Santa Teresa Costa Rica beach communities win Ecological Blue Flag

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead

Walk down the Pacific beaches of Santa Teresa, Costa Rica and you’re likely to see long, empty stretches of white sand, beautiful blue rolling waves, multicolored crushed seashells and interesting rocks and pebbles. What you won’t see so much is trash.

The southern Nicoya Peninsula beaches of Playa Hermosa, Playa Santa Teresa, Playa Carmen and Mal Pais all were honored once again with the Costa Rica Ecological Blue Flag Award by the Costa Rican Tourism Board for being some of the cleanest beaches in the country. A record 108 Costa Rica beaches received Ecological Blue Flag Awards for 2014, presented at a ceremony in March 2015. Award-winning Santa Teresa Beach in Costa Rica also was chosen one of the Top 15 Places to Go in 2015 by Condé Nast Traveler.



Costa Rica’s Blue Flag award is an honor for a community to earn. It means that community’s beach has near-perfect ocean water quality, potable water quality, coastal sanitation areas, treated waste and run-off water, garbage containers and very little litter.

At Playa Hermosa, it all started four years ago when hotel owner Tara Shaw encouraged her business neighbors to join her in cleaning the beach. “I used to go running on the beach and used to cry about all of the plastic trash. My family and I used to go out there and clean up,” said Shaw, who owns the small hotel of Villas Hermosas at Playa Hermosa with her husband, Brad. “Now, Hermosa has grown enough that a lot of people are really supportive.

” Playa Hermosa – aptly named “Beautiful Beach” – keeps its beauty thanks to the hard work and dedication of Costa Rican Maxfred Moraga and the committed business owners who sponsor him in the community beach cleaning program. Nine businesses at Playa Hermosa cooperate to pay Moraga’s salary and the cleanup expenses. Moraga works six days a week all year – with vacation time – to pick up trash brought in on the Pacific tides, that is left behind by beach-goers or washed out from nearby rivers. The rubbish is collected in extra-large garden-size trash bags, separated between garbage and recycling, and brought to a municipal trash collection spot.


“Such a proud moment today! Our beach, Playa Hermosa, has been given the honor by the respected Blue Flag program of the cleanest beach in the entire (large) province of Puntarenas,” wrote Shaw on the Villas Hermosas Facebook page. “Several Northern Santa Teresa / Hermosa businesses (Batik, Pranamar Villas and Yoga Retreat, Zopilote Surf Camp, The White House, Florblanca Resort, Latitude 10º Resort, Purasonica, Rancho Cielo, and us at Villas Hermosas) have been contributing for a full-time worker to pick up garbage 6 days per week for the last 4 years in our part of town, and it has obviously paid off! Thanks so much to Maxfred, our cleaner the last three years, and all contributors who help us with this program. Best. Neighbours. Ever.”

“I am happy, not only that we got the award for being one of the cleanest beaches in the country and being able to enjoy it every day, but by the fact that my kids are growing in a community where people do care,” commented Mario Matarrita, manager at Pranamar Oceanfront Villas & Yoga Retreat, which contributes to the community program. “After all, this is for our future generation, and these kinds of actions will hopefully set them on the right path.”



Being right on the beach at Playa Hermosa in Santa Teresa, Pranamar Oceanfront Villas also uses its own staff to keep its area of the beach well-groomed and free of trash and debris. The Santa Teresa Costa Rica hotel specializes in Costa Rica yoga retreats and Costa Rica surfing vacations, with daily yoga classes for hotel guests and the public. Pranamar Oceanfront Villas was named a Top 5 Yoga Retreat in Costa Rica by Travel & Leisure Magazine.

Article by Shannon Farley

Santa Teresa businesses work together for Blue Flag.

I’ve been reading about ocean pollution, and the facts are really quite shocking. Apparently, it was once a common practice to “get rid of trash” by dumping it into the ocean, and there was even a positive catchphrase: “The solution to pollution is dilution.”

People assumed that the oceans were so vast and deep that the trash would simply be swallowed up and we’d never see it again. How very wrong. All of that trash – pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, detergents, oil, sewage, plastic bottles, plastic bags, and other solids – dumped into the ocean from land or by ships is consumed by or ensnares marine mammals, birds or fish with often fatal results, endangering the entire ocean ecosystem.

 It swirls around in thousand-mile-wide swaths of decomposing plastic and garbage. One in the North Pacific, known as the Pacific Trash Vortex, or North Pacific Garbage Patch, is estimated to be the size of Texas and thought to contain 100 million tons of plastic. A new, massive patch was discovered in the Atlantic Ocean in early 2010. So far, five trash gyres have been found in the world.

Walk down the beaches of Santa Teresa, Costa Rica, however, and what you won’t see along the white sand is trash. The Pacific beaches of Santa Teresa – Mal Pais, Playa Carmen, Playa Santa Teresa and Playa Hermosa – on Costa Rica’s southern Nicoya Peninsula hold the honored Ecological Blue Flag status for having near-perfect ocean water quality, potable water quality, coastal sanitation areas, treated waste and run-off water, garbage containers and very little litter.

Businesses on these four beaches have taken it upon themselves to keep the beaches clean. Since 2011, they have worked together to pay for two workers to clean each beach every week, all year long. They pick up trash brought in on the Pacific tides, or washed out from nearby rivers or that is left behind by beach-goers. The rubbish is collected in extra-large garden-size trash bags, separated between garbage and recycling, and brought to a municipal trash collection spot.

The business owners take turns in rotation to pay for the two workers and the cleanup costs. “We started in 2011 with only five or six sponsors, and now we are up to 50-60 sponsors,” said program coordinator Roberto de la Ossa. “The more business owners there are, the easier it is for everyone to maintain the program.”

De la Ossa, who is general manager at sponsor Hotel Tropico Latino, said he works with a small team of business owners to run the program. In turn, they work with the Environmental Committee of Santa Teresa, which coordinates the Blue Flag program.

“We’re trying to promote consciousness in the area,” de la Ossa explained. “We are blessed that we have very clean water here – 75% of the criteria of the Blue Flag Program is that we have clean water. We’re still in time to conserve the environment here. If we tackle these issues now and put programs in place, the new generations coming up will be better equipped to handle these issues and we can grow sustainably.”

In 2011, beach cleanup efforts collected approximately 5,200 kilos of trash, and that was starting mid-year, de la Ossa said. In 2012, they cleaned up an incredible 10,515 kilos of garbage during the year. The program hopes to grow with more business sponsors in 2014.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has" - Margaret Mead

Hotel Tropico Latino

Hotel Tropico Latino is a small, intimate and welcoming beachfront hotel in Costa Rica in the Playa Carmen-Playa Santa Teresa area of the southern Nicoya Peninsula. The charming hotel offers a variety of accommodations spread throughout natural organic gardens. Hotel Tropico Latino is an ideal Costa Rica beach vacation destination for couples, families, surfers, yoga retreats, and well-being and health retreats.

Article by Shannon Farley