Tamarindo Wiki - Perspective on Development from a Tamarindo Home Owner

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Perspective on Development from a Tamarindo Home Owner

Sunday, 02 March 2008

(mmr) I am a home owner in Tamarindo and feel that now is the time to write a few words concerning our extreme over construction and potential high rise development. My involvement with Tamarindo started in 1995 where I found the beautiful country of Costa Rica. I purchased land and built a lovely house. Paradise was found – an abundance of monkeys, iguanas, butterflies, birds and not to forget, the leatherback turtles.

I was enchanted by Costa Ricans and your Pura Vida attitude towards ...

Photo (jfs): A Bygone Era Imagine 5,000 Apartment dwellers in this pic
... all new comers. I embraced your culture with fiestas, gallo pinto, cows, horses and wonderful people. I thought that Tamarindo situated inside the Las Baulas National Park, was security from over development and especially high rise buildings. May I ask why do we now have what can only be described as worst examples of the buildings of the Costa de Sol in Spain, the overdevelopment high rises of Cancun and the least inspiring architecture and interior decoration from Miami, now coming to Tamarindo. Have you, the people of Costa Rica, forgotten your culture and heritage in allowing such in-appropriate development to be encouraged in your country.

Development can be good, but some restraint has to be acknowledged in sound development. When I look at the websites of some of these new condo developments, why can't I see anything of Costa Rica in them. The most over used word in describing one of these new developments is the word - luxury. Is the luxury some fixture in the bathroom imported from some other country what people really want? These new developments just look bland as they could be in any country, any city anywhere in the world. Is that called progress and responsible development? I think not. This is just not sustainable in such a fragile ecological environment.

Photo (jfs): Mother Nature’s Parkland So Little Remains
Why can't we have an attractive, low rise, Costa Rican beach town that would be the envy of other coastal areas - that is what Tamarindo was only 10 years ago. High rise apartments can be appropriate in some areas - not in one of the most naturally beautiful areas in Costa Rica. Tourists want a genuine atmosphere of where they are - not in a pseudo American town . We can't go back to the past, but our future needs some careful planning with regard to being on one of the most beautiful ocean bays and estuaries in Costa Rica. High rise condos do absolutely nothing for the flora and fauna - they are destroying it. Once that earth is paved or cemented over, it is the death of so many living species. This is not a time to be destroying, but preserving as much as possible.

The only people who benefit from the glut of high rise buildings are investors who are in Tamarindo for "a quick profit". They care nothing for the long term future of this country and fail to grasp the ethos that Costa Rica is famous for. They come from a world where more concrete means progress - but you only need to go to Florida to see how a unique and beautiful coast has been utterly ruined. Myself, and the other long term residents never came here for profit, or financial security. We bought homes because of our love affair with this land and its people and the only investment for us is the home that this love affair will pass to our children and their children.

Photo: Life’s a Beach with Fish Will Their Sons be Able to Bring Home Dinner?
Tamarindo had it all and now we are heading toward just another bland town with all the social problems of big cities. One need only look at the latest edition of the 'Lonely Planet' travel guide and its damning critique of Tamarindo to realize that if we do not act now, it may be too late. What is happening now in Tamarindo will happen further down the road in other idyllic settings as soon as these investors have squeezed the last morsel of character out of this town. I now have no iguanas or many lizards in my area - monkeys can't find a corridor of trees to climb on to get to the beach where I used to hear them in the morning, birds are coming less and less, the turtles are almost gone and the water is polluted.

I will stay in Tamarindo and hope for the best - I love Costa Rica too much to leave - please give us back our town and your most exceptional country back to where it can be special. It is vital that all of us look to the long term and fight tooth and nail against short-term interests. Isn't that what we were trying to leave behind? There is a bigger picture I want f or Tamarindo - with single family homes owned by people who want to stay, a few good hotels, small apartments, local shops, variety of restaurants with Tico food and international foods, big Guanacaste trees, clean ocean water, animals running to and fro - now that is a destination that could really make Tamarindo the jewel on the Gold Coast and a long term asset for Costa Rica to be proud of - there is only one Tamarindo and if you destroy this one - it is gone for good.

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