Costa Rica Guide - Paul Glassman

Costa Rica Guide—Order Now! Table of Contents

Paul Glassman’s Costa Rica Guide
PASSPORT PRESS Eleventh Edition Copyright © 2003 by Paul Glassman

All rights reserved. The reproduction of any part of this book without the author’s written permission is strictly prohibited.

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10
The Wild East

North and east of the mountainous backbone of Costa Rica is the triangle-shaped Caribbean coastal region, a vast area of dense tropical forest. No time of year, no remote corner of the Atlantic slope, is ever dry. Clouds blow in from the sea throughout the year. Those that don't drench the area directly shed their water against the central mountains, from where it flows back to the Caribbean in numerous rivers, and often overflows onto the low-lying, poorly drained land. Rainfall at Limón, in the center of the coastal strip, reaches 150 inches in many years, and near the Nicaraguan border, approaches 200 inches.

Despite the thick layer of plants in the lowlands, the soil is poor. Enriching ash blows only westward from the volcanoes of the highlands, and constant rain leaches nutrients. The tribes that lived in this area before the Conquest were the least settled of Costa Rica, relying on hunting and gathering for their food, as well as on corn plots that had to be frequently relocated as the earth was exhausted.

The Hostile Lands

The Caribbean was the locale of the first attempts by the Spaniards to conquer and settle Costa Rica. But jungle heat, endless rain, insects, poisonous tree sap, snakes, dense vegetation, yellow fever, malaria, dysentery, and a hostile population were only some of the obstacles to establishing a plantation agriculture in the region.

In the nineteenth century, as Costa Rica began to export large quantities of coffee, it became clear that a direct, all-year transport route to the Caribbean was needed. In an epic undertaking, and at a cost of thousands of lives, a railroad was completed from the port of Limón to San José in 1890. Long before that date, however, a new export crop was being carried on the route: bananas. Costa Rica was the first nation to supply the world with the fruit, and within a few years, the crop was second only to coffee in earnings. But Panama disease ravished the plantations in the 1930s, and operations were relocated to the Pacific lowlands. Later, cacao, rubber and abaca (manila hemp) were planted, but none proved as profitable as bananas.

Spurred by new road and canal construction, settlements are today spreading through much of the formerly empty Caribbean region. Forests are being cut down and converted to pasture, or tilled for crops. And the once-moribund banana industry is reviving, with disease-resistant varieties.

Wild Attractions

The environment in much of the Caribbean region is still largely uncomfortable, in parts threatening to human existence. Why, then, would anybody venture there, except out of necessity? The trip to Limón is a descent from highlands to jungle through varied zones of vegetation. The Caribbean coastline is one nearly continuous sweep of white beach, most of it deserted. Wildlife treasures abound, including green turtles in their protected nesting area at Tortuguero. Fishing, especially for tarpon, is world-class. The blacks who form a large part of the lowland population are a fascinating culture, quite different from other Costa Ricans. And also, there is nothing menacing in those parts of the Caribbean lowlands where the visitor is likely to tread.

NEW ROAD, OLD ROAD, RAILROAD

Two major routes lead to the Caribbean area:

The "new" highway to Limón and the beaches, via Braulio Carrillo National Park. By car or bus, you can reach the coast from San José in under three hours on this route.

The meandering, up-and-down "old" highway, via Cartago and Turrialba. Travel time is about double, but the scenery is varied, and there are more interesting stopping points along the way.

Until a few years ago, the "jungle train" also ran from San José to Limón, on a route more or less parallel to the old road, with branch lines into parts of the lowlands. While a rail trip to the Caribbean is no longer possible, a lowland section remains in operation, and parts of the system are used by tours.

Each of these routes has set the stage for a new level of development of this once-forbidding area. I'll cover them, and the sites and sights along the way, in historical order.

THE JUNGLE TRAIN

Any mention of the railroad line to the Caribbean requires a preliminary excursion into Costa Rican history. Primitive trails descended the Atlantic slope to navigable lowland rivers from at least early in the colonial period, and probably before, but these were often made impassable by rain, and Costa Rica's limited international trade was channeled through the Pacific port of Puntarenas. As early as 1820, an improved route to the Caribbean was proposed. But no way was found to construct an all-season road, and Costa Rica's ever-expanding coffee exports continued to reach Europe only after a long detour around the tip of South America.

In 1871, the Costa Rican government contracted with Henry Meiggs, an American who had built railroads in the Andes, to construct a line from Limón to San José. The work came under the supervision of a nephew of Meiggs, Minor C. Keith.

Workers were recruited, mostly from New Orleans, and financing was arranged, but the project appeared doomed from the beginning. Floods washed out sections of track almost as soon as they were laid. Nearly 600 of the first 700 workers were soon dead of malaria. The first 25 miles of track cost 4000 lives, mostly new Chinese recruits who succumbed to yellow fever. Keith himself lost three brothers and an uncle, but pushed on nevertheless, contracting workers from Italy and around the Caribbean. Those who survived were mostly West Indian.

Cash Crop

Keith's credit was exhausted before the tracks had progressed far, but his men labored on for months without pay, partly out of personal loyalty, partly because there were few alternatives. Finally, Keith sought temporary revenue by planting banana shoots, brought from Panama, along completed sections of track. Native strains of the fruit already grew in the area, but were inedible, and left to rot. The desperate scheme was successful beyond imagination. Bananas were soon being shipped from Costa Rica, and provided more than ample funds to push on with construction over swamps, rivers and mountains.

A road was opened from San José to the railhead at Carrillo in 1882, allowing the first large-scale movement of people and goods from the highlands to the Caribbean. Landslides, floods, cave-ins and illness continued to plague the builders, but by the end of 1890, the line was open all the way from San José to Limón, a distance of 100 miles.

Meanwhile, Keith continued to expand his banana business. He was granted vast tracts of land and a 99-year lease on the railroad in exchange for completing its construction on his own account. He consolidated his holdings in Costa Rica and elsewhere into the United Fruit Company. His International Railways of Central America constructed lines throughout the isthmus.

With the completion of the railroad, the economy and face of Costa Rica were transformed. Bananas came to be almost as important as coffee to the nation's well-being. Many Jamaican laborers settled along the tracks, taking advantage of land grants under an 1884 law, or went to work on the plantations.

The railroad came under English ownership, and dominated transport in the Caribbean region until the 1970s, when an all-weather road to Limón was completed. With containerization of ocean cargo and the increasing use of trucks, and with buses providing more rapid passenger service, the line, nationalized in 1972, became a chronic money-loser. Traffic declined to just one daily passenger train in each direction between San José and Limón, before landslides put an end to through traffic.

Inquire at the tourist office or a travel agency about the availability of excursions along the old rail line. Currently, TAM Tours (tel. 222-2642) operates a train on a lowland portion of the line, with a stop at a banana warehouse.

THE OLD ROAD

The road from San José to Turrialba descends along one tributary valley of the Reventazón, climbs, and descends to the next, seeming to take the path of greatest resistance in abhorrence of bottom lands subject to washouts.

Cervantes, 21 kilometers from Cartago, is perhaps best known to Costa Ricans for its food products, especially pickled Jalapeño peppers. Just past the village, a branch road climbs to Pacayas, on the slopes of Irazú volcano, then loops along the slopes of Turrialba volcano. Smaller farming and coffee-processing centers, Naranjo and Juan Viñas, lie along the main road.

TURRIALBA

Population: 35,000; altitude: 625 meters (2050 feet); 64 kilometers from San José.

Located where the Central Valley starts to slope down toward the Atlantic jungles, Turrialba is lower, warmer, more languid, and less tidy than towns nearer to San José. Turrialba marks the approximate limit of coffee cultivation. The valley of the Reventazón and its tributaries in this area typically are pastured or planted in sugarcane along their lower, flatter reaches, and covered with coffee bushes on higher slopes.

Getting There

Buses for Turrialba leave from Avenida 6, Calle 13, San José, about every hour from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. The trip takes less than two hours.

Where to Stay and Eat

Hotel Wagelia, tel. 556-1566, fax 556-1596. 18 rooms. $60 single/$75 double, higher with air conditioning, t.v., refrigerator. www.wagelia.com

An attractive, modern hotel, very clean, with rooms around a courtyard landscaped with palm trees and boulders. Two blocks from the bus station, on the way to San José. The hotel arranges trips to Turrialba volcano, CATIE, and Guayabo National Monument.

Lesser hotels include the LaRoche, on the entry street into town, tel. 556-1624, and the Pensión Chelita across the street, tel. 556-0214, both with rooms for less than $7 per person; and the Central, Chamanga and Interamericano. The latter has a few rooms with private bath.

Near Turrialba:

Turrialtico, tel. 556-1111, 8 kilometers from Turrialba on the Limón road, is a woodsy restaurant with a view. Seating is at tables fashioned from oxcart wheels in an open area under the guest rooms. Cooking is native-style, on a wood stove, and the fare includes steaks, casados, and tortillas stuffed with beans and cheese. Well under $10 for a meal. The lodging rate in the 12 rooms is about $35 for up to three persons, under a tin roof (great in downpours!) and off a large sitting area open to the sky. www.turrialtico.com.

Pochotel (tel. 556-0111, fax 556-6222, P. O. Box 121-7150), two kilometers from a turnoff nine kilometers from Turrialba, is harder to reach, but has better views to Turrialba and the installations of CATIE. The menu is native-style, with corn or tripe soup, gallos, casados, and grilled beef and chicken for $5 or less per item. There are six rooms here as well as a trailer, going for $25 double, $5 per extra person. Visa and Master Card accepted.

Albergue de Montaña Rancho Naturalista is a lodge that offers rain forest birding, at about $125 daily with all meals and tours. Call 267-7138 for information, or johnerb@sol.racsa.co.cr.

Casa Turire, P. O. Box 303-1750 Turrialba, tel. 531-1111, fax 531-1075. 16 rooms. $140 to $160 double, up to $250 in suites. Add $20 for breakfast and dinner. www.hotelcasaturire.com, turire @ticonet.co.cr

Take a deep breath, straighten your posture, and prepare for your grand entry to Casa Turire ("tu-REE-ray"). At the end of a kilometer-long palm-lined drive looms a huge three-story tan concrete form wrapped with verandas, making architectural reference to vernacular agrarian structures.

