Matina

About Matina:

Matina district covers 351 square kilometres of lowland at an average height of 11 metres above sea level, and it holds the administrative seat of Matina canton. District and canton were created together on 24 June 1969, when Law 4344 made Matina the fifth canton of Limón. Ruta 32, the highway between San José and the port of Moín, crosses the district at Bristol and Línea B; Ruta 805 links the town with Batán, and Ruta 813 also runs through the district. A bus line connects San José with Batán and Matina. In March 2026 the roads ministry put out to tender the design and construction of overpasses at Batán and Matina, which are to replace the roundabouts built as a first stage of the highway widening.

The name is older than any road. A river called Matine appears in a record from 1564, and in colonial times the valley of Matina was Costa Rica’s cacao country, with haciendas worked in part by enslaved Africans and a small port on this coast. Bananas set the pace today: Bananera Bristol sits just off Ruta 32 at Bristol, and Banadosmil grows fruit for export from Cuatro Millas. Cacao never vanished, and some homes still stand among cacao and banana plantings. The town has the municipal offices, the Liceo de Innovación Educativa and the CCSS health area, while the hospital and larger shops are in Limón.

Water shapes everything else. Crests on the Matina are driven mainly by rain in the upper basin, up in the Chirripó, and floods in the canton have been recorded since the 1800s. During a tropical wave in July 2021 the canton went on red alert and more than 7,400 people were affected, and in May 2026 the water came back into Matina’s communities. Dikes protect parts of the town, yet geologists at the national emergency commission warn that they give a false sense of security, a point not lost on the families of Barrio El Río, who live right behind one. Many households have raised their homes on stilts or on packed sand, and at Línea B the widened Ruta 32 now stands almost level with the roofs of the houses beside it.

At the coast, the district reaches the sea at Barra de Matina Norte, where the river mouth opens into mangroves and canals used by manatees and leatherback turtles nest on the beach. Coast guard patrols have seized illegal nets at the river mouth for exactly that reason. Inland, most people who buy or rent already have ties to the district: plantation staff, local families who want a lot of their own, and people who work in Limón or at the port. If you are coming from outside, visit after a week of heavy rain rather than on a sunny afternoon, and see the ground at its worst.

Houses in Matina:

In the centre of town houses stand close together, and some share a wall; further out the lots grow and homes sit between yards, pasture and plantations. The usual build is a single-storey concrete house with three bedrooms, a cuarto de pilas, a carport and a yard, sometimes with a small shop space at the front. Banks and mutual housing lenders also sell repossessed homes, such as a 130-square-metre house on a 500-square-metre lot offered with monthly instalments. When you look at houses for sale in Matina, ask whether the house has ever taken water, how deep it got and how long it stayed. A floor raised well above the yard tells you more than fresh paint.

Rentals in Matina:

Renting in Matina means a monthly lease, not a holiday stay. Rooms, small apartments and family houses are let to people who work in town, on the farms or along the highway, and many deals are struck directly with the owner. Ask whether water is included, whether the place flooded in the last storm and who pays for repairs when it does. A ground-floor flat behind the dike and a house on stilts are very different homes in a wet week.

Land and Lots in Matina:

Lots come up in and around the town and in villages such as Corina, Chumico and Palmeras, from plots of a few hundred square metres to parcels of several hectares. One parcel of 2.8 hectares near the Chumico, Corina and Palmera schools is marketed on its distance to the container terminal at Moín, which says something about how sellers now see the district. Flat ground is cheap to clear, but the cost that counts is fill: on a low lot you may have to raise the building pad before you pour a slab. If you are weighing land for sale in Matina, find out where the nearest river channel runs, because the Forestry Law keeps a protection strip along riverbanks free of building.

Farms in Matina:

Farmland is the district’s oldest asset. Fincas offered here run to dozens of hectares, from cattle pasture to cacao and banana land. Before you buy, walk the drainage canals, ask when the land last went under and how long it took to dry out, and make sure the access road does not depend on the goodwill of a neighbouring plantation. A farm that borders the Chirripó or the Barbilla deserves a slow look at the banks and at any dike that crosses it.

FAQ:

• How do I get to the town of Matina?

  Leave Ruta 32 at Batán and take Ruta 805 into town. Buses from San José run through Batán and end in Matina. Bristol and Línea B sit on Ruta 32 itself, and the other villages are reached by roads between the farms.

• Does living behind the dike keep a house safe from floods?

  Only up to a point. The national emergency commission calls the dikes necessary but warns that they lead people to build where they should not, and in 2021 the water reached parts of Línea B that had stayed dry in earlier floods. Look for a house that sits higher than the street, check the state of the nearest stretch of dike and ask the municipal emergency committee about the sector.

• What paperwork should I check before buying in Matina?

  Start with the land-use certificate (uso de suelo), which the Municipalidad de Matina also processes online. The canton has gone for years without a plan regulador, and an agreement signed with the IFAM in 2023 set aside national funding to draw one up, so ask which rules apply to your lot today. Compare the plano catastrado at the Registro Nacional with what you see on site, because properties here have been recorded in Matina district when they actually lie in Batán. Then check whether the lot falls inside a flood-hazard zone on the emergency commission’s maps.

• Which villages belong to Matina district?

  Besides the town, with barrios such as Goli, Luisa Oeste and Milla 23, the district takes in Baltimore, Barra de Matina Norte, Bristol, Colonia Puriscaleña, Corina, Chirripó, Chumico, Esperanza, Helvetia, Hilda, Línea B, Milla 4, Palmeras, Pozo Azul, Punta de Lanza, San Miguel, Victoria and Xirinachs. Estrada and Venecia belong to Carrandí, and Batán is a district of its own.

• Where do residents go for health care and shopping?

  Primary care is at the CCSS health area in Matina. For the regional hospital and bigger shops, people drive or take the bus to Limón.