the main road may have little more than four metres of frontage, and newer subdivisions offer plots of around ten by seventeen or twelve by fifteen metres. In the aldeas, what changes hands is family farmland for maize, beans and potatoes, sold in small pieces. Between 1979 and the early 2000s land ownership here became markedly more concentrated, so a few families hold larger parcels while most hold small ones. Before you agree on any of the lots for sale in San Juan Ixcoy, find out which spring the community draws on, walk the road in after a wet day, and confirm that the parcel has a deed of its own rather than being part of a relative’s land.

FAQ:

• How do I get to San Juan Ixcoy from Huehuetenango?

  Take the RN-9N north through Chiantla and across the Cuchumatanes plateau. The road enters the municipality at Piedras de Captzin and drops down the valley to the town. Minibuses leave Huehuetenango when they are full, and the trip takes an hour and a half to two hours. The rebuild of the section through town toward Soloma is unfinished, so allow for roadworks and, in the rainy months, for slides.

• Where does the water come from?

  Ask for the name of the spring. The town draws on the San Juan river and the Xén and Tolin springs, while each aldea is tied to its own: Pepajau and Captzin, for example, serve Quisil, San Lucas, Nuevo San Francisco and Poxlaq. A few communities collect rainwater in cisterns, which can run short between November and April. The centre has drainage but the aldeas rely on latrines, so plan for a septic system if you build outside town.

• What should I check on the title of a lot in San Juan Ixcoy?

  Two local risks come first. If the lot fronts the RN-9N, which is being rebuilt through the valley, ask the municipality how much of that frontage falls inside the highway’s right of way before you pay for it. Outside town, make sure the parcel has a finca number of its own and is not an undivided slice of family land; property in Huehuetenango is recorded at the Segundo Registro de la Propiedad in Quetzaltenango, and a notary can pull the registry certificate there before you sign. If the seller is one of the families with a larger holding and is selling it off in pieces, ask for the subdivision to be registered before any money changes hands.

• What changes between living in town and in an aldea?

  The town has the municipal market, drainage and the minibuses to Huehuetenango. Aldeas such as Quisil, San Lucas, Tocal or Pie de la Cuesta put you closer to the fields and the waterfalls, but almost all of them are reached on dirt roads that take a beating from May to October. If you will travel to Huehuetenango often, buy in town or close to the highway.

• What can I grow on land in San Juan Ixcoy?

  Maize, beans and potatoes are the staples, with wheat, oats, vegetables and apples on the colder ground, and pigs in many yards. Most of the harvest feeds the household, and little of it goes to market. If you are buying to farm, ask the neighbours what does well on that particular slope, because the cold high ground and the milder lower parts of the municipality behave differently.