Local History, Culture and Economy
Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast is the location of what may be the country’s biggest claim to fame: Christopher Columbus made his fourth and final visit to the New World somewhere near present day Limón, in 1502.
The earliest recorded peoples of the Talamanca region are the indigenous Bribri and Cabecar, who lived inland and near rivers. In the mid-1800s, Afro-Caribbeans were brought to the area, mainly from Jamaica, to work as slaves on a railroad from San José to Limón. The idea was to enable the transportation of fruit and coffee to the Caribbean port for export to Europe. These Afro-Caribbean families brought with them fishing and farming skills, as well as customs adopted from the British colony of Jamaica. Limón to this day still has a local cricket team that wears original cricket whites and plays every Sunday.
Cacao cultivation helped bring some wealth to the region, but the plantations were wiped out after a new fungus sprung up and devastated the crop. Trekking through the forests today you can still see the occasional cacao bush with moldy pods hanging sadly from the branches. Some artesian cacao is still cultivated, but the prevalence of the fungus makes industrial production impossible.
For much of Costa Rica’s history, the South Caribbean was pretty much cut off from the rest of the country. Black descendents of railway workers weren’t granted citizenship as Costa Ricans until 1949, and during much of the first half of the 20th century, blacks were not allowed to travel westward past Turrialba. Even today, most Ticos from the rest of the country have never been to the Caribbean and view it with a mixture of indifference and racial prejudice. As a result of its relative isolation, the Afro-Caribbean culture in the area remains strong, with most residents speaking a form of Patios, English, Spanish and the local Bribri language, with many speaking multiple languages.
The growing popularity of Cahuita’s calypso king Walter Ferguson and other local musicians has helped bring Costa Rica’s Caribbean soul over the mountains to Central Valley. The Caribbean’s cuisine also has a distinct flavor that has made it into restaurants elsewhere in the country. In the Caribbean, Costa Rican gallo pinto is called, literally, “rice and beans,” and it’s prepared in coconut milk, with a healthy dash of spices. In the Caribbean, spicy and flaky patties take the place of empanadas. Another local favorite, a soup called rondon, contains the savory leftovers of pretty much anything the cook can “run down.”
Like many areas of Costa Rica, the South Caribbean relies on tourism as one of its principal sources of income. It has not taken off the same as some parts of the country when it comes to real estate, but tourism is alive and strong in the area. Backpackers, surfers and an increasing number of locals and niche travelers visit the area. Whether you’re a fisher boy collecting bait for the day’s catch, a truck driver delivering construction materials, or the local hotelier, you all depend on tourism for your income in some way or another.
