Legua

About Legua:

Legua fills the southern end of Aserrí. Acosta lies to the northwest and west, León Cortés Castro to the east and Tarrazú to the southeast, while the southern edge is also the provincial line with Parrita, in Puntarenas. Its one neighbour inside the canton is Monterrey, to the northeast, and National Route 313 comes through Monterrey into Legua before carrying on toward León Cortés. That puts La Legua on a route into the Los Santos coffee towns as well as on the road back to Aserrí and Desamparados. A bus links San José with La Legua, but departures are few and the trip is long, and many of the roads out to the hamlets are gravel.

This is one of the five districts Aserrí was founded with in 1882, and for most of the next century it also took in Monterrey, which became a district of its own in 1966. Families from Aserrí and San Antonio de Desamparados moved up into the Candelaria river basin in the second half of the nineteenth century to clear land for farming, and surnames such as Camacho and Espinoza are still common. The village school, Escuela Ildefonso Camacho, opened in 1929. Drinking water comes from the community’s own aqueduct association, the ASADA de La Legua. The population has barely changed since the 1980s, and Legua has the fewest people per square kilometre of any district in the canton.

Coffee pays the bills. It is grown on small family farms, often alongside citrus or avocado, and around Bijagual and La Legua beekeepers work their hives around the coffee flowering. A local women’s association, ASIPROFE, runs its own coffee project, and a few farms now roast and sell under their own names. With more than a thousand metres between the lowest and highest ground, the same budget can buy very different land: warm coffee slopes down toward Bijagual, or cool, open pasture and forest on the high ground. The Caraigres ridge, which locals call El Dragón and which tops out at 2,506 metres, marks the western boundary with Cangrejal in Acosta.

Parritilla shows how far the district reaches. It sits on an old road that linked the Los Santos area with the Pacific side by way of Bijagual, and over the decades its people left for work elsewhere, leaving behind a tin-and-timber church built in 1945 with wood hauled up from Aserrí by oxcart. In 2026 the municipality laid asphalt on the road through Parritilla. Hikers know the district for the long climb from La Legua to Cerro Dragón, which crosses private pasture before entering the forest, so ask permission before you walk it.

Land and Lots in Legua:

The lots that come up near La Legua centre are house-sized, around a thousand square metres, fronting a public road, with electricity in place and a water connection from the ASADA already installed. That water connection is the detail to ask about first, because without one a building permit stalls. Further from the village the plots get larger and steeper, and the flat area you could build on is often a small share of the surveyed total. When you compare lots for sale in La Legua de Aserrí, check whether the road in front is public; a lot reached only along a private track depends on a right of way across a neighbour’s land.

Fincas in Legua:

Most of what changes hands in Legua is farmland. Coffee fincas of around a hectare come up with water service and trees still in production, while bigger parcels combine pasture with standing forest on the upper slopes. Walk the rows before you buy a coffee farm and look at the age of the plants: some growers here are renewing their cafetales with newer varieties, and replanted coffee takes a few years to bear. On a forest-and-pasture finca, only the open ground is yours to build on, because forest in Costa Rica cannot be cleared to change its use. Anyone planning cabins and trails on one of these fincas for sale in Aserrí should map the forest edge before drawing a single building.

FAQ:

• How do I get to Legua from San José?

  Go south through Desamparados and Aserrí, then follow Route 313 through Monterrey into the district. There is a bus from San José to La Legua with only a handful of departures, and some San José–San Andrés de León Cortés buses share part of the route. Drive it at the hour you would really make the trip before you settle on a parcel at the far end of the district.

• Farms here often pass down through families. What should I check on title?

  A finca in Legua can be worked by one heir for years while the registry still lists several owners, or someone who has since died. Look the property up in the Registro Nacional, confirm who every registered owner is, and make sure all of them will sign. Then hold the cadastral plan up against the fences on the ground. If the only way in is a private track, the right of way should be registered, not just agreed between neighbours.

• Can I build cabins on a finca that has forest on it?

  Only on the part that is not forest. Costa Rica’s Forestry Law forbids changing the use of forested land, so cabins, parking and access roads all have to fit on existing pasture or open ground. Ask the Municipalidad de Aserrí for a land-use certificate before you buy, and ask what a tourism project needs beyond an ordinary house permit.

• Is coffee still a living in Legua?

  Yes. Small family farms grow most of the district’s coffee, beekeeping follows the flowering, and a few local brands sell coffee grown here. If you are buying a working farm, find out which altitude it sits at, how old the plants are, and where the seller delivers the harvest.

• Is there a road from Legua down to the Pacific coast?

  Not one to rely on. The old route south through Bijagual and Parritilla toward Parrita and Quepos has long been a slow mountain road, and a proper Bijagual–Parritilla–El Carmen–Parrita link is still a local demand rather than a road. The Parritilla stretch was paved in 2026. Do not price a parcel on the promise of a shortcut to the beach.