Note: Today is an important tourist transport hub. Spanish records of the indigenous inhabitants were lost in a fire in the 18th century. It is known that Nicoya was the largest indigenous chiefdom encountered by the Spanish when they first entered northwestern Costa Rica in 1523. While we do not know what the people called themselves or their political organization, we do know that they spoke a language in the Oto-Manguean language family. The expedition’s priest baptized over 6,000 people, thus giving some idea of the population.
icon to view the hierarchy.
