Quiché

About Quiché:

Quiché is the fourth-largest department in Guatemala, covering 8,378 square kilometres between the Mexican state of Chiapas to the north, Alta Verapaz and Baja Verapaz to the east, Sololá and Chimaltenango to the south, and Huehuetenango and Totonicapán to the west. Its 21 municipalities are Santa Cruz del Quiché, the seat, plus Canillá, Chajul, Chicamán, Chiché, Chichicastenango, Chinique, Cunén, Ixcán, Joyabaj, Nebaj, Pachalum, Patzité, Sacapulas, San Andrés Sajcabajá, San Antonio Ilotenango, San Bartolomé Jocotenango, San Juan Cotzal, San Pedro Jocopilas, Uspantán and Zacualpa. From Guatemala City you follow the CA-1 to Los Encuentros, turn north on the RN-15 to Chichicastenango and drive another 19 kilometres to Santa Cruz, 160 kilometres from the capital. Past the seat, a paved road runs through San Pedro Jocopilas and Sacapulas to the Cunén junction, where one branch climbs to Nebaj, Chajul and Cotzal and the other goes on through Cunén, Uspantán and Chicamán to Cobán. Nebaj lies 91 kilometres beyond Santa Cruz. Ixcán is a separate trip: the main road out of Playa Grande runs to Chisec and Cobán, and almost every road inside the municipality is dirt.

The 2018 census counted 949,261 people, and almost nine in ten are Maya. K’iche’ is the language of the majority, Ixil is spoken in Nebaj, Chajul and Cotzal, Uspanteko in Uspantán and Sakapulteko in Sacapulas, and Poqomchi’ and Q’eqchi’ are heard in the northeast towards Alta Verapaz. Most families grow maize and beans, with vegetables in the highlands and cardamom, coffee and pasture in the wetter north. Money sent from the United States carries a large share of household budgets, and Joyabaj has been among the municipalities with the most returned migrants in the country. Each part of the department leans towards a different city: the northern towns towards Huehuetenango, the eastern ones towards Cobán, the centre and south towards Quetzaltenango. Santa Cruz is the administrative centre, with the departmental offices and the Centro Universitario de Quiché of the Universidad de San Carlos, while Chichicastenango is the commercial pull, with its Thursday and Sunday market.

About four-fifths of Quiché is mountain country: the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes in the northwest, the Sierra de Chuacús through the centre and volcanic foothills along the border with Chimaltenango. The rest is tropical lowland, in the north of Chicamán, Uspantán and Chajul and across Ixcán, so the land falls from around 3,200 metres to 150. The Chixoy, called the Río Negro here, crosses the department from west to east through Sacapulas, Uspantán, Chicamán and Canillá on its way to the Chixoy dam, the country’s main hydroelectric plant, and at Sacapulas families still make black salt on its banks. Santa Cruz stands at 2,021 metres, with the small Lemoa and La Estancia lagoons close by. That range of height changes what a house has to do. In the highlands, nights between November and February are cold, so solid walls and rooms that catch the sun matter; in Ixcán, heat, humidity and rainy-season mud decide where you build and how the materials get there.

This was the land of the K’iche’ kingdom, whose capital, Q’umarkaj, stands in ruins 2.5 kilometres outside Santa Cruz. The oldest known text of the Popol Vuh is the manuscript Friar Francisco Ximénez made while he was parish priest of Chichicastenango in the early 1700s. Quiché was also among the departments hardest hit by the armed conflict, above all in the Ixil area and in Ixcán, which was settled from the 1970s as part of the Franja Transversal del Norte. Buyers today are overwhelmingly local: families building with remittances, teachers, public employees and merchants in Santa Cruz and Chichicastenango, and farmers adding land in Ixcán and the north. Visitors come for the Chichicastenango market, the Santo Tomás church and the Pascual Abaj shrine, the ruins of Q’umarkaj and the trekking routes around Nebaj.

