San Lucas Island National Park () is an island located off the Pacific shore of

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

in the

Gulf of Nicoya The Gulf of Nicoya () is an inlet of the Pacific Ocean. It separates the Nicoya Peninsula from the mainland of Costa Rica, and encompasses a marine and coastal landscape of wetlands, rocky islands and cliffs. The first Spanish landing in Nicaragua ...

. It is part of the

Puntarenas Puntarenas () is a city in the Puntarenas Province, on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. As the seat of the Municipality of Puntarenas canton, it is awarded the title of city, which comprises the Puntarenas, Chacarita and El Roble districts. A ...

district in the

canton Canton may refer to: Administrative divisions * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and entertainment * Canton (band), an It ...

and

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of the same name. Formerly housing a brutal

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...

, now abandoned, the island was designated as a

National Park A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

in August 2020 by decree 9892 and managed under the

Central Pacific Conservation Area Central Pacific Conservation Area is an administrative area which is managed by SINAC for the purposes of conservation in the southwestern part of Costa Rica, on the Pacific coast.Luke the Evangelist Luke the Evangelist was one of the Four Evangelists—the four traditionally ascribed authors of the canonical gospels. The Early Church Fathers ascribed to him authorship of both the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. Prominent figu ...

Geography

San Lucas Island located in the Gulf of Nicoya off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, about 40 minutes by boat from

. The island has an area of approximately

Indigenous culture

Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...

groups lived on San Lucas and the surrounding islands. There are eight known archeological sites on the island, including apparent houses where stone

tools A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many animals use simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates ...

and a metal object were found in the late 1970s. The excavation sites date to between 1,000 and 1,500 AD.

Prison

From 1873 to 1991, San Lucas Island was a penal island for some of the worst criminals in Costa Rica. It is often erroneously cited as the largest prison in Costa Rican history. It was founded by the dictator Tomás Miguel Guardia Gutiérrez. Being sent to San Lucas Island was a terrible prospect as prisoners' lives were short and often spent in

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...

. Ironically, Guardia abolished the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

a year after establishing the prison. The former buildings of the penal island are considered "Patrimonio de Cultura," or cultural heritage sites. The buildings include a historic dock that is still in use after the first dock was destroyed, a church, a medical building, temporary holding cells, a three-story main office, a large concrete disc used to hold a water tank, and water pumps. In addition, there are prison cells of varying security levels depending on the prisoners' crimes. The prison cells contain the typical

graffiti Graffiti (singular ''graffiti'', or ''graffito'' only in graffiti archeology) is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elabor ...

of older Latin American prisons, such as religious phrases, pornographic images, signatures and drawings. There are also several water pumps and a

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

under excavation on the island.

José León Sánchez José León Sánchez Alvarado (19 April 1929 – 15 November 2022)Beltrán Cortés Carvajal, the famous killer of the doctors Carlos Manuel Echandi Lahmann and

Ricardo Moreno Cañas Ricardo Moreno Cañas (May 8, 1890 – August 23, 1938) was a Costa Rican physician and congressman. He was shot dead by Beltrán Cortés, reportedly due to an unsuccessful surgery Moreno performed on him. He is a historical personality re ...

National Park

It was first designated as a Wildlife Refuge as created in 2002 by decree 29277-MINAE. On August 10, 2020, it was designated as the 30th National Park of Costa Rica by record 21287 of the Legislative Assembly and also as a Historical-Architectural Heritage () by record 21789.

Wildlife

The island includes a wide variety of wildlife, such as

howler monkeys Howler monkeys (genus ''Alouatta'', monotypic in subfamily Alouattinae) are the most widespread primate genus in the Neotropical realm, Neotropics and are among the largest of the New World monkey, platyrrhines along with the muriquis (''Brachyte ...

spiders Spiders (order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species di ...

snakes Snakes are elongated Limbless vertebrate, limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (). Cladistically Squamata, squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping Scale (zoology), scales much like other members of ...

deer A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) ...

, and

pheasants Pheasants ( ) are birds of several genera within the family Phasianidae in the order Galliformes. Although they can be found all over the world in introduced (and captive) populations, the pheasant genera's native range is restricted to Euras ...

. There are also at least 8 species of

bats Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

on the island. The waters surrounding the island are home to

hammerhead sharks The hammerhead sharks are a group of sharks that form the family Sphyrnidae, named for the unusual and distinctive form of their heads, which are flattened and laterally extended into a cephalofoil (a T-shape or "hammer"). The shark's eyes ar ...

rays Ray or RAY may refer to: Fish * Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea * Ray (fish fin anatomy), the bony or horny spine on ray-finned fish Science and mathematics * Half-line (geometry) or ray, half of a line split at an ...

, and

turtles Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked turtle ...

Tourism

The Instituto Costarricense de Turismo began planning to invest money into tourism on the island by developing commercial spaces for restaurants, beaches, and tour operators. The volunteer organization

Raleigh International Raleigh International is a youth expedition organisation based in the UK. Raleigh runs overseas Expeditions for young people to work together on community, environmental and conservation projects around the world. The young people who participat ...

occasionally sends young volunteers to help rangers clear beaches to make the island more attractive for tourism. Now it is a full-fledged tourist destination, with several companies offering charters to the island. There is great concern that the tourist activities are destroying

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

sites and the prison's archeological significance, as well as the wildlife habitats of the area. There are plans to develop more sustainable tourist activities on the island.

Volunteer work

The island benefits from volunteers of the charity

, who work with the rangers on the island to improve the surrounding area.

References

{{authority control National parks of Costa Rica Pacific islands of Costa Rica Geography of Puntarenas Province Tourist attractions in Puntarenas Province Nature reserves in Costa Rica Protected areas established in 2002 Protected areas established in 2020 2002 establishments in Costa Rica 2020 establishments in North America Prison islands