Ciudad de las mujeres lindas

Back in the day, we’d make the trip up from Dominical to San Isidro from time to time. Usually because we didn’t want to retraverse that god-awful stretch of still then unpaved road between Dominical and Quepos.

I remember on one of those trips, maybe my first, waking up early and walking around town. I believe it was Saturday. It seemed like any other medium-sized Costa Rican town, with one notable exception. And that was the seemingly over-abundance of beautiful Costa Rican women.

I’ve since learned that the canton (or county) of Perez Zeledon, and more specifically the city of San Isidro de El General, is famous for its gorgeous girls. And what’s even better, the rumor is that the ratio of women to men is astronomically out of whack. Now that I’ve lived here for quite a few years, I can attest to the former claim, although I’m not so sure if that supposedly outlier ratio is really statistically significant.

I moved to Perez back around 2011, or about 8 years ago. I just got fed-up with the big city (meaning San Jose) hustle and bustle. I wanted to go somewhere with mountains and close-by beaches and this place fit the bill perfectly. The feminine fame that it boasted didn’t hurt either. I was on the outs and separated from my wife at the time (we’ve since long reconciled and are living very happily together) and just wanted to get the hell out of dodge.

My first rude awakening came one day when I parked downtown in an area marked yellow, or not for parking. I admittedly did notice that, but thought what the heck, this is podunksville and surely no one will notice or care. Well, I was dreadfully wrong. I returned to a car with no license tags. To be honest, it took me a couple of days to even notice it. At first I thought I’d been robbed of the tags, but a friend told me that more than likely they’d been taken by the transito (or traffic police). I went to verify and sure enough they’d been taken. On top of that I had a fine to pay of around $500 to get them back. I paid the fine and then was told that the tags had been destroyed and had to be replaced.

Anyway, you get the message – bienvenidos a podunksville!

My things have changed in a hurry. I learned my lesson about parking where I shouldn’t. During a bad storm back in 2015 the famous Cristo de Perez (the statue of Christ that overlooked the city – see photo) suffered a lightning strike and burnt to the ground, much to the dismay of many devout Catholic residents.

And I have fallen deeply in love with this place.

These days San Isidro is gaining fame as the second largest city outside of the San Jose/Heredia/Alajuela/ Cartago metropolitan area or GAM. And it must certainly be the most important Costa Rican growth story going these days.

And for good reason. Where else in Costa Rica can you find the highest mountains and one of the most gorgeous coastlines (the Costa Ballena, with popular beach areas of Dominical, Uvita and Ojochal) in such close proximity?

Answer: nowhere.

Many have heard of Costa Rica’s unique “micro-climates”, or places where you can beat the heat and find near perfect weather just by driving up the hill a ways. Well, there’s no place where that’s more true than Perez Zeledon. I live at 900 meters altitude (close to 3,000 feet) and the weather is very temperate. However, down in town, about 7 minutes away, it can get much hotter. That’s because it’s about 300 meters lower down there in the valley. And I’m only 40 minutes from the beach at Playa Dominical, where Central American sea level can be as hot as what you might imagine, being this much closer to the equator than, say, North Carolina.

The city of San Isidro de El General and indeed the entire canton of Perez is undergoing a major growth spurt. Evidences of that are everywhere. We now have one of the nicest 5-star resorts in all of Central America (Hacienda AltaGracia) in the area of Santa Teresa de Cajon, about 30 minutes out of town in the folds of Cerro Chirripo, Costa Rica’s highest mountain. We have an airport renovation project soon to be underway, which will transform our little airstrip into a modern domestic (possibly even international) airport with flights to all areas of the country. We have new stores and restaurants opening weekly. I believe there are like 5 sushi restaurants now. And to top it all off in alarming fashion, we have a new Walmart under construction!

We also have the area’s regional public hospital and lots of private care options as well, via private clinics with all manner of specialists, and a multitude of dental care options. And, finally, we have our “small” (or tiny mall) with a movie theatre!

I certainly don’t want to see my little piece of paradise turn into what I came here to escape. But the Costa Rican growth story that I’ve been witness to so far will only make the convenience factor of living in those gorgeous mountains just outside of town, well, all the more convenient.

There are surely many more chapters to be written in this Costa Rican growth story that’s Perez Zeledon and its “gateway to the southern zone” city of San Isidro de El General. I’ve been selling real estate in the area as a Coldwell Banker agent for several years now. I honestly believe there is a lot more room for growth around here. We need more jobs to lure folks from the big city and airport projects, Walmarts and the like can do that trick.

More and more would-be expats seem to be hearing about and exploring the area. And why not? Here you can live near a pretty darn killer city, be in a perfect climate, be surrounded by incredible flora and fauna, and be close enough to the beach to go surfing after breakfast and make it back by lunch!

