Palmares

About Palmares:

The town sits at 1,017 metres in a small valley at the south-western end of Alajuela province, 39 kilometres west of the city of Alajuela and 55 from San José. It is the first of the canton’s seven districts, and its streets run out from the Parque Simón Ruiz and the stone basilica across barely 1.2 square kilometres. National routes 135 and 148 cross the district, and the Bernardo Soto highway, part of the Interamericana Norte, runs through neighbouring Buenos Aires. Buses to every district of the canton leave from here, as do services to San Ramón, Naranjo and San José, and Juan Santamaría airport is 36 kilometres away.

Before it had its own name on the map, this was Las Mercedes, a settlement in the valley of the royal palms that answered to San Ramón. Its residents petitioned Congress in 1888, and on 30 July that year Palmares became a canton; the centre was made a villa that November and a city in 1918. The first municipal councils found a scatter of straw-roofed ranchos blocking the road, and paid each owner twenty colones to move so the streets could be widened. The basilica of Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes went up in dressed stone between 1894 and 1914, with oxcarts hauling the blocks in during the dry months, and its two bells, Rosario and Mercedes, arrived in 1899.

This is where the whole canton comes to shop and sort out its paperwork. Most of Palmares’ commerce is concentrated here, from groceries and food to shoes, clothing and jewellery, along with the municipal market, the municipal palace with its five arches, and the Colegio Experimental Bilingüe, founded in 1958. The park opened on 7 May 1935 to a design by José María Barrantes, and it still keeps royal palms and an octagonal concrete bandstand. It took the name of Simón Ruiz Elizondo in 1994. Every January the Fiestas de Palmares, the largest mass event in the country, take over the town for two weeks.

Residents live in barrios such as El Carmen, Santa Eduviges, Santa Fe, San Vicente and Victoria, close enough to the park to do everything on foot. The number of people living in the district has been drifting down since 2000, while Esquipulas and other districts on the edges filled with new housing. Buyers here are mostly Costa Rican: families who want to be in town, people who work in its shops and offices, and business owners after a storefront or a building that mixes shop and home. Asking prices are quoted mainly in colones rather than dollars.

Houses in Palmares:

Most of the housing stock in the centre is older family homes on compact urban lots, within walking distance of the park, the market and the bus stops. Few houses for sale in central Palmares come with much land around them, because barely a square kilometre leaves little room for big plots. Homes on the main streets live with the traffic of the commercial core, and in January with the festival crowds, while the barrios set back from routes 135 and 148 are quieter. Walk the street at rush hour before you settle on a price.

Rentals in Palmares:

The rental market in the centre leans towards small apartments, some fitted out for a single person and let by the month a few blocks from the main shops. They suit people who work in Palmares and anyone who would rather manage without a car, since the buses for the rest of the canton leave from here. Whole houses for rent come up less often than apartments. Ask whether water and electricity are included, and whether the unit has its own entrance and parking, before you compare one apartment for rent in Palmares with another.

Commercial Property in Palmares:

Shop premises are a large part of what changes hands here, because the district is the canton’s main shopping area. The offer runs from small units for rent to mixed-use properties of more than 500 square metres inside the urban core. Footfall varies a lot from one block to the next, so a unit facing the park or a busy route is a different proposition from one two streets back. Before signing, confirm with the municipality that the land use allows your business and that you can obtain a patente.

FAQ:

• Is Palmares district the same as the town of Palmares?

  It is the core of it. The district is the first of the canton’s seven and holds the town centre, the basilica, the park and the municipality, under postal code 20701. Built-up streets continue into neighbouring districts, so check which district a property actually sits in.

• Which barrios make up the central district?

  El Carmen, Santa Eduviges, Santa Fe, San Vicente and Victoria. All of them are a few blocks from the park and the main shopping streets.

• What should I check before buying a house or shop in the centre?

  Where homes and businesses share the same blocks, the use you plan matters as much as the title. Get a land-use certificate from the municipality for that exact use, and look the property up in the Registro Nacional (Registro Inmobiliario) to confirm the owner, any mortgages or annotations, and that the cadastral plan matches the lot you are shown. Extensions and added rooms should have building permits on file.

• Can I live in central Palmares without a car?

  More easily than anywhere else in the canton. Supermarkets, banks, the market and the clinic are within walking distance, and buses run from the centre to every district and on to San Ramón, Naranjo and San José. The airport is 30 to 45 minutes away by road.

• What happens in January?

  The Fiestas de Palmares run through the second and third weeks of the month, with concerts and the Gran Tope horse parade along the main avenue. Traffic slows to a crawl and parking disappears. If you are viewing property or moving in, plan around those two weeks.