Today our port of call was Limon, Costa Rica. Limón commonly known as Puerto Limón is the seventh largest city in Costa Rica with a population of over 55,000, and is home to the Afro-Costa Rican community. Part of the community traces its roots to Italian, Jamaican and Chinese laborers who worked on a late nineteenth-century railroad project that connected San José to Puerto Limón. Until 1948, the Costa Rican government did not recognize Afro-Caribbean people as citizens and restricted their movement outside the Limón province. As a result of this “travel ban”, the Afro-Caribbean population became firmly established in this region, which influenced decisions not to move even after it was legally permitted. Nowadays, there is a significant outflow of Limón natives who move to the country’s Central Valley in search of better employment and education.

Off the cruise ship we boarded a tour bus that took us to the Cahuita National Park. This is a terrestrial and marine park that protects several beaches, the coralline reefs and lowlands in this area.

The drive provided us with an opportunity to see more of Limon and the area around it, including the huge Chiquita banana plantation.

We had hoped to snorkel on the reefs but were informed when we arrived that the waters were too rough making visibility poor. Instead we walked on the trail searching for sloths, monkeys and other wildlife and swam at Playa Blanca.