TRAVEL & ADVENTURE
Tamarindo Pop Quiz By Jim Parisi & Alei Burns Photos courtesy of Valerie Townley
“T
ouristy” might be most people’s swift, no-brainer response if “Tamarindo” came up in a word association game. They might find it hard to believe how recently this description came to fit what is now one of Costa Rica’s most popular Pacific beach towns. In fact, it was barely a generation ago that Tamarindo was getting ready to make its mark on the map as such. The same goes for the surrounding Guanacaste province as a preferred destination for travelers. Tamarindo had been a fishing village for literally centuries, well before Guanacaste annexed itself to Costa Rica in 1824. That may be common knowledge for many local people living here. But for relative newcomers, visitors and others unaware, we offer these “modern” Tamarindo tidbits of history that may seem surprising.
1. Coopeguanacaste brought electricity to Tamarindo in 1974. Before that, there simply wasn’t any. 2. The rural aqueduct of Playa Tamarindo was constructed three years later, in 1977, through a combined effort by Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados (AyA) and Tamarindo residents. Before that, wells went dry and became salty before the start of a new rainy season. Water was at a premium, even more so back then.
COOL PLACES
3. Telephone lines did not arrive until 1996. Then came payphones and people waiting in line to use them when in service, which was sporadic at best.
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