Puntarenas (Pointsands, from “punta arenas”, or “sand point” in Spanish) is the capital and largest city in the province Puntarenas, Costa Rica, at the Pacific coast. The eponymous and oddly shaped province has its largest section in the South, far from the capital.

Its port, Caldera, is one of the main ports in the country. Some 100,000 live in the city and close towns. With beaches on the Pacific Ocean, it also attracts many tourists, especially surfers. It is also a possible stopover point for the touristy Monteverde, further inland.

Puntarenas is a province of Costa Rica. It is located in the western part of the country, covering most of Costa Rica’s Pacific Ocean coast, and it is the largest province in Costa Rica. Clockwise from the northwest it borders on the provinces Guanacaste, Alajuela, San José and Limón, and the neighbouring country of Panama.

The capital is Puntarenas. The province covers an area of 11,266 square kilometres (4,350 sq mi), and has a population of 357,483 (2000). It is subdivided into 11 cantons. For administrative purposes, the island Isla del Coco, 500 kilometres (310 mi) offshore in the Pacific Ocean, is considered a part of this province.

Canton (Capital):

1. Aguirre (Quepos)
2. Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires)
3. Corredores (Ciudad Neily)
4. Coto Brus (San Vito)
5. Esparza (Esparza)
6. Garabito (Jacó)
7. Golfito (Golfito)
8. Montes de Oro (Miramar)
9. Osa (Ciudad Cortés)
10. Parrita (Parrita)
11. Puntarenas (Puntarenas)

Notable places

• Jacó
• Manuel Antonio National Park
• Montezuma
• Monteverde
• San Lucas Island

History

First known as Villa Bruselas in colonial times, Puntarenas was discovered by Hernán Ponce de León in 1519. 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 1879, a stretch of railroad track was completed which connected Puntarenas with the town of Esparza (one of the country’s earliest Spanish settlements, founded in 1554, a decade before the Central Valley began to be colonized) where the oxcart trail came out of the mountains. Eventually, the railroad was built all the way through to San José and service was inaugurated in 1910. Nickname(s): La perla del Pacífico, El Puerto

With the railroad 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.