Montezuma, Costa Rica

Montezuma is a town in Puntarenas Province, Costa Rica which began as a remote fishing village and has gained popularity since the 1980s among tourists on a budget.

Montezuma Falls

Montezuma is located near the southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula, 41 km (25 mi) southwest of Paquera and 8 km (5 mi) south of the town of Cóbano. Most services are in Cóbano.

The town features a mix of local residents as well as foreign backpackers and eco-tourists who come for the beaches, rivers, and scenic waterfalls that surround the village. The nearby Cabo Blanco Nature Reserve draws a large number of visitors to the area. Montezuma has well-known healing arts and yoga communities and is also well known among filmmakers and artists from across the world who flock there every November for the annual Costa Rica International Film Festival - Montezuma. Attendees experience days of film screenings, special dinners, parties, a street party with fire dancers and other performers and day trips to nearby waterfalls, beaches, islands, canopy tours, and much more.

There is a non-profit organization, Proyecto Montezuma, where tourists can support a local free English school by booking tours and services. The office is located in Montezuma central and a good place to find tourist information about Montezuma and the surrounding area. You can surf at Playa Grande, sign up for Spanish classes and volunteer. If you want to get more involved with the local community, you can join PROYECTO TEFL, an internationally-recognized English Language Teaching Certificate course that takes place every month in Montezuma central.

The center of Montezuma consists almost entirely of accommodations, restaurants, and souvenir shops. For those who are looking for something to do at night, Chico's Bar offers different music and dancing nightly. The crowd is a great mix of the beautiful locals and visitors from all over the world. There is no bank and no post office in Montezuma (although there is an automated teller machine that works at certain times when there is not a huge crowd in town).

Further reading

• Lonely Planet Costa Rica ISBN 1-74059-118-6
• B&B Map Costa Rica Road Map ISBN 3-89707-510-5
• "the Montezuma map and guide"--available free from paraisopublicidad.com - also in the home office in downtown Montezuma

External links

• Costa Rica Film Festival - Montezuma

Coordinates: 9°39′N 85°04′W / 9.65°N 85.067°W / 9.65; -85.067