San Felipe

About San Felipe:

San Felipe covers 43 square kilometres at the top of Retalhuleu, where the department narrows against Quetzaltenango and Suchitepéquez. Its neighbours are El Palmar on the Quetzaltenango side, Nuevo San Carlos, San Martín Zapotitlán, San Andrés Villa Seca, San Sebastián and Retalhuleu, plus San Francisco Zapotitlán and Pueblo Nuevo across the Suchitepéquez line. The CITO-180 runs straight through it: downhill to the CA-2 and the IRTRA parks, uphill through El Palmar and Zunil to Quetzaltenango, 38 km away. Retalhuleu city is 17 km of asphalt to the south. Farm produce, buses and freight between the two departments all move on that one road.

Before the Spanish arrived the place was Champel, a name joined from two caciques, Cham and Pel, and locals still call it the Pueblo Champel. Captain Juan de Estrada founded San Felipe on 22 November 1579. It became a municipality in 1836 under Suchitepéquez and moved to the new department of Retalhuleu in 1877. Around 24,000 people live in the municipality and some 17,000 of them in the town, which has grown together with La Piedad I and La Piedad II into one of the department’s emerging small cities. The town calls itself the tierra del chicharrón y la moronga, its main fair honours Santa Catarina de Alejandría from 22 to 25 November, and San Felipe Apóstol gets his own day on 3 May.

This is true bocacosta: no high mountains, not many deep ravines, and good level ground for farming on the lower slopes of the volcanic chain. Coffee built San Felipe, and fincas such as San Carlos Martínez and Hamburgo still grow and process it, while sugar cane, rubber, rambutan, banana and plantain have taken a bigger share of the land. Plenty of rivers cross the municipality, the Samalá first among them, with the Ocosito, Nimá II and El Tambor. The Nimá II and El Tambor join the Samalá at the height of San Felipe, and that is where its floods and the lahars coming down from the Santiaguito volcano gather force.

The rainy season runs from May to October and it falls hard here. A collapsed culvert at km 189 of the CITO-180, inside the municipality, took months of rebuilding before traffic to Quetzaltenango flowed normally again. Keep that in mind when a lot sits beside a ravine or a stream. Buyers tend to be local families and people from Retalhuleu looking for a lot inside a gated development, along with investors who buy houses near the parks to let on weekends and holidays. The holiday lets cluster on the side closest to the parks, where hosts quote drive times of three to ten minutes.

Houses in San Felipe:

Most houses on offer are family homes in the barrios around the centre, La Linterna, La Llovizna, Camilo Alvarado and El Jardincito among them, and in residenciales such as La Perla, La Cachita, Bella Julia and Bella Vista. Gated projects add single-storey houses with a garden and parking, some sold outright as holiday homes; a two-bedroom house with garden and room for two cars in Residencial El Olimpo is a typical example. The municipality runs the water service and rubbish collection in town, so check that the house is actually connected. Ask too how the street drains in a heavy storm and whether a culvert or a ravine runs close to the property.

Rentals in San Felipe:

The rental market here is built around the parks. Large villas with private pools, air conditioning in every bedroom and parking for six or more cars are let to groups of ten, fifteen and sometimes more, mostly for weekends and school holidays. Some hosts also offer weekday rates for companies, which smooths out the quiet days between visits. If you are buying to let, parking space and the pool matter as much as the number of bedrooms, because guests arrive by car in groups.

Land and Lots in San Felipe:

Gated lotificaciones bring most plots to market here. Valles de San Felipe sells lots from 6 by 15 up to 10 by 30 metres, with piped water, electricity, drainage, paved streets, a gatehouse and a perimeter wall, five minutes from the parks. Buenaventura adds a pool to the gate and wall, and other developments such as Vista Hermosa and Residenciales Valentina sell on the same pitch of closeness to the parks. Outside the gated projects, smaller sellers offer land in San Felipe, Retalhuleu as 8 by 16 and 9 by 16 metre lots on a down payment with instalments, aimed at a family home, a weekend house or a bungalow. Larger parcels appear too, such as a plot of more than 14,000 square metres offered as an investment.

FAQ:

• How far is San Felipe from the IRTRA parks?

  Xetulul and Xocomil sit just downhill on the CITO-180, and developments and holiday lets in San Felipe advertise drives of three to ten minutes. Retalhuleu city is 17 km away and Quetzaltenango 38 km.

• Is the Samalá river a risk for property?

  Close to its bed, yes. The Samalá carries lahars from the Santiaguito volcano, and its tributaries the Nimá II and El Tambor join it at the height of San Felipe, which adds to the flow. INSIVUMEH runs an early-warning system for the basin; before buying anywhere near the river or a tributary, check how high the lot stands above the channel and ask the municipality whether the area has flooded before.

• What should I check before buying a lot advertised as “near IRTRA”?

  First, which municipality it is really in: the parks sit on the boundary with San Martín Zapotitlán, and lots marketed as San Felipe can fall on either side, which changes where you pay property tax and request permits. Then confirm at the property registry that your lot will have its own registered finca and not just a share of the developer’s parcel, and get in writing when the individual deed will be handed over if you are paying in instalments.

• Does the road to Quetzaltenango close in the rainy season?

  It has needed long repairs. Rain damage at km 189, inside San Felipe, and at km 194 in El Palmar has meant months of work with traffic passing one lane at a time. If you plan to commute to Xela, check the current state of the CITO-180 before you count on the 38 km.