Puerto Barrios

About Puerto Barrios:

Puerto Barrios covers 1,292 square kilometres at the north-eastern corner of Guatemala, from the shore of the Bay of Amatique up to 1,276 metres on Cerro San Gil. The Caribbean and the Gulf of Honduras lie to the north, Honduras to the east and south, and Morales, Los Amates and Livingston to the west; the Motagua reaches the sea on the Honduran border. Guatemala City is about 300 kilometres away on the CA-9, the Atlantic highway that has run alongside the old railway since 1959. Around kilometre 292, where the roads to the city centre and to Santo Tomás split, the Pradera shopping centre and a string of hotels line the highway. Boats leave the municipal pier near El Rastro for Livingston, for the beach at Punta de Palma and for Punta Gorda in Belize, and the long Punta de Manabique peninsula shelters the whole bay from the open sea.

Work here is tied to the docks. Chiquita runs the railway port terminal in Puerto Barrios and rebuilt its pier in 1990, after the 1976 earthquake brought the old one down. Across the bay, the Empresa Portuaria Santo Tomás de Castilla handles cargo and containers and has received cruise ships since 2004, and the ZOLIC free zone beside it has housed warehouses and logistics firms since 1973. As the departmental capital, the city also holds the regional offices of the main state institutions, the Hospital Nacional de la Amistad Japón-Guatemala, the Elisa Martínez children’s hospital, several private hospitals and CUNIZAB, the Izabal campus of the University of San Carlos. Out in the countryside, export bananas and oil palm take most of the farmland. Container trucks running between the two ports are part of daily traffic, so a house on a truck route and a house three blocks inside a colonia are very different places to live.

The city stands at sea level on the inner Bay of Santo Tomás, with mangroves along parts of the shore and the forest of Cerro San Gil rising behind. That forest is a protected spring reserve, and the Río Las Escobas that runs out of it supplies the drinking water for Puerto Barrios and Santo Tomás; its trail and pools are a weekend swim for local families and the main excursion for cruise passengers. Rain is not confined to one season here, because the cold fronts that arrive between December and March bring storms of their own. Heavy downpours have overwhelmed the drains of the urban centre more than once, and the damp sea air is hard on metal roofs, fittings and woodwork. When you view a house, ask how the street held up in the last big storm and look at the roof as closely as the floor plan.

The 2018 census counted just over 100,000 people in the municipality. Barrioporteños are a port mix of Ladino, Garífuna, Q’eqchi’ and West Indian families, and Garífuna cooking runs through the whole city, from tapado, the seafood and coconut soup, to rice and beans and coconut bread. In Puerto Barrios the older streets spread out from the municipal market towards barrios such as Las Champas, El Rastro and Colonia Virginia, while Santo Tomás has its own colonias, among them Colina I and II, BANVI, María Luisa, Quince de Abril and La Portuaria. Most buyers are local families and people employed at the ports, the free zone and the state offices. Families from the capital come looking for a weekend place on the bay, and companies want yard space close to the terminals.

Houses in Puerto Barrios:

Family houses in the barrios of the city and the colonias of Santo Tomás make up most of what is for sale. Some put the home behind or above shop units on the street, as in houses with commercial premises in Piedras Negras, a layout that pays its way on a busy road. Close to the port and the public beach in Santo Tomás there are larger houses of up to three storeys, and a few homes on plots of more than 2,000 square metres stand at the water’s edge with an open view of the bay. When you compare houses for sale in Puerto Barrios, find out how close the nearest truck route runs, how the street drains in a downpour and whether the house is on the municipal water supply.

Rentals in Puerto Barrios:

A lot of people arrive here on a contract, at the port, in the free zone or in a government office, so renting is an ordinary way to live. Small apartments for one or two people are let along the highway before the turn-off to Santo Tomás, and in the centre there are furnished loft-style units with air conditioning a short walk from the market. Families rent whole houses in the colonias, and bay houses in the Amatique Bay area are let by the weekend or by the month. If you are looking at apartments for rent in Puerto Barrios, put in writing who pays the electricity, who services the air conditioning and whether the parking is behind a gate.

