Uspantán

About Uspantán:

The town of San Miguel Uspantán stands at 1,825 metres, 257 kilometres by road from Guatemala City. Route 7W runs straight through it, west to Cunén and the Sacapulas junction and east through Chicamán to the Chixoy bridge and on to Cobán. Drivers bound for Santa Cruz del Quiché usually go round by Cunén and Sacapulas, because the shorter road through San Andrés Sajcabajá is slower than it looks on a map. The municipality borders Ixcán to the north, Chajul, San Juan Cotzal and Cunén to the west, Chicamán and San Cristóbal Verapaz to the east, and Canillá, San Andrés Sajcabajá and Cubulco to the south.

The town is the service centre for about 66,000 people, and fewer than one in ten of them live in it. It has a public hospital, a health centre and the municipal offices, so the aldeas come here for paperwork, appointments and shopping. Daily life gathers around the parque central, where the church faces the acoustic bandstand put up in the 1930s, and the fair for San Miguel Arcángel takes over the streets at the end of September. Ladino families settled the central part of the municipality, the Uspanteko villages of El Pinal, Las Pacayas and Chipaj still keep their own language and dress, and K’iche’ families populated highland aldeas such as Calanté, Cholá and Quizachal.

South of the town the country is steep highland, with forest on the ridges and maize on the slopes. To the north a second, wetter range holds the cloud forest at Laj Chimel, the community where Rigoberta Menchú was born, 45 minutes to an hour away on an unpaved road best driven in four-wheel drive. Beyond those mountains lies the Zona Reina, a hot lowland settled largely by Q’eqchi’ families from Alta Verapaz, where cardamom and coffee pay the bills and Lancetillo La Parroquia is the trading village. Most roads there are still gravel, so the rainy season decides how easily a harvest gets out and building materials get in.

Buyers are overwhelmingly local: families building on an inherited or newly bought lot, people from the aldeas moving closer to the hospital and schools, and farmers adding a parcel. In town, frontage on Route 7W is the feature sellers lead with, since the road is both the main street and the through route. In the Zona Reina land is bought to produce, and community names like Lote 19 or Parcelamiento San Lucas still show how it was divided up. What you really pay for in Uspantán is access, water and clean papers.

Houses in Uspantán:

Most homes that come up are family houses in the town’s zonas or along the asphalt, built for the household living in them rather than for resale. Out in the aldeas, a house usually comes with land around it, and the road to the door counts as much as the building. Anyone looking at houses for sale in Uspantán should check water supply, drainage and the state of the access in the wet months before agreeing a price. Make sure the house itself is recorded on the deed, not just the plot it stands on.

Land and Lots in Uspantán:

Lots are the most common offer, in zona 1 and in colonias such as Los Cipresales, and they are sold by their sides, 9 by 18 or 15 by 26 metres, more often than by area. Larger rural parcels appear around the town and further out, some with a river or stream running through them, which helps with water and limits where you can build. On the slopes south of town, look hard at gradient and soil; in the north, find out how the parcel was first adjudicated. In the Zona Reina, land for sale in Uspantán is cardamom and coffee country, but the gravel roads shape both what it is worth and how long a crop takes to reach a buyer.

FAQ:

• Is a plot in the north really in Uspantán?

  Not always. The municipal line has moved twice, with Chicamán split off in 1984 and Ixcán in 1985, and the northern boundary with Chicamán was never fully fixed on the ground. Ask the municipality to confirm jurisdiction, and check that the registry entry and the municipal records name the same municipality. Property in Quiché is recorded at the Segundo Registro de la Propiedad in Quetzaltenango.

• What should I check before buying a village or Zona Reina parcel?

  Much of the north was settled in lots and parcelamientos, and some families still hold possession rather than registered title. Buying derechos posesorios is not the same as buying registered property, so ask for the registered deed and a current certification from the registry. Walk the boundaries with the neighbours, and on older parcels ask whether anyone has ever claimed the land, since whole villages here were emptied during the armed conflict.

• How do I get to Uspantán from Guatemala City?

  It is 257 kilometres. The usual route goes through Santa Cruz del Quiché and Sacapulas, then east on Route 7W through Cunén. From Cobán you can come the other way, over the Chixoy bridge and through Chicamán.

• What is the Zona Reina?

  It is the northern lowland part of the municipality, cut off from the town by mountains and forest and settled mostly by Q’eqchi’ families. Cardamom and coffee are the main crops, and Lancetillo La Parroquia is its commercial centre. Its gravel roads are being improved section by section, but a trip from the town is still a long one, and that should weigh on any decision to buy there from a distance.

• What services does the town have?

  The town has a public hospital, a health centre, the municipal offices and the shops and transport that serve the surrounding aldeas. For banking, larger stores or a wider choice of builders and materials, people also go to Santa Cruz del Quiché or Cobán.