I sometimes tell people that the thing I'm most expert in is
photography. That's not to say I'm a grandmaster, but in a
comparison to my knowledge of other topics, I probably know the most
about taking photos. The process of buying land in Guatemala has
been such an education that it may now be my number two. I feel that
because I've done it once, and had to learn everything it took to get
it done fairly easily after finding the right spot, I would be well
to do it a few more times as investment if I didn't want to focus on
improving my first place, which is well big enough. At this point, I
want to stop and touch wood. After finally finding the combination
of the right fixer, piece of land, seller and price, the process has
been eerily smooth, through to the point of having my building permit
in hand and my taxes paid for the year 2014(only six days after the
land deal went through). Water and power remain to be connected;
both should be smooth and easy as well.
I've never actively looked for land in the US or any other place,
so I can't compare it. Here, it's quite tiring. It's generally hot
and sunny, especially in the morning. I joke that you can get two
things done per day here. One in the morning, and one in the
afternoon, give or take. If you blow one of those looking at land,
you've blown one maybe taking a boat, maybe a tuk-tuk, but probably
walking uphill and scrambling around steep, rocky, unkempt squares of
the mountain. Unkempt isn't a reason to write off land so you have
to give due diligence around through the brush as tall as you to try
to quickly imagine where a house might go and the degree of
impossibilty of constructing in that location. The person escorting
you has strong odds of being sheisty and their company can be a drag
or can be tolerable.
Here's how it works commonly, not exclusively. An owner puts it
out there in the aether that heshe would sell a certain piece of land
if someone was buying. Anyone interested (in quickly becoming a real
estate agent) could come by this information easily. You can show
the land to all the gringoes you want and if you bring an eventual
buyer into the owner, you get paid. For this reason, multiple people
may show you the same spot, a great waste of time and kick to the
day's enthusiasm. What did Yogi say? You always find something in
the last place you look. Most of the properties you're shown are a
bust and dealbroken quickly for one reason or another(e.g., no water,
too far, too loud, too steep). At that point, you figure out how to
most quickly have the scout take you over to the next place and
address a new set of measurements and asking price.
In my assessment below, I could see many gringoes disagreeing with
me on a couple things. I was willing to sacrifice lake proximity and
view for other advantages and securities. After you've chosen a
village, here's what you need to ask for about the piece of land:
How big should it be?
Guatemala deals in cuerdas, which is
pretty Guatemala because a cuerda can be anything from a bathroom
tile to Lake Huron. I'm joking. A saving grace is that, I think,
Guatemala uses the smallest version of a cuerda, 25m x 25m. I was
looking for three to six cuerdas. Bigger would've been fine, but
price was likely to prohibit. I ended up with six cuerdas, about an
acre, which I'm thrilled about. The place is plenty large and spread
out, and I hope it always feels that way with way less coffee and a
few simple structures. It should be plenty of space for casitas,
kitchen, chickens, garden and yoga. What's tricky about this aspect
of the search is that a lot of gringoes end up buying up and
combining several different properties into one, so that option is
always there if you have interest and someone to help do the owner
research. There is land open around El Jocotel, but that'll have to
be later and hotel owners keep telling me 'don't let it get too big'.
What's the slope like?
People build on almost any kind of
slope. Examples are close around. They know exactly how to
excavate, refill, and build retaining walls and flat surfaces. It's
still a lot of work and it leads to a very vertical life. If you
succeed in finding flatter land, you've probably sacrificed your
perfectly splendid lake view, and this is what I did. My land
resembles the top of the cross section of an airfoil. The upper
limit is nice and gentle, sloped, but softly not requiring much
excavation to flatten out. This will unearth rocks all of which
whill be used in building. I'll put the structures nearer the top,
where it's flatter with better view. Garden and trees below. Good
spot for chickens fenced in where the neighbor's chickens currently
peck through.
Is there water?
Locals always tell me 'Water is the
most important thing' or 'Water is the fluid of life' so they like
water, too. You pretty much gotta have it. You can do four things
here. 1. Tap municipal water. This is the best I think, for price
and ease. This is what I'll do. The pipe runs very close to the
property and, knock wood, it comes through good and cheap. 2. You
can tap for your own water, either into the ground or from a river.
This is a nice option, but probably more expensive, if you're
digging, than the muni. Smaller surface rivers run dry, but good
underwater rivers run all the time, keeping trees nearby lush. Those
trees help lead you to the water. Not every place has this option.
3. You can pump from the lake (regionally). People do this, but I
would not be happy drinking filtered lake water. 4. You can not have
water. This seems like it would become a drag fast.
Is there electricity?
Using the electrical grid ended up
being the best option for my purposes. Electricity is cheap here,
and it would've taken years and years to pay off a simple solar
electricity system that surely would need replacement parts or new
batteries not to mention sourcing the parts and putting it all
together. A group of three power lines runs about 12 meters from the
corner of my property. The power is helpful running certain tools so
it would be nice to have power for building. This gets confusing.
