Costa Rica and The Province of Puntarenas

This coastal area of Costa Rica extends from Puntarenas in the north to Quepos-Manuel Antonio area in the south and includes expansive, semi-deserted beaches such as Playa Hermosa and Esterillos known to surfers around the globe, as well as Jaco Beach, Costa Rica’s most popular beach resort with both locals and tourists for over 20 years and Herradura beach which is home to the World Class Marriott-Los Sueños Resort and residential development with its outstanding marina and golf course.

At the northern end is the town of Puntarenas with its new Sea Aquarium and a popular stop for many cruise ships and at the southern end is the sport fishing town of Quepos and its adjoining neighbor, the extremely popular Manuel Antonio National Park.

This area of the country is currently experiencing a building and tourism boom, especially in and around Jaco beach due to its proximity to the capital city of San Jose, which is less than 2 hours away via some very scenic roads. This area will really take off in the near future (2-3 years) when the long awaited “San Jose-Ciudad Colon-Orotina-Caldera Highway” is completed which will cut the driving time in half. The five major bridges on this highway are now completed and the $150+ million highway construction project is scheduled to begin construction this year.

The Carara Biological Reserve and Manuel Antonio National Park make this a must visit area for tourists year round but there is something for everyone here. If your idea of paradise is walking down a deserted, misty beach accompanied only by the sounds of nature then welcome to the beaches of Hermosa, Esterillos, Bejuco and Palo Seco. On the other hand if all the luxury and excitement of a World Class Resort is your cup of tea, then the Marriott-Los Sueños Resort and Marina with its 5 star accommodations, luxury condominiums and residences and an outstanding golf course shared only with an occasional monkey or two awaits your enjoyment.

Looking for something in between, no problem, this area offers a wide variety of lodging, entertainment, shops, restaurants and tours ! In between Jaco and Quepos (about 47 miles) you will pass the town of Parrita, which along with the surrounding beaches is still relatively undiscovered by foreign tourists and offers miles and miles of undisturbed beaches and wetlands. As you drive past you will see miles and miles of African Palm plantations neatly arranged row after row and only separated by the occasional company town built around a town square and with the ever-present company store seemingly frozen in time.

Several new bridges have been completed on this road and after crossing the very last one you will have arrived in the laid back town of Quepos which still reflects a part of its past. In the 1930’s banana plantations were established, turning Quepos into a busy shipping port. In the 1950’s, a banana blight swept throught the plantations and the Standard Fruit company switched to the African palms we still see today.

On the Pacific slope the rainy season begins in May and runs its course until November. Here again, days often begin sunny and pleasant, with rains coming later in the day. This is a period in which the trade winds coming from the north-east are much reduced in intensity, and as a result storms often come in from the Pacific Ocean in September and October. In the northern half of the country the Pacific slope experiences an intense dry season, in which no rain may fall for several months. The forests of the North-West are to a large extent deciduous, letting their leaves fall in order to conserve water. Winds can be very strong, occasionally reaching speeds of 90 km/hr in the lowlands, although they average more around 20 km/hr. The whole Central Valley, in which the capital is situated, experiences a mild, pleasant dry season that is matched by moderate temperatures for most of the year, and a lower than average amount of rainfall. Early settlers prized the area for both its mild climate and fertile soils. The southern half of the Pacific slope is much wetter than its northern counterpart, with a shorter dry season and longer and heavier afternoon rains in the wet season.

In a discussion of the climate in Costa Rica one cannot omit El Niño, "The Child". It is a poorly understood weather phenomenon that occurs every two to seven years. It is originally detectable as an unusual warming of a section of the Pacific Ocean.

In 1997 El Niño struck Costa Rica once again, disrupting normal weather patterns considerably. Some scientists have postulated that this phenomenon might have been partially responsible for the disappearance of several species of frogs in the late 80's, which are extremely dependent on water. Each time it occurs analysts across the world hold their breaths waiting to see the effects it has on different regions, because they can often be disastrous.

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