Inside is pure elegance. French doors and large windows frame great lawns and misty mountains, fans whir softly overhead, patterned tile echoes footsteps, a cozy corner bar opens into a grand atrium.

Proceed up a stairway to view a junior suite with its wooden floor, stencilled walls, area rugs, private terrace, armchairs, television concealed in custom-built cabinet, lights in sconces, mini-bar, lockable security box, and large bathroom with tub and hair dryer. Pause at the window, and gaze down to the eight-shaped pool and whirlpool, and terrace. Move on to a standard room, with most of the same amenities, on a slightly reduced scale. Continue and try on the pièce de resistance, the master suite, with sitting room, refrigerator, upstairs bedroom, air conditioning, and two full bathrooms, one with a whirlpool, and views through an oversized window to whomever advances onto the grounds of the estate.

Take your restauration in the dining room, always elegantly set with crystal, serving a daily continental menu, usually with a choice of two main courses; relax in the game room, with dominoes and other sedate, non-computerized pastimes; take a horseback outing to inspect production in the fields of coffee, sugarcane and macadamia on the domain; or ride a mountain bicycle, play golf, or join a rafting trip.

Obviously, if you have a few dollars to spare, and maybe even if you don't, you will take the opportunity to spend at least a night at Casa Turire, and you will make no excuses for doing so.

"Plantation hotel" only begins to suggest what Casa Turire is. To reach Casa Turire, take the turnoff just after the bridge on the highway south from Turrialba. Continue alongside the Reventazón River and follow the signs four kilometers to the entry.

Children are not allowed through the gates.

Turrialba Sites and Scenes

Turrialba is basically an agricultural center of no great attraction. But those with a special interest in agriculture or archaeology might want to make a stop. Many rafting groups also pause here before or after riding the Reventazón.

To go rafting here, it's best to make arrangements through a specialized agency in San José. Some have offices in town. For canoe and kayak rental, as well as guided trips, try Costa Rica Ríos Aventuras (P.O. Box 43), half a block behind the church in Turriaba, tel. and fax 556-9617, rmclain@sol.racsa.co.cr, www. CostaRicaRios.com.

Four kilometers east of town, on the road to Limón, is CATIE, the Tropical Agronomic Research and Education Center. Native plant diversity and the range of altitudes and environments on CATIE's more than 2000 acres of land afford a wealth of opportunities for testing plant and animal strains, and developing more efficient ways of cultivating traditional crops. The library on tropical agriculture is recognized as the best of its kind anywhere. CATIE's staff comes from many countries. Guided tours may be arranged by phoning 556-6431 three days ahead, or through travel agencies in San José. Or you can just drop in and look at the rather lovely and attractively landscaped estate around the main building. Take a local bus from Turrialba, or a taxi for about $3

GUAYABO NATIONAL MONUMENT

About 20 kilometers north of Turrialba, on the slopes of the Turrialba volcano, is Guayabo National Monument. Although Costa Rica is especially rich in pre-Columbian antiquities, its early inhabitants lived nomadic existences, or concentrated in villages and towns built of highly perishable materials. There are no great native ceremonial centers that survive to this day, as they do in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Mexico, or at least they have not yet been discovered. Which is why the Guayabo complex, with its constructions of natural and hewn stone, is considered important by Costa Ricans.

The Guayabo site includes paved walkways, walls, and circular stone constructions, or mounds, that might have been foundations for conical houses of a South American sort, with sides of saplings covered with palm thatch. The largest mound has a stairway oriented to the volcano Turrialba, and volcanic ash found in pottery here indicates that the mountain might have figured in ceremonies or cures. Subterranean and surface aqueducts, terminating in rectangular stone storage tanks (also signs of South American cultural influence), are still serviceable. These run from some of the hundred or so springs (which first drew people to settle here), and were stepped to slow the flow of water. Other finds are fluted points, scrapers and knives which show stylistic influences from both north and south; tombs (which have been opened only by grave-robbers); and carved stone tables, grave markers and blocks of undetermined purpose (petroglyphs), which might have been altars. Some of the markings on the stone objects are obviously persons or gods; in some cases jaguars and alligators can be recognized; but most are non-representational, and remain a mystery to modern viewers. From the size of tombs, the height of the inhabitants can be estimated—160 cm. for men, 150 cm. for women.

Archeologists estimate that Guayabo was occupied before the time of Christ, and that the population reached as much as 15,000. It was abandoned for undetermined reasons well before the Spanish first came to Costa Rica. In the absence of historical records, activities at the site remain a mystery, though it appears that Guayabo was some sort of administrative-commercial-ceremonial center. It is on a natural route from the highlands to the Caribbean. And paved causeways lead from the center to smaller sites with similar characteristics up to nine kilometers distant.

Visiting Guayabo

Access to Guayabo is by a winding road in poor condition. The last few kilometers are unpaved. Your best bet, if you're not driving, is to hire a taxi in Turrialba for the round trip. Buses that pass not far from the site currently leave Turrialba at about noon, and return at 5 p.m.

In addition to the 20-hectare archeological site, Guayabo comprises a 217-hectare natural zone of premontane rain forest dense with vines and epiphytes, and alive with birds and animals. About 160 bird species have been recorded. Residents include sloths, raccoons, coatis, and many others. The astounding aspect is that most of this life has regenerated or been attracted in just the 25 years that the former pasture has been protected. The natural attractions will be for many the main reason for visiting.

Guayabo is open daily from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. In order to protect the site from foot traffic in delicate areas, as well as from looters, visitors may enter the archeological zone only on a guided walk, which is arranged on demand. The fee is about $2. Guides speak only Spanish, but are good communicators, and will show an English fact sheet, as required, to get across the main points.

The guided walk, which lasts about an hour, takes visitors for about 1000 meters through forest, and another few hundred meters through the cleared archeological site. The trails are excellent, gravelled or stepped as required, with various marked points of interest and resting spots. Notable species are pointed out, including a tree that catches birds with its sticky sap; the guarumo, swarming with ants that keep it clean; and a tree whose fibers are used by natives to make fishing nets. A lookout point provides a panorama of the archaeological site. The trail leads onward by the stone structures, but you're forbidden to scramble over them.

A second nature trail, with no signposts, may be visited without guides. A roadside observation point past the entrance affords views to a few spots of primary forest and the Guayabo River canyon (when not fogged in). Other facilities here include a picnic area, campsite, and a room with artifacts, including stone zoomorphs, grinding stones, and displays that contrast Guayabo monochrome pottery with other styles found in Costa Rica.

Lodging

Hotel La Calzada almost adjacent to Guayabo, has five double rooms, sharing bathroom, for about $30 double. Call 556-0465 or fax 556-0427 to leave a message, or write P. O. Box 260-7150 Turrialba. This is a pretty spot with a pond (where you can fish for tilapia), long-distance views over pastures, and trees and plants identified by signs and tags. Tico-style meals are available as well if you're just visiting Guayabo for the day.

Farther north is the semi-active Turrialba volcano, which rises to an altitude of 3339 meters (10,955 feet). Access for climbing the volcano is usually from the village of Santa Cruz, north of the town of Turrialba, or from the picturesque village of Pacayas, which may be reached by bus from San José or Cartago.

One last excursion from Turrialba is to Moravia de Chirripó, 30 kilometers away in the mountains to the east. In the region are small settlements of Talamanca Indians, who after centuries of isolation are coming into contact with the mainstream culture of Costa Rica. Inquire in Turrialba for buses or trucks headed to Moravia.

THE NEW ROAD

The quick way to Limón is on the highway through Braulio Carrillo National Park. Buses cover the 100 miles from San José in under three hours. The misty environment and the other-worldly vegetation are intriguing, though of necessity the trip unfolds at too rapid a pace.

From San José, a divided expressway ascends the slopes of the volcano Barva, into highland tropical forest. Just 21 kilometers out of the capital, now on a two-lane road, you dart out of the Central Valley, into the eerie Zurquí tunnel, the only highway tunnel in Costa Rica, unlit but by headlights, the roadway—marked by reflectors along the center line—visible only intermittently as clouds from the far end probe and slide through.

Beyond is the enchanted high forest of Braulio Carrillo National Park. The road curves, ascends and drops and ascends again, through near-permanent mist revealing at times moss-, epiphyte- and orchid-laden trees, and shiny-leafed plants at ground level. All vehicles travel cautiously, from the lack of visibility, or from the thin air.

About 35 kilometers from San José is a roadside parking area, with lookout point and trail. It's one of the few access points to the interior of the park along this route. But visitors should not stray from within sight of the road, except in large groups. Muggings occur on a regular basis.

Farther, on the descent toward the lowlands, is a wide spot by a bridge, from which one can observe the orange-brown waters of the Río Sucio ("Dirty River"), laden with minerals from the volcano Irazú, merging with the clear Hondura River flowing from lower slopes.

Fifty kilometers from San José, where the highway comes off the volcano and onto the plain of Guápiles, is the junction for a side road to Puerto Viejo de Sarapiquí (see page 449).

From this point, the run to Limón is flat and nearly straight. Major towns along the way are Guápiles (with the roadside Sukia restaurant a preferred stopping point for burgers and sandwiches), of little touristic interest, and Guácimo; but eco-entrepreneurs have taken advantage of the forest to create adventures for travellers passing through.

Diversions

Bosque Lluvioso Río Costa Rica, off a turn from the highway at kilometer 56, is a section of rain forest that doesn't necessarily require an overnight stay for appreciation. There are trails that afford views of birds and mammals, and since it's a private operation, horseback riding and similar distractions are available, along with decent bathrooms. The entry is about three kilometers down the side road, an hour from San José, and admission is about $15. For current activities, call 224-0819 or fax 225-1297 in San José or 305-384-0595 in the U.S.

About four miles outside Guácimo is Costa Flores, a flower farm and botanical. Giant heliconias are grown here for export to the world, and escorted tours are available at $15 a head. It's a pleasant stop on the road to Limón, with brick and cement walkways winding among streams and plantings of heliconia, papyrus, ginger, pineapple, and a restaurant in the form of Noah's ark. Your florist's stock started at a place like this somewhere in the tropics. If you're driving by, take a quick detour and see how things are going.

