The year Arenal erupted after 500 years dormant, remaking La Fortuna from farming village to ecotourism center.
Of Nayara's Costa Rica team comes from the surrounding region, many raised in the volcano's shadow.
Costa Rica, Panama, Chile, and Easter Island — each with distinct community partnerships.
How Arenal Volcano Changed La Fortuna
In short: The communities around Nayara's resorts share a story of regeneration. La Fortuna rebuilt itself from Arenal Volcano's 1968 eruption into a center of ecotourism. Bocas del Toro is reclaiming opportunity the Panama Canal routed elsewhere. The Lickan-Antay shape how travelers meet the Atacama. And on Easter Island, the Rapa Nui are reclaiming their story at the only hotel part-owned by a local family.
For generations, the town of La Fortuna lived off the land. Subsistence farming shaped daily life: cattle, beans, plantains. Then on the morning of July 29, 1968, the ground shook and everything changed.
Without warning, Arenal Volcano — dormant for nearly 500 years — erupted violently, launching boulders the size of trucks, belching ash miles into the sky, and sending rivers of lava across the landscape. Within minutes, three surrounding villages were erased and several lives were lost.
And yet, out of that same ash, something remarkable happened. Scientists, volcanologists, and journalists from around the world came to study the mountain. Adventurers and photographers followed. Hotels sprang up to house them. Curiosity led to tourism. Tourism led to conservation. The volcano that had taken so much began, paradoxically, to give back.
Those are the values that guide our work at Nayara. Over 90 percent of our Costa Rica team is from the surrounding region. Many grew up in the shadow of the volcano. We do not just provide jobs. We offer careers, mentorship, and the kind of long-term support that helps people build futures. Housekeepers become department heads. Line cooks become chefs. Local guides become conservation educators.
Nowhere is that commitment more visible than in our housing project for single mothers in La Fortuna. In partnership with local organizations, Nayara is building 40 dignified homes — privately titled, independent of employment — designed not as shelter but as inheritance. Read: Women's Empowerment Through Housing ↗
Dormant for nearly 500 years, then everything changed on the morning of July 29, 1968.
What began with a volcano has become something even more powerful: a thriving community built on pride, dignity, and the belief that where you come from should never limit where you are going.
Community Impact in Bocas del Toro
Bocas del Toro is one of Panama's most vibrant regions, lush and full of promise. But for much of its history, that promise went unrealized. Ships once passed through these waters carrying bananas and cargo to the world; the wealth rarely stayed. Then came the Panama Canal. Completed in 1914, it connected oceans and redrew global trade, but it also concentrated infrastructure and investment near the capital, leaving outlying regions like Bocas behind.
At Nayara Bocas del Toro, we see this not as a limitation but as a call to action. We focus on local hiring, year-round employment, and skills development in hospitality, culinary arts, and language. Many of our team members are the first in their families to work in formal tourism. We support schools, donate educational technology, and partner with grassroots organizations to expand access across remote islands.
We are building a micro-grant program to fund small-scale entrepreneurship, especially for women and youth, and we prioritize local sourcing, connecting guests directly to the work of farmers, fishers, and artisans. Just as Costa Rica redirected its resources from war to wellbeing, tourism in Bocas can shift from extraction to inclusion.
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Community Partnerships in the Atacama
The story of transformation begins with silence. The Atacama Desert, the driest on Earth, was once seen as uninhabitable. But it has always been home to the Lickan-Antay, whose relationship with the land predates the Inca and the Spanish by thousands of years. In the 19th century, the Atacama became the focus of the War of the Pacific, fought over its mineral wealth. The desert was mined, mapped, and claimed, until little remained but silence and salt.
But in time, that silence became sacred. Scientists came to study the stars. Travelers arrived in search of something elemental. The Atacama transformed not through conquest, but through reverence.
At Nayara Alto Atacama, we honor that shift by working hand-in-hand with the Lickan-Antay community. Our design blends into the landscape. Our excursions are led by locals who share ancestral knowledge. Our observatory invites not just stargazing, but storytelling. We support education, heritage preservation, and climate resilience in a region where every drop of water carries weight. Here, regeneration means survival — not only of ecosystems, but of culture and dignity.
Excursions led by locals who share ancestral knowledge; an observatory built for storytelling.
Reviving Rapa Nui Culture
Thousands of kilometers off the Chilean coast lies Easter Island, home to one of the world's most resilient cultures. The Moai are known globally, but the people who built them — the Rapa Nui — have endured a far lesser-known story. After centuries of colonization, disease, slavery, and land seizure, the population was nearly wiped out by the 19th century. And yet, the culture persisted.
Today, Rapa Nui is reclaiming its story, and at Nayara Hangaroa we are humbled to be part of that reclamation. We are the only hotel on the island partially owned by a local Rapa Nui family — the Hitorangi family — whose legacy and leadership continue to shape the cultural life of the island. Our architecture draws from traditional boat houses. Our programs are designed in partnership with local artisans, dancers, and storytellers. Our excursions center Rapa Nui perspectives, not outsider interpretations.
We support cultural education, language revitalization, and archaeological preservation. On an island where every tree, every reef, and every word matters, regeneration is not just ecological. It is existential.
The Human Thread of Regenerative Tourism
Whether in the rainforest of Costa Rica, the archipelago of Bocas del Toro, the dry valleys of the Atacama, or the shores of Rapa Nui, the communities around Nayara tell a shared story. Not one of charity, but of commitment. Not tourism as transaction, but as transformation.
This is the future of travel as we see it. Not just a place to stay. A way to travel with meaning. Read: Beyond Sustainability ↗
Frequently Asked Questions
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Explore the Full Sustainability Series
Regeneration, community, and accountability across four countries.
01 Beyond Sustainability: What Regenerative Tourism Means →- The World Bank: Costa Rica
- UN Environment Programme
- Visit Costa Rica: Sustainability
- UNESCO: Rapa Nui National Park
- CANAECO, Costa Rica's National Chamber of Ecotourism
Travel with meaning
Six resorts across Costa Rica, Panama, and Chile, rooted in the communities that make them possible.