The electric company has a rule that you can't hook up power until
you have a house. The loophole is that the neighbor between myself
and the power pole can agree to have an electric counter (that I pay
for) put in and and I can 'steal' electricity from that until I have
a house up. I'm not sure this will actually work because they don't
have a house up either. We'll see. I think it'll be easy, we'll
see.
Do you have a right of access to your own property?
This means: are you allowed to walk
to your own property? On the mountain, getting somewhere can involve
either a public path or going through someone's property or both at
the same time. Some properties I was shown would've required leaving
the public path and crossing private property to get home. This
could be fine for years and years with all your visitors perhaps or
the landowner could have a problem and then you have a problem.
Public path goes from the village right to the corner of my place
then through it. I have no issue getting there. We're talking dirt
walking paths here. There could be a bit of a grey area here as to
what is considered a 'public trail' and what's private but the people
seem to know. There is one more thing. If what's considered a
'public trail' runs through your property and you intend to fence it
off, you must provide alternate trail access for the people. My
property has an obviously public path running through it from the
middle of the top to halfway down the side. Our first work project
is to rework the path to the property corner. We'll smooth it out
really nice and at each side add a rock seat area for people carrying
firewood or bags of crops to rest. There is another trail through my
place, but I'm told it's not public. It is well smaller but I know
some people use it (and throw their trash on it). I'm very sorry,
but people will have to detour around a bit. They are welcome to
stop and rest at my resting area. I hope to not have a problem here.
I wrestled, and still wrestle, with myself about whether or not to
have a fence and what type of fence to build. Even though I waver,
I've long since decided a fence was best for the place I want and the
visitors I'd like. There's a group of well-intentioned people,
neighbor's chickens and chuchos who need to have a reason not to
wander in. If a real thief wants in, they're gonna come in but a
fence is pretty necessary.
How far is it from a town? How far is it from a road?
In terms of getting materials there,
you can build a house anywhere if you have some extra money for
dragging materials up the paths to those places by hand. In some
places, there's water and power, but i's an hour and a half walk from
the boat. Much of your material will come in by truck, so the closer
a truck can get, the better. My closest access will be at the road
right where Shad's hotel is. It should be about a ten-minute walk
up. I won't be super happy watching young and older Mayan men
struggle with heavy loads for construction at my place, and I
certainly won't be too happy while I'm struggling with them (while
carrying way less), but I believe in the project and having a house.
Charlie said that relative to being next to the road, construction
would cost me 10% more. Maybe I can offset that by always helping
out with 'cargando' and I'm thrilled with my location so I'm on
board. As I mentioned, Gallo Beer may add tuk tuk access to very
near El Jocotel, and if they do this while I still have things to
construct, it will ease the labor heavily for all time.
Where is it? Who are the neighbors?
Tranquility was a must for me. Some
places were dealbroken immediately for being right in the village.
Tzununa is a loud town, be it church music, stereo music, corn
grinders or chuchos in the night. I will hear some of it, but my
place is just on the edge of the village with a bit of a buffer. I
do have neighbors at one edge point of the property. These are
Kaqchikel Mayan people. There's a guy Andres and his family of wife
and four young daughters. Unfortunately, I did look at four of his
properties and did not end up buying. I was worried he'd hold a
grudge but I ran into him at the San Pablo Day Fair yesterday and he
greeted me warmly. I'll be at the top of the village so behind me is
just mountain. It's all people's property and mostly farmed and
harvested for something or other. There are people around and
passing through, but they're quiet, friendly and often carrying
something heavy and going straight home.
As far as visitors and guests
arriving to the hotel, I think it's cool that people will be forced
to go right through the village to get there. Lomas and the Moon
Lodge are not part of the village. Shad will be and we will be. We
are in the village. What people have to say at the hill climb
required, that's up in the air. I like it and I'll be in shape.
Is it geographically safe?
I just mentioned living on the same
slope as the local people. Doing so gives me comfort that no rocks
bigger than my house will roll down and crush my own while I sleep or
that I won't wake up swimming in a soup of mud and rock sludge
barreling down to the valley below. This is where a lot of gringoes
throw Mayan caution to the wind and build right in a spot they like
in a dangerous valley or right next to a rising lake. Sure, your
house may be safe for five years or even all of your lifetime, but
there were storms that devastated here in both 2005 and 2009 so the
occurence of another couldn't come as a surprise. Tzununa's river is
known to jump and carry over to unknown places. Because of property,
trees, deception, magic, and lack of easy access to detailed
topographical information, it's often really hard to understand the
contours of the land, especially in dry season, and figure out what
the water will do. Remember, these are huge mountains and a lot of
water spills out and when it comes it happens fast.
