Costa Rica
Limon, Costa Rica
Limón: Costa Rica's Caribbean Port and Afro-Caribbean Heritage
Limón's older houses are tall and built of wood in Caribbean styles, and the former United Fruit Company headquarters of 1904, designed for the heat with verandas on every side, still stands downtown. Marcus Garvey worked in the town for some months in 1910 as a timekeeper for that company. Rip currents are very common on Costa Rica's beaches and lifeguards are often absent, so swim with care if you head down the coast.
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What Cruise Travelers Should Know About Limón
Cruise ships dock at the Port of Limón, just south of downtown, so the town center is close by. Limón is also Costa Rica's main cargo port, though most freight now moves through the separate harbors at Moín, about 15 minutes away by bus.
- Isla Uvita, where Columbus anchored in 1502, lies about 885 meters off the port.
- Gangs occasionally carry out muggings and armed robberies in Costa Rica, so stay in busy areas by day and do not walk alone in poorly lit or remote places at night.
- Foreign visitors must carry ID such as a passport. The police usually accept a printed copy, but keep the original somewhere safe in case they ask to see it.
- Costa Rica keeps Central time, six hours behind UTC, all year, with no daylight saving time.
Limón on Your Own
The port is just south of downtown Limón, which has buildings from the town's railroad and banana years. For one longer outing, local buses and taxis run south along the coast road to Cahuita National Park, where the forest runs down to the beach.
- Downtown: The former United Fruit Company headquarters, a two-story building of 1904 designed for the heat with verandas on every side, many doors and roof lanterns, stands at the corner of Calle Tomás Guardia and Avenida Federico Fernández Oreamuno. The town also has a Baptist church from the 1880s, a national heritage monument.
- Cahuita National Park: The park protects coral reefs, beaches and lowland forest south of Limón, with sloths, howler and capuchin monkeys, coatis and raccoons. At the Cahuita entrance, just south of the village, visitors give a donation instead of paying a fee, and a small white-sand beach lies just inside.
- Swim with care: Rip currents are very common on Costa Rica's beaches, and there are often no lifeguards.
- Getting back on time: All-aboard is usually about 30 minutes before sailing, and your ship posts the exact time. A ship will not wait for passengers touring on their own. Cahuita is a trip down the coast road, so leave a wide margin if you go. Costa Rica does not change its clocks, so its time may differ from your ship's; go by the ship's clock.
Getting Around Limón and the Caribbean Coast
Buses run from Limón to Moín and south along Route 36 toward Cahuita, Puerto Viejo and the Panama border. Taxis also make the trip from Limón to Cahuita.
- Buses from Limón to Moín take about 15 minutes.
- Local buses run about once an hour between Limón and Sixaola, on the Panama border, and stop at Cahuita.
- Tortuguero National Park, on the coast to the north, can be reached only by boat or by plane, and boats for Tortuguero leave from Moín.
- If you hire a car, avoid leaving luggage in it while parked. Thieves have slashed tires and then offered to help, and some criminals cause deliberate collisions to stop vehicles and rob the drivers.
Tipping in Costa Rica
Tipping practice varies in Costa Rica. Some restaurants add a 10 percent service charge to the bill, so check for it before you leave anything extra.
- The colón is the currency.
Caribbean Limón
Limón is one of Costa Rica's most culturally and racially mixed cities and a heartland of its Afro-Caribbean community. Many residents speak Limonese Creole, also called Mekatelyu, an English-based Creole close to Jamaican Patois, alongside Spanish.
- The name Mekatelyu comes from the phrase "make I tell you", meaning "let me tell you".
- Many families of Jamaican descent have English surnames, a legacy of the workers who came for the railroad.
- In 1910 Marcus Garvey worked in Limón for some months as a timekeeper for the United Fruit Company.
- The town's older houses follow Caribbean styles, tall and built of wood, and the United Fruit Company added houses with Victorian touches.
History
Limón was founded in 1854 and chosen as the site of Costa Rica's Atlantic port so that coffee from the Central Valley could reach Europe. The railroad and banana plantations that followed brought workers from Jamaica, whose descendants still shape the city.
- Cariay: The local people called the place Cariay, and the island offshore Quiribrí.
- Columbus: On his fourth and last voyage, Columbus anchored at Isla Uvita for about two weeks of repairs, and he recorded landing at Cariay on September 25, 1502.
- Cacao and enslaved Africans: From 1569, the Spanish governor granted land in nearby Matina to aristocrats, who grew cacao there with enslaved Africans, and the plantations drew pirate raids.
- Pirates: In 1666 the pirates Edward Mansvelt and Henry Morgan landed at Portete, between Limón and Moín, and marched inland toward Cartago before being turned back.
- The town and the railroad: Philipp Valentini founded the town in 1854. Work on a railroad from the highlands to the sea began in 1867, and in the 1870s the railway and port brought in workers from Jamaica, Italy and China.
- Bananas: When the railroad ran into financial trouble in 1890, many workers turned to farming, and banana production peaked in 1907.
- Segregation: Until 1949, Costa Rica's laws kept Black people in Limón Province.
- War at the quay: On July 3, 1942, a German U-boat attacked the ship San Pablo while it was being unloaded in Limón, killing 23 dock workers and one crew member.
- The 1991 earthquake: The Limón earthquake of 1991 raised parts of the coastline by about 1.85 meters, cracked streets and destroyed many buildings.
Limón with Children and Families
The main family outing from Limón is Cahuita National Park, where children can look for sloths and monkeys from the trail and finish on the beach. Keep the walk short for younger children.
- Younger children: The small white-sand beach just inside the Cahuita entrance is a short walk from the gate. Watch children closely, because rip currents are common and lifeguards are rare.
- School age: The forest trail at Cahuita is a chance to spot sloths, capuchin and howler monkeys, coatis and the keel-billed toucan. Early in the day, before the park gets busy, animals are easier to see.
- Teenagers: Cahuita's reef has at least 35 kinds of coral and more than a hundred kinds of fish, and the water is usually clearest from February to April.
- Turtles: Sea turtles nest on the beaches at Cahuita, and Tortuguero, to the north, is the second-largest green turtle nesting beach in the world.
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