Isla San Lucas

OVERVIEW

An island 8 km off Puntarenas in the Gulf of Nicoya that held the national penal colony from 1873, under Tomás Guardia, until 1991. The cell blocks, chapel and the prisoners' graffiti survive; the island became a wildlife refuge in 2002 and Costa Rica's thirtieth national park in August 2020. José León Sánchez, imprisoned here on a conviction later overturned, wrote La isla de los hombres solos about it.

HISTORY

Conditions were notoriously harsh — isolation cells, hunger, the sea as the wall. Sánchez's novel and later journalism documented them; the state formally absolved him in 1988.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

Visitors and guides report cries of suffering from the cell blocks at night, doors found open after being locked, and the sense of something approaching and withdrawing. Costa Rican press lists carry the accounts; the park's own interpretation sticks to the history.

VISITING

Boat tours from Puntarenas; the prison buildings are on the visitor route with the graffiti preserved.