We arrived in PV on Friday night after a six hour trip from San Jose. Google says it should take 3:42, but…we got stopped for about 40 minutes by traffic issues, and things always take longer here. On the plus side, our view while stopped was a waterfall.
Puerto Viejo continues to grow – every time we come, it seems there is more here. Prices have gone way up, too. Land is much more expensive then even a few years ago. We are looking at land near PV and also in neighbouring towns like Cahuita, which is a bit north of PV and also growing fast. The real estate agent estimates it is five years behind PV in terms of development. (Meaning property there is less expensive.)
We are also looking in the other direction, south of PV, at places like Punta Uva and Manzanillo. Both have beautiful beaches and slightly less costly land. Here’s the trip from PV to Cocles, which is near Punta Uva. (From PV to Manzanillo, which is as far as the road goes, is about 25 minutes by car.)
We had all kinds of intermittent WiFi problems at the house we’re staying it, which turned out to be due to ants. There is a junction box outside the house that they made a nest in. This house is very different from Canadian houses. The upstairs is vented with no screens. There is a roof but no ceiling for the second floor. If you check out the video that Davide took, you can see this. It’s a good setup for us, as it essentially has a one bedroom apartment on each floor. Note the mosquito nets….
There is no air conditioning, but PV is not as hot as Cali or Cartagena, so it’s tolerable, barely, when working. You can see the evenings are very pleasant.
We have reached out to the real estate agent, who came to PV from Canada 9 years ago with her husband and cat, and without much money. They have done quite well since. They saw a need and opened a real estate office in PV, and now have another in Cahuita along with property management services and a bunch of employees. There are zero requirements to be a real estate agent in Costa Rica – literally anybody can hang out a shingle. There is also no exclusivity in listings and no MLS-type service, so it is common for someone to list their property with every agent in town.
Puerto Viejo is a funky place with a bit of a hippie vibe – here’s the (very nice) bakery near our house in the morning, for example.
Later this week, we’ll start actually viewing properties with an eye to building a retreat there! More to come…
Thank you Brian for these excellent videos!!! Amazing and lots of Sanje. I see the perfect “wfh” desk on the second floor balcony… and perfect meeting chair/hammock. 🙂 so nice of you to keep sharing your journey. 🥰
[…] Did I mention that Puerto Viejo is expensive? When I searched for AirBNBs, they were all $3,500-5,000 USD per month. In other words, about the same as you would pay in Victoria for a two-bedroom. I found a house through one of the real estate agents we dealt with. It was still $1,800 USD ($2,500 CAD!) and had no air conditioning. It was a good setup for two couples, though, as you can see in the video in the previous Puerto Viejo post. […]