The Atlantic Slope

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Introducing The Atlantic Slope

The idea was simple: build a port on the Caribbean coast and connect it to the Central Valley by railroad, thus opening up important shipping routes for soaring coffee production. In 1867 present-day Puerto Limón was chosen as the site, perhaps not accounting for the 150 unexplored kilometers of dense jungles, malaria-ridden swamps and steep, muddy mountainsides along the Atlantic slope.

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Though things did not go exactly according to plan, the Costa Ricans eventually got their port and their railroad. They also got a booming banana business, which dominated this region for 100 years.

The railroad, once the lifeline of the region, is no longer. Today, a cloudy highway links the Central Valley to the Caribbean coast, starting in the foothills of the Cordillera Central, traversing a landscape dominated by banana and pineapple plantations, and ending in the swampy lowlands around Limón.

Last updated: May 19, 2009

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