The Rain Forest Aerial Tramway

Serious concern about the rain forest and its qualities as a travel destination and source of amusements all concatenate in the Aerial Tramway, a converted ski-lift facility that takes visitors on a 90-minute trip through the rain forest canopy, where most of the birds, monkeys, orchids, bromeliads and other denizens of the green spend their time. Though you might consider this just another activity to peel your tourist buck (or, actually, fifty of them), it is fully credentialed, being under the proprietorship of Dr. Don Perry, whose work in exploring rain forest life and life cycles has been featured in National Geographic Magazine. In addition to the ride, there are walking trails, and a cable bridge straight out of Indiana Jones. There are numerous places in Costa Rica where you can hike rain forest trails, but there are, for now, only a few lesser knockoffs of the tramway.

Hours are 6 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (from 9 a.m. Mondays), and the fee includes guide service and a video. The tram has its own bus service at about $20, or any Guápiles or Limón bus will drop you nearby for a couple of dollars. Contacts: tel. 257-6053 in San José, www.rainforesttram.com, dolsea@sol.racsa.co.cr.

[ and !Alternatives are available if you can't afford a full day of your vacation time on this trip. Hotels in and near Monteverde offer simpler, less towering, shorter, and lower-priced excursions through cloud forest (a somewhat different ecosystem to be sure).

LIMON

Population: 60.000; Altitude: 3 meters; 168 kilometers from San José.

Limón, Costa Rica's main Caribbean port, opened to banana traffic in 1880, but its place in national history is more venerable. Christopher Columbus landed offshore, at Uvita Island, in 1502. The first Spanish attempts at settlement were made in the area. Intermittently through the colonial period, encounters with the British and Dutch, both commercial and bellicose, took place at Portete, just a few kilometers to the north.

The port city of Limón that grew with the railway was as much a part of the British West Indies as of Costa Rica. Blacks from Jamaica and other islands constituted most of the population, and English was the only language that mattered in business. Immigrant workers kept their British passports, sent their children to school in English, read Jamaican newspapers, and went to the movies to see British films. Limón and the banana lands were separated from Costa Rica not only by language and culture, but also by a law that forbade blacks from crossing the Central Valley or overnighting there.

This separate society began to break down in the 1930s, when the banana industry was uprooted by Panama disease, and relocated to the Pacific lowlands. After the civil war of 1949, blacks were granted full citizenship, and in small numbers began to migrate to the Central Valley. Meanwhile, more and more Costa Ricans of the overcrowded plateau looked for opportunities in the warm country to the east. Most black children were educated in Spanish after 1949, and the use of English has been declining since.

Limón today is a mixed Hispanic and Afro-Caribbean city, but more and more, the Hispanic predominates. The local Creole patois, permeated with Spanish words, is the language of the older generation. Blacks are discouraged from using what Hispanic Costa Ricans consider "bad" English, though many can still speak a rather elegant and formal Caribbean dialect. English has no official status, and is studied only in secondary school.

Nevertheless, Afro-Caribbean ways hold on. Columbus Day is celebrated in Limón as it is throughout Latin America, but with a fervor and style that correspond to Carnival in the islands. Home cooking, heavy on fish, tripe, rice, coconut, and stews with cow's feet, is less than familiar to other Costa Ricans. Religion is a vibrant part of the lives of the black population, and not the formality that it is to the broad class of Hispanic Costa Ricans.

People rise early in Limón to beat the heat, go about their business, then take a long break until the worst of the sun is gone. Businesses stay open late, and music blares on all streets from record shops, bars and restaurants. The sounds are Latin and Soul, reflecting the population division. Sailors, hangers-on and prostitutes frequent the bars, many of them open 24 hours. The best show in Limón is the street life, the commerce and hustling in the market and open squares, and under the concrete overhangs on all the main streets.

To the visitor, Limón at first glance is probably a disappointment, rich in culture and tradition, but run down. Fruit and sodden garbage sometimes rot in the streets waiting for a tardy pickup, buildings decay in the salt air, ironwork balconies and tin roofs rust away. But appearance is a relative matter. Compared to the towns of the Central Valley, Limón is shabby. Compared to other ports on this coast—Belize City, Puerto Barrios in Guatemala, La Ceiba in Honduras—Limón is pristine with its paved streets, functioning sewers, a clean market. Of teeming tropical ports, it is a good choice for the outsider to sample. But if people-watching in a throbbing, hot town is not your cup of tea, move on to the beaches and parks to the north or south.

Getting There

Buses for Limón leave every hour from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. from Avenida 3, Calles 19/21, San José.

The airstrip is three kilometers south of town, along the sea. Travelair (tel. 220-3054 in San José, has a flight operating several days a week at about $100 round trip.

Orientation

Avenida 2 is Limón's main street, running east from the railway passenger station to Vargas Park, near the waterfront. There is no odd-even segregation of avenidas and calles, as in San José. The freight line of the railroad, running to the docks, bounds Limón to the south, along Avenida 1. Street numbers are posted, but some of the signs are in the wrong place. Locals use their own tags—Avenida 2 is the Market Street.

Hotels

It isn't a good idea to arrive in Limón on a weekend without a reservation. The best hotels are on the northern edge of town, or farther out at Portete.

Hotel Maribu Caribe, Portete road, tel. 758-4010. 24 units. $80 single/$100 double.

The newest hotel near Limón, on a rise along the water, with commanding views. Guest rooms, relatively small, are in unusual round cottages with high thatched roofs. All are air conditioned. Amenities include a double pool, air conditioning, and television. Restaurant and bar, tour service.

Hotel Matama, Portete (P. O. Box 686-7300 Limón), tel. 758-1123, fax 758-4499. 16 units. $70 single/$85 double/$20 additional person.

These are attractive bungalows sleeping up to eight, well finished with details in tropical woods, in a nicely lush hillside setting. Kids' and adults' pools, and an attractive open restaurant.

[ Some units have little interior gardens in the bathrooms.

! You can easily be stumped by some of the offbeat details, for example, a t.v. and air conditioner that share one socket.

Hotel Jardín Tropical, tel. 798-1244 (253-6610, fax 234-9921 in San José). 32 units. $60 double.

These are newish units intended for the weekend trade from San José, with air conditioning, television, and kitchenette. Rooms are in hillside bungalows with attractive woodwork. Pool and children's pool, basketball court, tennis.

More inexpensive accommodations near the above hotels are mentioned below, under Playa Bonita and Portete.

Hotel Acón, Calle 3, Avenida 3, P. O. Box 528-7300, tel. 758-1010, fax 798-2924. 39 rooms. $35 single/$45 double.

Best in the center of town, despite plain, bare rooms and washbasins that drain into the showers. Clean and air-conditioned.

Hotel Internacional, Avenida 5, Calles 2/3 (P. O. Box 288), tel. 758-0423. 25 rooms. $20 single/$25 double with fan, $20/$30 with air conditioning.

Modern and cheery, replacing a hotel that collapsed in the 1991 earthquake. Try to get a room with outside windows, rather than one of the cubicles toward the center of the building. Protected parking is included in the rate.

Hotel Miami, Avenida 2, Calles 4/5, tel. 758-0490. 32 rooms. $20 single/$30 double, less with fan only.

Bare rooms right on the main street, but, with air conditioning, one of the better buys in Limón.

Hotel Park, Avenida 3, Calles 1/2, tel. 758-0476. 14 rooms. $19 single/$23 double.

Once Limón's grande dame, with restaurant, bar, good view of the port, and an aura of faded glory. Adequate, if you can do without air conditioning. Rooms without sea view cost less. Not too clean.

Hotel Tete, Calle 4, Avenida 3, tel. 758-1122. 14 rooms. $15 single/$25 double.

In the center of the action, opposite Limón's market, but clean.

Hotel Lincoln, Avenida 5, Calles 2/3, tel.580074. $8 per person.

Plain, fans available.

Hotel Cariari, Calle 2, Avenidas 2/3, tel. 758-1395. 7 rooms. $6 per person.

Bare, hot. If you can get by the toilet down the hall, the second-floor balcony offers good people-watching opportunities.

There are other cheapies on the same block as the Cariari. Inexpensive lodgings can also be found on Calle 4, opposite the market.

Other lodgings are available around Playa Bonita, five kilometers north of Limón, and in Moín, the terminus of the Tortuguero Canal. These are mentioned below.

Where to Eat

With the sea nearby, lobster and shrimp cost slightly less in Limón than in San José. Another specialty is Jamaican-style cooking, but unfortunately, it's a home phenomenon that only rarely makes its way to restaurant menus. In general, you can eat wholesomely and heartily in Limón, but not always exquisitely.

Lifebuoy (no, that's not the name, just the most visible sign near the Monpik), Avenida 3, Calles 2/3, opposite the Hotel Acón, is a McDonald's-style walk-up-and-order place with not only cheeseburgers and fried chicken, but also Caribbean-style rice and beans, and fresh fruit drinks. $5 or less for a meal.

Mares, a bar and restaurant, is sort of pleasant, opposite the market on Avenida 2, Calles/3/4, and open to the sidewalk on one side—and to a supermarket on the other. Sit on wicker chairs, watch the street action or the shoppers (depending on which way you're facing), and consume standard Tico fare of burgers, spaghetti, or beef. About $6 for a full meal.

The dining room of the Hotel Acón is air-conditioned and comfortable. The menu has the usual assortment of chicken, beef and fish main courses for $6 or so, American breakfasts for $4.

The Springfield, along the water at the northern edge of town, is justly popular with residents and visitors. Inexpensive Caribbean-style offerings include rice and beans with turtle, and you can get assorted steak and fish plates, and even shrimp for under $10. The place is cool, clean, dark, and is livelier the later it gets.

La Fuente, Calle 3, Avenidas 3/4, is cleaner than the run of restaurants here. About $6 for a meal.

If none of these places attracts you, you can get roast chicken to take out, with a stack of tortillas, at Avenida 2, Calles 6/7. For the cheapest meals, try rubbing elbows with the locals at the eateries inside the market buildings.

