• Traditional Tárcoles To Join The Tourism Boom
The tourism boom in the Central Pacific has been, in some ways, a blessing for towns like Jacó, Playa Hermosa and Herradura.
Tourists arrive by the tens — if not hundreds — of thousands to these beaches to relax, surf, fish and generally vacation. Some buy property. Most eat at local restaurants, many use local taxis or transportation companies, and all infuse millions of dollars into the local economy.
And then there’s Tárcoles.
The closest most of the busloads of tourists traveling to the region will get to this small fishing village is a brief stop at the bridge over the Tárcoles River, to peer over its edges at the sunbathing crocodiles below. Rarely will one of these buses, heading south along the coastal highway, take the next turn, into town.
Jeannette Naranjo has grown up in Tárcoles, and now runs the fishing cooperative founded by her father. She has watched the buses pass by on their way to destinations further down the coast.
“Here in the pueblo, the development still hasn’t arrived,” she said.
That, however, is changing.
Ms Narajanjo is hoping that a community tourism project run through the cooperative, which is already beginning to draw both foreign and Costa Rican visitors, will help Tárcoles catch up with its neighbors — but in its own way. And, along the way, help preserve local traditions.
“We are hoping that Tárcoles will be different,” she said. “We wanted to do eco-tourism, different tourism.”
Lacking a picturesque beach, river rapids, a volcano or unspoiled rainforest, Coopetárcoles is offering tourists what it knows best: the life and work of a fisherman.
Visitors can now take a tour of the Coopetárcoles site, where the cooperative receives, weighs, stores and sells fish caught by their affiliated fishing boats. Tourists can also go fishing with the Tárcoles fishers (non-Spanish speakers are accompanied by a translator) to experience first hand the open seas, the tug of a fish at the end of a line — run not through a pole, but one’s fingers — and the labor, and excitement, of pulling in a fish laden net.
The Tárcoles fishers do not run massive fishing operations. Here, the members of Coopetárcoles practise what is called la pesca artesanal, or artisan fishing. The boats are small — and often colorful — and fit only a handful of people.
The methods are traditional. Though the boats now have motors instead of sails and the net sizes are regulated to allow smaller, non-targeted species to escape, the technique is similar to that practiced by generations before.
It is a hands-on process, as Gerarda Pérez knows well. Though she doesn’t fish, for 14 years Gerarda has worked for the cooperative untangling and retying fishing longlines. Sitting in a storeroom lined with lockers and filled with plastic barrels and wooden, water-stained boxes, she runs line through her hands almost unconsciously undoing knots, and stringing hooks.
“Sometimes this whole area is packed with people,” she said, nodding toward the long storeroom.
According to Ms Naranjo, most visitors come in groups, such as student groups, both from here in Costa Rica and other countries. During an average month, Coopetárcoles may see about three groups, some as large as 60 people, she continued.
After seeing the Coopetárcoles site — which includes a small, traditional restaurant, called a soda — and spending a few hours at sea, visitors end the tour with a meal, most often fish they caught themselves during the tour.
As most tours head out in the evening, dinner is served right about the time the sun begins to set.
Visitors can watch as the sunset casts its colorful glaze over the small boats bobbing in the gentle tide, while pelicans swoop between them. Scarlet macaws cackle from almond trees at the edge of the beach. Fishers load their boats and heave them into the water.
“This is coexistence with the fishermen, so (the visitor) can experience the life of a fisherman,” Ms Naranjo said.
The project has been the product of a joint effort between Coopetárcoles, Coope Sol I Dar — a San José based cooperative that works with community development — and Grupo Marta, the company that owns the Jacó Beach Best Western hotel.
“Principally, this can help preserve the culture and bring an additional income, and that way they don’t have to abandon fishing to go work in tourism,” said Juan Carlos Rodó, General Manager of the Jacó Beach Best Western.
Mr Rodó explained that Grupo Marta, as well as Coope Sol I Dar, has advised the Coopetárcoles fishers on how to improve their tour, including a detailed report handed over to the cooperative more than a year ago.
“It included recommendation from ‘carry a first aid kit’ to questions about insurance,” Mr Rodó said. “Also, we said they shouldn’t see it as sport fishing, but as a cultural tour.
“Garabito is developing a lot and they said they didn’t feel a part of that, that Tárcoles was being left behind,” Mr Rodó continued. “In a country where there isn’t much cultural tourism, here is a very big cultural attraction.”
More: The Beach Times
