Hojancha

About Hojancha:

Hojancha is the first of the canton’s five districts and holds its head town, at about 350 metres in the hills of the central Nicoya Peninsula and 100 kilometres south of Liberia. National Ruta 158 runs straight through it, from Mansión on the Nicoya side down to Puerto Carrillo on the Pacific; Ruta 902 also crosses the district. Beyond the centre lie the villages of Pilangosta, Varillal, Maravilla, Cuesta Blanca, San Juan Bosco, San Rafael, Palo de Jabón, Ceiba, Arena and Ángeles, plus part of Santa Elena. In town, people give directions by barrio: El Alto, La Libertad, La Gran Vía, Viento Fresco, Cuesta Blanca and Barrio Cementerio.

The town is younger than it looks. Families from Matambú and from San Ramón, Atenas and Palmares began clearing these hills around 1910, and by the 1960s cattle had taken over nearly everything. When beef prices collapsed, ranchers went broke and more than half the population left. Hojancha became a canton on 2 November 1971 and rebuilt itself on coffee, tree nurseries and teak, organised through the Centro Agrícola Cantonal founded in 1978 and through Coopepilangosta, which now works with 192 growers in the higher hills and runs coffee tours just outside town.

Water shaped the modern town as much as coffee did. By the early 1990s the upper Río Nosara, which feeds the town’s aqueduct, was so depleted that for three summers running the taps gave brown water and tanker trucks came in. Residents answered by buying pasture a hectare at a time and letting it turn back into forest. That land became the Monte Alto protective zone: 924 hectares six kilometres south-west of the centre, rising from 430 to 880 metres, with trails, a lookout, meals and rooms for visitors. The Área de Conservación Tempisque, the state body that looks after protected land across this part of Guanacaste, keeps its headquarters in Hojancha centre.

Most residents were born here or close by, and the municipality, the CCSS clinic, the Colegio Técnico Profesional, the conservation office and the cooperative give the town a working week of its own. Over the last twenty years newcomers have arrived from elsewhere in Costa Rica and from abroad. Hojancha is one of the five cantons of the Nicoya Peninsula Blue Zone, famous for how long its older people live, and the people who move here usually want a hill town with services rather than a beach address. They shop, bank and see the doctor in town, drive down to Playa Carrillo and Sámara for the sea, and go to Nicoya for the regional hospital and the bigger errands.

Houses in Hojancha:

Homes in the district are mostly concrete family houses on the barrio streets, close enough to the church, the park and the shops to do without a car, many with a front yard and a long garden behind. Out in the villages, houses come with more ground: fruit trees, a strip of pasture, sometimes a patch of coffee. A house for sale in Hojancha town suits someone who wants everything on foot; a village house trades that for space and a view over the hills. Look at the water connection and the slope behind the house as closely as the building itself.

Rentals in Hojancha:

Long-term rentals are whole houses more often than apartments, typically two- or three-bedroom concrete homes in the centre let by local owners. Around the edges of town there are also a few furnished lofts and guest apartments taken by visitors who come for the coffee tours, Monte Alto or the beaches below. If you are thinking of moving here, renting for a few months is the cheapest way to learn which barrio suits you and how the dry season treats the water.

Land and Lots in Hojancha:

Lots in and around town start at about a thousand square metres, often already planted with fruit trees, as in Pilangosta, and parcels of a hectare or more with irrigation water also come up. Further out, fincas mix pasture, coffee and teak, and the bigger ones bring springs, creeks and strips of forest with them. Before you compare prices of land for sale in Hojancha, decide what the parcel is for. A house plot needs paved access, power and a water letter; a farm needs every boundary and every water source walked before you make an offer.

FAQ:

• Is a property listed as “Hojancha” in the town or at the beach?

  Not necessarily in town. Hojancha is also the name of the canton, which reaches the coast in Puerto Carrillo district, so many beach houses and ocean-view lots around Playa Carrillo carry a Hojancha address. The district on this page is the town and its hill villages, postal code 51101. Check the district printed on the cadastral plan: land near the shore falls under maritime-zone rules that do not apply up here.

• How do you get to Hojancha?

  Ruta 158 is the town’s main road. It comes up from Mansión, in Nicoya canton, passes through the centre and continues down to Puerto Carrillo, with Sámara a short drive along the coast from there. Nicoya is the nearest city, and Liberia, home to Daniel Oduber international airport, is about 100 kilometres north.

• What should I check before buying land near Monte Alto?

  First, whether the parcel lies inside the Monte Alto protective zone. Only part of its 924 hectares belongs to the foundation that runs it; the rest is private land, and owners inside a protective zone face limits on clearing forest and on what they can build. Ask at the Área de Conservación Tempisque office in town and compare the cadastral plan with the zone’s boundary. Then pull the property’s record at the Registro Nacional (Registro Inmobiliario) and get the land-use certificate from the Municipalidad de Hojancha.

• Where does the water come from?

  In town, from the aqueduct fed by the upper Río Nosara, the same basin the reforestation of the 1990s set out to save. Villages such as Pilangosta run their own community water systems, known as ASADAs. Whichever one serves the property, get its letter of water availability in writing before you sign anything, because the municipality will ask for it when you apply for a building permit.