Zacualpa

About Zacualpa:

Zacualpa sits in the south of Quiché, with Chiché and Chinique to the west, San Andrés Sajcabajá and Canillá to the north and Joyabaj wrapped around its southern and eastern sides. The town lies at 1,500 metres, 40 kilometres of asphalt from Santa Cruz del Quiché by way of Chiché and Chinique, and a little over 200 kilometres from Guatemala City if you go round through Santa Cruz. The same road runs on to Joyabaj and Pachalum, which is the shorter way to the capital, but the stretch past Joyabaj has had unpaved sections, so check it before you count on it. Only four villages share the asphalt: Chixocol and Camacutz on the Chinique side, Tunajá I and Tunajá II toward Joyabaj. Every other community is reached on dirt roads, and transport between the town and the aldeas runs often.

Nine in ten working people farm or hire out as day labourers. Maize and beans are planted in every community, and some also grow sugar cane for panela, peanuts, small plots of coffee, and tomatoes, potatoes, onions and cabbage. Citrus, jocote, apples, plums, peaches and avocados grow in house yards rather than in orchards, and most families keep a flock of hens, often the only animals they raise to sell. Thursday and Sunday are market days in town. The town also has the health centre, the juzgado de paz and the municipal stadium, and a good share of local people leave for seasonal work elsewhere for part of the year.

The ground rises steadily from the town. Villages close in, such as Limoncillo and La Vega, stay near 1,500 metres, while La Cumbre, Turbalá II, Xemosché and Pasojoc I, six to twelve kilometres out to the north, sit at 2,200 metres and above, and the climate turns from temperate to cold on the way up. Pine, oak, alder and cypress once covered most of the municipality and have been cut back by farming. The rivers have lost much of their flow over the years and drinking water is short, which is why a connection to the gravity-fed municipal network adds real value to a house in town. Electricity reaches nine homes in ten, and the Agua Caliente bathing pools are a few kilometres out on a dirt road.

Almost everyone here is K’iche’. Long before the Dominicans arrived, Zacualpa was a Maya city, excavated by the archaeologist Robert Wauchope in 1935–36 and again in 1947; it served as an early capital of the Chajoma before the K’iche’ of Q’umarkaj took it around 1425. The present town dates from 1549, when friars gathered the scattered hamlets into one settlement under the patronage of the Espíritu Santo. The old name, Pamacá, has not gone away: every feria opens with a Maya ceremony at the cemetery for Umial Tinamit Pamqá, the town’s daughter. In 1690 a chronicler wrote that Zacualpa grew the best pomegranates in the kingdom.

Houses in Zacualpa:

The older houses in town are built square around a central patio, with adobe walls, clay-tile roofs and cement-tile floors, and newer homes in block and reinforced concrete stand among them. Recent houses for sale in Zacualpa include a two-storey family home three minutes from the centre, sold with a registered deed, and a three-bedroom house with a terrace and parking at kilometre 200 in Chixocol, ten minutes out on the highway. In the villages the usual house is a long two-room building, kitchen and bedroom, with a front corridor, adobe walls, carved timber and a roof of clay tile or galvanised sheet. If a house is adobe, have someone look at the walls and the roof timbers before you agree a price.

Land and Lots in Zacualpa:

Building lots sit close to the centre and along the highway. On offer recently: a 17 by 15 metre lot a few metres from the Catholic church with services connected, a 9 by 20 metre plot in caserío La Tejería, a kilometre and a half from town, and nearly a whole manzana in the commercial centre. Chixocol, on the asphalt west of town, is where land for sale in Zacualpa turns up most often, sold by the cuerda; one seller offered two cuerdas fronting the road with a house already on them. In the higher villages, ask how the plot gets its water before anything else.

Commercial Property in Zacualpa:

Shops and commercial plots are in the centre, the part of town that fills up on Thursday and Sunday market days. One example is a building with three shop units, each with its own bathroom, in brick and block under a poured concrete roof, with a street frontage of just over 26 metres. Larger plots in the commercial core come up as well, such as the near-manzana mentioned above.

FAQ:

• How do I get to Zacualpa?

  From Santa Cruz del Quiché it is 40 kilometres east on asphalt through Chiché and Chinique. From Guatemala City the paved route goes by Santa Cruz, a little over 200 kilometres. The road through Pachalum and Joyabaj is shorter, but ask about the section beyond Joyabaj before you take it.

• What should I check before buying land in Zacualpa?

  Water comes first. Find out whether the property is on the municipal gravity system or depends on a spring or stream, and remember that local rivers now run far lower than they once did. Confirm the inscription in the property registry and walk the boundaries against the deed. If the land is in one of the high villages, drive the dirt road in the rainy season before you commit.

• Which villages are closest to town?

  Limoncillo is just over a kilometre out, Xicalcal two, La Vega under three, and Tunajá I and Chixocol between three and four, the last two on the asphalt. The highest communities, such as Pasojoc, Xejox and Xextorian, are eleven to fourteen kilometres away on dirt roads.

• When is the Zacualpa feria?

  The feria titular honours the Espíritu Santo, so its date moves with Pentecost each year. It brings a procession of the Espíritu Santo, women’s and men’s convites, marimba concerts, the dance of the vara and the burning of toritos.

• Which services are in the town itself?

  The permanent health centre, the juzgado de paz, the municipal offices and the Thursday and Sunday market are all in town, and the municipality runs one ambulance for the villages and another for transfers to larger hospitals. Rural communities have health posts, and secondary schooling is offered in town, with the first cycle also taught in some of the higher villages.