San José Ojetenam is located deep in the mountainous highlands of Guatemala. It is located 2 hours by road from the nearest major town, San Marcos/San Pedro Sacatepéquez, and is between 8–10 hours from Guatemala City, which is 325 km (200 miles) to the east. As of 2008 the municipality had a population of 18,000 inhabitants, 3,930 of which lived in the town center. Politically, it is divided into 6 different micro-regions, which are composed of 68 different communities of varying size. The town centre is located at the altitude of 3,050 metres (10,000 feet) above sea level, which makes the average temperature 16° Celsius (61° Fahrenheit), quite cold for tropical standards. However, due to extreme variety of elevations within the municipality there are some very temperate communities in lower elevations, and very frigid communities at higher elevations. In January 2008, for the first time in recent history, snow fell on the Cotzic pass, which is the highest point in the entire municipality (3,700 metres/12,000 ft. above sea level)