Land and Lots in Puerto Barrios:

New lots are mostly sold on the edges of the city and along the road to Honduras. In Entre Ríos, lotificaciones such as Colonia Santa Clara open directly onto the international highway, and around Agua Caliente newly divided lots of 9 by 15 metres are offered with a deposit and the seller’s own financing. Larger flat parcels of several manzanas front the main road at the entrance to the city. Further out, towards Entre Ríos and Punta de Palma, farmland comes with pasture, cattle corrals, fruit trees and patches of forest. For lots for sale in Puerto Barrios, ask whether the lot already has its own entry at the registry or is still part of the parent finca, and walk it after rain, because low ground near the rivers and mangroves holds water.

Beach and Bay Homes in Puerto Barrios:

Weekend and holiday houses are bought along the shore beyond Santo Tomás, out to Santa María del Mar and Punta de Palma, and in the Amatique Bay area on the edge of the city. Punta de Palma is a public beach of white sand and palms, ten to twenty minutes by boat from the municipal pier or reached on a dirt road from Santo Tomás, with private ranchos and seafood restaurants along the sand. Houses out here often come with a private beach and a jetty, and some sit on several manzanas with room for a small hotel or eco-lodge. Anyone weighing beach houses in Puerto Barrios should ask early which part of the land is privately deeded, because the shoreline is held under different rules from a lot in town.

Commercial and Industrial Land in Puerto Barrios:

Two ports, a railway terminal and a free zone keep a market for yard and storage space going on its own terms. Industrial and commercial plots of more than a hectare are offered for rent for container storage and logistics, and commercial land comes up along the highway and in the centre. A plot here is judged on whether a container truck can turn into it, whether it stays dry and how far it is to the terminal gate. Confirm with the municipality what the land may be used for, and if the plot lies within the ZOLIC, ask what conditions the zone sets for its users.

FAQ:

• How far is Puerto Barrios from Guatemala City?

  About 300 kilometres on the CA-9 Atlantic highway, which follows the Motagua valley and passes through Morales on the way. At kilometre 292 the road splits, one branch into the city and the other to Santo Tomás de Castilla. From the municipal pier, boats run to Livingston, Punta de Palma and Punta Gorda in Belize.

• Is Santo Tomás de Castilla part of Puerto Barrios?

  Yes. Santo Tomás was a municipality of its own until 1921, when it became an aldea of Puerto Barrios, and today the two form one urban area on opposite sides of the inner bay. Puerto Barrios has the older centre, the market, the municipal pier and the Chiquita terminal; Santo Tomás has the national port, the ZOLIC, the public beach and colonias such as Colina, BANVI and María Luisa.

• Can I buy land on the seafront?

  Not in the usual way. Outside urban areas, the Constitution keeps a strip three kilometres deep along the ocean, measured from the high-tide line, as a reserve of the State, unless the land was privately registered before 1956. Inside that strip you do not buy the land; you take a lease through OCRET. Some coastal properties combine leased parcels at the water with deeded land behind, so ask for both sets of papers, check the private part at the property registry and the lease with OCRET, and make sure the lease can be transferred to you.

• Does Puerto Barrios flood?

  Parts of it do. Cloudbursts have overwhelmed the street drains of the urban centre, and cold-front rains outside the usual rainy season have left homes under water too. Ask the neighbours how high the water came, look for marks on walls and gates, and favour higher ground away from rivers and mangrove edges.

• What is there to do around Puerto Barrios?

  The malecón is the evening walk and Punta de Palma the nearest beach day. In the Cerro San Gil reserve, the Las Escobas trail leads to pools and small waterfalls, boats cross to Livingston in about half an hour, and the Punta de Manabique wildlife refuge closes off the bay to the north.