Hotel Divisamar is located in a tropical atmosphere surrounded by flowers and native gardens, just 1 mile from the main beach, next to the main road, halfway between the Manuel Antonio National Park and the town of Quepos. There is an excellent public transport service that goes from the Hotel Divisamar to the beach, passing the entrance to the National Park and the City of Quepos, every 20 minutes.
For the more energetic there is a scenic trail, starting in front of the hotel until the end of the first public beach, on the beach that connects with the Manuel Antonio National Park, and possible return by bus. Accommodations at the Hotel Divisamar include Crystal Swimming Pool, Jacuzzi, cafeterias such as Emilios coffee shop, Cafe Milagro, Barba Roja, Los Altos, Falafel, Lambretta Pizza, Agua Azul restaurant.
African palms produce fruits like almonds that contain rich oil. Processed palm oil is used in different products. Daily articles such as lipstick, cosmetics, candies, margarines, industrial lubricants and soaps, among others. Fruits are picked when they have a bright orange-red color. A palm will produce its first fruits after 3 years and then it will be regularly maintained. The African palm can live more than 200 years. After a couple of decades African non-hybrid palms are being systematically killed and almost all the palms planted today are cloned hybrids that grow smaller and thus easier to maintain. The work in the field is specialized. A class of workers use machete and poison to keep the base of each palm clean so that the snakes do not interfere with the next group of workers who are responsible for keeping the leaves trimmed so that the next group has easy access to cut the fruit mature When the cluster is cut it crashes into the ground and some dates are detached and scattered. A diverse group of workers (usually women and children) is responsible for collecting those dates in sacks known as "colloleros". The strongest workers load the large clusters on the carts that, coupled to a tractor, are finally transported to the processing plant.
The olive ridley turtle is distributed through the tropical waters of the northeast Indian Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean and along the east coast of the Pacific Ocean. This chelonian is the smallest of the sea turtles and one of the five species of tortoise that visit the coasts of Costa Rica. Adults weigh between 35 and 45 Kg. And their carapace is between 55 to 75 cm long. Its color is dark in the young and olive green in the adults. The male is smaller than the female and rarely goes ashore. The Kemp's ridley nests in a cycle of two to three years, then moves away from the nesting beaches, migrating to feeding areas in the eastern Pacific from Mexico to Peru. In the central Pacific of Costa Rica, five important beaches are located for the nesting of the Kemp's ridley: Playa Hermosa, Punta Mala Beach, Barú Beach, El Rey Beach and Matapalo Beach where it spawns in a solitary way. While in Playa Ostional and Nancite in Guanacaste they arrive in "arribadas", a phenomenon where thousands of turtles come to spawn at the same time. The spawning period of the olive ridley turtle, in the Central Pacific of Costa Rica, is concentrated mainly between July and November. Like its congeners, the Kemp's ridley is vulnerable when it emerges from the water to deposit and bury the eggs. It leaves its natural environment and once it arrives where it nests it digs a hole with its rear fins and deposits there in some cases more than a hundred eggs, which are covered with a viscous substance to avoid contamination by fungi or bacteria. While she spawns she fills her eyes with tears to keep them moist and free of sand. This process takes up to an hour and can be repeated during the same spawning season. Then, it returns to the sea and both eggs and newborns are abandoned, so they are easy prey for animals, such as crabs, coatimundis, raccoons, birds and dogs, however their main predator is man. In a span of 30 days the embryo is already formed, and once completed 48 days is born. With a size of six cm it starts digging and digging, pushing the sand to the surface. Unlike their mothers, they are attracted to light; out of the nest, it goes straight to the ocean, it manages to dodge how much predator is in its path, it submerges in the waves, until finding refuge in an alga or an area of abundant food. He will spend the next few years in a lonely and unknown existence. If he survives during this time, he will reach sexual maturity between eight and ten years of age. With luck, only one of a thousand turtles survives long enough to reach adulthood. Although there is national and international legislation that guarantees the conservation of wildlife, for different reasons sea turtles are in danger of extinction. The Kemp's ridley, although it is considered among the least threatened of the sea turtles, like the other species, its number is declining. Shrimp boats catch thousands of olive ridley turtles every year, the death of adult turtles by local fishermen, the illegal trade in eggs, as a lucrative activity due to their acceptance, despite being regulated by law, have led to the extinction of these in many Beaches. As Costa Ricans we are responsible for their survival - Sea turtles are part of our biological diversity, it is our obligation to know them better to conserve them, stopping the looting of eggs and protecting their nesting process. Avoid contamination of waters, beaches and buildings with lighting at spawning sites. The permanent efforts among all will help to avoid its extinction.
The Quepo Indians were a subgroup of the people of Boruca and the Chibcha speakers who emigrated to northern Colombia at the end of the first millennium. The great conquistador Juan Vázquez de Coronado described the Quepo as "the most beautiful people". Besides being a wonderful tribe, they were also known as fierce warriors. It has been documented that the Quepo "had gold in large quantities that they obtained from the rivers and booties of the Caribbean tribes against which they undertook relentless wars". During the rainy months of July to October, a considerable group of Quepo and a shaman, probably female, occupied the coastal hills of Manuel Antonio near Punta Quepos. The shaman lived on Magote Island at the mouth of the Naranjo River. A deep cave on the island was used for ceremonies and to ensure abundant fish in the river, spawning of turtles on the beaches and good harvests of pearls and rare mollusks of which they made a beautiful purple ink. The earliest recorded history of the European presence in Manuel Antonio occurred about five years after the Spanish explorer Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean. The explorer Juan Ponce de León, who would later be accredited with discovering Florida in his search for the fountain of youth, finally accomplished the task of finding the western shores of Costa Rica (and later the coast of Manuel Antonio) in the year 1519. It was the rainy season, and a fearsome number of warriors gathered on the beach and daringly invited Lord and his crew to disembark with insults, gestures and blows of sticks. Ponce de Leon declined, and he became the first of many to call the Quepo Indians "Brave Indians." Making conservative estimates, it is estimated that at that time there were more than a thousand aborigines, possibly some fifteen thousand, then Ponce de Leon's precaution was prudent. It has been an ancient legend that there is a treasure hidden somewhere in the territories that the Quepo tribe once occupied. The famous Englishman John Clipperton who began his long and illustrious career in the southern seas in the late 1600s believed that more than 700 tons of gold, silver, pearls, emeralds and other jewels were hidden somewhere near the Mission of San Bernardino de Quepo. The mission of San Bernardino de Quepo was permanently closed in 1746 after a rebellion that ended with the missions of the southern highlands. At that time there were only a few Quepo; most had died as a result of diseases brought by Europeans, war with other indigenous groups and slavery. Shortly after 227 years of Spanish rule, the tribe of Quepo was extinct. Since the rediscovery of the mission's site in 1974, more than half of the ruins have been destroyed due to pillage, agriculture and new colonization. The location of the treasury in trillions of dollars remains a mystery.