The Spanish Conquistadors that arrived to Costa Rica’s shores in the early 1500’s did quite a bit of damage to the people and their land.  Have they returned in the form of the Spanish hotel chain, Riu?  The company recently opened a mega-hotel of 701 rooms in Guanacaste, but not without controversy.  First there were the hundreds of workers that had to be treated for various illnesses, including respiratory infections, diarrhea and vomiting.  A Nicaraguan construction worker died inside the barrack’s where the company housed its workers.  The Costa Rican Health Ministry said the conditions in the barracks were deplorable, overcrowded and unsanitary and actually shut down construction for a time.  The latest controversy comes via a lawsuit by the Confraternidad Guanacaste, an environmental watch-dog group, who claims the Riu is guilty of violating environmental laws in cutting down mangrove trees.  The trees were supposedly located in the 50-meter public zone adjacent to the shore-line.  The group claims it has evidence in the form of eye witness accounts of heavy machinery destroying the trees at night.  Also documents from the National Geographic Institute and Matapalo’s zoning plan reportedly show existence of the trees.  Hotel Riu has announced plans to build two additional coastal hotels and has obtained Maritime law concessions to do so.  The Confraternidad has asked the court to void the concessions.  I guess it is hard to build a hotel as large as the Riu without destroying a few trees, but if the hotel blatantly disregarded the law, there should be repercussions. The bigger question, does Costa Rica really need 700 room mega-hotels that put undue pressure on local resources such as drinkable water, not to mention the extensive environmental upheaval necessary to clear the space for these monstrosities?  The many 20-, or less, room boutique hotels work just fine for me and my Package Costa Rica customers.  However, I realize there are folks who want to stay in hotels like the Riu and I guess if those types want to come to Costa Rica at the levels predicted by the Riu chain, the trees and a lot more of Costa Rican naturaleza may suffer the same fate as the Indians!

Much of the information above came from an article appearing the the Tico Times (well, just the facts, not the editorializing), print edition, November 13, 2009.

Tags: Confraternidad Guanacaste, Hotel Riu

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 5:25 am and is filed under Costa Rica Tourism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.