Chira

About Chira:

Chira is the largest island on Costa Rica’s Pacific side, about 11.7 kilometres long and 5.7 wide, lying in the upper Gulf of Nicoya, the stretch of water fed by the Tempisque. Guanacaste wraps around most of it, and the cantons of Nandayure and Abangares are the nearest mainland. There is no bridge and no car ferry. Public boats leave Puntarenas from the estuary behind the city market and take about an hour, while the crossing from the Costa de Pájaros dock on the eastern shore takes around twenty minutes. Since March 2025 they tie up at a rebuilt pier with a floating dock that works at any tide, solar lighting, a waiting shelter and a ramp for loading cargo.

Fishing pays most of the bills. The gulf closes to fishing for several months each year, and that veda is what pushed island families, women above all, to build a second income. There is oyster farming at Puerto Palito, piangua gathering in the mangroves, a crafts workshop that works in seeds and jícaro, and Posada Rural La Amistad, a rural lodge started in 2000 by women from fishing families. Salt is still drawn from evaporation pans on parts of the island, and inland there is cattle pasture and smallholdings. A small bus runs the roads between villages, and the island has three primary schools and a secondary school.

The island is low and flat, the tops of old hills left above water when the land around them sank. Nearly a quarter of it is mangrove, most of it around a large estuary on the eastern side that opens into a maze of channels where boat tours go looking for crocodiles and waterbirds. Roseate spoonbills feed in the salt pans, and in the first months of the year the corteza amarilla trees turn the dry woodland yellow. All of that has a bearing on building. Mangrove is State natural heritage that can be neither built on nor filled, and the environment ministry has warned against putting subsidised homes on ground prone to liquefaction.

Just under 2,000 people live on Chira, most of them in the villages at the northern end. Nancite is the district seat; Bocana, Lagartero, Montero, Pilas, Pochote, Puerto Coloradito, Puerto Mauricio and Puerto Palito make up the rest. The island belonged to the district of Manzanillo until 1998, when it became a district of its own. Nearly everyone who owns a house here is an island family that has held its plot for generations, and recent public spending has gone into homes for them: 358 subsidised houses have been approved across Chira, Venado and Caballo. For someone from outside, the boat ride is the smaller hurdle and the tenure rules are the bigger one.

Houses in Chira:

The houses are village family homes, and a growing share of them were built or repaired with the state housing subsidy that a 2019 law opened up to island residents. A 2026 law, Ley 10857, went further and authorised the Municipalidad de Puntarenas to grant the concessions those families need to get a building permit. When you look at houses for sale on Isla Chira, ask three things before anything else: whether the plot has a concession or is simply occupied, whether the house was built with a subsidy, since subsidised homes carry resale limits for a number of years, and whether the seller’s possession is undisputed among neighbours and family. The house itself is usually the easy part.

Land and Lots in Chira:

Lots of a few hundred square metres turn up on Chira, and so do larger farms, including acreage with sea frontage. Whatever the sign says, none of it sits outside the maritime-terrestrial zone. The first 50 metres from high tide are public, and the rest of the island is restricted zone that can only be used privately through a municipal concession backed by an approved coastal plan. In 2024 the Procuraduría General ruled that the municipality cannot issue building permits to Chira occupants without a concession, beyond maintenance and urgent repairs. Treat subdivided lots sold on instalments with promises of roads and water with caution: without a concession, the buyer gets possession at best.

FAQ:

• Can I get a registered title to a house or lot on Isla Chira?

  In practice, no. The island is maritime-terrestrial zone, which belongs to the State and cannot be sold outright, so what changes hands is possession or, where one exists, a municipal concession. A temporary law shields existing occupants of the zone from eviction until 13 June 2027, except where there is environmental damage, but it creates no ownership. Search the Registro Nacional (Registro Inmobiliario) to see whether any registered property exists at all, and ask the Municipalidad de Puntarenas, which administers the island, whether the plot has a concession.

• How do you get to Chira?

  By boat only. The public launch from Puntarenas leaves from the estuary behind the market and takes about an hour; the one from the Costa de Pájaros dock takes around twenty minutes. Both run a short schedule, with the boats leaving the island early in the morning, so anyone who commutes or ships building materials plans around them. The pier rebuilt in 2025 can be used at any tide and has a ramp for cargo.

• Can I build a new house on Chira?

  Only with a concession. A building permit on the island depends on holding one, and concessions depend on a coastal plan that sets what can go where. Ley 10857 of 2026 opened a route for families building with the state housing subsidy, but it is a route for residents. Leave mangrove edges and soft, low ground out of your plans entirely.

• Does the island have electricity and schools?

  Yes. Power arrives through a cable the ICE laid across from the mainland, about two kilometres long, and a small bus links the villages. There are three primary schools and a secondary school.

• What is there to do on Chira?

  Boat tours through the mangrove channels of the eastern estuary, birdwatching at the salt pans, a morning with the oyster growers at Puerto Palito and a class at the women’s crafts workshop. Visitors stay in a few cabins and in Posada Rural La Amistad. It is a quiet place, and the community runs most of what there is to see.