Rivas

About Rivas:

The centre of Rivas sits some 10 km northeast of San Isidro de El General on Route 242, the road that follows the Chirripó Pacífico upstream to San Gerardo de Rivas. San Gerardo is where that road ends and Chirripó National Park begins, with the park office at the entrance to the village and the main trail leaving from there. Buses for San Gerardo leave the central market in San Isidro several times a day, and the trip takes about an hour. To the west, the Inter-American Highway is the boundary with Páramo, so the eastern side of División, El Jardín and Villa Mills belongs to Rivas. Routes 322 and 323 also cross the district.

Most families here still make a living from the land: coffee, dairy cattle and the cheese made from that milk. The Buena Vista sector has become specialty coffee country; the district has more than a dozen family micro-mills processing their own harvest, and some now run coffee tours. Tourism is the second income, and it is local and small: cabins, rustic restaurants, trout and tilapia ponds where you catch your own lunch, mountain lodges and the Gevi hot springs at San Gerardo. Anyone climbing Chirripó has to check in at the park the day before the ascent, so every hiker spends at least one night in the valley.

Rivas covers 310 km², more ground than any other district in the canton. Its average altitude is 870 m, but the land keeps climbing all the way to the páramo of the Talamanca range. Above San Gerardo, Cloudbridge Nature Reserve has been bringing back cloud forest since 2002, with trails that start 2.5 km past the village. Herradura, at about 1,500 m and 4 km north of the park office, has its own way into the park, the Urán route, which opens only on set days of the week. Rivers come off the range all over the district, the Chirripó Pacífico, the Talari and the Buena Vista among them, and plenty of the land on the market fronts one of them.

At the start of the twentieth century the district was just four communities, Rivas, Buena Vista, Pueblo Nuevo and Canaán, and every other village grew out of them. Older residents like to point out that a car reached Rivas before one reached San Isidro, coming down a track from División. Today the Central sector, around Rivas, La Bonita and Pueblo Nuevo, is home to many people who work in San Isidro, about 20 minutes away. Up the Chirripó valley, in Canaán, Chimirol, Los Ángeles, Herradura and San Gerardo, a large share of buyers come from abroad looking for a mountain home, a retreat or a lodge, and those houses sit between small dairy and coffee farms.

Houses in Rivas:

Around the district centre, most houses are family homes on their own lots, some only a few hundred metres from the middle of Rivas. Further up the valley the stock changes completely. Near San Gerardo there are cabins of 60 m² on lots of about 1,100 m² and furnished homes on a little over 2,000 m², while Chimirol has large villas with several bedrooms. Those are different markets, so compare houses for sale in Rivas sector by sector rather than against a district average.

Rentals in Rivas:

Long-term rentals cluster in the Central sector, in La Bonita and along the main street of Rivas. What turns up is mostly small two- or three-bedroom houses let by the month, priced in colones with a deposit, to people who work in San Isidro. In San Gerardo and Herradura, accommodation is built around hikers: cabins and lodges that take guests by the night. For a year-round lease up the valley, ask around locally and expect fewer choices than in the centre.

Land and Lots in Rivas:

A large part of what is for sale in Rivas is land. In the Chirripó sector you will find view lots of a few thousand square metres, parcels of one to seven hectares in Chimirol and Herradura, and forested riverfront land along the Talari and the Chirripó Pacífico. Holdings of more than 20 hectares still come up, usually pasture and forest. In San José de Rivas and Tirrá there are homesites that look straight at the Chirripó massif, and that view is what sells them.

Lodges and Cabins in Rivas:

Every Chirripó climber needs a bed in the valley, so guest accommodation is a property type of its own here. Homes with a separate guesthouse, duplexes on the Talari at Los Ángeles de Canaán and large multi-bedroom houses that work as small lodges all come up for sale. If you plan to run one as a business, check that its operating permits cover tourist use and ask for its occupancy record before you agree a price.

FAQ:

• How far is Rivas from San Isidro de El General?

  The centre of Rivas is about 10 km from San Isidro, and San Gerardo de Rivas, at the head of the valley, about 20 km, both along Route 242. Buses run from San Isidro’s central market to San Gerardo several times a day and take around an hour. San Isidro is where residents bank, shop and catch the bus to San José.

• Can I build near the river on a lot in the Chirripó valley?

  Only outside the protected strip. Under the Forestry Law, a river bank in rural land keeps 15 m on each side where the ground is flat and 50 m where it is broken, and a permanent spring keeps a 100 m radius; trees there stay and nothing gets built. So many lots here run down to the Talari or the Chirripó Pacífico that the strip can eat a big piece of the parcel, so mark it on the cadastral plan before you put a value on the land. Make sure the plan stops short of Chirripó National Park, confirm ownership and liens at the Registro Nacional, and ask the Municipality of Pérez Zeledón for the permitted land use.

• Is a house in División or Villa Mills in Rivas or in Páramo?

  That depends on which side of the Inter-American Highway it stands. The highway is the line between the two districts: the eastern side is Rivas, the western side Páramo, even where the village feels like one place. Look at the district on the cadastral plan and in the registry entry, because that is the address your deed and municipal paperwork will carry.

• Can I find a long-term rental in Rivas?

  Yes, mainly in the Central sector, where houses in La Bonita and on the main street are let by the month. Rent is agreed in colones and comes with a deposit. Up the valley almost everything is cabins for hikers, so a long lease there is harder to find.

• How is the Buena Vista sector different from the Chirripó valley?

  Buena Vista is coffee country first. Family farms and micro-mills along the Buena Vista river grow and process their own specialty coffee, and the year runs on the harvest. The Chirripó valley has the park entrance, the lodges and most of the tourism, and the property market there follows the hikers and the view.