By Isabelle Jones

I have lived in Atenas for almost 8 years now and I still enjoy it. Over ten years ago, two French Canadian pioneers started Vista Atenas and build some ranch houses there (one story), they tell me that this was kind of the middle of nowhere back then. 

This is where Howard my husband, Taylor my son and myself bought our first house and did our first spec-home which is was connected us to Ivo and GoDutch Realty. I went through training and since then I have been the GoDutch realty's representative for the area of Atenas selling the best real estate available in Atenas.

After finishing most of Vista Atenas out envisioned a much larger and better gated community one of the Vista Atenas partners, Jean Luc Sauvé, his is wife and a partner bought the land to develop what is now known as Roca Verde. It took them some time to get all the permitting in place but their timing was right as when he was ready to start selling homes sites in Roca Verde and his roads, water and power were in but the time the boom started.

Entrance of Roca Verde

We, at GoDutch Realty have sold many building lots in Roca Verde because during the boom many people were looking to retire in the near future and Roca Verde offered the security, the views and the potential of a great community. The fast growth in the boom, the location, the developer delivering concrete roads, power and water throughout before promoting the community, besides the developer’s entrepreneurship to build spec-homes to get the community going made the development successful.

The roads inside Roca Verde

Roca Verde has 75 home sites with sizes varying from ¼ acre to 1 ¾ acres, in 3 phases, of which probably 60% have a home built on them. The beauty of the community is its location, only 5 minutes west of the park in Atenas and the views each one of the building lots has to offer. Since Roca Verde is a hilltop, you can get views of the Central Valley on the east and the town of Atenas and surrounding mountains on the west, which make up for the most gorgeous views in the entire Central Valley.

Views to the west

Roca Verde was developed as building lots in condominium and has no common areas or amenities like common swimming pools, playground and green areas. Each property owner in Roca Verde pays only $50, which is used for the maintenance of the roads, maintenance of the 3 water wells and the security guard at the entrance. Though we have hardly any little crime in Atenas, the town of Atenas has changed, like did the world around us. The community offers a 24/7 guard at the gate but there is no perimeter fence around the community, like most larger communities in Costa Rica. Most homes in Roca Verde have their own swimming pool.

Views to the east

Roca Verde is only 5 minutes from downtown Atenas that offers a farmer’s market on Fridays and has all the shopping, banking, many restaurants and other amenities you need. For fancy shopping, you can either go to Alajuela or to Escazu, where you can find all the malls you want. We expect to have the exit ramp of the new highway that goes straight into Atenas to open up soon again, so the drive will be only 30 minutes. Atenas is also only about 30 minutes away from the beaches in the Central Pacific, like Jaco Beach, for those who are beach lovers. The climate in Atenas is said to be the best in the world, which to my opinion it is, and offers very little rainfall and year round temperatures between the 80º and 90º Fahrenheit.

Your future home

If you are ready to retire to Costa Rica and willing to take up the adventure of living in Atenas and in a beautiful community like Roca Verde, please contact me so I can show you properties for sale in the different gated communities in Atenas.

Oh, and don't forget to look up the promotions we have for our GoDutch realty clients.

Isabelle Jones, your Atenas real estate specialist for has lots of homes in Atenas for sale and can show you a prime choice of building lots in Atenas available, so contact me now for a showing. And of course I also offer properties for sale in Roca Verde.