Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Costa Rica

Caribbean Costa Rica — Afro-Caribbean cooking, Salsa Brava surf, and slow jungle roads

Puerto Viejo de Talamanca is the main town on Costa Rica's Caribbean coast south of Limón — a former Afro-Caribbean fishing village turned surf-and-jungle hub with a genuinely distinct culture from the rest of Costa Rica. The Caribbean side of the country runs on a different rhythm, eating rice and beans cooked in coconut milk (not the Pacific coast version), drinking creole-spiced tea, and speaking an English creole alongside Spanish. Salsa Brava, the powerful reef break just offshore, is Costa Rica's most technical wave and draws serious surfers from January to April.

The Caribbean coast of Costa Rica was settled by Afro-Caribbean workers brought from Jamaica and other islands to build the Atlantic Railway (completed 1890) and work the United Fruit Company banana plantations that followed. The Limonense Afro-Caribbean community developed a distinct culture — English-based creole, and a cuisine centered on coconut milk, breadfruit, and saltfish. The Bribri and Cabécar indigenous peoples, who inhabited the Talamanca valley since pre-Columbian times, still have significant communities inland from Puerto Viejo.

Featured food spots, videos & experiences in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca

• Agua de Sapo and Pati — Caribbean Costa Rica's Signature Drinks at the Village Sodas
• Lazy Mon Beach Bar — Sundowner Rums and Reggae on the Caribbean Sand
• Cahuita National Park — Coral Reef and Caribbean Rainforest
• Jaguar Rescue Center — Wildlife Rehabilitation in the Talamanca Buffer Zone
• Caribbean Culture Month
• Carnival
• Salsa Brava — Costa Rica's Most Powerful Reef Break
• Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge — Sea Turtle Nesting and Dolphin Lagoons