The American Bar is an open-to-the-street place at Calle 1 and Avenida 2, opposite Vargas Park. Sailors and available women and persons on extended visits and even a few locals hang out here, more for the booze than the food. And you'll have no trouble finding additional drinking spots in Limón.

AROUND LIMON

The favorite place for sitting down in Limón is Vargas Park, a square of jungle at Avenida 2 and Calle 1, facing the sea. Giant hardwoods struggle against the odds with strangler figs, huge palms shoot toward the sky, vines and bromeliads compete for space and moisture, birds dart and flit through the tangle. There are supposed to be monkeys and three-toed sloths up there somewhere in the canopy, and perhaps you'll be luckier than me and spy them.

Across from the park is Limón's perfect tropical-port city hall, with its cream-colored stucco, open arcades and breezeways, balconies, and louvered windows. Limón's older architecture is well suited to the climate. Thick walls moderate the extremes of temperature, concrete overhangs block the sun and keep people dry when it rains, as it does drenchingly often.

The market, on Avenida 2 between Calles 3 and 4, is ever lively, set back in a large building in its own little park. Stop in and admire the papaya and passionfruit, as well as the more mundane but no less impressive one-pound carrots. The streets around the market are Limón's social center, where purveyors of food and games of chance set up shop during the Columbus Day celebrations and for the month preceding Christmas. The Columbus Day "carnival" season features floats, street bands, dancing and masquerades, and everything else that one expects to find in the islands at Mardi Gras.

Along the southern rim of Limón (Avenida 1) are the railroad tracks and the piers where bananas are loaded aboard ship. Despite the long journey to markets all over the world, bananas are delicate. In hot weather, the large leaves of the plant collapse to shelter the fruit. In dry spells, pores contract to conserve water. On the plantations, colored ribbons identify plants of the same age, to be harvested together. Once the stems with their "hands" (rows) of "fingers" (individual fruits) are cut from the plant, natural defenses are gone, and the fruit is rushed from the field to cooled ship's hold in 18 hours. The plants are chopped down after harvest, but new plants grow up from suckers and bear fruit in nine to fourteen months.

Growing and shipping bananas is an industrial-style operation. The fruit is loaded into cargo containers right after cutting, minimizing damage from excessive handling. With advanced cultivation techniques, Costa Rica's banana fields have the highest yields in Latin America. But they also use heavy doses of insecticides, which are contained by plastic bags wrapped around the fruit, but eventually seep into waterways. And discarded blue plastic from plantations is a visible pollutant of lowland waterways.

It is the Latins in Limón who stay up late and party. The bars open at 8 a.m. and soon people are bending elbows. Blacks, religious Protestants most of them, go family-style to the numerous and substantial churches.

Try to catch and understand snatches of Limón English. Many a word is different from what you know, and the rhythms and speech patterns further obscure what is said. Most confusing is that many of the words are not English at all, but Spanish, notably numbers. Most of Limón's blacks can also speak a more standard form of English that you'll find intelligible in direct conversation.

Limón is located on a rocky point, and is one of the few places along Costa Rica's Caribbean coast without a beach. There's a government-sponsored pool in town, but most visitors will prefer the nearby beaches.

Onward from Limón

Cahuita and Puerto Vargas can be reached on day excursions from Limón, though they're more fun if you stay for a day or two.

From Limón, rickety, usually crowded buses leave from Avenida 4, Calles 3/4 at 5 a.m., 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 4 p.m., arriving at Cahuita in about an hour, and at the junction for Puerto Viejo about 30 minutes later. There are buses at 6 a.m. and 2 p.m. that go right into Puerto Viejo and on to Manzanillo. Get to the station early to find a seat.

A taxi from Limón to Cahuita costs about $30.

The train to the banana-producing Estrella Valley, south of Limón, leaves Monday through Friday at 4 a.m. and 3 p.m. Return trains from the end of the line at Ley River are at 5:50 a.m. and 4:50 p.m. This train will get you close to the Hitoy Cerere Biological Reserve. Or, you could ride only as far as Penshurst, and continue southward to Cahuita by bus on the coastal highway.

You can also get to Tortuguero National Park and back in a day, though, again, an overnight stay is preferable. Package visits to Tortuguero are most easily arranged from San José. See pages 189 and 249 for more details on your options. In Limón, Tortuguero Odysseys (tel. 758-1940 or 758-0824), Caribbean Magic (tel. 758-1210), Mawamba tours (tel. 758-4915), Viajes Tropicales Laura (tel. 758-2410) and the Hotel Maribu all offer excursions to Tortuguero, ranging upward from $60 for a day trip.

The public bus for Playa Bonita, Portete and Moín runs every hour from Calle 4, Avenidas 3/4 in Limón.

Return buses for San José leave every hour from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. from Avenida 2, Calle 2.

North of Limón

PLAYA BONITA, PORTETE, MOIN

Several beaches north of Limón are play areas for people from the area and for weekenders from San José. Playa Bonita is a public park about four kilometers from Limón, with an absolutely idyllic bay, plenty of lush jungle vegetation as a backdrop, and a beach that attracts quite a share of debris. Facilities are limited—a few picnic tables and a children's play area, all of it overcrowded on a Sunday with bikinis, kebabs, snack joints, volleyball games, dirt bikes, soccer, and more bikinis. If your beach has to be just so, you're out of your element. But if the earthy smell of charcoal braziers and the waft of salsa and local color are what you seek, spread your towel (if you can find room), and peer and peer.

Portete, a little cove full of fishing boats, adjoins Playa Bonita to the north. You can sit at one of the many little stands that serve food, and watch as lobster traps are prepared, or just stare at the sea or the jungle and coconut trees. The shore is rocky and littered, and the water is none too clean.

Moín ("moy-IHN"), seven kilometers from Limón, reached by a spur from the highway or by the coast road from Limón, is hardly a town at all, but rather a transport center. All of Costa Rica's oil supplies are off-loaded here, and stored in huge tanks, and cargo containers are shifted between trucks and ships. More interestingly, Moín is also the passenger and freight terminal for the Tortuguero Canal (see below).

Ask permission in Moín to enter the compound of JAPDEVA, the government agency in charge of economic development in the area, to take a look at river port operations. Coconuts, bamboo, cacao and bananas are unloaded from canal boats, and consumer goods, largely bottled sodas, are loaded for the return run. From the terminal, you can see the waterway, thick with water lilies, its banks lined with vine-entangled trees, dissolving in the distance into swamps.

Beyond Moín, across a narrow bridge, a rough road runs northward between rows of palms, the Tortuguero Canal on one side, waves on the other. There are only occasional houses, a plywood factory, and, four kilometers out, the public Cocolito pool in landscaped gardens (on the inland side, across the railroad tracks), which has been closed recently. The beach is deserted, and the drive is nicer in this stretch than the ride on the oil-slicked canal. The end of the road is at the mouth of the Matina River, about 20 kilometers from Limón.

Hotels

Near Playa Bonita and Portete are a number of beach houses, and a few places offering accommodations to transients. Bare beach cabinas, just south of Playa Bonita park, little more than cubicles, are available starting from $10 double. Cabinas Cocorí (tel. 758-2930) are a slight cut above the others, concrete units with cooking facilities, the better ones upstairs with views. The rate is $45 for up to five persons, less in the off season. The Tía María restaurant, on site, serves tacos, eggs and pastas, nothing more than $5, on a lovely terrace.

The Hotel Matama, mentioned above, is in this area.

At Moín, the Hotel Moín-Caribe (tel. 758-2436), on a hill overlooking the oil tanks of the port, has 14 double rooms for $35 single/$45 double with private bathroom. About half of the rooms are air-conditioned (but with no windows), and there are balconies with pleasant views, if you look in the right direction. They have a restaurant and bar, and this is the nearest hotel to the boat for Tortuguero.

TORTUGUERO CANAL

The Canal de Tortuguero, a 160-kilometer stretch of natural rivers, lagoons and estuaries, and connecting man-made waterways, runs from Moín almost to the Nicaraguan border. The canal is the main "highway" of the northern coastal region. Cargo and passengers move on narrow, tuglike, 30-foot-long launches.

To ride on the canal, you have a number of choices, not all of them convenient. See page 196 for details. Most likely, you'll take a tour boat, which allows you to take everything in at a slo-o-o-w pace.

Near Limón, the canal is muddy, slicked with oil, crowded with parked cayucos (canoe-like boats), lined with garbage dumps, congested with vegetation. The railroad line parallels the waterway for 15 kilometers, a dirt road follows on the Caribbean side, to the mouth of the Matina River. A log dump identifies a plywood factory. Grassy banks alternate with mangrove and strips of shacks on blocks, and clusters of thatched huts, little cacao trees in their yards. Knots of women wash clothes. Fishermen and farmers get around by dugouts that serve all the purposes of pickup trucks elsewhere. Yellow signs point the way to destinations down secondary canals and waterways. Pastures and banana fields stretch inland behind the high banks. Cargo boats labor along. Here and there, a beautiful beach is visible through cleared sections on the bar.

After Matina village, the semi-industrial strip is left behind. Settlement is more intermittent, the water clears, wildlife and vegetation are more abundant. Vines trail among the water hyacinths, palms stand on the banks. Signs identify man-made sections of the waterway ("canal artificial"), no more than 50 feet across. Farming along the banks is in intermittent, disordered, cleared and fenced patches. As wildlife comes into view, your boat slows down. A sloth clutches the branch of a leafless tree. Troops of howler monkeys roar as they tail-dance from branch to branch.

Parismina, 48 kilometers from Moín, at a passage through the bar, is the site of a small settlement and several tarpon fishing camps.

TORTUGUERO NATIONAL PARK

Several hours and 55 kilometers out of Moín, the cleared fields suddenly give way to what first appear to be green cliffs towering above the canal and lining the rivers that stretch inland. A closer examination reveals that they are unbroken stands of trees, many over 100 feet tall. The oil slick is totally gone by this time, and the surface reflects the green world above. A sign and checkpoint announce that you have entered Tortuguero National Park.

