Call me crazy, but I like Puntarenas. My first impression of this much maligned port city on the central Pacific coast was the typical one: hectic, hot and humid. The grotty industrial approach into town doesn't help. The whole place seems like an unpleasant waiting room for ferries to the Nicoya Peninsula, the tourist mecca across the Gulf of Nicoya. But, with every subsequent visit, the place's quirky character and offbeat attractions have grown on me.
Before you dismiss Puntarenas out of hand, consider this: What other port city boasts a beach with an ecological thumbs-up Blue Flag; guarantees spectacular sunsets; has some of the best seafood restaurants in the country (see separate story); is home to a beautiful old cathedral and a new marine museum with a tank full of sharks; and has inspired three musical odes to its charms? Throw in the Churchill, a uniquely Puntarenas ice-cream concoction, and you have a town worth a visit.
Ode to Puntarenas
Puntarenas has been a popular place for Ticos to spend a day by the seaside since the Pacific railway trains started delivering city-weary josefinos ( San José residents) directly to the beach in 1910. Thanks to a 2000 millennial beautification project that spruced up the beach, the cruise dock and the Paseo de los Turistas, the seafront today has that peculiar charm exuded by many seaside towns: a mix of honky-tonk, sleaze and natural beauty, with traces of faded elegance.
What sets the Puntarenas seafront apart, though, is that it's not only a tourist destination; it's also an open-air living room for the whole town. In the early morning, the beach is alive with porteños, as the residents call themselves, out jogging, walking, swimming and cycling. Sunset is a major community event. In the cool of the evening, locals gather in small groups to picnic, dance to car-radio music, or just sit back on lawn chairs to shoot the breeze and enjoy the fresh breezes off the gulf.
Puntarenas has history, architectural charm, savory seafood and “something increasingly rare” a distinctive sense of place. You won't mistake it for anywhere else. It also has a palpable sense of community and a friendly atmosphere. On an evening stroll in the residential area to the north of the Paseo, you'll pass families chilling out in their fan-cooled portones, which they use as outdoor parlors. They won't let you pass by without a nod and an “adiós.”
If you like people-watching and lots of local color, come to Puntarenas on a weekend when the action peaks, especially during cruise-ship season. If you like your seaside towns quiet and tinged with off-season wistfulness, come during the week in the rainy season.
Architecture
At its widest, Puntarenas is only 600 meters, or five avenidas, wide. At the historic center of this elongated town is the impressive gothic-revival Nuestra Señora del Carmen Cathedral, which looks ancient but was built in 1902 and recently renovated. The large park in front of the cathedral is a pleasant place to sit on a shaded bench and watch slices of small-town life go by: a circle of small schoolchildren practicing singsong calisthenics, or giggly groups of teenagers in high-school uniforms trying out their uncertain English on tourists.
Casa de la Cultura
The fortress-like Casa de la Cultura, the city's former port headquarters and jail, anchors the other end of the plaza. This cultural center hosts art and photography exhibits, but it's mainly a community center. The last time I visited, a crowd of beautiful young women and a few young men were gathering with their families outside. I thought it was a beauty contest, but it turned out to be the graduation ceremony for the city's University of Costa Rica campus. Beauty and brains!
In a stroll around town “ in the early morning before the midday heat builds” you'll come across traces of 19th-century grandeur: elaborate wooden verandas and intricate gingerbread transoms. Even in the city's empty lots, you can still see the bones of splendid bygone gardens, with tiled pathways intact, shaded by huge mango trees. Throughout the town, it's amazing to see how many giant trees rise up out of secret, walled-in gardens.
Toward the commercial center is an outcropping of handsome art-deco buildings. Notable examples include the Banco de Costa Rica branch at the corner of Calle 3 and Calle del Comercio and the cavernous former Customs building on the waterfront, which now houses the university campus.
For a town squeezed for space, stretched along a narrow spit of sand “the punta de arenas from which it derives its name” it's amazing to find a soccer stadium downtown. It's a model of building ingenuity, with the bleachers cantilevered over the perimeter streets and the huge light stanchions towering over the stadium from across the street.
