Las Juntas

About Las Juntas:

Las Juntas covers 229 square kilometres and carries the postal code 50701. The town sits about six kilometres off the Interamericana; the turn-off is at La Irma, a couple of kilometres from the Limonal junction, where Route 18 heads west to the Puente La Amistad and the Nicoya Peninsula. Liberia is 81 kilometres to the north-west. From town, Route 145 climbs east through the hills toward Monteverde, a slow back road that is mostly paved but gets cut by landslides in the rainy season. Besides the town, the district takes in Limonal, Matapalo, La Irma, Concepción, San Cristóbal, Jesús, Lajas, Tortugal, Zapote and part of Lourdes, among other villages.

This was the working half of the Abangares gold boom. Under Minor Keith’s Abangares Gold Fields, the company’s managers lived up the valley in La Sierra, while miners from Nicaragua, El Salvador, Colombia, China and rural Costa Rica filled Las Juntas. The canton was created in 1915 with Las Juntas as its seat, and the town was granted the title of city in 1921. One of the company’s steam locomotives, the María Cristina, which arrived in 1904 and was named after Keith’s wife, now stands in the central park. Mining never stopped: in 2022 the canton counted some 1,500 coligalleros, artisanal miners working in crews of two or three, and in March 2026 the environment ministry granted the first formal concession for artisanal gold extraction to a local cooperative, part of a push to formalise the trade and phase out mercury.

The town lies at 150 metres on the valley floor, and the ground rises steeply behind it. Three kilometres away, the Zona Protectora Abangares protects 4,367 hectares of forest on slopes between 200 and 1,100 metres, the catchment that forms the Río Abangares and holds the watersheds that supply the town. Las Juntas runs its own municipal water system rather than relying on AyA. Westward, toward Limonal and Matapalo, the land flattens into pasture along the highway. The rivers carry the marks of mining: in July 2022 a tailings spill at the Planta La Luz sent mud down the Santa Lucía and the Abangares, killing fish and shrimp, and Matapalo, where people bathe and wash clothes in the river, took the worst of it.

Most buyers are local. Mining families, ranchers and shopkeepers make up the town, and offices in town handle the state housing bonus, the bono de vivienda, for families building or buying a first home. Growth shows most at Limonal, where fast-food chains, fuel stations and a small shopping plaza cluster at the junction of Routes 1 and 18, and small lots nearby are pitched for houses or a few rental units. Buyers from outside the canton tend to come for land: fincas for sale in Las Juntas de Abangares with springs, timber and pasture, a short drive from the Interamericana.

Houses in Las Juntas:

Town houses are single-storey family homes on small lots. A typical one in the centre has two bedrooms, a living-dining room, a kitchen, a laundry area and space for two cars on about 140 square metres. Newer builds tend to go up rather than out, and one house under construction in the La Luz sector fits 230 square metres of living space onto a 161 square metre lot. In Matapalo, older houses on large plots near the highway are sold as much for the ground as for the building, sometimes with a house worth remodelling and sometimes with one best knocked down. Ask for the last municipal water bills before you buy, so you know how steady the supply has been through the dry months.

Land and Lots in Las Juntas:

Limonal is where most small building lots come up, many of them around 300 square metres within walking distance of shops. Near the junction, a five-hectare property full of trees is being sold as fifteen lots of at least 3,000 square metres each, for buyers who want room around the house. Inside the district you will also find mid-sized lots, such as a 719 square metre plot in La Peña. Before you design anything, get the land-use certificate from the Municipality of Abangares and written confirmation that the town system can give you a water connection. On lots facing Route 1, remember that the Barranca–Limonal widening ends at this junction, so check the highway’s right of way against the plan.

Fincas in Las Juntas:

Out past the town, land is sold by the hectare. One finca of 31.7 hectares has three springs, a creek and a river along its boundary, with four-fifths of the ground in improved pasture and the rest in woodland holding more than 200 timber trees, mostly níspero de montaña. Holdings of around 100 hectares also come onto the market, and so do smaller working farms, like an 11-hectare property with cabins, a pool and a lime plantation. Spring water used for a house or for cattle needs a concession from the Dirección de Agua, so ask whether the seller holds one and in whose name it is registered.

Commercial Property in Las Juntas:

The commercial ground is split between the town centre and the highway. In Las Juntas itself, the banks, pharmacies, supermarkets and shops serve the whole canton. At Limonal, the junction plaza and the fuel stations live off traffic heading north to Liberia and west to Nicoya, and parcels with frontage on the Interamericana in Matapalo are offered for business use. If you are buying for a shop or a workshop, check the commercial licence rules with the municipality before you sign.

FAQ:

• Can mining claims or old tunnels affect land I buy around Las Juntas?

  Yes, and it is the first thing to rule out here. In 2026 the Dirección de Geología y Minas filed a criminal complaint over unauthorised gold tunnels on private land between Sierra and Las Juntas, where outsiders had cut trails and worked at least five active tunnels; the site sits inside an area a cooperative has applied for. Ask the Registro Nacional Minero whether any concession or pending application covers the parcel, walk the land looking for old adits and spoil heaps, and then pull the title and cadastral plan from the Registro Nacional (Registro Inmobiliario) and the land-use certificate from the municipality.

• How do I get to Las Juntas?

  Turn off Route 1 at La Irma, near the Limonal junction, and drive about six kilometres in. Liberia is 81 kilometres away, and buses on the Interamericana stop at the La Irma entrance. Route 145 continues past town toward Monteverde, but expect slides and closures on it in the wet months.

• Where does the water come from, and are the rivers clean?

  The town is served by the municipal water system, fed from the forested catchment of the Zona Protectora Abangares. The rivers are a different matter: the Abangares and the Santa Lucía received mining sludge in the July 2022 spill at the Planta La Luz, and residents had reported earlier episodes. If a finca’s water comes from a river rather than a spring, test it before you rely on it for people or animals.

• Is gold mining still part of daily life?

  Very much. Some 1,500 artisanal miners were active in the canton in 2022, private plants buy and process the sludge their work leaves behind, and the first formal artisanal concession went to a cooperative in March 2026, with more cooperatives in the process. The Ecomuseo de las Minas de Abangares, a few kilometres away in Sierra, shows how it all began.

• What services are there in town?

  Las Juntas has the municipal offices, the CCSS health clinic for the canton, the Escuela Delia Oviedo de Acuña, banks, pharmacies, a MegaSúper and a Palí. Limonal adds fuel stations, fast food and a small shopping plaza at the Route 1–18 junction.