about us

Tucan Limo Services family tradition since 1928

1928...yes! It was eighty years ago that our grandfather, Nazario Chinchilla, worked as a milkman in the hills of Sabanilla de Montes de Oca.

His daily routine was to deliver milk on foot to his customers in the neighborhoods of Lourdes, San Pedro, Sabanilla, and some of them all the way to San Jose.
It’s hard for us to understand now, the difficulties he faced in making these deliveries each day. But against many obstacles he managed to keep his business going…and growing.
Business was growing!. It was necessary to find a way to transport more and more milk in an efficient way. He built a cart that was pulled by a horse. Some of his costumers starting requesting him to return with some groceries from San Jose on his way back to Sabanilla and San Pedro. And some people even rode in his cart as passengers.
Some time later he read in a periodical some interesting news. A factory in the USA by the name of Ford was building heavy-duty trucks. He mentioned this to his wife Luisa and despite the limitations of those times, he ordered a chassis and an engine with four tires and a spare!
Nobody in town had ever seen such a big wooden box. Inside was the latest American technology. This was the first chassis for a bus in Costa Rica. My father, Paco, told me that after much difficulty, they finally put together that enormous piece of machinery.
When they fired up the engine for the first time, almost everyone ran! Dogs were barking; chickens went crazy; people were in a panic; while others were praying!
It was the beginning of public transportation in Costa Rica…History was made!

That is how Chinchilla Enterprises TUCAN LIMO SERVICES TODAY was founded!!

By that time he also owned a Ford 1928 (the one in the picture) that was the company car…and one of the very few cars in Costa Rica Also a CHEVROLET was part of the fleet that he converted into a kind of cargo/passenger vehicle.

Years later the Chinchilla buses and cars were running to many destinations throughout Costa Rica…and still today in 2008! As TUCAN LIMO SERVICES 

In the last eighty years a lot of events have changed the world and of course Chinchilla Enterprises TUCAN LIMO SERVICES was not an exception. During the Second World War, only three of the bus fleet survived, mostly because of the shortage of rubber tires and parts. We switched to a trucking company. My farther and my uncles Oscar, Pedro and Nazario, were driving long days over the country roads with all kinds of cargo. My grandfather was driving one of the buses and my grandmother was the fee collector inside of the bus!

In the sixties my grandfather sold most of the bus routes. My uncle Oscar migrated to Venezuela now he is back in Costa Rica. My uncle Nazario moved to California. My uncle Pedro is still running a car garage where was once located the main station for Chinchilla buses in San Pedro.

My father Paco was hired by the British Embassy in 1944 and he retired forty-five years later in 1989. He was awarded by Queen Elizabeth with the Empire Medal, which has been reserved for non-British persons that have performed some important labor for the empire. In America, very few persons had ever been awarded with that medal.

The Queen sent a special emissary all the way from England to hang that Medal in my father’s chest. I remember that night… what a night! The Medal is now in a special box in my father’s room. Some British emigrants complained how it was possible that a driver was awarded with that medal. They did not know that my father’s reputation was known all the way to the Queen’s Palace in England…GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!

When I was a kid I sat on my father’s lap while he was driving those great old Humbers belong to the Embassy. He was my hero and still is today. I loved his stories of driving around the country.

Maybe I was four years old when they said I spent many hours in my own little car simulator…a piece of a broom stick as the shifter…the lid of a paint can as the steering wheel …and there I was, ready to drive around my country that was waiting for me!

My adult life led to a college education in the USA, working for Pan American World Airways, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, as well as other free-lance work connected to the Costa Rican tourism industry. After living for several years in the USA I moved back to San Jose, Costa Rica.

With the help of my cousins Federico, Alejandro, Felipe and Adrian I founded Tucan Limo Services. (Who by the way are as fanatic as I am about buses and trucks). We are the continuation of the dreams of our grandfather Papa Nacho and our uncle’s and father’s business.

Tucan Limo Services is Chinchilla Enterprises…with all of that family tradition alive today!

In our eighty years of transportation we have been involved in many important moments in our country’s history. In one way or another we have been part of hosting some important celebrities, such as….