If some of what has come before has been tiresome or disappointing, what follows will almost certainly fulfill your fantasies of the jungle. More pseudo-cliffs of trees poke back along the Sierpe River. Trees canopy the waterway, and trail vines. Pastel-colored toucans and macaws, monkeys swinging through the trees, sloths hanging from branches, alligators taking the sun, turtles lounging on logs, and, perhaps, some of the coatis, jaguars and ocelots that roam the forest will come into view, if the frequent, heavy rainfalls do not inhibit your sightings. The screams of monkeys and whistles of birds pierce the air.

Turtle Haven

Located eighty kilometers north of Limón, Tortuguero National Park (Tortuguero means "place of the turtles") is most famed for the nesting sea turtles that give their name to both the park and the adjacent town. Every year from June to November, turtles waddle ashore at night, climb past the high-tide line, excavate cavities in the sand and lay their eggs, then crawl off, exhausted. Only fifty years ago, the waves of turtles were so dense that one turtle would often dig out the eggs of another in the process of making its nest. The eggs were gathered by locals almost as soon as they were deposited, and enjoyed great popularity not only as a food, but because of their alleged aphrodisiac powers. The turtles, too, were often overturned and disemboweled for their meat and shell.

Tortuguero is one of the few remaining nesting places of the green Atlantic turtle, a species that reaches a meter in length and 200 kilograms in weight. Other species that nest at the beach are the hawksbill, loggerhead, and the huge leatherback, which weighs up to 700 kilograms. Each turtle comes home to Tortuguero every two to four years, and returns several times in the season, usually at intervals of twelve days, to nest again.

Turtle Hazards

Even with human enemies partially under control in the park, the turtle eggs, slightly smaller than those of hens, face numerous perils. Raccoons, coatis and coyotes dig them out and eat them up. The hatchlings that emerge two months after laying face a run for the sea made perilous by crabs and lizards, and birds that swoop down and pluck off tasty morsels of leg or head. Only a small fraction of hatchlings reaches the sea, and fewer still make it to adulthood. The odds are being improved somewhat by programs that see to the safe transfer of hatchlings to the water.

But protection of the eggs is only a partial solution to the multiple threats to turtles, and to their survival as a species. Fibropapilloma, a cancer that attacks green, Ridley and loggerhead turtles, is on the increase worldwide. (The Turtle Hospital in Marathon, Florida, is making important advances in understanding the disease and how it is transmitted.) Pollution of the seas kills turtles slowly and horribly. Heavy oil glues jaws shut, and plastic blocks digestive systems. Turtles that ingest junk starve over a period of six or seven months, as their fat layer is consumed.

Varied Fauna and Flora

The park is also an important conservation area for other plant and animal species, as much of the tropical forest nearby is cut down. Fresh-water turtles, manatees and alligators are found in canals, as well as sport fish, and sharks that reach up to three meters in length. Forest animals include the jaguar, tapir, anteater, ocelot, white-faced, howler and spider monkeys, kinkajou, cougar, collared peccary, white-lipped peccary, and coatimundi. You'll probably hear these rather than see them in the dense vegetation. Over 300 bird species have been reported, including the endangered green macaw, Central American curassow, and yellowtailed oriole. Most easily sighted are the large birds that frequent the waterways, such as anhingas, flamingos and kingfishers.

All of Tortuguero is wet—rainfall averages 5000 millimeters (200 inches) per year—but there are several vegetation zones. Morning glory vines, coconut palms and shrubs characterize the sandy beach area, while other sectors are covered with swampy forest that bridges the waterways. In the forest on higher, less saturated ground, orchids and bromeliads live at all levels and take their nourishment from the air, and "exotic" house plant species, such as dieffenbachia, flourish. Tortuga Hill, a 390-foot rise, is the highest point all along the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica.

TRAVELING THE CANAL AND VISITING TORTUGUERO

Getting to Tortuguero and staying in the park are not easy unless you arrange a package trip through a tour company. There is no regularly scheduled air or boat service.

By Air

The landing strip, four kilometers north of the village, is currently served by chartered flights operated in conjunction with lodging-and-tour packages. On your own, you can have an air taxi service drop you at the park and pick you up a few days later.

By Boat

Traffic on the canal is sparse and irregular, and without advance arrangements through a travel agency, you can't count on anything. When locals can't find a boat, they simply walk along the beach—six hours to Parismina, twelve or more to Tortuguero—and count on friendly dugout owners to take them across intervening estuaries.

The traditional route to the park, by canal boat from Moín, just north of Limón, has been choked with vegetation, and is impassable from time to time. When the Caribbean is calm, boat operators take open water as far as Matina, but this can be dangerous, as storms blow in without warning. Another way is to take a car or taxi along the canal-side road as far as Matina and hire a boat there.

Operators of trips from Moín include the reliable Mr. Alfred Brown-Robinson of Tortuguero Odysseys (tel. 758-1940 or 758-0824), who runs a round trip in twelve-passenger boats. Departure from Moín is at 8 a.m., travel time is about three hours. Cost is about $70, not including tours in the park.

The Hotel Pachira in Tortuguero (contact information under tours, below) offers one-day cruises to Tortuguero for about $100 per person.

Some boat owners offer cheaper service from the Moín canal terminal (they congregate by the signs that read "Se hacen viajes a los canales"), but be cautious. I've received complaints from visitors who wasted their time stuck in the lilies.

Tour Options

In the case of Tortuguero, it's worth it to book travel and sleeping in a single package. But beware! Overbooking and trip cancellations can be a problem, and the cheapest service is not always your best choice.

Most tour operators bypass Moín, and take visitors down the Pacuare or another lowland river that empties into the Caribbean. (As well as taking you through the park, this route allows you to see close-up how bananas are cultivated right to the water's edge, where the native vegetation has been cut and the riverbank is collapsing, where bits of blue plastic used to contain insecticide float in the water and out to sea to choke fish.)

Cotur, Calle 36, Paseo Colón/Avenida 1 (P._O. Box 1818-1002, San José, tel. 233-0133, fax 233-0778, cotur@sol.racsa.co.cr) has a three-day, two-night package trip from San José that includes a bus ride, travel to Tortuguero on a canal boat, all meals, accommodations at the Jungle Lodge, and a half-day tour of the park. The price is about $250 per person. Departures are usually on Tuesday and Friday, but there are extra trips when demand warrants.

Similar trips are offered aboard the Mawamba (highly rated by readers), a larger, more enclosed boat. The price is lower on the Mawamba tour if you stay at the basic Sabina's Cabinas instead of Mawamba Lodge. Call 223-2421 in San José to arrange your travel, or 758-1564 in Limón. The Mawamba is also available for charter by smaller groups.

Mitur, P. O. Box 91-1150, San José, tel. 255-2031, fax 255-1946, has a virtually identical program, based at the Hotel Ilan Ilan.

Hotel Pachira (tel. 256-7080, 257-2242, fax 223-1119, P.O.Box 1818-1002 San José, pachira@sol.racsa.co.cr) is one of the newer canal-boat-and-lodge operations in Tortuguero. A two-day, one night trip to Tortuguero from San José runs about $200, or up to $300 if you take a plane one way. The classic Tortuguero experience, two nights in the lodge, tours, meals, and bus and canal travel both ways from San José, costs, about $250 per person, less for children.

The tour boat ride along the canal is usually slow, deliberately so, to allow and encourage you to spy and hear howler monkeys, sloths, and birds that frolic and lurk along the way. But retracing a route that is jungle-lined only in part can be excruciatingly slow for some visitors; while a round-trip by plane lacks the air of adventure of a penetration of the jungle by river. One attractive alternative is a package offered by the Río Colorado Lodge (Box 5094, San José, tel. 232-4063, 800-243-9777 in the United States) that includes bus transportation to Moín, a cruise through the canal to Barra del Colorado, not always with a stop at Tortuguero National Park, a night's lodging, and return by a different route along the San Juan and Sarapiquí rivers. (Note that this tour does not allow nighttime observation of turtle nesting in season).

Lodging at Tortuguero

The village of Tortuguero (population about 300) is near the northern limit of the national park, on the bar between the canal and the Caribbean, a hodgepodge of one- and two-story clapboard houses and shacks scattered along muddy paths through unkempt grass. Tortuguero was a fishing settlement long before the park was established, and largely remains so. The village has a remote and unconcerned air, but it's also one friendly place, where the Creole and Latino inhabitants welcome visitors with open arms, as well as flowing liquor and music at nightly parties in the dance hall.

All of the tour lodges, located out of the village along the canal, are cheery places where, if you have any luck, you'll be thrown together with a group of congenial people with whom you can share tall tales late into the night, in screened dining rooms and on porches, while you wonder just what those noises out there are.

What You Get For Your Money

Rates at local lodging places are usually expressed as a package that includes transportation and meals. Prices have more than doubled for Tortuguero trips in the last few years. This expresses not simply price gouging (of which there is a certain amount) and a limited number of places in which to stay, but also the fact that a lot of the supplies required for tourists—toilet paper, long-life milk, vegetables—are bulky or heavy and travel by air charter in the absence of scheduled boats.

In any case, to avoid unpleasant surprises, inquire about the price of anything that's not included in your package, especially drinks at the bar—many guests are furious when presented with the bill at checkout.

Canal-Side Lodges

The Tortuga Lodge (25 rooms, all with private bath)is more than three kilometers north of Tortuguero village, just across the canal from the airstrip. [ Most established of the local inn. ! Because of the lodge's isolation from other facilities in the area, guests are totally dependent on on-site services with non-competitive prices. Call 716-6861, or 222-0333 in San José, for information.

Mawamba Lodge, one kilometer north of the village of Tortuguero, has about 16 rooms in basic screened cement and wooden cottages. The compound is less tidy and attractive than that of other canal-side lodges. The principal advantage here is that Tortuguero village and park headquarters are accessible via the beach, about a 15-minute walk, which liberates you somewhat from depending on the hotel for transport and optional excursions. Call 223-2421 in San José for details.

