Palmar

About Palmar:

Palmar covers 250.8 square kilometres at the geographic centre of Osa. Most of it is the alluvial plain of the lower Térraba, and the long ridge of the Fila Brunqueña closes off part of its northern edge. Palmar Norte, the head town, sits on the north bank at the junction of Ruta 34 and the Interamericana Sur, so traffic from Uvita, about 43 kilometres up the coast, and from the Panama border both pass through it. Ciudad Cortés and the canton hospital are 11 kilometres away, and the paved road to Sierpe and the boats for Bahía Drake starts in Palmar Sur. San José is around four hours away by the coast road, and small planes from the capital land at the Palmar Sur airstrip. Every vehicle on the Interamericana crosses the river on the Térraba bridge, opened in 1961, which the roads ministry is now strengthening in a two-phase job worth more than ten million dollars, with flaggers running one lane at a time while crews are on it.

Palmar Norte began in the late nineteenth century as Palmar de los Indios. Palmar Sur is younger: it grew from 1936, when the United Fruit Company concentrated its banana plantations on the south bank and laid the valley out in numbered farms, which is why people still give directions by Finca 6 or Finca 10. The company left in 1984. Much of its old land is now under oil palm, while other former farms are worked by families growing plantain, cassava, maize, beans and fruit. The Catholic church the company built in Palmar Sur in 1952 was declared a historic and architectural heritage site in 2015. Today Palmar Norte is where the canton does its business, with branches of Banco Nacional, Banco de Costa Rica, Banco Popular and Coopealianza, supermarkets, hardware stores and restaurants, and Escuela Eduardo Garnier, which opened in the 1910s as the Escuela Castañeda of Palmar de los Indios.

The valley floor is low and flat, just 26 metres above the sea, and that is what decides where you build. In October 2017 Tropical Storm Nate pushed the Térraba over its banks and through the old dikes, sweeping houses away and leaving around 200 people in Palmar Norte without a home, with Palmar Sur and Ciudad Cortés also hit hard. In 2022 work began on a 10.5-kilometre dike along the Palmar Sur side, part of a wider scheme meant to protect 29 villages in the lower basin. The same river is the reason the valley is so rich in archaeology. Finca 6, on the road to Sierpe, is one of the four Diquís stone-sphere settlements inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2014, and Batambal, another sphere site, lies on the Palmar Norte side.

Close to ten thousand people live in the district, more than in any other part of Osa. In Palmar Norte they are spread through barrios such as Betania, Once de Abril and Las Brisas, and beyond town through villages like Alemania, San Gabriel, San Isidro, Olla Cero, Coquito, Vergel and Trocha. Most buyers are families from the southern zone who want to be close to the banks, the schools and the highway. Acreage on the slopes above Palmar Norte, with mountain views and room to spread out, is also sold to buyers from abroad who want the beaches of Costa Ballena within a forty-minute drive. Palmar Sur is the quieter side, with its airstrip, its old company neighbourhoods and farm roads running out into the valley.

Houses in Palmar:

In Palmar Norte the typical home is a one- or two-storey concrete-block house on a lot of around 300 square metres, a few streets from the banks, the schools and the bus stop for Sierpe and San José. These are the houses local families buy and sell among themselves. Up on the slopes the picture changes: newer houses with three bedrooms, a pool and wide mountain views sit on several hectares, reached by an unpaved road, with municipal water and a septic tank. There are also older houses on a few acres sold for renovation, sometimes with a studio or office already on the land. If you are comparing houses for sale in Palmar Norte on the valley floor, ask the neighbours how high the water came in 2017 before you look at the kitchen.

Land and Lots in Palmar:

Residential lots in Palmar Norte are small, around 300 square metres, and often already have water and power at the street. Palmar Sur offers more room. Lots of about 1,400 square metres come up in the old American zone of the banana company, and on the main roads there are larger parcels with more than 250 metres of public frontage that work for commercial or residential use. You will even find land beside the airstrip with direct access to the runway. Before you settle on a lot for sale in Palmar Sur, check where it sits in relation to the new dike and the river, and ask the Municipalidad de Osa what can be built on it.

Farms in Palmar:

Around Palmar the larger holdings are farms and forest. Rural holdings of more than a hundred acres come with a small house, and there are fincas of around 40 hectares that are almost entirely virgin forest. Down in the valley the bigger blocks are planted with oil palm or worked in smaller family parcels. Forested ground can be bought, but cutting it to build or plant is heavily restricted, so price farms for sale in Osa on what you are actually allowed to use. On a valley farm, find out how the access roads and drains behaved in the last big flood.

Rentals in Palmar:

Long-term rentals are mostly local and modest. In the centre of Palmar Norte you will find small furnished apartments for one person or a couple, within walking distance of the banks, the restaurants and the school. Houses come up a little further out, some of them on the Costanera about two and a half kilometres from the centre. For short stays there are apartment-hotels in town, used by people passing through on the way to Sierpe and Bahía Drake. If you plan to rent before you buy, Palmar Norte is the easier base, since almost every errand can be done on foot.

FAQ:

• Are Palmar Norte and Palmar Sur part of the same district?

  Yes. Both belong to Palmar, the second district of Osa, and share the postal code 60502. Palmar Norte is the head town and the commercial side, while Palmar Sur, across the bridge, grew up around the banana company and still has the airstrip, the Finca 6 museum and the 1952 church. Addresses often give only one of the two names, so check the exact barrio on the survey plan.

• How exposed to flooding is property in Palmar?

  It depends on which side of town and how close to the Térraba. Nate showed in 2017 what the river can do when it breaks through a dike, and work on a 10.5-kilometre dike along the Palmar Sur side began in 2022 in response. Land on the slopes above Palmar Norte is out of reach of the river, while the valley floor needs a closer look: ask the municipality and the CNE about flood risk for that specific lot and talk to the neighbours.

• What should I check on the title of land that used to belong to the banana company?

  Find out how the land passed from the company to the seller. When the company left, some farms went to cooperatives and others were bought by the state’s rural development agency, and on farms such as Finca 10 families have lived for years without a title of their own. Pull the folio real and the plano catastrado from the Registro Nacional (Registro Inmobiliario), confirm that the person selling is the registered owner, and ask INDER whether the parcel carries any transfer limits. A land-use certificate from the Municipalidad de Osa completes the picture.

• How do I get to Palmar from San José?

  The quickest drive is down the Costanera Sur through Jacó, Quepos, Dominical and Uvita, around four hours to Palmar Norte. The older route over the mountains on the Interamericana through San Isidro de El General also arrives here. Long-distance buses stop in Palmar Norte, and small planes fly from San José to Palmar Sur.

• Where are the hospital and the main services?

  Banks, supermarkets, hardware stores, restaurants and primary schools are all in Palmar Norte. The canton hospital, Tomás Casas Casajús, is in Ciudad Cortés, 11 kilometres away. Uvita, the nearest beach town, is about 43 kilometres up the Costanera.