For several centuries, Puntarenas has flourished and floundered with the rise and fall of her importance to trade routes. Once the town was the country’s main port, until rail links between Puerto Limón on the Atlantic coast and the Central Highlands moved the spotlight. Her role was reduced still further with the construction of an international container port in the 1980s at Caldera, a short distance to the south of the centre.
Puntarenas is like an old maid trying hard to retain her beauty. If the sun is shining, you can just see glimpses of her former glory, but with overcast skies the wrinkles appear and only those closest to her feel any real affection. The northern side of the town has the typical characteristics of many ports, with an edgy energy and carelessness that works and plays hard. Take a stroll around the market or the fishing dock on the north of the peninsula and this is pura vida. Not the sunset and beach type of holiday brochures, but the real life of hard graft and toil. Stroll a little further, preferably in the day, and you’ll discover a world of forgotten, albeit grubby, architectural charms and more than a few follies. The neglect of the port is so great that someone forgot to pull down the older buildings, which now could be renovated to glorious effect. This is the heart of Puntarenas (around Calle Central), with its banks, the market, a few hotels and fishing docks.
The southern side is made up of the Paseo de los Turistas, drawing crowds to the hot, sometimes dirty beach, especially at weekends. It’s a pleasant enough stroll down the promenade, which is home to several hotels, as well as restaurants, bars and has a generally laid-back seafront beach atmos- phere. There is a public swimming pool at the western end of the point (US$1 entrance), close to the ferries. The Museum of Marine History in the Cultural Centre is by the main church and tourist office. (Tue-Sun, 0945-1200, 1300-1715.)
Puntarenas’s appeal is limited but with time a stay here would probably be more rewarding than more glitzy Tico towns.
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