Nosara is the epitome of small town life. You tend to know, or at least recognize, everyone in town and people still wave to each other when passing by on the roads. This simple form of life is very appealing to most. We are lucky to have a small town vibe while still having stable infrastructure like cell phones, Internet, Police, garbage collection, water boards, ambulances, etc which makes life comfortable and safe. There are many small towns in Central America that don’t have these basic necessities.

Getting Involved: Do you know what makes Nosara the coolest community on the coast? It’s the people. While most expat communities like to bitch and moan about everything that is wrong in the world, the folks in Nosara make things happen by rolling up their sleeves. If you want to be an active member of this community, get ready to roll up yours. The people of Nosara have made incredible accomplishments by banding together and addressing challenges and coming up with solutions. When the monkeys were getting electrocuted on the power lines, a group raised money and awareness and worked with the power company to seal the deadly lines. When petty theft became a problem, the head of police for the entire country of Costa Rica was called in and we went from two police officers in the greater area to 10 in downtown Nosara and 8 cops in Playa Guiones. There was no recycling in the area and Recycling Center was born. These things didn’t happen by accident. A lot of people put a lot of time, money and effort into these programs. There are over 20 groups in Nosara making this the best beach town in Costa Rica. The ‘Friends of Nosara’ foundation has been hugely helpful with fundraising and can help U.S. donors with making their donation tax deductible for certain charities. So, if you’d rather be part of the solution than the problem… get involved. Here is a partial list of local associations from the ‘Friends of Nosara’ website: http://www.friendsofnosara.com/PartnerOrganizations.html

There are some great groups in town who have projects that I believe in but don’t have time to work with, so we try and support them when we can financially. Keep in mind January-April is ‘fundraiser’ season. You will have many opportunities to attend events (which are almost always a blast) which support the various causes and improve our community.