Puntarenas, Costa Rica

History

🇨🇷 Puntarenas is a city in the Puntarenas canton of Puntarenas Province, on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. As the seat of the Municipality of Puntarenas canton, it is awarded the title of city, which is made from the Puntarenas, Chacarita and El Roble districts. And as the city of the first canton of the province, it is the capital city of the Puntarenas Province as well, according to the Administrative divisions of Costa Rica.

As a major port on the Pacific coast, the gastronomy of Puntarenas is characterised by several seafood dishes, such as ceviche. A very popular dessert is the Churchill, a type of snow cone. Its Pacific Ocean beaches attract many tourists, especially surfers. It is also a possible stopover point for the tourist destination Monteverde, to the north-west. Its port, Caldera, is one of the main ports and the oldest port in the country. There are regular scheduled ferries to and from Puntarenas and the Nicoya Peninsula.

History Puntarenas was discovered by Gil González Dávila in 1522. Despite the use of the Gulf of Nicoya as an entryway to Costa Rica's inland territory, the port of Puntarenas was not developed until 1840 when coffee production in the highlands reached exportable volumes. In 1845 the Congress of the Republic declared Puntarenas a duty-free port (with the exception of Cognac and hard liquor). Originally, the coffee was brought to port in oxcarts via a trail through the mountains. In 1859, a stretch of railway track was completed between Puntarenas and the town of Esparza (one of the country's earliest Spanish settlements, founded in 1574). Eventually, the railway was built all the way through to San José and service was inaugurated in 1910.

With the railway connection to the Central Valley, the Pacific port's activities continued to be a major part of the region's economy throughout the 20th century. However, due to the aging and deterioration of the port facilities and the need to accommodate the much larger vessels of modern shipping fleets, a new port was constructed in the 1980s to the south of Puntarenas. The site chosen was Caldera, where ships had anchored during colonial times. Caldera was more appropriate site for larger ships, and actually was the first port site used since 1522.

Costa Rica Time 
Costa Rica Time
Image: Adobe Stock Gian #226932813

Puntarenas has a population of over 41,528 people. Puntarenas also forms the centre of the wider Puntarenas Province which has a population of over 410,929 people.

To set up a UBI Lab for Puntarenas see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork

Twin Towns - Sister Cities Puntarenas has links with:

🇯🇵 Kesennuma, Japan 🇲🇽 Mazatlán, Mexico 🇨🇳 Shantou, China 🇨🇳 Zhongshan, China
Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license

Antipodal to Puntarenas is: 95.166,-9.977

Locations Near: Puntarenas -84.8337,9.97742

🇨🇷 Quesada -84.42,10.344 d: 60.9  

🇨🇷 Alajuela -84.221,10.016 d: 67.2  

🇨🇷 Escazú -84.146,9.916 d: 75.6  

🇨🇷 Pavas -84.137,9.95 d: 76.4  

🇨🇷 Heredia -84.116,9.999 d: 78.6  

🇨🇷 San José -84.115,9.945 d: 78.8  

🇨🇷 Liberia -85.458,10.633 d: 99.9  

🇨🇷 Cartago -83.921,9.857 d: 100.9  

🇳🇮 San Carlos -84.776,11.124 d: 127.7  

🇨🇷 Turrialba -83.681,9.89 d: 126.7  

Antipodal to: Puntarenas 95.166,-9.977

🇮🇩 Bengkulu 102.25,-3.783 d: 18973.3  

🇮🇩 Bengkulu City 102.264,-3.792 d: 18972.8  

🇮🇩 Liwa 104.083,-5.033 d: 18889.1  

🇮🇩 Padang 100.355,-0.951 d: 18859  

🇮🇩 Pringsewu 104.961,-5.356 d: 18819.9  

🇮🇩 Teluk Dalam 97.8,0.55 d: 18808.8  

🇮🇩 Sawahlunto 100.777,-0.681 d: 18809.4  

🇮🇩 Padang Panjang 100.429,-0.458 d: 18807.1  

🇮🇩 Bukittinggi 100.367,-0.3 d: 18794.9  

🇮🇩 Bandar Lampung 105.267,-5.45 d: 18793.8  

Bing Map

Option 1