The Jungle Lodge, one kilometer from the park, is a neat complex of red-roofed elevated buildings on the bank opposite the village—look for the windmill. The waterlogged clearing is planted with tough grass, broken by coconut palms, tropical plants and fronds, and provided with dry walkways and rough-hewn log benches. The 14 rooms are good-sized, comfortable but not luxurious. All are panelled with dark wood, hold three beds, and have fans and private showers. Everything is kept quite clean. The bar is of bamboo and hardwood, with a thatched canopy, and charges drinks are lower than elsewhere. The lodge in general is well-run and nicely worked in. A couple of trails lead under huge, buttress-trunked trees to the river bank opposite. Contact Cotur (see Miss Caribe, above) if you would like to stay here without a tour. The rate is about $45 single, $60 double.

The Hotel Ilan-Ilan, operated in conjunction with the Mitur excursion, has comparable canal-side facilities to those at the Jungle Lodge, but in rather plain concrete block units. Manatí Lodge, tel. 381-1828, north of the village near the turtle research station, is smaller than most other canal-side lodges, with a thatch-roofed wharf, attractive grounds, and rooms in three wooden structures. A two-night stay, in conjunction with the riverboat Francesca, costs about $225 per person.

In the Village

There are also rooms for rent in the village of Tortuguero. At Sabina's Cabinas (tel. 718-8099), clapboard units spread out on a trim and tidy grassy seafront property, with ginger plants and palms, the rate is under $10 per person, or $25 double with private toilet facilities, or more if the traffic will bear it. Brisas del Mar has less attractive cabinas at a lower price, and a bar and dance floor. The no-frills Cabinas Meryscar, along a lane that leads from the information kiosk south toward the beach, has cubicles going for $10 per person or less, and serves cheap meals. Newer is Laguna Lodge. And there are other, similar establishments facing the waves.

The advantage in staying at Sabina's or one of the nearby spots is that you can hike to the beach or through part of the park on your own, or more easily hire a local guide or dugout. At the canal lodges, you are a captive of your tour program.

It's also possible to camp in the park, but the best rain protection is essential.

Food, if you're not on a package, is available at several places around the village. The attractive no-frills Pancaná restaurant, currently Canadian-run and the best alternative to hotel food, serves lasagne, chili con carne, and rice and beans with fish for about $6, and good sandwiches. Most tables are on a patio. From the park information kiosk, head south and take a turn from the lane that leads toward the beach. Around the village, local people will fix rice and beans with fish or meat on two hours' notice.

Other Facilities

Tumbledown, disorderly, relaxed Tortuguero is gradually going upscale. Several tourist-oriented businesses have opened shop in new, brightly painted concrete-block houses with neat gardens and clipped grass. One is the Paraíso Tropical gift shop, north of the town center, with the usual selection of t-shirts and post cards.

North of the village, adjacent to the airstrip, is the "green house," headquarters for turtle research. There are no public facilities, and visitors are not welcome.

Village and Park Excursions

Inclusive tours generally include a morning's cruise on the canals for bird and animal sightings; and a walk along trails through the section of the park south of Tortuguero village. For either, you'll do well to pack along rafting shoes or similar footwear that will stay on your feet as you tramp through the sucking mud. Shorts are indicated, rather than long pants. Insect repellent is a necessity. Field glasses will greatly enhance any visit to Tortuguero, even if you're not a devoted birder. Monkeys and birds abound, though the abundant vegetation can get in the way of seeing whatever is out there.

Right in the village is an information kiosk, with historical and social information about the people of the region, as well as vegetation and, most notably, the waves of turtle-laying.

South of the village is the park administration building, reached by trails through squishy terrain. Rainy and dry season mean nothing in Tortuguero. The ground can be saturated at any time of year, and planks and stumps are little help. Exhibits at the administration building show monkey craniums, among other items. Camping and fishing permits are available here.

Two trails lead through the rain forest from park headquarters. The longer, Gavilán, takes about 40 minutes to cover, slopping through puddles and mud holes. Guides will point out little poisonous snakes darting past, and tree snakes that you might mistake for leaves. Look, but don't touch. Some of the plants are irritating or poisonous.

Birders and observers of wildlife in general will perhaps appreciate more a cruise through the park's canals. (A half-day excursion is included with most packages.) From the water, you'll have a better chance of spotting cormorants, egrets, herons, anhingas, sandpipers, and man-of-war, as well as roaring howler monkeys, white-faced monkeys, fresh-water otters, assorted trees, and those wonderful, iridescent blue morpho butterflies. Most guides employed by the lodges are familiar with nomenclature in English as well as standard Spanish and local usage.

Local guides with non-powered canoe-like boats (some are modified Colemans) may be hired in the village, near park headquarters, at a rate of about $4 per person per hour, or $3 per person per hour if you paddle yourself. Rates may be slightly negotiable, but most village guides are not adept at spotting or naming animals. Ask for Ruben (Bananero Tours, tel. 710-6716), or simply talk to any traveller who's been around a day or two longer than you, in order to get the lowdown.

Consider going out on your own, after taking the excursion included in your package. Head inland to the smaller canals, where the vegetation bridges overhead, and the motors of fishing boats are too faint to be heard above the rustlings of coatis on the forest floor and the whistlings of birds at every level above.

BARRA DEL COLORADO

The Tortuguero Canal terminates at the settlement of Barra del Colorado, which sits astride the mouth of the Colorado River, a delta branch of the San Juan River that borders Nicaragua. Barra prospered in the forties as a lumber center and depot for cargo coming downriver from Nicaragua. But as woodcutting and river trade declined, so did Barra's fortunes. The population is now down to a few hundred, many of Nicaraguan descent.

Barra serves today as a sport fishing center. But it also has its attractions as an out-of-the-way place with a friendly populace, where one can stay on the edge of the wild in relative comfort. Flora and fauna in the surrounding area are protected, at least nominally, in the Barra del Colorado National Wildlife Refuge.

The wide San Juan lies entirely in Nicaragua, but Costa Rica enjoys full rights to use the river. More than a hundred years ago, Cornelius Vanderbilt established a combination riverboat-ferry-stage coach service that used the San Juan as part of a passenger route across Nicaragua, connecting with steamers from both coasts of the States. The service was disrupted during William Walker's takeover in Nicaragua, and as part of the post-war settlement, Costa Rica pushed its border north to the banks of the river. Panama thereafter dominated interoceanic transport, though the San Juan has been proposed from time to time as part of a new canal. The most famous navigators hereabouts nowadays are the sharks that move between Lake Nicaragua, upstream on the San Juan, and the Caribbean. Sharks frequent the coast down to Tortuguero as well, feeding on the abundant fish and making swimming one of the less peaceful diversions available.

Getting There

Travelair (tel. 232-7883) has a daily flight from San José, fare about $100 round trip. Small cargo boats operate up the San Juan and Sarapiquí rivers to Puerto Viejo, which is tied by road with San José. Or you can travel this route with more certainty on the package boat trip operated by the Río Colorado Lodge through Tortuguero. Private boats may be hired for jungle cruises in the vicinity, or for trips to Tortuguero Park.

Where to Stay

Río Colorado Lodge, Casa Mar Fishing Lodge and Silver King Lodge, mentioned below, under fishing, are in or near Barra del Colorado.

FISHING ALONG THE CARIBBEAN

Although remote, the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica is world famous for sport fishing. Tarpon, or sábalo, is the most notable (or notorious) species, most easily found in rivers and lagoons from January to June, with March and April the best months (though tarpon habits are unpredictable, and some claim June and July are best). Tarpon generally weigh from 60 to 100 pounds. A world-record 182-pound tarpon was caught from the Tortuga Lodge in 1987.

Second to the tarpon as a sport fish is snook (róbalo), generally caught from mid-August to mid-October, and averaging over 25 pounds. Other species are snapper (pargo), machaca, guapote, bass, mojarra, king mackerel, grouper, catfish, sawfish, and jacks, which generally run under five pounds.

Almost all the fishing along the coast is in fresh-water river estuaries and lagoons, which at times are converted into furious cauldrons of spawning fish. At the right times, not having a good catch is virtually impossible. However, fishing is said to have declined in recent years in inland waterways, due to sedimentation and contamination by pesticides.

Fishing in the open waters of the Caribbean is a risky business, due to the unpredictability of winds and storms, and heavy surf at estuaries, but some lodges have large boats to get fishermen out, or will fish in open water during the limited calm periods.

Contact any of the fishing lodges, or their U.S. representatives, for a fat packet of information that will give you ample details about the quality of cooking, guides, boats, camp furnishings, and fishing grounds, along with ample endorsements, all of which will demonstrate, beyond reasonable doubt, why it is the premier fishing resort on the Caribbean. This is no fish story.

Río Colorado Lodge. 12 rooms. Package price $350 per person daily minimum per day of fishing with meals, use of boats, and guides; or $75 single per person including meals without fishing. San José office: Hotel Corobicí, P. O. Box 5094-1000, tel. 232-4063. U.S. reservations: 12301 N. Oregon Av., Tampa, FL 33612, tel. 800-243-9777, fax 813-933-3280.

Simple but comfortable screened cabins, whirlpool, satellite t.v. This is mainly a fishing lodge (all-you-can-fish, all-you-can-eat, all-they-can-launder and even all-you-can drink of any variety included in the price), but the management also organizes excursions through the Tortuguero Canal and welcomes non-sportsmen to beachcomb and relax on the edge of the jungle. A mini-zoo on the grounds hold animals from the area. Open all year, within walking distance of the airstrip.

Río Parismina Lodge. From $400 per day of fishing, including transfer from San José. U.S. reservations: P.O. Box 46009, San Antonio, TX 78246, tel. 800-338-5688 or 210-824-4442, fax 210-824-0151.

One of the newest of the Caribbean fishing lodges, located opposite Parismina village. You'll find a few more amenities here than at other coastal fishing camps, including a pool and Jacuzzi. Wood-panelled rooms, clustered four to a building, have ceiling fans, are on a jungle estate. Fishing craft here are 21 feet long with 125-hp outboards, which the operators claim reduces the danger of crossing rough surf at river mouths. Food is said to be good, equipment is well maintained, and most drinks are included in the package price. Closed July and part of December.

Casa Mar Fishing Lodge, Barra del Colorado. 12 rooms. $400 per day and up. U.S. reservations: P. O. Drawer 787, Islamorada, FL 33036, tel. 800-327-2880 or 305-664-4615, fax 305-664-3692.

