Dolores

About Dolores:

Dolores takes up a long stretch of south-eastern Petén. Poptún lies to the south and Belize to the east, beyond the adjacency zone. To the north are Melchor de Mencos, Flores and El Chal, which was part of Dolores until it became a municipality of its own in 2014. The town is 82 kilometres from Flores and about 400 from Guatemala City, and the long-distance buses heading north stop here after San Luis and Poptún. The nearest airport is Mundo Maya at Santa Elena, 80 kilometres up the road. At Sabaneta, 17 kilometres north on the CA-13, a dirt road turns east through Calzada Mopán toward Melchor de Mencos, and the stretch from Sabaneta to El Calabazal is now being improved.

Juan Antonio Ruiz de Bustamante founded Dolores and nearby Santo Toribio in 1708, and the church he had built is the only colonial church in Petén still standing, now listed as national cultural heritage. Next door, the Museo Regional del Sureste de Petén shows around 125 ceramic pieces and eight stone sculptures from twenty-two Maya sites, excavated by the Atlas Arqueológico de Guatemala, which runs the museum and has its base in town. Spanish and Mopán Maya are both spoken, and Q’eqchi’ is the language of Monte de los Olivos. The feria for the Virgen de los Dolores runs from 23 to 31 May, with the queen crowned on the 27th and the Huastecos, Venado and Diablo dances still performed.

Outside the town, Dolores is cattle country. Extensive ranching covers three of the municipality’s four micro-regions, and farmers take two harvests of maize and beans a year, selling the surplus as far as the capital. The fourth, Montañas Mayas, is the only part that still has real forest, and its caseríos grow coffee, cacao and cardamom; pineapple and papaya come from Yaltutú and Kilómetro 70, tomatoes and watermelon from Calzada Mopán. More than two fifths of the municipality falls inside the buffer zone of the Montañas Mayas–Chiquibul biosphere reserve, where CONAP sets the rules, and the Maya Mountains rise along the eastern side.

Water is the thing to understand before you buy. So much forest has been cleared that the Mopán, the Xaán and many springs carry less than they did, and in the dry months wells and streams drop around the town, Boca del Monte, Sabaneta and Calzada Mopán. Piped water reaches all fifteen barrios, but supply can stop for three or four days at a stretch, so plan on storage of your own. Five Maya sites inside the municipality are protected as national parks: Sacul, Ixtontón, Sukché, Ixtutz and Ixkún, six kilometres from town, whose Stela 1 is the largest in Petén. The town is spreading south, and the municipal plan picks out Sabaneta, on the highway, as the next place likely to urbanise.

Houses in Dolores:

Homes for sale are family houses in the barrios around El Centro, usually a modest building on a generous lot. In Barrio Nuevo El Carmen, five minutes from the centre, a 12 by 12 metre house sits on a 22 by 18 metre plot, which leaves room for a yard and a later extension. San Ramón and El Mirador are the best-served barrios, and El Cruce, where the town meets the highway, has the petrol stations, carpentry shops and a synthetic pitch. When you compare houses for sale in Dolores, ask how the house stores water and where its waste goes. Hardly any home in town is connected to a sewer, so a sound septic tank is part of what you are paying for.

Land and Lots in Dolores:

Building lots turn up all over the town and along the CA-13. One sits on a main street beside the municipal regional park, less than three minutes from Barrio El Centro, and others are deep strips such as 23 by 90 metres, 200 metres off the asphalt. In Boca del Monte, south of town, a 9 by 26 metre lot four blocks from the highway is reached by the street beside the Shell station. Sabaneta has highway frontage too, including a 26 by 58 metre plot pitched for a fuel station or warehouses. Before you put down money on lots for sale in Dolores on the south side, remember that Barrio Marvin Cruz, where the town is growing, is laid out but still short of houses and basic services.

Fincas and Farmland in Dolores:

Most rural land changes hands by the manzana, and much of it is already in pasture. Recent offers include 26 manzanas of established grass at Los Arroyos, next to the village, 50 manzanas at Sabaneta entered by way of Cristo Rey, and 58 manzanas between Sabaneta and Calzada Mopán, both of them with registered deeds. Holdings of two caballerías or more come up as well. For a cattle buyer, the value of farmland in Dolores rests on water that lasts through the dry season: an aguada that holds, a spring the forest still feeds, or frontage on a river that does not shrink to a trickle. Drive the dirt road to the gate after rain as well, because some fincas around Calzada Mopán have flooded when groundwater rose.

FAQ:

• How far is Dolores from Flores and Guatemala City?

  Flores is 82 kilometres north on the paved CA-13, and Guatemala City about 400 kilometres south through Poptún, San Luis and Río Dulce. Fuente del Norte, Línea Dorada and other lines stop in town, and the Mundo Maya airport at Santa Elena is the closest place to catch a plane.

• The ad says Dolores. Is the finca really in Dolores?

  Not always. El Chal was split off in 2014, and land there is still advertised under the old name, so ask the municipality which side of the line the parcel is on today and which land-use category it falls in under the municipal plan. Then take the finca, folio and libro numbers to the property registry and confirm the owner, the area and any liens. Walk the boundary markers with the neighbours, since the registered area and the fenced area do not always agree.

• Can I build inside the reserve buffer zone or near Belize?

  More than two fifths of Dolores lies in the buffer zone of the Montañas Mayas–Chiquibul reserve, including most of the Montañas Mayas caseríos, and CONAP decides what is allowed there. The strip along the Belize line is an adjacency zone with its own restrictions. Land near Ixkún, Sacul or the other archaeological parks needs a word with the Instituto de Antropología e Historia before you plan anything.

• Is water a problem?

  It can be. The town supply reaches every barrio but can stop for several days, and springs and wells across the municipality fall in the dry season. Budget for a cistern or tank on a house, and on a finca, find out which water sources held up during the last dry months.

• What is there to see around Dolores?

  The colonial church and the Museo Regional del Sureste de Petén stand side by side in the centre. Ixkún, six kilometres from town, and Sacul both receive visitors. Las Cataratas, turquoise falls and pools on the Río Mopán near Calzada Mopán, are where families go to swim, and INGUAT promotes them nationally.