page_title: Alajuela Province
section_title: Indigenous peoples
hierarchical_section_title: Alajuela Province / Culture and people / Indigenous peoples
caption_attribution_description: Norsk bokmål: Palenque Margarita i malekuenes reservat i Guatuso (Costa Rica) Español: Palenque Margarita en la reserva de los malecus en Guatuso, Costa Rica English: Palenque Margarita in the Maleku reserve in Guatuso, Costa Rica
context_page_description: Alajuela is a province of Costa Rica. It is located in the north-central part of the country, bordering Nicaragua to the north. It also borders the provinces of Heredia to the east, San José to the south, Puntarenas to the southwest and Guanacaste to the west. As of 2011, the province had a population of 885,571. Alajuela is composed of 16 cantons, which are divided into 111 districts. It covers an area of 9,757.53 square kilometers.
  The provincial cabecera is Alajuela. Other large cities include Quesada, Aguas Zarcas, Naranjo, Zarcero, Orotina, Sarchí Norte, Upala, San Ramón, Grecia and Los Chiles.
context_section_description: Most of the indigenous tribes of Alajuela were killed during Spanish colonization, although the Botos held out until the mid-1800s. Today, the Maleku are one of the only indigenous tribes left from the Spanish colonial period. Their reserve is in northern Alajuela, an hour north of La Fortuna at San Rafael de Guatuso. There are three Maleku villages near Guatuso: Palenque Sol, Palenque Tonjibe, and Palenque Margarita, where residents subsist largely from the tourist economy.
caption: Palenque Margarita
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