Unlike some other fishing lodges, Casa Mar has full-time electricity. Guests stay in screened wooden cottages, each with two rooms. Package rate includes meals, boat, guide service, transport from San José, and bar consumption. Open January through mid-May and September through October.

Silver King Lodge, tel. 381-1403, 800-847-3474 in U.S. From $450 per day of fishing inclusive.

One of the newest fishing operations, Silver King has about 20 nineteen-foot boats equipped with depth finders and fish locators. They're authorized to take anglers over to lakes and rivers in nearby Nicaragua, which, for obvious reasons, have been little exploited in recent years. Facilities are a bit more finished than at other lodges, with ceiling fans, tiled bathrooms, and large beds.

One-upmanship report: rates at Silver King Lodge include not only meals and boats and guides, and open bar, but also laundry service, and if you call their 800 number, they'll send you an excellent video of lodge facilities and on-site fishing action.

RIVER EXPLORATION

Several tour operators offer rafting trips down the lower, wider, slower stretches of the Parismina and Reventazón rivers. Contact Ríos Tropicales to arrange travel.

THE TALAMANCA COAST

The coast to the south of Limón, as to the north, is a nearly continuous stretch of sandy, idyllic, usually deserted beach. There are a few differences, however. Rainfall is lower to the south, and the terrain is generally better drained. This gives the landscape a less jungly nature, and makes it more habitable. It also makes things easier for the visitor, though you will be inevitably rained upon. Transport to the south is better developed as well. A paved road runs down the coast to Puerto Viejo, a branch road reaches Sixaola on the Panamanian border, and rail lines and spurs serve the banana operations of the area. The region is still relatively sparsely settled, however, with many kilometers between settlements, and few places where a visitor may stop for the night. Inland rise the Talamanca mountains that lend their name to this region.

South from Limón, the main road generally hugs the coast. Visitors may take a bus and get off at any point that looks attractive for swimming and sunning at deserted beaches. Landward, scrub vegetation alternates with cattle pastures and coconut plantations.

About 30 kilometers from Limón is Aviarios del Caribe, a private reserve of regenerating rain forest on the mainland and an adjacent 150-hectare island in the delta of the Estrella River. Visitors can take a leisurely canoe tour for about $25 per person, including beverages and fruit, and running commentary on wildlife, in English. This trip will be especially interesting to birders—the local list was recently at 255 species and counting, and the site is on migration paths for many species. Being right on the water allows a better view than you might get by hiking through the adjacent forest. There is also wildlife to be seen: alligators and sharks are occasionally sighted; and flora: if conditions are not superb for birding, you will go ashore at a farm where ginger and flowers are grown for export.

Facilities at the site include a well-manicured little estate, lawns bedecked with heliconia and ginger; a main building with large library and common room upstairs, open to the air for birding while you eat, with displays of frogs and butterflies, and a pet sloth named Buttercup; five large guest rooms downstairs, with a bed-and-breakfast rate of $45 to $50 single/$60 to $70 double; a refreshment area and sheltered dock—excellent for civilized observation of the wild—and bathrooms with hot showers available to day visitors. An adjacent section of forest can be explored on trails. Canoes can be hired by the hour, and fishing can be arranged.

For information, write to P. O. Box 569, Limón, call 382-1335, or fax 798-0374.

Southward, the main highway starts to run back a couple of kilometers from the sea. A branch road goes up the valley of the Estrella River, where a revival of banana cultivation is under way.

Beyond, in the slopes of the Talamanca mountains, is the forest of the Hitoy Cerere Biological Reserve, challenging to visit because of ceaseless rains, but for the same reason especially rich in varieties of plant and animal life. Accommodations at the ranger station can sometimes be arranged through the National Park Service in San José.

You can travel this route by bus, or by train from Limón (weekday departures at 4 a.m. and 3 p.m.) to Ley River. Or, if you only want to get a flavor of the banana-era railroad, ride as far as Penshurst, and continue southward to Cahuita by bus.

CAHUITA NATIONAL PARK

Cahuita National Park has beaches as beautiful as any on the Caribbean, and a few additional distinctions. Just offshore is a living coral reef, the most accessible in Costa Rica, where brightly colored fish feed and breed. In the marshes and forests of the park, animal and bird life are abundant.

The coral reef, which consists of the remains of small animals called polyps, lies up to half a kilometer from shore, and from one to seven meters under the surface. With diving equipment, you can see the formations—brain, elkhorn, star and dozens of other corals—as well as the fish, sponges, crabs and snails that are attracted to feed and live on the reef. At two points on the reef's western side, cannonballs, anchors, cannon and bricks have been found, giving evidence that a Spanish galleon (or more than one) sank in these waters.

In the reef-protected shallows of Cahuita, sargasso and other grasses flourish, along with conch and ghost crabs. Dead trunks of trees lie just under the water, penetrated by seawood borers, the termites of the sea.

Beyond the reef at the south end of the park, Cahuita's lovely beach, beaten by huge waves, backed by coconut palms, is a nesting site for green, Hawksbill and leatherback turtles. The gentle sweep of the bay is quite unusual on this coast. In some sections, little pools form at low tide, temporarily isolating fish.

Inland, Cahuita's protected area includes extensive areas of marsh. The Perezoso (Sloth) River that flows to the sea in the park is dark brown in color, said to be an effect of the high tannin concentration, which also reputedly keeps a cap on the local mosquito population. The forests are alive with howler monkeys, white-faced monkeys, three-toed sloths, anteaters, and collared peccaries. Raccoons and coatis are often seen along the nature trail, which penetrates the damp world of ferns and bromeliads and huge jungle trees.

The town of Cahuita, 45 kilometers from Limón, at the northern end of the park, has sandy streets, widely separated houses, a friendly assortment of people, and a range of hotels and eating places.

The southern entrance to the park is about six kilometers farther on, at Puerto Vargas (Vargas Harbour), which is a bay, not a village. Here the park administration, nature trail and camping facilities are located.

Getting There

From San José, comfortable, direct buses for Sixaola (without a stop in Limón) depart from Avenida 11, Calles Central/1 (tel. 221-0524), at 6 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., passing both entrances to Cahuita Park. The trip through Braulio Carrillo National Park and the humid coastal plain takes about four hours.

From Limón, rickety, usually crowded buses leave from Avenida 4, Calles 3/4 at 5 a.m., 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 4 p.m., arriving at Cahuita in about an hour. Get to the station early to find a seat.

A taxi from Limón to Cahuita costs about $25.

Where to Stay

Central Cahuita

Hotel Cahuita. 10 units. $22 per person.

Best of a few small hotels in the center of the village (a relative matter). Harsh, motel-style rooms are off a pleasant courtyard, and most can sleep up to six persons. Small pool. A section of hotel rooms is currently being renovated.

Cabinas Vaz. $22 single/$28 double.

Similar to the Hotel Cahuita, without the arches in the dining area.

Surfside Cabinas (P. O. Box 360, Limón). 15 units. $22 single/$25 double with breakfast.

Substantial concrete row units, a few blocks from the park entrance, on the way to Black Beach (Playa Negra). Protected parking.

Cabinas Jenny. 10 rooms. $35 and up.

A two-story, cream stuccoed building in an excellent location overlooking the sea. The higher rate is for the upstairs rooms with balcony over the ocean, and cross ventilation.

Toward Black Beach

Black Beach, a kilometer from the center of Cahuita, where the following accommodations are located, is more isolated, not that any part of Cahuita is urban.

Atlántida Lodge (fax 228-9467 in San José). 30 units. $50 single/$55 double/$60 triple with breakfast. www.atlantida.co.cr

Atlántida Lodge is a compound that has steadily expanded and improved its facilities over the years, without losing the informality characteristic of Cahuita. Pale yellow stuccoed bungalows with thatched roofs are set among the palms and grass and fruit trees of spacious grounds. Hammocks hang from the trees, quiet pets roam the length of their chains, and toucans reside in their own screened enclosure. All units have screen doors and windows, porch with bamboo railing, lamps fashioned from gourds, ceiling fan, beds with thick foam mattresses, and a basic tiled bathroom with shower and hot water. A buffet breakfast of fruits and breads is included in the rate. Other meals can be prepared on request, and nothing could be more enchanting than dining in the gazebo as subdued lights sparkle on the grounds and mysterious noises filter out of the forest. A pool is to be completed shortly. The signs are in English, but you can gab on in French and other languages with owner Jean Harvey.

Cabinas Tito, tel. 755-0286 10 units. $35 double.

Of accommodations that at operated by local people, these are the most attractive, separate wood-panelled cabins with porch, in a quiet area where the palm trees and plants have been left in place to attract birds.

El Encanto (P.O. Box 1234 Limón, tel. and fax 755-0113) is a bed and breakfast lodge with just three cottages, where the English-speaking owners charge $35 single/$45 double, or $5 less in the low season (which, on this coast, is not necessarily less rainy than the high season). Mattresses are good and, unusually for a small place, they accept credit cards.

Colibrí Paradise. 3 units. $50 each.

Comfortable little one-room cottages, each sleeping up to four, painted a cheery white and blue, with stove, refrigerator and hot shower. Take the path from the beach road, or enter by car from the highway. A good buy. Appelez le 418-693-8230 à Québec.

Cabinas Black Beach has four woodsy units with private baths in a large garden for $20 single/$25 double. Four more units are permanently under construction.

Hotel Jaguar (P. O. Box 7046-1000 San José, tel. 226-3775, fax 226-4693). 45 rooms. $50 single/$75 double with breakfast and dinner, higher in deluxe rooms.

Guest rooms here are in several buildings well-spaced on informal grounds, extraordinarily large, with high ceilings, clerestory windows, white stuccoed walls, red tile floors, wooden louvers, and generous wooden trim—many of the features aid passive cooling without air conditioning.

There are trails through the property, 17 acres with fruit trees and exuberant and unruly vegetation. Caimans hang out in a creek, and pacas and agoutis scurry through the brush. Treks to the Talamanca mountains and river fishing and boating excursions can be arranged.

Bungalows Malú, on a large, grassy lot, are attractive octagonal rock-and-wood units covered with thatch and informally furnished with items like a bamboo-trimmed mirror. One unit has two bedrooms, the others one large room, all have a small refrigerator. The rate is about $45 double.

