Most long term Guanacaste visitors or new residents are familiar with the more prominent towns like Tamarindo, Huacus, Flamingo and Potrero. But many of you may not know much about Tempate an un spoiled Costa Rican town.

Tempate has about 500 people and 3000 cattle. It’s old time Costa Rica at its best. The town has a restaurant and bar, a swimming pool behind the town square that is frequented by locals and their visitors. It is a very cool out of the way spot. The five-mile journey over mountain roads are not recommended for the San Jose low riders.

An historic note, the village  of Tempate is the site of an abandoned airstrip that Colonel Oliver North and “Company” used to allegedly trade the Contra’s drugs for money to buy guns in an unsuccessful attempt to stop the popular revolution in Nicaragua in the 1970’s.

The revolution was inspired by the philosophies of Augusto Cesar Sandino; hence the revolutionaries were called “Sandinistas”. The result of the revolution was the installation of Daniel Ortega as president a position he retains to this day.

Now Tempate is best known for its authentic Costa Rican Fiestas.

By Bruce Scott of Scott Furniture