Caribbean coast of Costa Rica

[Adamastor]

Dear forum,

Anyone have any experience of cruising on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica? We are headed there next month and, other than making for the port of entry Puerto Limon, we cannot find any information on any other marinas / stops / anchorages / anything on the Caribbean side.

Any help, advice, much appreciated. Even charts for this coast seem fairly thin on the ground! We'll be in Panama for a lot longer but planned for 2 weeks in Costa Rica which seem like they'll be mostly land travel unless we can find out more.

Thanks in advance.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Adamastor.

[Tortuga's Lie]

Adamastor,
Though I have never cruised the western Caribbean, I have a friend that has a house in Cahuita, South of Limon, and I have spend some time along the region. There really isn't any ports except at Limon and that one is primarily a commercial port that does not have any anchorages. The rest of the coast is not accessable at all unless you have a really calm day and anchor out in the Caribbean, but you will not have any protection at all. Puerto Viejo is a neat hippie town that has some nice restaurants, same could be said for Cahuita. Limon is a larger city(town) that has banks and better markets. There's not much to the North except Tortuguero Park and you may need a permit to enter during turtle nesting periods.
My advice is to stick with Panama, rent a car for a day or two and travel into Costa Rica that way.