San Pablo

About San Pablo:

San Pablo takes up the northern tip of Turrubares. The Río Grande de Tárcoles divides it from Atenas to the north, Orotina lies to the west, San Juan de Mata to the south-west and San Pedro to the south, and the cantons of Puriscal and Mora close it off on the east and north-east. Two national roads meet in town. Ruta 137 comes in from Santiago de Puriscal on the east and carries on south through San Pedro towards Orotina, while Ruta 707 heads north through Bolsón, crosses the Tárcoles and reaches Ruta 27 at Escobal de Atenas before continuing to Atenas itself. The crossing on that road was a hanging bridge from the late 1920s until December 2018, when the transport ministry shut it over serious structural damage and ordered a temporary modular bridge. Buses to San José take the long way, through Santiago de Puriscal.

Being the seat of the canton gives San Pablo a small-town routine that the rest of Turrubares lacks. The Municipalidad, the CCSS clinic on Avenida Central, the Escuela Central and the Colegio Técnico Profesional Agropecuario are all here, and Purires and Monterrey run their own primary schools. A hardware store and a couple of shops sit on Ruta 707, and the district has its own petrol station. The parish of San Pablo Apóstol was erected in 1897, the village was made a villa when the canton was created in 1920, and the Municipal Code of 1970 raised it to the rank of city. On weekends, visitors come for Verde Malakita, a family-run nature park with waterfalls, swimming holes, trails and a soda, and for the hike up Cerro Rayo, a hill where a reforestation campaign has been putting trees back on the slopes.

The district averages 375 metres above sea level, but it is not one piece of ground. The town and the area around Bolsón stand on young volcanic rock, lavas and tuffs that give the centre its relatively even footing. East of town the road climbs through Purires, at a little over 600 metres, towards Alto Poró and the Puriscal border, and the slopes get steeper and the views wider as you go. North of Bolsón the land drops into the canyon of the Tárcoles. A single parcel can hold both worlds: flat ground for a house and an orchard on one side, a wooded slope that is better left for trails on the other. The days are hot at this height, which is why so many quintas come with a pool.

The 2011 census counted 1,357 people in San Pablo, and more than half of them were classed as urban, which is unusual in a canton where most families live on farms. The barrios run from the centre to Bajo del Alumbre, Callito, Níspero and Monterrey, plus two planned projects, Valle Escondido and Hacienda Villa Verde. Around them sit the villages of Bolsón, Purires and Alto Poró. Buyers fall into a few groups: local families taking a first lot inside the condominium, often with a financing package, Central Valley families after a weekend quinta under an hour from San José, and people with a plan for fruit, bees or a small tourism project on a few hectares near the Ruta 27 turn-off.

Houses in San Pablo:

Houses here split into town and country. In and around the centre there are family houses on town lots, close enough to walk to the clinic and the school, and a little further out, rural houses with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Beyond that come the quintas: a house on up to a hectare with a pool, a guest cabin and fruit trees, of the kind buyers from the Central Valley look for. At the larger end there are small estates such as a three-bedroom property of almost three hectares sold as two separate properties, on a dead-end road with views towards the Ruta 27 valley. Anyone comparing houses for sale in San Pablo de Turrubares should ask whether the pool and the cabin appear on the approved building plans as well as on the ground.

Land and Lots in San Pablo:

Lots near the centre start at a few hundred square metres, enough for a single family home, and sellers in town also offer parcels of around 5,000 square metres less than a kilometre from the centre. Bolsón, on the road to Ruta 27, is where the bigger land sits. One example is a finca of 2.8 hectares about three kilometres from the centre, half flat and half forested hillside, with water, power, internet and rubbish collection already in place, survey work done for segregation, and part of the land rented out to a beekeeper and for grazing. Fincas of around five hectares with fruit trees, their own water source and a small house to renovate come up as well. With land for sale in San Pablo, the access matters as much as the size: many parcels sit on roads that are partly asphalt and partly gravel.

Condominiums and Quinta Projects in San Pablo:

Valle Escondido is the district’s gated condominium. Its lots run from about 450 to 550 square metres on paved streets with sidewalks, behind a controlled gate with a guard and cameras, and residents share a pool, barbecue ranchos and playgrounds. Water comes from AyA, with the condominium’s own well as a backup, and owners pay a monthly fee. Hacienda Villa Verde works at a different scale: just under 25 hectares divided into 45 quintas of about 5,000 square metres each, laid out over uneven ground with water, power and internet to each lot. Before you buy in either, read the condominium regulations or the segregation approval, and check that the lot you are shown carries its own registered plano.

Rentals in San Pablo:

Long-term rentals are mostly small houses in and near the centre, often a single large bedroom with a living-dining room and kitchen, let with a deposit equal to one month’s rent. They suit people who work in town and anyone who wants to try the place before buying. Holiday rentals are a separate market built around private pools: a five-bedroom villa in San Pablo sleeps nine, two-bedroom houses with a pool and air conditioning take couples and small families, and a finca in Bolsón lets out its house with a private pool by the night. With San José under an hour away, the weekend trade depends on that short run to Ruta 27.

FAQ:

• What is the quickest way from San José to San Pablo?

  Take Ruta 27 towards Caldera, leave it at Escobal de Atenas around kilometre 41, and follow Ruta 707 south across the Tárcoles into Bolsón and San Pablo. In light traffic that is under an hour. The alternatives are Ruta 27 to Orotina and then Ruta 137 uphill through San Juan de Mata and San Pedro, or the curvier road through Santiago de Puriscal, which is also the bus route.

• Is the Ruta 707 bridge over the Tárcoles reliable?

  It has had its problems. The old hanging bridge, about 90 years old, was closed in December 2018 after serious damage was found in its supports, and a temporary modular bridge was brought in so San Pablo would not lose its short link to Ruta 27. If you will commute that way every day, ask locally about the current crossing and any weight limit before you count on it, and keep the Orotina route as your fallback.

• The lot was cut from a larger finca. What should I check?

  Around San Pablo, many lots and quintas come from fincas that were split up, so confirm that the segregation was approved by the Municipalidad de Turrubares and that your lot has its own plano catastrado and its own finca number at the Registro Nacional. Inside Valle Escondido, ask for the registered condominium regulations and the current fee. Get a land-use certificate and a written water availability letter for the exact lot, and on a parcel that is half hillside, find out how much of it you can actually build on.

• Can I rent before buying?

  Yes, and it is a sensible way to test the area. Small long-term rentals turn up in town, and holiday houses with pools let you spend a few weekends here first. A month in San Pablo will tell you how you get on with the heat, the drive to Ruta 27 and the pace of a small cantonal seat.

• What services are in San Pablo itself?

  More than anywhere else in Turrubares: the municipality, a CCSS clinic, the central primary school, the agricultural technical colegio, schools in Purires and Monterrey, a hardware store, small shops and a petrol station. For banks, supermarkets and hospitals, people drive to Orotina, Atenas or Puriscal, all of them within reach by paved road.