Playa Tamarindo, a tourist hotspot on Costa Rica's northwestern Guanacaste coast, has lifeguards again after a shortage of funds last August washed up the beach's life-saving program.

Three trained lifeguards are keeping watch in separate towers every day, according to the Guanacaste Tourism Chamber (CATURGUA), thanks to a fund-raising and awareness campaign by concerned Tamarindo residents.

Spearheaded by sisters-in-law Ann and Cheryl McKillican, with the support of the Tamarindo Improvement Association, residents and businesses are contributing $2,500 a month to keep the program afloat.

The service is vital for a beach that on a given day can see as many as 100 surfers, said Giancarlo Pucci, of the recently constituted Playa Tamarindo Tourism Commission, according to a CATURGUA press release.

“What's more, it must be stressed that these lifeguards are equipped with necessary buoys, ropes, boards and binoculars, among other equipment,” Pucci said.

Tamarindo's reputation as a fun beach increasingly popular with North Americans has been marred by recent drownings including that of U.S. tourist Matt McParland, 42, whose fatal swimming accident in January may have been prevented, witnesses told The Tico Times, if lifeguards and adequate life-saving equipment were at hand.

The lifeguards came with a string of good news touted by the beach town to fight the flawed image – overbuilding, dubious water quality and safety – of a locale Forbes magazine calls Costa Rica's “most popular beach.” Developments there have included the formation of the new tourism commission, which is a CATURGUA offshoot, and projects ranging from rebuilding roads to recycling to a new police station.