Matina

About Matina:

Matina is the fifth canton of Limón province, 770 square kilometres of Caribbean lowland lying between Siquirres and the canton of Limón. Law 4344 of 24 June 1969 split it off from Limón with two districts, Matina and Batán, and Carrandí was added by decree in December 1971. Ruta 32, the highway from San José to the port of Moín, crosses the canton from west to east, and the town of Matina is 168 kilometres from the capital by road. Two overpasses, one at Batán and one at Matina, went out to tender in March 2026 as the permanent answer to the junctions where traffic turns off the widened highway.

Bananas pay most of the wages. In the 2011 census close to two in three working people in the canton earned their living from the land, mainly on export banana farms, with cattle a distant second. Minor Keith started planting here at the end of the nineteenth century and United Fruit grew the crop on a large scale until disease and worn-out soils sent the company to the Pacific in the 1930s; today export plantations once again reach the edge of every town. The same census counted 37,721 residents, one in seven of them born outside Costa Rica, and the national statistics office projected 45,329 for 2022. Former president Abel Pacheco was born in the canton.

Most of Matina is flat alluvial plain, 12 metres above sea level on average, drained by the Chirripó, Barbilla, Madre de Dios and Matina rivers. Those rivers answer to rain in the mountains upstream, not to the weather over your roof. In May 2026 a tropical wave pushed the Chirripó, Barbilla and Madre de Dios out of their banks and flooded B-Line, and in August the Chirripó overflowed again. To the south the land climbs toward Barbilla National Park, which Matina shares with Siquirres and Turrialba, and toward the Cabécar territories of Bajo Chirripó and Alto Chirripó. On the coast, Barra Norte de Pacuare in Batán is a 7-kilometre beach between the mouths of the Parismina and Pacuare rivers where leatherback turtles nest, with a few isolated houses and no village behind it.

Each district works differently. Batán is the most populous and the canton’s commercial centre, with the Banco Nacional branch, the CCSS clinic, the Colegio Técnico Profesional and the bus terminal. Matina, the seat, holds the municipality and sits off the highway on Ruta 805, while Carrandí lives along Ruta 32 around Estrada and Venecia. Most buyers already live or work here: plantation staff, families building in stages, and small traders who want the house and the business on one lot. Bank and mutual-lender repossessions and court auctions bring in buyers hunting for value, farm buyers come for pasture, cacao or forest outside the towns, and foreigners can hold titled land on the same terms as Costa Ricans.

Houses in Matina:

Homes in the three towns are mostly single-storey concrete houses on lots much larger than the floor plan, and in the villages a house often comes with pasture or a stand of cacao. A three-bedroom, 200-square-metre house in Batán has been offered with a shop at the front and land-use approval for both residential and commercial use, and MUCAP has sold a repossessed 130-square-metre house on a 500-square-metre lot in the same district. Banks, mutual lenders and the courts all put houses on the market here. When you compare houses for sale in Matina, look first at how high the floor sits above the street, because one storm can leave one barrio dry and put the next under water.

Land and Lots in Matina:

Building plots run from a few hundred square metres in town to half a hectare on the highway. A 314-square-metre lot facing Ruta 32 at Estrada and a flat parcel of just under 5,000 square metres in Carrandí, offered with mixed land use, show the range. Frontage on Ruta 32 is the canton’s commercial address, with trucks for Moín passing all day, but land was taken for the widening and an old plano may not match today’s road edge. On low ground near a river, budget for fill to lift the building pad, and remember that the Forestry Law keeps a strip along each riverbank free of building. If you are pricing lots for sale in Matina, ask whether the lot can get water and electricity connections before you agree a figure.

Farms in Matina:

Outside the towns the market is measured in hectares. Farms on offer range from a few hectares of pasture to holdings of more than 40 hectares, such as Finca Los Altos at San Miguel de Batán, with managed grassland, protected forest and cacao along a river boundary. Forest and river frontage carry protected ground under the Forestry Law, so the working area can fall well short of the total. Ask how the farm road holds up in a wet month, how long the low paddocks stay under water after a flood, and whether access depends on crossing a plantation you do not control.

FAQ:

• Which district of Matina canton should I look in?

  That depends on what you need close by. Batán has the most people and the most services, including the bank, the CCSS clinic, the technical high school and the bus terminal. Matina, the seat, holds the municipal offices and lies off the highway on Ruta 805. Carrandí sits on Ruta 32 itself around Estrada and Venecia, which suits buyers who want road frontage or a quick run east to Limón.

• How do I get to Matina from San José or Limón?

  Take Ruta 32, the highway that crosses Braulio Carrillo National Park on its way to the Caribbean; the town of Matina is 168 kilometres from San José by road. Limón city lies east along the same highway, past Carrandí and the turn for Moín. Local buses link Batán and Matina with Limón. Until the overpasses at Batán and Matina are built, allow for slow traffic at the highway junctions.

• Can I buy land inside Bajo Chirripó or Alto Chirripó?

  No. Bajo Chirripó, a Cabécar territory created in 1992, reaches into Matina district, and Alto Chirripó extends into the canton’s southern hills. Under Indigenous Law 6172 of 1977, land inside an indigenous territory is inalienable: non-indigenous people may not buy, rent or lease it, and any such deal is void. The towns and the banana plain lie outside both territories, but if a hill farm is offered near the canton’s southern edge, check on the cadastre map which side of the boundary it falls before you go any further.

• What should I check before buying a lot or house in Matina?

  Start with the river, not the deed. Find out whether the property flooded in May or August 2026, and look at the national emergency commission’s hazard maps for the area. The municipality has been working toward a plan regulador under a 2023 agreement with the IFAM, so ask it for the uso de suelo on the exact lot and which rules apply to it today. Then compare the plano catastrado at the Registro Nacional with the fences on the ground, the road edge on Ruta 32 and the district it names, because Estrada lots are sometimes advertised as Batán when Estrada belongs to Carrandí.

• Can I own a house on the beach at Barra Norte de Pacuare?

  Not outright. Under Costa Rica’s Maritime-Terrestrial Zone Law, the first 50 metres from the high-tide line are public and the next 150 metres can only be held under a municipal concession, never as titled property. The beach is also a leatherback nesting site with conservation projects working on it. Titled land starts behind that 200-metre strip, and that is where any coastal purchase should be checked.