Cañas

About Cañas:

Cañas is the sixth canton of Guanacaste, created out of Bagaces on 12 July 1878, and it covers 687 square kilometres in five districts: Cañas, Palmira, San Miguel, Bebedero and Porozal. It is long and narrow, running 61 kilometres from the watershed on the Tenorio volcano, above 1,900 metres, down to the mouth of the Tempisque on the Gulf of Nicoya. Rivers draw most of its borders: the Corobicí against Tilarán, the Lajas against Abangares, and the Tenorio and the Bebedero against Bagaces, with Upala and Guatuso to the north. The town sits at 86 metres on Route 1, the Interamericana, which now runs as a four-lane road on the stretch north to Liberia. Route 142 climbs 22 kilometres east to Tilarán and Lake Arenal, and Route 6 leaves the highway north of town for Bijagua and Upala.

A colonial report mentions Las Cañas in 1620, and in 1751 a visiting bishop found some twenty families and a thatched chapel dedicated to San José. For most of the next two centuries the way in and out was by river. Boats left Puerto Bebedero and Porozal’s Puerto Níspero for Puntarenas loaded with cattle, mail and goods, until the Interamericana was built in the 1940s and the Amistad bridge over the Tempisque ended the river trade in 2003. Irrigation took the ports’ place: the Arenal–Tempisque irrigation district opened its first office here in 1980, the Taboga mill grinds most of the cane grown in Cañas, Bagaces and Abangares, and a large tilapia farm west of town raises fish in water that has already passed through the Arenal turbines. By 2011 six in ten working residents earned their living in services, from the shops and offices of the centre to the Universidad Técnica Nacional’s Corobicí campus.

Most of the canton is flat or gently rolling lowland, crossed by the Corobicí, Tenorio, Cañas and Lajas rivers on their way to the Tempisque, with lagoons such as Madrigal and La Vieja in the low ground. North of town the land climbs through cattle country to the forested slopes of Tenorio, the canton’s upper edge. Down on the plain the dry season is hot and windy, and that should shape the house you buy as much as its size does. Deep eaves, shaded corridors and windows set to catch the wind keep a house in Cañas comfortable and cut what you spend on air conditioning. Toward Bebedero and Porozal the ground drops to river level, so find out where water lies in the wet months before you pick a building site.

Four in five residents live in the Cañas district itself, and the other four districts are small farming and river communities. Porozal sits right beside Bebedero on the map but 47 kilometres from the centre by road, by way of the route toward the Amistad bridge. Buyers are mostly local families and people who work at the mill, the irrigation district, the schools and the businesses along the highway, and in 2011 about one resident in twelve had been born abroad. Visitors come for the Corobicí, gentle enough for float trips past herons and crocodiles, for the Las Pumas rescue centre on part of the old Hacienda La Pacífica, and for boat trips from Bebedero into the Palo Verde wetlands. In town, the parish church, its façade and tower covered by Otto Apuy in some 80,000 pieces of mosaic, is the landmark.

Houses in Cañas:

In town, a house is usually a family home on its own lot, a short drive from the church, the CAIS health centre, the banks and the schools. On the edges of town and in the rural districts, lots get bigger and homes come with garages, gardens and room to add on. Out in the rural districts, houses sit in small villages among cane, rice and pasture. When you compare homes for sale in Cañas, look at how each house deals with the afternoon heat, through its orientation, shade and cross-ventilation, as closely as you look at the room count.

Land and Lots in Cañas:

Families who want to build look for lots on the edges of town and in rural communities such as Sandillal, where plots run larger than in the centre and most ground is flat enough to build on without heavy earthwork. The canton has had a plan regulador since 2003, with separate plans for the town centre and for Bebedero, Guapinol and Porozal, so the land-use certificate tells you what you can actually build. Near the irrigation network, ask whether a canal crosses the parcel and what right of way comes with it before you plan a fence, a well or a driveway. Close to the Interamericana, lots for sale in Cañas trade quiet for convenience, so visit at the hours when the trucks run.

Farms in Cañas:

On the plain, the first question about any farm is whether it has water from the irrigation district’s canals, because that decides whether the land can carry cane, rice or pasture through the dry months. A neighbouring parcel without it lives on the rains alone. Toward Tenorio the farms turn into cattle land, with pasture, creeks and patches of forest on rising ground. Down by the Bebedero and the Tempisque, fincas sit among rivers and wetlands, and it pays to walk one in the rainy season to see where the water goes before you agree a price.

Commercial Land in Cañas:

Frontage on the Interamericana is its own market in Cañas. The highway carries the traffic between the Central Valley, Liberia and the Nicaraguan border, and roadside parcels on the way out of town are bought for service stations, warehouses, workshops and shops as much as for homes. Before you plan a business on one, confirm the zoning under the plan regulador and what access onto a four-lane highway will be permitted. In the centre, small commercial premises serve the town and the farms around it.

Rentals in Cañas:

Renting in Cañas is mostly a monthly arrangement for people who live and work in the canton, from staff at the mill, the irrigation district and the health centre to teachers and students at the UTN campus. Houses make up much of what is let, some of them on generous lots with garages. Short stays are a smaller business, fed by travellers between the beaches and Arenal and by visitors to the Corobicí and Palo Verde. Judge a rental purchase on what a local tenant will pay each month, not on holiday rates.

FAQ:

• Is Cañas a practical base for getting around Guanacaste?

  Its position near the middle of the province makes it a handy one. Liberia is 48 kilometres away on four lanes and its international airport about an hour’s drive, Tilarán and Lake Arenal are 22 kilometres up Route 142, and Bagaces is 22 kilometres west along the Interamericana. Route 6 takes you north to Bijagua and the Río Celeste side of Tenorio, and San José is 165 kilometres to the southeast.

• What should I check before buying land on the irrigated plain?

  Start with water. Ask whether the parcel is connected to the irrigation district and on what terms, and whether a canal or drain crosses it, because that limits where you can build and fence. Then look at the low ground: near the Bebedero and the Tempisque, walk the land after heavy rain. Finally, order a registry study from the Registro Nacional (Registro Inmobiliario), check that the cadastral plan matches it and ask the municipality for the land-use certificate under the plan regulador.

• Can foreigners buy property in Cañas?

  Yes. In Costa Rica a foreigner buys registered property on the same terms as a national, in their own name or through a Costa Rican company, and a lawyer and notary handles the deed and the transfer. Almost all of the canton is inland, so beach-concession rules do not come into play. The exception is the far southwest, where the canton reaches the shore at the mouth of the Tempisque; if a parcel there touches the water, check whether the maritime-terrestrial zone applies.

• How do I keep a house cool in Cañas?

  Choose the house for the heat before you choose it for the finishes. Look for deep roof overhangs, shaded corridors on the west side, high ceilings and windows on opposite walls so the dry-season wind can pass through. Trees on the lot help, and so does a roof fixed down well enough for the gusty months. Ask the owner what the electricity bill comes to in March and April.

• Which part of the canton suits living there year-round?

  For most people, the town of Cañas, where four in five residents already live and where the health centre, schools, banks and buses are. The rural districts give you more land and quiet in exchange for a drive into town for most errands. Porozal is the outlier: it lies 47 kilometres from the centre by road, so it suits farming or fishing better than a daily commute.