San Miguel Ixtahuacán

About San Miguel Ixtahuacán:

The municipality covers 184 square kilometres in the far north of San Marcos, right where the department meets Huehuetenango. Concepción Tutuapa and the Huehuetenango municipalities of San Gaspar Ixchil and San Ildefonso Ixtahuacán border it to the north and west, Santa Bárbara lies to the east, and Sipacapa, Tejutla and Comitancillo close it off to the south. San Marcos city is 64 kilometres away on a fully paved road, and Guatemala City is 314. Heading north instead, a road of 8 kilometres of dirt and 20 of asphalt runs through San Gaspar Ixchil to Colotenango and the Inter-American Highway, the quicker way to Huehuetenango. Off those trunk roads nearly every community is reached on dirt, including the 14-kilometre track to Concepción Tutuapa through Mulebac and El Colmito.

From 2005 to 2017 the mine, run by Montana Exploradora for Canada’s Goldcorp, was the one large employer the municipality had. Mine wages were far above anything else on offer, the municipality collected royalties, and the town filled with shops, hotels, restaurants and rooms for rent. When the veins ran out, most of the workforce was let go, the traders who had come from other departments packed up, and a large share of former miners left for the United States. Today the living comes from maize, beans, potatoes and coffee, from small trade in the town, and from money sent home by relatives abroad.

Much of the ground is dry and rocky, and away from the rivers farming feeds the household rather than a market, with chickens and pigs kept in the yard. The río Cuilco runs southeast of the town past Siete Platos, El Salitre, La Peña and El Zapote, and it and its tributaries water the crops the dry slopes cannot carry. The Cantzelá passes north of the town before joining the Cuilco, and the Tzalá marks part of the line with Sipacapa near the old mine site. Hillsides move here. The town itself, Colonia Legual, Subchal, Chílive, Baljetre, El Triunfo, Cabajchún and Chiningüitz are among the places where landslides regularly block paths and roads.

Almost everyone is Mam, and Mam is the first language in most homes, with Spanish alongside it. Most people live out in the nineteen aldeas and their caseríos rather than in the town. The town keeps the services: the municipal building facing the central park, a health centre built on its edge in 2011, a handful of hotels, and the only sewer network in the municipality apart from Colonia Legual, three kilometres away. Buyers are mostly local families, many of whom put mine wages or money from the United States into building. On 29 September the fair of San Miguel Arcángel fills the streets.

Houses in San Miguel Ixtahuacán:

Finished houses are concentrated in the town, on cobbled streets within walking distance of the park, the market and the bus terminal. Many went up or grew a storey during the mine years, and a good number have a shop on the ground floor or rooms upstairs that were built to rent to workers from outside. Those rooms have mostly stood empty since the closure, so judge a house as a family home first. Homes for sale turn up a few minutes from the central park and in nearby spots such as El Potrero, about a kilometre from the centre. If you are looking at houses for sale in San Miguel Ixtahuacán near the old mine, check the walls carefully, because cracked houses around Marlin were a complaint for years. Outside the town and Legual there is no sewer, so ask how waste water is handled.

Land and Lots in San Miguel Ixtahuacán:

Land is still most of what changes hands, and it is measured in cuerdas. Building lots come up within five minutes of the town, and larger holdings of pine-covered or farmed hillside appear on the slopes around it. Water decides what a farm parcel is good for: ground that can be irrigated from the Cuilco and its tributaries carries crops that the dry, rocky hills will not. The mine bought up land around its site, so near Agel, Exial and the Tzalá confirm whether a parcel ever belonged to the mine property and who holds it now. Water for many homes is piped down from springs in the hills across private land, and owners have started charging for that right of way, so settle it in writing before you buy land in San Miguel Ixtahuacán.

FAQ:

• How do you get to San Miguel Ixtahuacán?

  From San Marcos city it is 64 kilometres on asphalt, with buses leaving before dawn. From Huehuetenango, leave the Inter-American Highway at Colotenango and come south through San Gaspar Ixchil on a road that is partly dirt.

• Is the Marlin mine still working?

  No. It stopped extracting ore on 31 May 2017 and moved into closure, with tunnels sealed and ground replanted. The roads, schools, sports grounds and health centre built in those years remain, but the jobs went with the mine.

• What kind of property can I buy here?

  Lots and family houses in and around the town, boom-era buildings with commercial space or rental rooms, and farmland in the aldeas sold by the cuerda. Irrigable plots near the Cuilco are a different proposition from dry hillside.

• Which services does the town have?

  Piped water reaches every community, though not every house, and electricity covers almost all of them. Sewers exist only in the town and Colonia Legual, and the health centre and the main schools are in the town.

• What should I check before buying land here?

  Ask whether the parcel or its road has slid in a past rainy season; the town, Legual, Subchal and Cabajchún all have a record of landslides. Near the old mine, trace the chain of owners back past the years Montana Exploradora was buying. Then confirm the boundaries, the water right of way and the title at the property registry.