Puerto Cortés

About Puerto Cortés:

Puerto Cortés became a district on 29 July 1940, when the old canton of Osa was split in two and the river town was made head of the new one. It covers about 234 square kilometres between the lower Río Grande de Térraba and the Pacific. The town started life as El Pozo, a river landing where settlers from Chiriquí grew rice and raised cattle, and for years the only way in was by boat from Puntarenas, through the mouth of the Térraba ten kilometres downstream. It took the name of President León Cortés Castro in the 1930s and grew fast once the banana company arrived in 1938, until United Fruit left the zone in 1984. Today the Costanera Sur, Ruta 34, crosses the district from end to end, and Palmar Norte and the Interamericana are about 11 kilometres away by road.

The river has shaped the town as much as the bananas did. Hurricane César brought the worst flood in its history in 1996, and from 2000 part of the population and several public offices moved three kilometres north, onto higher ground beside the Costanera that people call Nueva Cortés. The hospital followed in 2008, to a new building at Ojo de Agua, and the municipal building is up there as well. The water came back with Tropical Storm Tomas in 2010 and with Nate in October 2017, when the town was cut off from Palmar and Dominical. Since then the national emergency commission has built a 3.5-kilometre dike at Ciudad Cortés and cleared the río Balsar, but the low southern part of town, around a fifth of it, is still the part to treat with caution.

Ciudad Cortés is the service town for the whole canton. Barrio Canadá has become its commercial centre, with supermarkets, bakeries, pharmacies, restaurants and small hotels, and the town also has the Hospital Dr. Tomás Casas, the Liceo Pacífico Sur, an INA training campus, the courts and the Municipalidad de Osa. Plenty of people still get around by bicycle, a habit left over from the banana years. The flat land by the river grows rice, maize, sorghum and squash, alongside plantain, cassava and pineapple, and toward the coast at Coronado and Punta Mala the district meets the mangroves of the Térraba-Sierpe wetland. The old landing is now the Paseo Histórico El Embarcadero, and murals around town tell the story of the banana era.

North-west of town the Costanera runs along the foot of the coastal hills and the district changes character. Balsar sits high above the Térraba valley, with newer homes built for the view over the river and out to sea, and further along come Coronado, Tres Ríos, San Buenaventura with the Osa Golf course, Chontales and Ojochal, whose restaurants draw people from all along Costa Ballena. Cross the Río Tortuga and you are in Tortuga Arriba, which belongs to Bahía Ballena. A large share of Costa Ballena’s expat community lives on this side, and those in Chontales and Balsar are the ones who come into Ciudad Cortés for the hospital and the shops. In both halves of the district, the rain decides how you build: in town it is the river, and in the hills it is steep driveways, run-off and gravel roads that need work after every wet season.

Houses in Puerto Cortés:

In Ciudad Cortés most homes are single-storey concrete houses on town lots, and the newer ones have gone up in the high barrios such as La Laguna, Canadá and Puente Hamaca, or around Ojo de Agua near the hospital, where growth has moved since the floods. Older houses near the Embarcadero carry the history, and the flood risk with it. Out on the coast the usual home is quite different: two to four bedrooms, a pool and often a separate guesthouse, on half a hectare or more in Chontales, Tres Ríos, Coronado, Balsar or the hills behind Ojochal, priced in dollars and aimed at buyers from abroad. If you are weighing up houses for sale in Ciudad Cortés, ask the neighbours how high the water came in 2017 before you look at anything else.

Land and Lots in Puerto Cortés:

Lots range from about a thousand square metres in hillside subdivisions to several thousand with a creek or a spring, and above Chontales and Tres Ríos there are farms of 15 to 50 hectares mixing forest and pasture. Close to town, larger tracts with views over the Térraba basin and the ocean are being divided into lots, some with gravel roads and drainage already in. On these slopes the lot is often the cheaper part; the access road, retaining walls and water supply are where the money goes. Before you commit to ocean-view land in Ojochal or Tres Ríos, walk it after heavy rain, ask whether there is a groundwater study or a connection to the local water board, and find out who keeps the road open.

New Developments in Puerto Cortés:

Several hillside gated communities have been laid out along this stretch of coast. Costa Azul sits above the town of Tres Ríos, Villas San Buenas was planned with more than a hundred lots on the land next to the Osa Golf course, and Palm of the Tropic offers residential lots ten minutes from the main entrance to Ojochal. Buying here usually means a lot with a shared road, a gate and power nearby, and building your own house later. Ask who maintains the internal road, what the association fee covers, and whether each lot already has its own folio real and plano catastrado rather than a promise of one.

Rentals in Puerto Cortés:

Long-term rentals are mainly a town affair. A typical offer in Ciudad Cortés is a two-bedroom house with a garage, a pila room and a front yard, in barrios such as Lourdes, and with the hospital, courts and municipal offices all in town there is steady reason to live close by. On the coast, rentals lean toward furnished villas and guesthouses let by the week or the month to visitors and to people trying the area before they buy. If you want a long-term rental in Ciudad Cortés, look in the higher barrios first and ask the landlord what happened to the house in the last big storm.

Small Hotels and Cabins in Puerto Cortés:

Ojochal and the hills around it have a real market in small hospitality properties: four-unit buildings with a pool and ocean views, cabins beside a river, and jungle hotels with a dozen beds and quarters for the owner. Most are run by the owners themselves, so you are often buying a way of life as much as a business. Ask to see the municipal business licence and the reservations from the last few seasons, and check that every unit on the land was built with permits.

FAQ:

• Is Ojochal in Puerto Cortés or in Bahía Ballena?

  Ojochal is in Puerto Cortés district. The boundary with Bahía Ballena runs along the Río Tortuga, and the other bank is Tortuga Arriba. Adverts use “Ojochal” and “Ciudad Cortés” loosely, sometimes for land many kilometres from either, so confirm the district and canton on the plano catastrado before you compare prices or ask about permits.

• Does Ciudad Cortés still flood?

  The risk is lower than it was but it has not gone. The river put water into the low southern part of town in 1996, 2010 and 2017, and the new 3.5-kilometre dike and the work on the río Balsar are meant to hold it back. The north, east and west of town sit higher and have not had the same trouble, which is why most new building is there. For a house near the Embarcadero, ask the municipality whether the lot lies in the high-risk zone before you make an offer.

• What should I check before buying land near the beach at Tortuga Abajo or Coronado?

  Start with where the lot ends. Along the shore, the first 50 metres from high tide are public, and the next 150 metres can only be held under a municipal concession, so a beachfront parcel there is not titled land in the usual sense. Near Coronado and Punta Mala, check that no part of the land falls inside the Térraba-Sierpe wetland. Then pull the folio real and plano catastrado from the Registro Nacional (Registro Inmobiliario) and ask the Municipalidad de Osa for a land-use certificate.

• How far is Puerto Cortés from shops and services?

  Ciudad Cortés covers most needs: supermarkets, pharmacies and restaurants in Barrio Canadá, the regional hospital at Ojo de Agua, the liceo, schools and the government offices. Palmar Norte, on the Interamericana, is about 11 kilometres away, and people living around Ojochal also use Uvita, further up the Costanera.

• Will the planned southern airport change things here?

  Maybe, but not on any date you can count on. The current plan puts a smaller international airport in Sierpe, the neighbouring district, with construction most recently expected around 2027, yet the project has stalled several times since 2010 and its funding is still not settled. Judge any property here on what it is worth today, not on the airport.