Region, Nicoya

Development of Nicoya´s Beaches and Colonial City Could Imitate Nicaragua

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A group of five officials from the Municipality of Nicoya travelled to Nicaragua from February 7 to 9 in order to inspect tourism development and infrastructure projects taking place in the neighboring country.

The municipal delegation consisted of Mayor Marco Jimenez Muñoz, Adriana Rodriguez Cardenas, vice mayor, Byron Rosales Morales, head of the land registry department, Josue Ruiz Guerrero, in charge of the engineering department and Juan Carlos Oviedo Quesada, head of the Maritime Land Zone department.

During the tour, the officials visited the cities of Granada, Managua and San Juan del Sur, accompanied by their Nicaraguan municipal counterparts.

For Mayor Marco Jimenez, the trip was useful to personally see successful projects in Nicaragua that eventually could be implemented in the canton of Nicoya.

“[The trip] allowed us to see the potential of this country and the good things we can accomplish with projects to stimulate the economy of the canton,” said Jimenez.

The mayor described the visit to Puerto Salvador Allende, located on the shore of Lake Managua, which is one of the major tourist attractions of the country. This port is surrounded by nature and tourist activities, offering visitors alternatives for leisure and recreation.

“In this port, the infrastructure does not affect the environment, does not detract from the landscape and allows entire family to have fun, even bringing their own food,” explained Jimenez.

For his part, Josue Ruiz observed that the buildings along the lake’s shoreline tropical-rustic style ranchos (thatched huts). In addition, there are plazas, children’s play areas, green park areas, restaurants and places to sell crafts.

Jimenez said that a similar project could be developed on the Nicoyan coast, specifically in the sector between Buena Vista Beach and Garza, with businesses that are environmentally friendly and that generate employment for locals and profits for the local economy.

“We want Nicoya to remain green, carrying out environmental investment projects,” said the mayor.

In the case of the town of San Juan del Sur, the officials evaluated the development of the maritime zone and the particular aspect that most businesses along the coast are owned by local people.

During the visit to Granada, the objective of the officials was contemplate the colonial architecture that is a feature of most of the buildings in the city to find out how something similar might be done in downtown Nicoya.

According to the engineer, Josue Ruiz, the municipality of Granada requires that all changes made on the facade of any building be done in colonial style, whether it is a shop or a house.

“The municipality even indicates the type of paint that building owners should use to not damage the adobe structures,” he explained.

In this regard, Jiménez believes that “it is possible to give a truly colonial look to downtown Nicoya. Currently the only thing colonial that Nicoya has is the Church [of San Blas],” he observed.

For his part, Ruiz reported that they are evaluating a proposal made by an architecture student from the town of Mansion, who presented a project to the municipality to do exactly that—for every building in downtown Nicoya to have a colonial facade.

Jimenez said that the travel allowance for the trip was “limited” since each official was allocated $156 per day and the mayor was allowed $183 per day.

The municipal officials presented a detailed report about the tour to Nicaragua and possible projects that could be implemented in the canton to the City Council members in late February.

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