Puerto Jiménez

About Puerto Jiménez:

The canton takes the eastern side and the southern tip of the peninsula: the Golfo Dulce shore from Cañaza down to Cabo Matapalo, then the open Pacific past Carate, with Bahía Drake district of Osa canton as its western limit. Ruta 245 is the only way in by land. It leaves the Interamericana at Chacarita and runs 77 kilometres to town, and when it fails the whole canton feels it; in November 2024 a sinkhole held traffic to light vehicles in daylight only. In 2025 two modular bridges, wide enough for heavy trucks, took the place of the fords on the Tamales and Corozal rivers. Past town the road turns to gravel for the 45 kilometres to Carate, a run the local colectivo takes two and a half hours to make.

For more than seventy years this was the second district of Golfito, one of the two the canton was created with in 1949. Congress voted the new canton through in March 2022 and President Carlos Alvarado signed the law on 8 April. Enrique Segnini was elected the first mayor in February 2024, and the municipality took office that May as the country’s 84th. There is still only one district, also called Puerto Jiménez, a set-up no canton but Parrita had before. By law the town hall had to sit in Puerto Jiménez centre, and that is where every permit for the canton’s 720 square kilometres is now decided.

Farmland is scarce and hard-won. Most of the soil is steep, poor or both, and the rain runs from May to December, so the crops that last are oil palm, extensive cattle grazing and small plots of rice and cacao, with palm growers organised in a cooperative on the peninsula. Tourism carries the rest: sport fishing and whale watching on the gulf, surf at Matapalo, and the Corcovado entrances at La Leona near Carate and El Tigre at Dos Brazos, where the community association trained former gold miners and hunters as park guides. Between Matapalo and Carate, the Osa Conservation campus near Río Piro and the Pejeperro wildlife refuge, a mangrove lagoon at Playa Carate, sit on the same forest corridor.

Around 10,600 people lived here in 2022, roughly fifteen to the square kilometre. Most live in the chain of villages along Ruta 245: Cañaza, La Palma, Sándalo, Guadalupe and Agujas on the way to town, and Dos Brazos up the Tigre valley. La Palma works as a second centre, with its own EBAIS clinic and secondary school. Local families buy houses in town and the villages and farm the land along the road, while foreign residents, lodge owners and conservation groups look for forest, gulf-view parcels and property on the cape. September to November tests every purchase: La Palma, Guadalupe and Playa Blanca are the places most prone to flooding, and a dirt track that is easy in March can be impassable by October.

Houses in Puerto Jiménez:

Houses here come in three settings. In town and in villages such as La Palma, most homes are older wooden or concrete houses on small lots, with newer builds closer to the harbour, and they are the cheapest way into the market as well as the only ones within walking distance of shops, a clinic and the bus. Out along Ruta 245 and its side roads, the house comes with land, usually a few hectares of pasture and forest and often a view down to the gulf. On the cape road toward Matapalo and Carate, homes are built around solar panels, springs or rainwater, and a four-wheel drive. When you compare houses for sale in Puerto Jiménez, cost the drive to town into each one.

Farms, Land and Lots in Puerto Jiménez:

Rural land is most of what the canton has to sell. Around La Palma and Cañaza, fincas often pair oil palm or pasture with standing forest, and some change hands with the palm still in production. Gulf-view parcels of two hectares and more sit twenty to thirty minutes from town, and the large tracts of tens or hundreds of hectares go to lodge builders, private reserves and conservation groups. Near town, the lots people want are the ones ready to build on, with an ASADA water connection, a land-use certificate and internet within reach. On any land for sale in Puerto Jiménez, find out how much of the parcel counts as forest under the Forest Law, because that part cannot be cleared.

Lodges and Eco-Tourism Properties in Puerto Jiménez:

With so much of the economy riding on visitors to Corcovado and the gulf, hospitality is a property type in its own right. Small lodges, bed-and-breakfasts and clusters of cabins come up for sale as going concerns, from beachfront jungle properties to forest retreats inland, and big parcels are offered for eco-lodges or wellness retreats. In Dos Brazos, the community association runs simple rustic lodging for people walking the El Tigre trail. Beside the airport, the Botánika resort sells its units to private owners under a hotel rental programme. Before you buy a lodge, ask for the municipal business licence, the ICT tourism declaration if it holds one, and two seasons of occupancy figures.

Rentals in Puerto Jiménez:

Rental demand follows the tourist calendar and peaks in the dry months, from December to April, when lodges, guides and boat operators are busiest. Longer lets cluster in town and in La Palma, near work, schools and the clinics, while furnished homes in the hills are taken by the month by visitors who stay a season. Outside town, ask how the house gets power and internet before agreeing a rent, and whether the owner keeps the access road graded through the wet months.

FAQ:

• Why do some deeds and plans still say Golfito?

  Because until May 2024 this whole territory was Golfito’s second district, so older deeds, survey plans and adverts name Golfito canton and the old postal code 60702 instead of 61301. Moving to a new canton does not change who owns the land, which is still recorded under its folio number at the Registro Nacional. What changed is the paperwork: property tax, land-use certificates and permits now go through the Municipalidad de Puerto Jiménez, so ask the seller for a recent tax receipt from the new municipality.

• What should I check before buying a palm or cattle finca?

  Start with where the water goes. Fincas around La Palma, Guadalupe and Playa Blanca sit in the flood-prone part of the canton, so walk the land after heavy rain or ask neighbours how high the river came last November. Some farmland here came out of state settlement programmes, so ask INDER whether the parcel was assigned by the state and still carries conditions on sale. Then pull the folio real and plano catastrado from the Registro Nacional (Registro Inmobiliario), check for liens, have a surveyor walk the boundaries, and ask SINAC in writing whether any part lies in the Golfo Dulce Forest Reserve.

• Is Ruta 245 reliable in the rainy season?

  It is the only road in, so its state matters to every property in the canton. The November 2024 rains opened a sinkhole that limited traffic for days, and the Tamales and Corozal fords used to cut the road when those rivers rose; the bridges that replaced them in 2025 sit well above the water. Past town, the gravel road to Matapalo and Carate is slower and rougher, and from August to November a four-wheel drive is the norm.

• How far are Dos Brazos, Matapalo and Carate from town?

  Dos Brazos is a short drive inland: you turn off Ruta 245 and follow a side road for about five kilometres. Matapalo is about an hour south on the gravel road, the Osa Conservation campus near Río Piro is some 26 kilometres out, and Carate is 45 kilometres away, two and a half hours by colectivo. Beyond the EBAIS clinics in town and La Palma, the nearest hospital is in Golfito, across the gulf.