Tabarcia

About Tabarcia:

Tabarcia takes up the south of Mora canton. Quitirrisí lies to the north, Guayabo to the northwest and Santa Ana canton to the northeast, while Puriscal canton borders it on the west and Acosta wraps around the south and east. Ruta 209 is the road everything hangs on: it links the district with Guayabo and Jaris on the Mora side, with Palmichal and San Ignacio in Acosta, and through Aserrí with the south of San José. Ciudad Colón, where people go for banks, supermarkets and the municipal offices, is about 7 km to the north, and Santiago de Puriscal about 9 km to the west.

The district is one of the four Mora was founded with, and apart from a reorganisation in the 1990s that cut it from 48 km² to its present 40, its outline has hardly moved. Long before the canton existed, this was Pacaca, a Huetar community whose king Coquiva was ruling when the Spanish pushed inland in the 1560s. In the 1570s its people were concentrated in the pueblo of Pacaca, now Tabarcia, and the area was run as the Corregimiento de Pacaca until 1660. The district counted 760 inhabitants in 1864, and the families who settled it are still easy to trace: in Los Ángeles most residents are Bustamantes, and Marta Bustamante has kept the village’s only pulpería open for more than 60 years.

The land rises from about 800 metres around the centre to roughly 1,000 metres at Corralar, on the road towards Puriscal. The río Tabarcia cuts through the south of the district, and in Bustamante de Los Ángeles a local family has turned a cabin and event hall on its banks into a small rural-tourism business. Walkers come for Cerro Piedras Blancas, and the hills between the villages are covered in plantations and patches of native forest. Corralar keeps a wooden church, built on land and with timber given by a local farmer, that celebrates the Sagrada Familia every 29 December.

Daily life runs on farming, on the parish of San Francisco de Asís, whose fiestas fall around 4 October, and on the local schools: the Escuela Lisímaco Chavarría Palma, the Liceo de Tabarcia and a CEN-CINAI for small children. Plenty of younger people commute out or have moved away for work, and much of the land that comes up for sale is family land being divided or sold on. It suits buyers who want room to build in the country while keeping Ciudad Colón and Santa Ana within reach. Expect a rural district with village services, and plan on Ciudad Colón or Santa Ana for everything else.

Land and Lots in Tabarcia:

Land is the core of the market. At the small end there are village lots of 400 to 500 m² facing a public street, the kind a family buys to build one house close to the centre. Larger parcels run from 5,000 m² subdivisions with their own water meter and access down to the river, up to holdings of well over a hectare with fruit trees, native forest and a paved road to the gate. Some of the bigger pieces carry a mixed land-use designation that allows housing, small farming or low-intensity commerce, so land for sale in Tabarcia can suit a single home or a small project. On anything that slopes, walk the access road after heavy rain before you agree a price.

Houses in Tabarcia:

Houses here are family homes on their own land, not units in a complex. A typical example is a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house of around 180 m² on a plot of 800 m² or more, with space left for a garden or a second building. In Los Ángeles some family houses are more than 70 years old and have never left the family that built them. When houses for sale in Tabarcia come up, they usually sit along Ruta 209 or on the side roads that branch off it, so check how far the house is from the main road and the bus.

FAQ:

• What kind of property can I buy in Tabarcia?

  Mostly land: village lots near the centre, farm parcels in the hills and a few larger holdings with mixed land use. Family houses on large plots make up most of the rest, and the occasional commercial building appears along the main road.

• How do I get to Tabarcia from San José?

  Most drivers go through Ciudad Colón, which is reached from the capital on Ruta 27, and then head south into the district. The other way in is Ruta 209 from the south of San José through Aserrí, a slower mountain road that also connects Tabarcia with Acosta.

• Does Ruta 209 close in the rainy season?

  Slides and fallen material are a recurring problem on the stretch between Tabarcia and Acosta, and traffic is sometimes held to one lane while crews clear it. If the property depends on that road or on a steep side road, visit in October and ask neighbours how often access is cut.

• What should I check before buying a lot that borders Quitirrisí?

  The northern edge of Tabarcia meets the Quitirrisí indigenous territory, where land cannot be sold to non-indigenous buyers. Make sure the cadastral plan places the parcel inside Tabarcia, then confirm the title and any liens at the Registro Nacional (Registro Inmobiliario) and get the land-use certificate from the Municipalidad de Mora.

• Are there schools and services in the district?

  There is a primary school, a secondary school and a CEN-CINAI, plus the parish church and village shops. Banks, supermarkets and most health and municipal services are in Ciudad Colón.