One of the most gorgeous beaches in Costa Rica’s Northern Pacific is named after the beautiful Princess Nosara. The legend says that Nosara, the daughter of the powerful chief Nicoa, was in love with Curime, the son of a high governor who lived in a village near Nicoya. Nacaome, a fierce warrior who lived on Chira Island and was a big rival of the Chorotega, was in love with Nosara, but Chief Nicoa did not accept him. What’s worse, the princess did not love him back.
The heartbroken Nacaome took the Nicoyán people by surprise in the central plaza, and many were victims of the warriors’ spears and arrows. Amid the skirmish, the newlyweds Curime and Nosara fled for their lives.
Nacaome did not give up, and he began a merciless persecution of the lovers, who had slipped away several times from the warriors that pursued them. Finally, they were caught on the beach that today carries the princess’s name. Swearing eternal love, the couple could only hold each other as their pursuers’ arrows mercilessly pierced the young lovers’ hearts.
Other versions suggest that before fleeing their village, Nosara was able to grab some clay pots that contained his father’s treasure, and she hid them on the beach that saw her die. Since then, her soul walks the beach, protecting the treasure that has never been uncovered but instead is translated into the area’s scenic beauty.
In the fifteen hundreds, the Spanish arrived in Central America and set up vast cattle ranches ushering in a “caballero” culture still seen today in Nosara. The Spaniards also established grand haciendas growing sugar cane.
In the 1970s, Alan Hutchinson bought the Nosara ranch and adjoining lands and created a development plan with technical experts from both North and Central America. Based on this plan, lots were advertised and sold in the Wall Street Journal. Many of the original lots were purchased site unseen.
The original development intention of the Guiones and Pelada beach areas was to be a golf course. Instead, the project was sold in the 1980s, and the golf course greens were then designated as parkland with lots surrounding the green areas.
Sections of the planned residential areas include: Guiones Beach, Las Huacas, Pelada Beach, Pelada Heights, Nosara Springs, and the High Road entry to the Town of Nosara.