Go Fish
Amongst the hodgepodge of junky ferreterías and catchall general stores in the commercial center, the Municipal Market, on the northern edge of town, is a cool cavern, offering a respite from the heat and a bonanza for photographers. There are the usual color-laden produce stands, Tico-style fast-food fondas (the Puntarenas version of sodas, or mom-and-pop cafés) and, of course, fish, for which Puntarenas is most famous.
Fishing in Puntarenas
Shelling, peeling, slicing, chopping the market is a flurry of fish preparation. Merchants and food workers flash smiles along with their knives and are happy to tell you exactly what kind of monster fish they are currently slicing up. Bring a cooler along and the fishmongers will pack it full of ice and fish for you to take home.
Sea Life
The Historical Marine Museum (closed Mondays), in the same building as the Casa de la Cultura, focuses on the town's seafaring life, starting around 1840, when Puntarenas was the main port of entry for Costa Rica and the only conduit for exporting coffee. But for a close-up look at what lives under the sea, visit the Pacific Marine Park at the far east end of town. Peering into well-lit aquariums, you can go eye-to-eye with puffer fish and other fascinating denizens of the deep that inhabit the Gulf of Nicoya.
There's also an impressive large shark tank in the air-conditioned main exhibit hall.
The outdoor exhibits “of crocodiles and turtles” are unimpressive, however, as are the playgrounds and gardens, already in disrepair after only three years. As with so many ambitious projects mounted by syndicates of the private, nonprofit and government sectors, there never seems to be enough funding to maintain the infrastructure after the initial building enthusiasm.
But the park is still worth a visit, especially on a rainy afternoon. The gift shop offers some unique fish-themed ceramic teapots, as well as “A Mi Puntarenas,” a CD by local singer Arlene Salazar Sibaja, with three songs dedicated to the port city.
Beaching It
The city beach in Puntarenas has a Blue Flag attesting to its ecological quality. (The tourist town of Tamarindo, on the far side of the Nicoya Peninsula, does not, nor does the well-visited town of Jacó, south of Puntarenas.) The beach is cleaned and raked every day. Local businesses have pitched in with recycling bins all along the beachfront.
A two-kilometer-long, tree-lined concrete walk starts at the pier in front of the two-story, blue and white Port Authority building, which looks just as fresh today as it did in turn-of-the-century photos. There are bathrooms and change rooms for rent and a dozen kiosks where you can buy ice or something cool to drink. The beachfront is dotted with old-fashioned concrete benches where you can sit, shaded by almond-tree umbrellas, and admire the view.
Or you can venture out onto the fine gray sand and lounge in a rented beach chair shaded by a jaunty umbrella (¢2,500/$5.15 for the day). Swimming is pleasant in the usually calm and certified-clean waters of the Gulf of Nicoya. You can also go to sea aboard a pedal boat (¢2000/$4.10 an hour).
Cruising the Paseo
More than 100 multi-decked cruise ships arrive at the pier between September and May. And when the Princess, Holland America and Windstar passengers alight, the two-kilometer-long Paseo de los Turistas comes alive. Souvenir kiosks, bars, discos and marisquerías (seafood restaurants) light up like Christmas trees along the wide, perfectly paved boulevard (it may be the best stretch of road in the country!).
You can stroll out onto the 500-meter long cruise dock 24 hours a day and get the full measure of these floating hotels' awesome bulk. When there's no ship, you can entertain yourself by watching the pelicans and frigate birds dive for fish. No human fishing or picnicking is allowed on the dock.
Getting There
One of the best things about a Puntarenas visit is that you don't need a car to get there. Hourly buses leave the Empresarios Unidos station in San José, at Calle 16 between Avenidas 10 and 12, from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. There's room to stow a bicycle in the luggage compartment during off-peak hours.
Or you can arrive in Puntarenas the old-fashioned way, aboard the Tico Train Tour, which is scheduled to start up weekend train service again in mid-November. The train lets you off in Caldera, 18 kilometers from downtown Puntarenas, and then a bus shuttles you into town. You can take the Saturday-morning train to Puntarenas and return by the Sunday-afternoon train to San José. By car, follow the Inter-American. Highway west for 115 km.
Geographical Division 
