The Atlantic Slope

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.

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