Atenas

About Atenas:

The canton covers 126 square kilometres in the angle where the Río Grande de San Ramón meets the Virilla, and the Río Grande wraps around some 60 percent of it. Before anyone called the place Atenas, it went by the river’s name. Naranjo, Palmares, Grecia and San Ramón lie to the north, Alajuela to the east, San Mateo and Orotina to the west, and across the Tárcoles canyon to the south are Mora and Turrubares, in San José province. The town is 21 km from Alajuela city on Ruta 3, the old road to the Pacific, while Ruta 27, the toll highway between San José and the port of Caldera, cuts across the canton with a toll station of its own at Atenas. Of the eight districts, Atenas, Jesús, Mercedes, Concepción and Escobal fall inside the Greater Metropolitan Area; San Isidro, San José and Santa Eulalia, on the hills toward Naranjo, Palmares and Grecia, do not.

The Spanish never founded a town here. Farm families from Alajuela, Heredia, San José and Cartago took up land from the late 1700s, and once the cart road to Puntarenas opened in 1843 the area made its living from sesteos, the rest stops where carters hauling coffee to the port fed their oxen and slept; one of them stood at La Boca, today’s Jesús. A decree of 8 May 1833 gave the settlement its name, it became a villa in 1865, and on 7 August 1868 the same decree that created San Mateo made Atenas a canton. Coffee still carries the economy. Coopeatenas, founded by the canton’s growers on 10 August 1969, processes at its El Diamante mill, runs a supermarket and a service station, and is the largest employer in Atenas. Sugarcane, maize, beans, fruit and extensive cattle fill out the farm year, and the canton makes a grapefruit sweet filled with cajeta, the toronja rellena, found nowhere else in the country, although by 2011 two in three working people were in commerce and services.

The canton’s motto, el mejor clima del mundo, goes back to a 1960 National Geographic article. It rests on how little temperature and humidity shift through the year, but Atenas is not one climate. The south and south-west, along the Tárcoles canyon, run hot because the river valley lets warm Pacific air in, and the land freshens as you move north and north-west onto the slopes of the Montes del Aguacate. That gradient is what you are really choosing between when you compare a finca near Balsa with a view house up around Guácimos or on the northern ridges. Rain falls mostly from June to October. The dry months that follow are what test a well, a spring or a small community water system.

The 2011 census counted 25,460 people in the canton, up from 22,479 in 2000, and 8.2 percent of them had been born abroad. Just over half lived in urban areas, most of them in and around the town. Atenas has a long reputation among North American and European retirees, and much of their buying is in the gated communities on the hills a few minutes from the centre. Ateniense families buy lots near town or in the outlying villages to build on, and growers still trade coffee land and pasture among themselves. Each of those buyers wants something different, which is why the same canton sells small town houses and estates of several hectares.

Houses in Atenas:

In and around the town the stock is mostly single-storey family houses on modest lots, close to the park, the market and the bus terminal. On the hills just outside, houses get bigger and newer, and pools, guest houses, covered terraces and views across the valley turn up again and again. In the rural districts a house is more often sold with land around it, anything from a yard of fruit trees to a working coffee plot. When you compare houses for sale in Atenas, check the district on the plano catastrado first, because agents use the canton’s name for all of them.

Gated Communities in Atenas:

Atenas is known for small gated communities rather than large subdivisions. Roca Verde, just west of the centre, has around 75 home sites behind a 24-hour gate, with views over the Central Valley to the Pacific. Hacienda Atenas, to the south-west, sells larger estate lots, and Vista Atenas, on the hills near town, is an older community with views but no controlled access. Further out, Las Rocas and Vistas Guácimo sit in the Guácimos area, and Pica Flora, in Jesús, is built around Bali-style houses. In any of them you are also buying into an owners’ association, its fees and its building rules, so read those documents as closely as the house.

Rentals in Atenas:

Long-term rentals here are mostly houses. Furnished homes inside the gated communities are let by the month, which suits newcomers who want to try the canton before they buy. In town there are smaller houses and some apartments, rented by local families and by people who want the bus and the shops on foot. Rents are quoted in both colones and dollars, so compare like with like. If you are looking for houses for rent in Atenas, decide first between the centre and the hills, where you will need a car.

Land and Lots in Atenas:

Land comes in every size. Small lots near town sell for a single house or a shop, view lots inside the gated communities run to several thousand square metres, and toward the edges of the canton coffee and pasture fincas reach several hectares. Along Ruta 27, larger parcels are marketed for mixed or commercial use because of the highway access. On a sloping view lot, budget for earthworks and retaining walls before you budget for the house. On any lot, get the water letter before you fall for the view.

FAQ:

• Is water available everywhere in Atenas?

  Not evenly. Different operators serve different parts of the canton, among them AyA and community ASADAs, and capacity varies from one sector to the next. Around Balsa, homes on old agrarian-reform parcels that were split and built on before any water network existed went years relying on tanker trucks. Ask the operator for that exact address for a written letter of water availability: without it, plans are not approved and no building permit is issued.

• What should I check before buying a finca or a hillside lot here?

  Start at the Registro Nacional (Registro Inmobiliario): confirm the owner, any mortgages or easements, and that the registered plano matches the boundaries you walk. Then ask the Municipalidad de Atenas for the land-use certificate, which matters more here because the canton’s plan regulador is still unfinished. If the land touches the Río Grande or a stream, mark the river protection strip before you choose a house site. And remember that in Atenas a registered lot is not proof you can build on it; some were segregated without water.

• Is Atenas part of the Greater Metropolitan Area?

  Partly. Atenas, Jesús, Mercedes, Concepción and Escobal are inside it, while San Isidro, San José and Santa Eulalia are not. That boundary is used in national urban planning, so it is worth knowing which side a lot sits on when you read the planning rules that apply to it.

• Where do people in Atenas go for medical care?

  There is a public health clinic in the canton for everyday care. The regional public hospital is the Hospital San Rafael in Alajuela, and the large private hospitals are in Escazú, reached by Ruta 27. Check the drive from the house you are considering, not from the park.

• Can foreigners buy property in Atenas?

  Yes. Foreigners hold titled property in Costa Rica on the same terms as citizens, and since Atenas is inland, the maritime-zone rules that limit ownership on the coast do not apply. The sale is signed before a Costa Rican notary, who files it with the Registro Nacional.