San Vito

About San Vito:

San Vito covers about 75 square kilometres of high, broken plateau in the foothills of the Talamanca range, close to the Panamanian border. From San José you take the Interamericana south past San Isidro del General and Buenos Aires to Paso Real, cross the Térraba and climb the last 46 kilometres on Route 237. Without stops the drive takes four and a half to five hours, and Tracopa runs several buses a day for anyone who would rather not drive it. Route 237 carries on south from town down to Ciudad Neily, about 33 kilometres away, which puts the coast road, the border at Paso Canoas and the Golfito airport within reach. The town has its own airstrip, but scheduled flights land in Golfito.

The town grew out of a contract signed in 1951. The government ceded 10,000 hectares to the Sociedad Italiana de Colonización Agrícola, which undertook to settle 250 families, a fifth of them Costa Rican, and each colonist family received 20 hectares to clear and farm. The early years were hard and isolated; from the mid-1960s coffee started to pay. It still does, mostly from small family plots, next to sugarcane, maize, plantain, beans and some cattle, and in the harvest the district fills up with pickers, many of them Ngäbe. The rest of the economy is services: the Hospital Juana Pirola in Barrio Tres Ríos, the UNED university centre, a Colegio Científico run with the UNED, the banks, the cooperatives and the town hall.

The Italian side of San Vito is still easy to find. The Dante Alighieri cultural centre faces the central park, Italian is taught in public schools such as the Liceo Ítalo-Costarricense, and the bakeries and pizzerias show who built the place. Around town the land breaks into small valleys and ridges cut by fast, narrow rivers like the Java, which runs along the outskirts. Six kilometres south, on the road to Ciudad Neily, the Las Cruces Biological Station protects the Wilson Botanical Garden, one of the most important plant collections in Central America, with more than 300 hectares of forest around it. Further into the mountains, La Amistad International Park and the Las Tablas protected zone bring in birdwatchers looking for quetzals.

At around a thousand metres the air stays cool, and that is the main reason people from the hot lowlands and from abroad look at San Vito at all: most houses here get by without air conditioning. The price of that is rain for much of the year, which keeps the coffee green and makes gutters, drainage and ventilation part of any house inspection. Most buyers are local families, descendants of the colonists and people from elsewhere in the south who move up for the schools and the hospital. A smaller number of foreigners settle here too, and some rent first while they look. Outside the centre the market turns into coffee land and acreage with views over the valley.

Houses in San Vito:

In town, houses sit in barrios such as Canadá, María Auxiliadora and Tres Ríos, on lots from a few hundred square metres up to around 700, often on two floors with a covered garage. Bigger homes on bigger plots turn up in communities like Aguas Claras, about 7 kilometres from the centre, and Lindavista, where a house can come with more than ten hectares of land, forest and water. Some properties carry two or three houses on the same land, which suits an extended family or a guest cottage. If you want to walk to the park, the shops and the hospital, look among the houses for sale in San Vito proper. If the view matters more, plan on driving.

Rentals in San Vito:

Long-term rentals are mostly houses and small apartments in and around the centre, many of them advertised by owners close to the UNED, the schools and the Colegio Científico. That steady local demand is why small income buildings change hands here: a house with three apartments behind it, or four furnished units on a lot of just over 1,000 square metres. Holiday lets are a smaller business, mostly country houses within twenty minutes of town and the rooms at Las Cruces. If you are buying to rent out, ask the seller for a full year of occupancy, not just the busy months.

Land and Lots in San Vito:

Buildable lots in the centre are scarce, and a plot of 1,800 square metres with 31 metres of frontage on a main street is sold as a development site. On the edge of town, parcels of about a hectare are offered for a small residential project or for farming, and smaller pieces of around 6,000 square metres come with a stream and a flat area to build on. Further out, land that was once divided into 20-hectare colonist farms now sells in every size, from permaculture farms of three or four hectares to estates of 13 to 17 hectares with houses and forest. Plenty of local families still keep a couple of hectares in coffee, so land for sale in San Vito often comes with plants already in the ground.

FAQ:

• How do I get to San Vito from San José?

  By car, take the Interamericana south to Paso Real and then Route 237 up to San Vito, four and a half to five hours without stops. Tracopa buses leave San José several times a day and take longer. If you fly, the nearest scheduled flights go to Golfito, about an hour and a half away by road.

• What should I check before buying on a slope around San Vito?

  Ground movement first. In Barrio Los Granados in Santa Clara, cracks in floors and walls forced thirteen families out of their homes after a slide. Walk the lot in the rainy season, look for leaning fences, wet patches and fresh cuts, and keep clear of the banks of fast rivers like the Java. Then have a lawyer pull the property from the Registro Nacional (Registro Inmobiliario), match it to the plano catastrado, and ask the municipality for a land-use certificate before you sign.

• Is there a hospital in San Vito?

  Yes. The Hospital Juana Pirola, run by the CCSS in Barrio Tres Ríos, has a 24-hour emergency department, surgery, obstetrics, paediatrics, imaging and a laboratory. It serves the whole of Coto Brus, which is one reason families from the rest of the canton move into town.

• Do I need air conditioning in a house here?

  Usually not. At about a thousand metres the nights are cool and many homes are built without it. Humidity is the bigger issue, so check roof overhangs, gutters, ventilation and any signs of damp on the walls.

• Is Italian still spoken in San Vito?

  By some of the older families, yes, and the language is still part of the curriculum in local public schools, including the Liceo Ítalo-Costarricense. The Dante Alighieri cultural centre on the park keeps the colony’s history and runs activities for the community.