Momostenango

About Momostenango:

Momostenango fills the northwest corner of Totonicapán. To the north lie San Bartolo, Santa Lucía La Reforma and Malacatancito, across the line in Huehuetenango; Santa María Chiquimula is to the east, San Francisco El Alto and Totonicapán to the south, and San Carlos Sija, in Quetzaltenango, to the west. Most people come in from the Inter-American Highway by way of San Francisco El Alto. From there the road climbs through pine and cypress into the mountains and then drops into the valley that holds the town, some 15 kilometres in all. Guatemala City is 205 kilometres away, around three hours by car, and the department seat is 31 kilometres off. Out in the west of the municipality, the aldea of Pologuá lies on the Inter-American itself.

Farming here feeds the household first. Most families work small plots of maize, beans and wheat, grow potatoes, cabbage, peas, avocados and peaches alongside, and keep pigs and chickens to eat or to sell in town. Lower, warmer communities such as Xequemeyá, Patulup and Canquixajá can grow coffee, oranges, lemons, sugarcane and cassava, which the cold valleys around them cannot. Wool is what carried the name beyond Totonicapán. Blankets, ponchos and rugs are woven on wide foot looms, often by two men working side by side, then soaked and trampled in the hot springs to tighten the weave and brushed for hours to raise a soft nap; the Copitem cooperative handles part of the export trade. Sunday is market day, and families from the farthest communities set out before dawn to sell their produce and buy for the week.

The land rises from 1,800 metres in the northeast to 3,300 metres on Cerro Tená in the west, where the ridge splits the water between the Samalá and the Chixoy; most of the municipality’s 49 streams end up in the Chixoy. Rain falls from mid-May to October, around 1,200 millimetres a year, though the north is far drier at 400 to 800. The town averages 15 °C, and from November to February the cold settles in properly, with January nights dipping below 6 °C. Half a kilometre from the centre, in Barrio Patzité, the Riscos de Momostenango are a national park of steep rock spires carved out of the hillside by erosion, with smaller formations in Santa Catarina and Santa Ana. There are five hot-spring sites as well, among them Pala Grande, Palá Chiquito and Payaxú.

Momostenango had 105,617 residents in 2018, one of the largest populations of any municipality in Guatemala, and most of them are K’iche’ Maya. The town is built around four barrios, Patzité, Santa Ana, Santa Catarina and Santa Isabel, and Santa Isabel and Santa Catarina each hold more people than the old centre. The rest of the population lives in fourteen aldeas, among them San Vicente Buenabaj, Tierra Colorada, Chinimabé and Xequemeyá, and in dozens of caseríos such as Pasuc and Pueblo Viejo, the place eight kilometres out where the original settlement stood. The poet Humberto Ak’abal, who wrote in K’iche’ and Spanish, was born here, and the fiesta of Santiago Apóstol fills the town from 21 July to 4 August. Buyers are mostly families from the municipality itself, while visitors drawn by the ceremonies and the Riscos keep a few guesthouses and eateries going near the centre.

Houses in Momostenango:

In the aldeas, most homes are still built the old way: stone foundations, adobe walls, clay-tile roofs, wooden doors and windows, and floors of fired clay, packed earth or cement. In the town barrios and some of the larger rural communities, the newer pattern has taken over, with two and three storeys of block or brick under a poured concrete slab, cement or granite floors and metal doors and windows. Some of these come with a row of rooms on the ground floor that can be let separately from the family floors above. An adobe house can still be a sound buy if its walls and roof timbers have come through the rains well. When you look at houses for sale in Momostenango, ask how the water supply holds up in the dry months and check the deed against the registry before you agree a price.

Rentals in Momostenango:

Renting here mostly means apartments and rooms in the town zones, zona 4 among them, rather than whole houses. They suit people who want to walk to the Sunday market, the schools and the health centre instead of riding in from an aldea. Visitors come for the Wajxaqib’ B’atz’ ceremonies, the July fiesta and the Riscos, and there are guesthouses and short-stay houses within a block or two of the centre. If you rent through the cold months, ask whether the unit has hot water and how much morning sun it gets.

Land and Lots in Momostenango:

Two kinds of plot come up: lots in and around the town barrios, and family parcels in the aldeas, often measured by the cuerda. A parcel in the lower communities toward Xequemeyá can carry coffee or citrus, while the high ground to the west is cold and steep, so walk the plot and judge how much of it you can actually use. Anyone looking at land for sale in Momostenango should ask the municipality how the parcel is classified in its 2019–2032 development and land-use plan, which sorts the territory into urban, urban-expansion, protection and special-use, and rural land. The Riscos are a national park, so check the boundaries with care if a lot sits near Barrio Patzité. Ask for a deed entered in the property registry rather than possession rights alone, and confirm that water and power can reach the lot.

FAQ:

• How do I get to Momostenango?

  Leave the Inter-American Highway for San Francisco El Alto, pass through the town and follow the road over the ridge and down into the Momostenango valley, some 15 kilometres. From Guatemala City the whole trip is 205 kilometres, around three hours.

• What is Wajxaqib’ B’atz’?

  It is the day 8 B’atz’ in the 260-day K’iche’ calendar, when the ajq’ijab’, the Maya spiritual guides, renew their charge and new guides are initiated. Because the cycle lasts 260 days, it lands on a different date every year. The altar on Cerro Paclom is the best known of the sites where it is held.

• How cold does it get?

  The town averages 15 °C. From November to February nights are properly cold, and in January they dip below 6 °C, so solid walls and hot water matter.

• When is market day?

  Sunday, when the centre fills with sellers and buyers from all over the municipality. It is also the easiest day to talk to local people about lots or houses on offer nearby.

• What should I check before buying land?

  The parcel’s category in the municipal land-use plan, how steep it is, whether the deed is registered and free of liens, how the access road holds up in the rains, and where water and power will come from.