Tapesco

About Tapesco:

Tapesco is one of the five districts Zarcero started out with when the canton, then called Alfaro Ruiz, was created by law in June 1915. It covers about six and a half square kilometres directly north of the canton seat, and National Route 141, the Naranjo to Ciudad Quesada road, runs right through it. Zarcero town, with its clipped-cypress park and the church of San Rafael, is a few minutes south; Ciudad Quesada and the Hospital San Carlos lie further down the same road. Homes cluster around the Catholic church and the Arnulfo Arias Madrid school at the centre, and spread out along the highway and side roads into sectors such as Alto Tapezco, Bajo Los López and Los Murillo.

Farming pays the bills. Families grow arracache and vegetables, carrots, culantro, chives, lettuce and potatoes among them, and plenty of households make their living trucking that produce to the ferias held around the country. Dairy is the other pillar, with local farmers selling their milk to the Dos Pinos cooperative. Some families add value at home: the Rodríguez Paniagua family has spent 45 years turning chiverre and grapefruit into the sweets they sell under the Amaylita name, work the national tourism board has recognised.

At this height the weather shapes both the farming and the building. Mist is often the first thing you notice when you drive up, and the cool, damp air that suits vegetables also tests roofs, drainage and walls, so look at how any house deals with moisture. The district borders the Juan Castro Blanco National Park, created to protect the headwaters and the three dormant volcanoes of Platanar, Porvenir and Viejo. The community water board, the ASADA de Tapesco, supplies drinking water and replants trees around its springs. The same steep ground means the stretch of Route 141 between Zapote and Tapezco has had rockfalls and single-lane closures after heavy rain.

Tapesco had 1,305 residents at the 2011 census and has grown since, to roughly 1,600. One in five is over sixty, and most people are local farming families with roots in the district. Buyers from outside tend to be Costa Ricans from the Central Valley looking for a cool mountain lot within reach of Zarcero, and weekend visitors to the canton’s park and cheese shops sometimes stay up here in small guest rooms. Community life turns on the San Roque festival around 16 August, with turnos, bingos and dances, and on the community stadium, which hosts local football as well as rallies and live bands.

Houses in Tapesco:

Most homes belong to farming families and stand along Route 141 or the side roads, often on the same property as the plots they work. Before you buy one, find out whether the house sits on its own registered parcel or on a larger family farm that was never subdivided, because that decides what you are really getting. A house on the highway has the buses and the produce trucks passing the door; one up a side road is quieter but usually means a steeper drive. Check the roof, the gutters and the ground around the foundations, and visit after a wet afternoon if you can.

Land and Lots in Tapesco:

Land is what Tapesco mostly offers: house lots advertised for their views over the Zarcero hills, and larger parcels of crop land or pasture. If you search for lots for sale in Tapezco, expect sellers to lead with the view; the paperwork matters more. Drinking water comes from the ASADA, so ask for its written letter of water availability before anything else, since without it a building permit will stall. Zarcero is still working on its plan regulador, which makes the municipal land-use certificate the document that tells you what the lot can hold.

FAQ:

• Is it Tapesco or Tapezco?

  Both refer to the same place. Tapesco is the official name in the country’s territorial division, and Tapezco is how most residents, signs and sellers write it. Whatever spelling a seller uses, make sure the cadastral plan and the registry entry place the property in the district of Tapesco, canton of Zarcero.

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

  Start with the ground itself. This is steep, wet terrain, and the nearby stretch of Route 141 has had rockfalls, so look at slope, drainage and how the lot is reached, and confirm that the access road is public. Springs and stream banks carry protection strips where you cannot build, which matters on land this close to the national park. Then get the ASADA’s water letter and the land-use certificate from the Municipalidad de Zarcero, and confirm title, liens and the plano catastrado at the Registro Nacional (Registro Inmobiliario).

• How close is Tapesco to Zarcero and Ciudad Quesada?

  Zarcero town is a few minutes south on Route 141, and Ciudad Quesada lies to the north on the same road, 27 kilometres from Zarcero. The city of Alajuela is about 50 kilometres from Zarcero. Heavy rain occasionally closes a lane or the whole road between Zarcero and Ciudad Quesada, so allow for that if you will commute north.

• Is the land good for farming?

  Yes, farming is what the district does. Local growers produce arracache, carrots, lettuce, potatoes and herbs, and there is dairy pasture as well, with milk going to the Dos Pinos cooperative. Ask a seller what was grown on the parcel and whether it has its own water for irrigation, which is separate from the drinking-water supply.

• Where are the schools and services?

  The Arnulfo Arias Madrid school in the centre of Tapesco teaches preschool and primary. For secondary school, shops, banks and the municipal offices you go into Zarcero, and the nearest hospital is the Hospital San Carlos in Ciudad Quesada.