San Pablo Jocopilas

About San Pablo Jocopilas:

San Pablo Jocopilas covers 68 square kilometres on the boca costa, the slope where Suchitepéquez starts climbing toward the highlands of Sololá. Santa Catarina Ixtahuacán lies to the north, Santo Tomás La Unión to the north and east, San Antonio Suchitepéquez to the south and Samayac to the west. Samayac is so close that its centre is a kilometre down the road, and Mazatenango and the CA-2 Pacific highway are 8 km away. Two other ways in run from San Antonio Suchitepéquez, 8 km along the RD-SCH-8, and from San Bernardino, 6 km on a dirt road. Guatemala City is 165 km by road.

Almost all the land is farmed, and coffee takes the largest share. Rubber, sugar cane, maize and beans, mango, citrus, banana and ginger fill much of the rest, and grazing is so scarce that cattle owners buy in their pasture. Most residents are K’iche’ or Kaqchikel, while Spanish is what you hear in the street and the shops. For banking, bigger shopping and paperwork, people go down to Mazatenango, the departmental capital. In late January the patronal fair for Saint Paul the Apostle fills the town, with marimba orchestras playing in the open air.

The town sits at around 600 metres and stays warm all year. Rain sets the calendar: well over three metres falls between May and October, and November to April is dry. The Ixtacapa River crosses the whole municipality after rising on the slopes of the Pecul volcano, and for decades families washed clothes and swam in it on holidays. Inside the boundary the ground is farmland rather than mountain, with small stands of woodland scattered through the coffee and the volcanic ridges rising to the north.

Chocolá, the municipality’s best-known community, is built on two older places at once. The present village sits on top of a Preclassic Maya city of more than a hundred mounds and stone-lined water channels, at its height between 1000 BC and AD 200. Finca Chocolá came next, founded in 1864 by José Guardiola, whose horizontal coffee dryer still carries his name in coffee mills around the world. German owners bought it in 1923, the state took it over in 1943, and the beneficio buildings, the aqueduct the entry road passes under and the water-driven clock of 1895, which still strikes the hour, are part of village life today. Between 1979 and 2003, government title grants turned a municipality of large estates into one of small owners, and almost all the ground now belongs to the people who farm or live on it.

Houses in San Pablo Jocopilas:

Nearly every home here is lived in by the family that owns it, in the colonias of the town centre such as La Felicidad and in the agrarian communities of Chocolá, Lolemí and Madre Mía. Renting is rare, so a house usually comes up only when a family decides to sell or move away. Houses for sale in San Pablo Jocopilas near the main street, which the municipality has been repaving, put the church, la portada and the road to Samayac within walking distance. Before you agree a price, check the water connection and drainage and see how the building copes with a rainy season counted in metres.

Land and Lots in San Pablo Jocopilas:

Close to the town centre, lot projects sell urbanised plots of 8 by 16 metres, paid with a down payment and monthly instalments. Out in Chocolá and Madre Mía, land for sale in San Pablo Jocopilas comes from families selling part of a holding. Ask for an individual deed recorded at the Property Registry before any money moves. In Chocolá, where hundreds of families spent years pressing for legal title to land from the old finca, settle the plot’s status with the seller and the registry first. Walk the parcel too: check the slope, how near it is to the Ixtacapa, and whether the access road is paved, since the San Bernardino route is not.

FAQ:

• How far is San Pablo Jocopilas from Mazatenango?

  8 km. The road runs south through Samayac, one kilometre from the town centre, and meets the CA-2 Pacific highway at Mazatenango. Guatemala City is 165 km away.

• What kind of property can I buy in San Pablo Jocopilas?

  Mostly building lots in and around the town centre, family houses in the colonias and agrarian communities, and farm parcels, many of them planted with coffee.

• Is it easy to rent a house here?

  Not really. Nearly every household owns its home, so rentals are scarce and you should plan to buy. If you need somewhere to rent while you look, Mazatenango is the larger town nearby.

• What should I check before buying land in Chocolá?

  Start with the title. Chocolá was a state-owned finca for decades and many families waited years to legalise their plots, so confirm at the Property Registry that the land has its own deed. After that, look at water, drainage and access.

• What is Chocolá known for?

  Two things: the Preclassic Maya city beneath the present village, and a nineteenth-century coffee estate. The estate’s beneficio, its aqueduct and a water-powered clock from 1895 that still rings every hour all stand in the village.