Puerto Limon
Enjoying authentic Central America
Limon was the last port on the itinerary of the cruise trip we took in January 2023, after visiting Panama City, Cartagena, Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire. After such beautiful and exotic destinations, it is worth confessing that we had little faith in Costa Rica's southern port. We had even met some Costa Ricans who had fed that prejudice, adding the ingredient of insecurity.
So low was the expectation that everything surprised us that fun day we spent in Puerto Limón.
In previous destinations we had been the first to disembark, waking up at dawn, but because of that low confidence we had for when we wanted to do it the amount of people was atrocious. So we went to the O'sheehan bar, ordered an Italian prosecco at 10 a.m. and relaxed, while we watched hundreds of passengers disembark at the port. It wasn't until things calmed down that we did our own thing.
For starters, a band of local musicians played lively music, welcoming the visitors. Then, we lost ourselves for a moment in the large port market, where souvenirs of controversial originality were on offer on the one hand, but on the other, authentic tarrazu coffee beans were available, which caught the attention of Mr. @tripticity_, a coffee fanatic.
As we left the port, the old United Fruit Company building right in front of the plaza already gave an idea of the Latin American chaos of Limón. Stalls and peddlers of the most varied objects, as well as a lot of offers of possible tours, crowded the tourists.
Still not sure what we were going to do, we visited Vargas Park, where Limón's photo booth is located. In one of its tall trees a family of sloths put on a show for the well warned to look up. We wandered through the downtown streets when a cab stopped to drop off its passenger. We approached and asked how much the ride to Playa Bonita cost. The bids closer to the port were no less than twenty dollars. Don Jose Murcia offered fourteen, we replied for ten and without hesitation he invited us to get in, as a clear sign of acceptance of the counteroffer. On the way to the beach, he told us that he was also a traveler, that the jungle we could see on the side of the sidewalk was even thicker on the hills and that he was ready to pick us up at 2:00 p.m. at the same beach stop where he would drop us off.
The sand on the beach was no longer as white as in previous destinations, nor was the color of the water turquoise and crystalline, nor were the waters calm, quite the opposite. But it was our farewell to the sea on that summer trip, so we enjoyed it very much, even the force of the waves that threw us when we tried to enter. The sea on the south coast of Costa Rica is quite choppy and the waves are big.
Ten minutes past the agreed time, Jose wasn't looking for us, what would modern travel be without whatsapp? We called him and then we realized that we were driving on the cruise ship's own time zone, that is, one hour ahead of schedule. Don Jose was at the bank doing some paperwork, so he worriedly went to pick us up immediately and took us back to the port area.
Before entering, we walked through the market and the surrounding streets for a last glimpse of Central America and then we headed to the Tourist Pier, name given to the little market set up inside the port, for Mr. @tripticity_ to get his coffee at a very good price and for Mrs. @tripticity_ to say goodbye to the Caribbean with some relaxing massages from Kia, in the Morgan Beauty Salon set up in one of the stands of the fair. Thirty glorious minutes of relaxation to then walk very slowly back to the cruise ship, dancing to the rhythm of "goodbye everybody goodbye" sung by the same port musicians who had welcomed us. For goodbye, we were able to admire from our cabin the Quiribrí Island, the one where -in 1502- Christopher Columbus arrived on his last trip to America, also known as Uvita.
We bid farewell to the southern Caribbean, looking forward to returning to its warm beaches, and with a special greeting to the beautiful and agitated Puerto Limón, which once again showed us that prejudice is always mean.
