HISTORY & CULTURE

History and Local Culture of Quepos and Manuel Antonio

Quepos takes its name from the Quepo, an Indigenous people who lived on this coast before and during Spanish colonization. The modern town grew from a banana company settlement in the 1920s and 1930s, turned to oil palm after disease and floods hit the plantations in the 1950s, and in 1972 won Manuel Antonio National Park after local people fought to keep their beaches open. Today tourism, fishing and farming support the canton.

HOW WE WROTE THIS

Documented history and oral history

We’ve kept two kinds of history apart on this page. Documented history comes from published sources: the Municipality of Quepos, SINAC, academic research and journalism, each linked. Oral history and interpretation covers what people remember and how places are traditionally explained, and we say whose account it is. Where we couldn’t verify a story, we left it out.

We’re a hotel team, not historians. If you’re from Quepos and see something missing or wrong, we’d like to hear from you through our contact page.

BEFORE THE SPANISH

The Quepo people

Documented

According to the Municipality of Quepos, the territory was home to a Huetar group known as the Quepo (also written Quepoa), led at the time of Spanish contact by a cacique (chief) named Corrohore. Conquest, disease and forced evangelization devastated the population. The Municipality’s history records that the Quepo were reduced to about ten people, who were moved elsewhere, leaving their territory empty.

The name survived. When the canton was renamed Quepos in 2015, it was explicitly to honor the Indigenous people who gave the area its name.

Interpretation

Inside the national park, at low tide beside Punta Catedral, a circle of stones called La Trampa (“the trap”) becomes visible. SINAC describes it as archaeological remains that, according to local history, Indigenous people used to trap turtles and fish. We share that as SINAC tells it; we haven’t found a published archaeological study to add more detail.

THE BANANA YEARS

Bananas, a railway and a new town (1920s–1950s)

Modern Quepos began with bananas. The Municipality of Quepos records these milestones:

  • 1923: Agathon Lutz Stiequelle founded the Pirrís Farm Trading Company to grow bananas. By 1925 it had 217 hectares in production, with a small railway, port facilities and worker camps.
  • By 1934: the United Fruit Company had taken over the operation through its subsidiary, the Compañía Bananera de Costa Rica. Work drew thousands of people from across Costa Rica and Central America.
  • 1939: the first school (Escuela Claudio Pinto) opened and the pier was completed.
  • 1940–1942: the company installed a power plant and a hospital, and electric service began.
  • 21 April 1941: Quepos became a district.

The company built much of the town’s early infrastructure, and the rhythm of the plantations shaped daily life. Historians have also studied how the banana and later oil palm plantations changed the landscape of the whole Pacific coast; see the Redalyc paper in our sources.

A NEW CANTON

Aguirre, then Quepos (1948 and 2015)

After the 1948 civil war, the territory became the sixth canton of Puntarenas province. It was named Aguirre, after Rolando Aguirre Lobo, who died in the fighting in 1948.

In February 2015, Costa Rica’s legislators changed the name of the canton from Aguirre to Quepos, in reference to the community’s origins and in honor of the Quepo people. Some older maps and documents still say Aguirre.

FROM BANANA TO PALM

Floods, disease and oil palm

In 1954 and 1955, floods and Panama disease (a soil fungus that kills banana plants) devastated the plantations. The Municipality of Quepos records that the company switched to cacao, teak and oil palm, and that of more than 5,600 workers, fewer than 800 kept their jobs. It was a very hard time for the town.

Oil palm had already been trialled in the area. Costa Rica’s national palm growers’ chamber, CANAPALMA, dates oil palm cultivation in Costa Rica to the late 1940s, in the Quepos and Parrita regions. Costa Rica’s National Museum notes that African oil palm now dominates the farming landscape of the Pacific region where bananas once did. The palm plantations you pass on the coastal plain around Quepos are part of that story.

Other milestones

  • 1964–1966: the Liceo de Quepos (secondary school) was founded.
  • 1972: the port facilities passed to state control.
  • 1974: construction began on the coastal highway (the Costanera).

Source for dates: Municipality of Quepos.

Tropical leaves glistening after rain
Close-up of a red ginger flower with green leaves, with a blurred wooden bungalow and rainforest trees behind
THE FIGHT FOR THE BEACHES

How Quepos won Manuel Antonio National Park (1968–1972)

Documented

SINAC’s own history of the park is short and direct: the park was born from community pressure against foreign owners who stopped local people from using the beaches, because they wanted to develop the area for tourism. Thanks to that pressure, the “Parque Recreativo Nacional Playas de Manuel Antonio” was created in 1972 by Law No. 5100.

Historian Patricia Fumero tells the fuller story in Semanario Universidad (2020). In her account:

  • Local families and banana workers had long walked or driven to the beaches.
  • In August 1968, the landowner at the time put up a gate blocking access.
  • Students from the Liceo de Quepos repeatedly tore the gates down.
  • In August 1972, an open town meeting (cabildo abierto) brought together the municipal council, student groups, community and women’s associations, a youth movement and the parish priest to demand a park.
  • The law creating the park followed that year.

Oral history

Fumero’s article draws on interviews with Quepos residents, including Jetty Leiva and Arnaldo Moya Gutiérrez. It also names local figures remembered for organizing, such as Manuel Antonio Ramírez Muñoz (1940–1998), who is commemorated locally, and youth organizer Óscar Monge Maykall. These are community memories as recorded by the historian; read the full article (in Spanish) for their words in context.

Why this matters for visitors: the park you walk through was won by the people of Quepos for public use. Respecting its rules is part of respecting that. Plan your visit with our park visitor guide.

TOURISM

From park to travel destination

After the park was created and the coastal road was built, visitors kept coming. SINAC now describes Manuel Antonio as the protected area that receives the most national and international visitors in the country. Hotels, restaurants and tour companies spread along the road between Quepos and the park, and Quepos added a modern marina, Marina Pez Vela, for sport fishing and boat trips.

Growth brings pressure: traffic on the single road, crowding on busy days, and wildlife that learns to raid bags when visitors feed it. SINAC’s daily visitor limit and strict food rules in the park are responses to that. Travelers can help by booking tickets ahead, visiting early, using the bus, and never feeding animals.

LOCAL LIFE

Local culture today, and how to be a good guest

Quepos is a working town. People here work in tourism, fishing, farming and trade. A few simple ways to take part respectfully:

  • Shop at the feria. The farmers market by the malecón (Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings) is where local growers, fishers and cooks sell directly.
  • Eat at a soda. The small family-run diners in Quepos serve everyday Costa Rican food.
  • Learn a few words of Spanish. “Buenos días”, “gracias” and “con permiso” go a long way.
  • Hire local guides, and tip them for good work.
  • Ask before photographing people, their homes or their children.
  • Go slowly on the hill road. People walk to work and school along it.

For activities around town, see things to do and what’s where.

READ MORE

Where to learn more

Back to the Manuel Antonio & Quepos Travel Guide.

SOURCES

Sources

Last reviewed: September 2026.

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