The wonderfully colourful police station at Punta Islita
The remote Hotel Punta Islita is a remarkable place for what appears to be a genuine and deep-rooted commitment to sustainability and social responsibility.
When the hotel was set up the small village of Punta Islita was dying on its feet. Today it is a tiny yet vibrant place.
The village itself is very colourful indeed.
The road surface is decorated with representations of traditional dwellings, there are carvings on the corner of the village green, the nursery is painted in a bright, naïve style. Even the police station is clad in a bright mosaic.
The hotel commissioned five Costa Rican artists to come in and decorate different parts of the village to improve the surroundings. My favourite is the police station which has to be the prettiest I have seen anywhere in the world.
The hotel also needed materials. Sewing kits, butter pots for the restaurant, paintings and sculptures for communal areas, decoration for rooms.
The same artists they brought in to liven up the village worked with several local artist co-operatives to create materials for them using local materials and ideas but helping them to sharpen their techniques and styles.
This training continues to this day with regular workshops provided by the hotel for one of the six or seven co-operatives who work locally. One group does screenprints, another ceramics, another paints. One works with driftwood to great effect as you can see above.
As a result, the quality of the artwork and handicrafts in the tiny giftshop in the village, is beyond anything you are likely to find elsewhere in Costa Rica.
Punta Islita forms part of our Costa Rica Honeymoon holiday but you can visit there from Nosara and Samara which feature in most of our self drive Costa Rica holidays.