what beaches should we avoid

[whatablast]

we are planning an early 2006 visit to CR intending to locate a realistically and fair priced home/land  near water. clean water is significantly more of an issue than distance from the water and we have been told that the only reasonable near water land is located near or on polluted shoreline and rivers. is this true?

[Russ]

Hi and welcome to the forum. 

This isn't true in my opinion.  The main problem with polluted water in Costa Rica is north of Jacó where the Tarcoles River empties out (this is called Playa Azul).  This river is a mess because all of the dumping by industry and homes in San José ends up in the Tarcoles. 

I have seen on other forums people putting down certain areas, but often it is because they have a vested interest.  Puntarenas is a great example.  I can tell you that no realtors in the group cover this area, so this an unbiased opinion.

Puntarenas is very popular on weekends with Ticos.  In the past this has caused problems with trash on the beach.  Also for a time the beachfront was run down and kind of shabby.  I have seen posts that the water is polluted too.  This is all not the case any longer. Puntarenas is recognized as a Blue Flag Beach.  This means that the government has performed tests and inspections on over 100 different points like water quality, environmental contaminations, tourist services and infrastructure.  To mention some points that must be passed to obtain the Blue Flag certification. So anyone saying Puntarenas has a polluted shore line is incorrect.  And Puntarenas has not experienced the development of other areas, so prices are much lower there than in Jaco, Flamingo or Tamarindo. 

So while it is incorrect to say that Costa Rica's shores are polluted, that doesn't mean that in certain areas there isn't pollution.  You have to check out who the neighbors are and determine whether or not they are polluting. Any beach area that has a zoning plan in place would help you determine how likely pollution is to occur in the future next to a particular property you are considering.

There are plenty of locations you can look into, but the coastline in the Southern Pacific is reasonably priced, as is the Southern Nicoya area and also beaches south of Jaco, but north of Quepos/Manuel Antonio.  You might also check the Caribbean as the development there seems to be coming along nicely in an environmentally friendly way.