There’s just no way around it, the southern zone of Costa Rica is where it’s at these days and Perez Zeledon, the Costa Ballena coastline, and the famed Osa Peninsula are three very solid reasons why.

I was living in Santo Domingo de Heredia when I began to think hard about where I really wanted to live in Costa Rica. I was running a travel agency making online sales and entertaining customers upon their arrival at the San Jose airport. For a long time I felt as if I needed to be in the big city. I had an apartment in the business district of Paseo Colon, before moving to the Sabana Park area, and then finally out into the mountains of Santo Domingo.

Santo Domingo is in the shadows of the Barva and Poas volcanos. It’s a higher and cooler altitude than downtown. All in all, it’s a lovely place. But there was one problem…my office was still downtown and to get to it I had to drive right through the worse traffic San Jose offered at the time (and it’s still pretty bad), the infamous rotunda of Juan Pablo Segunda. In short, it was a nightmarish commute.

I began to romanticize about all those locations around the country where life would just be, well, perfect. Of course, we all know that there is no “perfect”, but I often would catch myself fantasizing about life in a small pueblo, surrounded by a mesmerizing array of flora and fauna, and offering the quintessential “pura vida” existence.

I knew that I loved the mountains and the beach. Could it be possible to have both, I pondered? I grew up surfing, but I’d arrived at an age where there were more important things in life, like general comfort. The beach is where the waves are, but it’s also where relentlessly oppressive heat is, where the highest prices are, and where the most pretentious gringos tend to congregate. In short, I knew that I didn’t want to live AT the beach, but close enough.

Perez is in a gorgeous valley at the foot of the highest mountains in Costa Rica, the Talamancas. The trail head for the highest peak in the country, Chirripo at 12,500 feet, is less than an hour from downtown. San Isidro is also less than an hour from the beach.

I thought I’d identified my proverbial “shangri la”, offering the best of both worlds, mountains and beaches!

I moved to Perez in 2011 into a cozy apartment in the barrio of La Palma. Rent was $400 per month with utilities included (Perez is also much cheaper than San Jose). My wife and I were separated at the time, which made “getting out of dodge” even more appealing. And I’m still here in the place called Perez with zero plans to move any time soon. On a side note, my wife and I are together again and living very happily in Perez.

I must say that I’ve been very pleased with my decision.

First there is the city itself. It’s actually not a small town, even though it has that feel. It’s the second largest city in the country outside of the “gran area metropolitana” of the Central Valley (which encompasses San Jose, Cartago, Heredia and Alajuela). I often characterize center city as one giant outdoor mall. The streets are lined with small stores of every kind, all mom and pop owned. I remember growing up in small town North Carolina when it was like that. San Isidro offers a hearkening back to those days of old. And here you can find everything you could possibly need for the pura vida life, and more. We even have a mall with a cinema…we call it our “small.” In short, it definitely has the convenience factor going for it.

Then there are the people. The P-Zetas, as they are often referred, are mountain people…kind and considerate, but also on the whole honest no nonsense straight-shooters. Many work in agriculture or some type of trade where they earn a livelihood with their hands. Some are business owners, or wealthy land owners. The canton of Perez has a very entrenched middle-class of ticos who live what I would consider a relatively high quality of life. If you want to understand why Costa Rica consistently ranks as one of the happiest countries on earth, look no further than Perez Zeledon.

However, the city is not where the real magic of the place called Perez can be found. The population of the city proper is perhaps 50,000, maybe less. But the canton (or county) of Perez is quite large, with a population approaching 200,000. The beauty of the place is found in the many mountain pueblos that dot the folds of the Talamancas, as well as the smaller range that slopes towards the gorgeous coastline of the southern Pacific.

I’ve since settled in one of those pueblos known as Quebradas. The community rests along the banks of a picturesque river of the same name. The altitude is around 900 meters, or just under 3,000 feet, offering a perfect climate at all times of the day and year. I should mention that the valley, where the city is located, can get quite warm during the day. But in a small mountain pueblo like Quebradas, which is only about 10 minutes from downtown, it’s an entirely different story. That’s the magic of the micro-climate in Costa Rica, where temperature doesn’t vary by time of year, but solely by altitude.

I work as a real estate agent for Coldwell Banker down on the coast in Playa Dominical, where some of the most consistent surf in the country can be found. It takes about 45 minutes for me to go from my front door to the office down there. And the drive offers breathtaking panoramic views of the mountains and ocean. That’s quick enough to make a day trip to the beach on a moment’s notice an easy thing to accomplish. So, if the waves are good, I can grab my board and be in the water within an hour!

My real estate motto has become “live in the mountains and visit the beach.” I realize that for some folks being 10 minutes from the beach, let along almost an hour, just won’t work.