Houses in Quiché:

Family houses make up most of the stock. Near the centres of Santa Cruz del Quiché and Chichicastenango, homes sit on small urban lots, and in Chichicastenango space is so tight that three-storey houses go up on lots of little more than 100 square metres. Four-bedroom houses a few blocks from the parish church in Chichicastenango’s zona 1 come up for sale. In Joyabaj and other towns with heavy migration, some of the largest new houses follow designs that local builders brought back from construction sites in the United States. When you look at houses for sale in Santa Cruz del Quiché, ask for the municipal construction licence and check whether the upper floors were added later without one.

Rentals in Quiché:

Santa Cruz del Quiché has the busiest rental market in the department. Families look for three- and four-bedroom houses in the urban centre, professionals rent space for offices and clinics, and the university centre in zona 2 brings in students who need a room. In Chichicastenango, ground-floor space on the streets around the plaza is worth more to a tenant who can trade on Thursdays and Sundays. Nebaj has rooms and small guesthouses for visitors who come to walk the Ixil area. Before you sign, agree in writing who pays water and electricity, and in the highlands find out how cold the house gets at night.

New Developments in Quiché:

New building in Quiché arrives almost entirely as lotificaciones rather than finished-home projects. On the road from Santa Cruz del Quiché to Chiché, subdivisions sell lots from 6 by 16 metres with water, electricity and drainage, streets being paved and financing from the developer or through a cooperative. On the road into Playa Grande, in Ixcán, similar projects offer lots on gravel streets with water. Ask for the municipal approval of the project, make sure each lot will be registered as a separate property, and find out who will run the water system once the last lot is sold.

Land and Lots in Quiché:

Urban lots in Santa Cruz del Quiché and on its edges, in places such as Chajbal, Xatinap and the colonias of zona 2, are the core of the market, and many are sold with a registered deed. In Chichicastenango, land on the roads out of town is often offered by the cuerda rather than by the square metre. In Playa Grande, narrow lots in zona 1 near the entrance to town are sold for homes and business, and in Ingenieros lots line the road to the Mexican border, where construction of a new stretch began in 2020. Nebaj has flat building lots in and around the town, and land in its centre is offered for commercial projects. Banks also resell repossessed parcels, some of them large holdings in Ixcán.

Farmland and Parcels in Quiché:

In Ixcán, rural land is sold as numbered parcels inside the communities settled from the 1970s onwards, from a few cuerdas to holdings of several hundred, and much of it is under maize, cardamom or pasture. In the highlands, plots are small family holdings worked for maize, beans and vegetables. The cuerda is not the same size everywhere in Guatemala, so have the area written in square metres in the deed. Before you buy in the north, drive the access road in the rainy season and check whether the parcel borders a river or the Visis Cabá biosphere reserve, which covers 450 square kilometres of Ixil communal land north of Chajul.

FAQ:

• Where are most properties for sale in Quiché?

  In Santa Cruz del Quiché and Chichicastenango, 19 kilometres apart on the RN-15. Nebaj, Joyabaj, Uspantán and Playa Grande, in Ixcán, are the other main towns for lots and houses.

• How far is Santa Cruz del Quiché from Guatemala City?

  It is 160 kilometres. Take the CA-1 to Los Encuentros, then the RN-15 north through Chichicastenango. Nebaj is another 91 kilometres beyond the seat on a paved road.

• What should I check before buying a parcel in Ixcán or the Ixil area?

  Both areas saw heavy fighting and displacement during the armed conflict, and in Ixcán much of the land was assigned as numbered parcels within communities, so one plot can carry more than one claim. Confirm at the property registry that the parcel is registered as individual property in the seller’s name, ask the community authorities whether anyone else claims it, and walk the boundaries with the neighbours. In the Ixil towns, also make sure the land is not part of communal holdings.

• Can I buy a lot on instalments in Santa Cruz del Quiché?

  Yes. Several lotificaciones around the seat finance the purchase themselves, and others work with cooperatives. Get the term, the interest and the date you will receive the deed in writing, and confirm the lot is registered before you sign.

• When is the Chichicastenango market?

  On Thursdays and Sundays. Stalls fill the plaza and the streets around the Santo Tomás church, and traders come from across the region as well as visitors.