Waterfall Wonderland! Private and remote!! Off-Grid But Perfect For Hydro

This is one of the finest waterfall properties in Costa Rica. It is at the confluence of the Rio Caña Blanca and Rio Magnolia, both spectacles in their own right. Between the two rivers, near their merging point, this farm forms a gently sloping plateau pastureland, backed by deep forest, and surrounded by three world class waterfalls, dozens of smaller falls, a deep canyon, and more swimming spots than your guests could imagine. Most of these can be accessed in 5 minutes from the main building areas wearing sandals (although to see all of them in one day, you’ll want better foot gear).

The land is about 50% flat or gently sloping and usable, the other 50% is steep or forested. The plateau land is wide open with spectacular western faced valley views. This is not one of those crazy steep farms with a half hour, dangerous hike to the waterfalls!! It has an old unused public road at the back of the farm that gives the farm full commercial zoning. There is enough water drop and volume on either side of the farm to create enough power for a village.

The farm is off-grid, but there are three good options for electricity. There are ICE power poles 1km from the farm on the public road. These could be extended down the public road to the farm for probably $30k or so. Then there is micro-hydro. It is rarely recommended to use hydro here in Costa Rica because the volume and height of the water source you need to operate a large enough system is more than most people realize. However, this farm has volume and drop on either river that would power pretty much whatever you would want. Then, there is the standard solar option. At 1000 feet of altitude, the farm is high enough to enjoy cool afternoon breezes, but low enough to be out of the cloud cover caused by mountains.

Currently, this farm is used as cattle pasture, but there are plenty of fruit trees, and tons of farming spaces to make this into an amazing homestead.

This farm is remote, but it is not too hard to reduce the remoteness. Right now, there are three stretches.

1. The first is between Platanillo and the town of San Juan de Dios. This road is maintained in very good condition by both the Quepos and Pérez Zeledón municipalities. They are rumored to be paving it soon. Right now, unpaved, it is 5.8km and takes about 13 minutes to drive.
2. At San Juan de Dios, the road becomes a standard Costa Rican back country road. It is kept in good condition, but it is not as wide and isn’t maintained like the first section. There is 3.2km along this section and takes about 8 minutes to drive.
3. Then things get interesting. The following 2.2km the road is in very bad, rutted shape with a creek crossing required. The creek should have a culvert crossing built into it as it is too deep to cross when it is raining hard. I roughly estimate $7,000 for what we call here a “vado”. The road surface in this stretch desperately needs more gravel, a tractor and a compactor. This type of work is not for the light-of-heart, but is not unapproachable either. Since there is already a gravel base, I would recommend a truck load of material every 20 meters. This would require 100 truckloads of gravel to be brought in. There is a neighbor that has a quarry of great material that may want to participate (donate gravel and receive the tractor work), but assuming you bring the material in from a registered quarry, the work would run about $300/truckload or $30,000 for the 2.2km run.

After doing that work, the drive time from Platanillo should be 25 minutes.

Features:
– Rivers, huge deep pools, and of course spectacular waterfalls
– Many acres of flat usable alluvial farmland
– Many fruit trees
– Many cedro amargo trees planted for timber use
– Beautiful, open valley views
– Stunning forest views from the Caña Blanca watershed
– Public road zoning