Cabinas y Chalet Hibiscus, one of the few lodging places in Cahuita fronting directly on the sea, has two attractive but small bungalows with mosquito canopy and tiled bathroom going for $60 double, and two houses that sleep up to six persons for about $100. The beach is coral rock, but there's a pool on-site and the grounds are attractive.

Magellan Inn (P. O. Box 1132 Limón), tel. and fax 755-0035. $45 single/$55 double with continental breakfast.

A relatively small (6-room) lodging house, 200 yards back from the sea and two kilometers north of Cahuita, with unusual features that include sunken pool and gardens and extensive hand-carved woodwork, all carved out of coral rock. Food is served in a candlelit environment. The couple that own the lodge are an English Canadian and a Frenchman.

Cabinas Algebra, a couple of kilometers from town, has a few simple rooms in a lush tropical garden, for about $40 for up to four persons, best if you have a car.

Other lodging places include Cabinas Palmer, 8 units, $25 double), with rooms that are adequate enough, with bathroom, but right next to the street; Cabinas Safari, just across the street; Cabinas Sol y Mar, with eight concrete units right in the center of town, for $25 double upstairs, $20 downstairs; and Cabinas Atlantic Surf, one block inland from the park entry, with woodsy construction and porches—pleasant, but too bad about the location.

More

And there are many, many, many other cabinas available past Moray's along the lanes that lead back from Black Beach, some with owners from your own hometown, most with just two or three rental units. If you plan to stay a while—and why not?—check in anywhere, drop your luggage, and spend a pleasant few hours walking around, exploring the lanes and nooks and crannies of Black Beach, inspecting accommodations, and striking a deal.

Camping is currently available at Vishnu, on one of the lanes leading up from Black Beach; and in Cahuita National Park at the southern entry point, Puerto Vargas.

Roadside stopping-places on the way to Cahuita:

Club Campestre Cahuita, tel. 755-1676 (223-4254 in San José, fax 221-5005, P. O. Box 214-1150 La Uruca). 24 kilometers south of Limón. 20 rooms. $60 for a unit that sleeps up to six.

A Tico family-style resort and campground on a palm-shaded lot, with kids' and adult pools. Rooms have fans. The thatched-roof restaurant is pleasant, serves a variety of seafood at moderate prices, and even has a surprising list of imported wines.

Cabinas Lemaire, tel. 755-2859, 26 kilometers from Limón. $30 double.

Opposite a deserted beach. Bar, pool, and bare rooms.

Where to Eat

The cuisine of the Hotel Jaguar can be surprisingly good but also surprisingly inconsistent. Check with anyone who's eaten there lately. I've had such unexpected marvels as sirloin tips in peanut sauce and medallions of beef in two sauces, for about $10, served in the open-air patio under a traditional Caribbean house.

Las Rocas, at Black Beach, not far past Moray's, has the most pleasant atmosphere of any dining spot in Cahuita, in a glassed-in room looking out to palms, the beach and the sea. It's also the most formal place, with tile floor, panelled bar and ceiling fans. You won't spend more than $10 for steak or fish

Cabinas Black Beach serves lasagna, among other items, in a pleasant bar and restaurant. The restaurant at the Hotel Cahuita is popular, with lunch and dinner for $6 and up. Right next to the entrance to the park, the restaurant under the great thatched roof (behind the concrete building) serves good casados (meat or fish or chicken with rice, beans and cabbage), and assorted steaks, fish, Italian items, and sandwiches; and there is another restaurant under the concrete rotunda across the way, with a basic menu of fish and steak, from about $5.

Way out at the north end of Black Beach, Margaritaville, a Canadian-U.S. family venture, is a house where a fixed-menu meal is served in the evening for under $10. It might be cabbage rolls or stroganoff or something else you won't usually find in Cahuita. Sit on stools on the porch as the kids help out, and stay on afterwards to finish things off with margaritas, of course, and music.

Edith's Restaurant is locally famed as a bastion of Creole specialties—coconut flavored fish in banana leaf, fry cake with chicken, curried snapper, herbal teas and the like—served on an expanding porch of Miss Edith's house. But take a good look at other people's plates before you order. Much of what comes out of the kitchen will appear to unaccustomed palates as starchy, overcooked, and inedible.

And there are assorted eating shops tucked along the lanes near Black Beach, among them Cafeteria Vishnu (not vegetarian) and Pizzeria El Cactus.

Of drinking spots, Lloyd's Bar is the one with the fewest hassles (if you don't want hassles), and the only one that reserves the right of admission.

Please . . . do not to wander without friends from bar to bar in Cahuita or elsewhere on this coast.

Travel Services

Moray's, near the rural guard post (at the turn to Black Beach), is one of several places that arrange boat trips, snorkeling, horseback rides, and jungle and mountain walks, with most trips running about $25 for a half-day. The slopes of the Talamanca range begin just a kilometer inland. One little house on the main street has souvenirs, of a sort.

The Hotel Cahuita, the Cahuita Jaguar, and several others rent out bikes and snorkeling equipment and boogie boards.

Mr. Alan Foley, who operates out of a window at the Hotel Jaguar, can arrange an outing to the Bri-Bri Indian reserve, south of Cahuita and inland. For $25 a person, it's something like spending an afternoon visiting relatives, except that the family that takes you in and provides lunch lives in a compound of thatch-roofed houses and makes baskets and carved gourd jugs. Mr. Foley also can arrange a tour of a banana plantation, snorkeling at various points along the coast, and canoeing on the Sixaola River through Bri-Bri lands. Ask him as well about low-cost fishing from small boats with hand lines—not elegant, but at about $60 for two persons, it beats by far what you'd pay at one of the fishing lodges north of Limón.

Viajes Tropicales Laura can arrange trips up to Tortuguero and back, without the necessity of your going to Limón to organize things.

Brigitte's Cabinas, up the lane before the Jaguar Hotel, has half-day horseback trips to the mountains behind Cahuita, for about $35.

If you plan to snorkel, you'll find the water clearest from February through April, when it rains the least.

The park is usually nearly deserted (where do all these people go?), except on weekends and at holiday periods, which should be avoided.

Non-Services and Non-Hassles

There are no banks, no car-rental agencies, no fishing lodges (as yet), no significant action. Cahuita is a live-and-let-live place where one can stay for a while without any particular justification. The small population includes Creoles who speak Spanish at the shops and unintelligible English among themselves; Germans, French and Americans on extended stays, spending their days surfing or performing exercises to the background of a pounding surf; and nights stringing necklaces or visiting with Albert and the hospitality of the armchair at his beach shack; notable transients, such as the Amerindian from Surinam who spends his days whittling a bow and arrow with a machete; Hispanic Costa Ricans, of course; and the Bribri Indian from the bush of the Talamanca mountains who works at one of the hotels and deals with guests in impeccable Californian.

TRANSPORTATION

From San José, comfortable, direct buses for Sixaola (without a stop in Limón) depart from Avenida 11, Calles Central/1 (tel. 221-0524), at 6 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., passing both entrances to Cahuita Park. Telephone 210524 to confirm the schedule. The trip through Braulio Carrillo National Park and the humid coastal plain takes about four hours. From Limón, rickety, usually crowded buses leave from Avenida 4, Calles 3/4 at 5 a.m., 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 4 p.m., arriving at Cahuita in about an hour. Get to the station early to find a seat. Departures from Sixaola for Limón are at 5 a.m., 8 a.m., 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.; for San José at 5 a.m., 8 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. These buses pass Cahuita about 25 minutes out of Sixaola.

On from Cahuita

Buses for San José pass Cahuita at approximately 7 and 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. For Limón, buses pass at approximately 6:30 and 10 a.m. and 1:30 and 3 p.m. Buses southward, to Puerto Viejo, pass at about 7 a.m., 3:30 p.m. and 5 p.m.

PUERTO VIEJO

Fifteen kilometers south of Cahuita, Puerto Viejo (Old Harbour) is a mixed Tico, Creole and Indian community, about a kilometer-and-a-half off the paved road. Though larger than Cahuita, Puerto Viejo is hardly bustling. A derelict barge just offshore sprouts a tree.

Aside from a laid-back village that moves to a reggae beat, the attractions of Puerto Viejo are the mostly deserted beaches to the south, the Bri-Bri Indian reserve just inland, sparsely inhabited mountains that can be explored on foot or horseback, and the Gandoca Manzanillo wildlife refuge, along with a model low-impact ecotourism program that aims to introduce visitors to the Talamanca region through local folks.

Getting to Puerto Viejo

A direct bus for Puerto Viejo leaves San José (Avenida 11, Calles Central/1) at 3:40 p.m., with and extra bus at 8:30 a.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and there are other buses at 6 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. that pass the junction on the highway outside of town. The return bus for San Jose leaves at 7 a.m., with an extra weekend departure at 3:30 p.m.

From Limón, there are buses at 6 a.m. and 2 p.m. that go right into Puerto Viejo and on to Manzanillo, from Avenida 4, Calles 3/4. Other buses to the junction leave at 5 a.m., 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. You'll have to hitch or walk in, unless you've arranged transport in advance through one of the hotels.

Where to Stay

Puerto Viejo and the area to the south are booming with newly opened accommodations. Most are run by families or groups with sound ideas about introducing visitors to the natural treasures of the region without despoiling them. But since the lodges ("cabinas") are small and spread out, and communications are limited to a couple of phones, it is difficult to reserve space, or to find a bed on busy weekends or at holiday periods.

You can attempt to reserve by phoning or faxing 755-0854 (at the Manuel León store), indicating the hotel you're interested in, and requesting a reply. English is widely understood (and to some extent spoken at home) in this area. A couple of pricier hotels have San José contact numbers.

ATEC, the local eco-tourism association, based at an office opposite Soda Tamara in Puerto Viejo, has in the works a coordinating system for the various cabinas. For now, they publish Welcome to Coastal Talamanca, a directory of accommodations and facilities. It is also a primer on the way of life in the Talamanca region. ATEC and local businesses also have a map-folder of Puerto Viejo to help in locating hotels and services. For ATEC's eco-tours in the back country, see below.

A couple of kilometers before you reach Puerto Viejo are: