The town council (cabildo) of Castillo de Garçimuñoz informs the King of Spain about the arrival of Cavallón and mentions that this city was settled 'in a spacious and flat valley wherein five rivers of beautiful and delicate waters flow' (en un valle llano y espacioso e que corren por el cinco Rios de lindas e delicadas aguas)

'...settled in big plains. It is cold land, having good sky and ground. ("...asentada en unos llanos grandes. Es tierra fría, tiene buen cielo e suelo" )(Juan Vasquez de Coronado)'

The Cabildo of Garçimuñoz, 1562, "This province, for what I have beheld, owes good space, fertile grounds and abundant and delicate airs and waters" ("Esta provincia, por lo que fasta agora se ha visto, es de muy buena constelación, tierra fértil y abundosa de buenas y delicadas aguas e ayres")

Garçimuñoz was the first civil and judicial settlement and first core of population of the country: an impoverished Spanish population that shared a survival economy with the native Indians gave rise to the Costa Rican sense of coexistence and equalitarism. This brotherhood was gradually blended and outlined a new ethnic group. The road from the Pacific coast to Garçimuñoz started around Esparza, then to Caldera and Orotina, from here directly to Pacaca (Ciudad Colón), crossing over the present Santa Ana, Escazú, and Alajuelita and finally reaching Garçimuñoz, actually crossing the borders of the Escazú mountains. Later, the road would lead to Cartago through what today is Patarrá, going up the slopes of Candelaria.

"...se pobló la ciudad y Castillo de Garçimuñoz, donde los españoles se hicieron fuertes y fué una de las primeras Poblaciones de las dichas Provincias de Costarrica"(Gaspar Chinchilla, 1602).

As opposed to the first settlement of Cartago in the Guarco Valley, Garçimuñoz did not ever had any problems with the Indian sectors. The natives served unwillingly the impoverished 'hidalgos', but willingly when they helped the farmers cultivate the lands.

The population of Costa Rica was divided into Garçimuñoz and Cartago, the former struggled to raise an agricultural emporium that would prevent the unnecessary corn incursion against the natives, while the latter laid its eyes on the gold mines of La Estrella river without the intention of colonising or establishing itself. Around 1580, the political and religious powers moved to Cartago. Therefore, Garçimuñoz lost its importance as a social centre.

For the 'conquistadores", the Virilla river (former 'río Elvirilla' in the memory of one of the first owners of the lands around it, Elvira Torres) was an abysmal obstacle. By the end of the XVI century the following places were already defined and outlined: Matarredonda, present San Jose; Pacaca, present Escazú, Abra and Barva, regions around Heredia, the pass between Matarredonda and the Abra Valley (Heredia) is the present bridge between Sto. Domingo and Tibás and was called 'Paso Montano'

During the XVII century the first human groups were settled. Boca del Monte, first physical seat of San José started out as a small city from the descendants of the first settlers from the Valley of Garçimuñoz. The farmers who had left Garçimuñoz when it moved to Cartago, and who had been abandoned in complete solitude and poverty, without identity nor a name, got back to the former sites. The place was then called Dos Cercas. During the XIX century, the name was changed to Desamparados because the population was abandoned and stranded of the political and social life of the province. The city was called Cartago in the memory of Felipe II's victories over the African Carthage. Garçimuñoz was so called in the memory of Cavallón's birth city. Felipe II designed the coat of arms of the "most noble and loyal City of Cartago"

(taken fromGarcimuñoz, la ciudad que nunca murió, by Carlos Molina Montes de Oca)