Limón Province

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Limón
Nicaragua Panama Provinz Guanacaste Provinz Puntarenas Provinz Heredia Provinz Alajuela Provinz Cartago Provinz San José Provinz LimónLimon in Costa Rica.svg
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Location of Limón in Costa Rica
Data
Capital Puerto Limón
population 422,529
surface 9,189 km²
Population density 42 inhabitants / km²
structure 6 cantons
Rivers Río Reventazón ,
Río Sixaola
ISO 3166-2 CR-L

Limón is a province of Costa Rica on the Atlantic coast. The neighboring territories are (clockwise) Panama , the Costa Rican provinces of Puntarenas , San José , Cartago and Heredia and Nicaragua . The capital Puerto Limón has the largest container port in Costa Rica, through which the export of goods such as coffee and bananas is made possible. The province has an area of ​​9189 km² and 386,862 (2011) inhabitants. About 50 percent of the population are of Caribbean descent, mostly from Jamaica . In addition to the Spanish language, an English Creole language is also spoken.

history

In 1502 the Italian navigator Christopher Columbus , after discovering the American continent in 1492, reached the small island of Uvita, which is 700 m from the dock of today's seaport of Puerto Limón.

During the Spanish colonial era, the inaccessible, pirate-ridden Caribbean coast of Costa Rica was little developed. That changed in 1867 when the construction of a railway began to connect the highlands with the coast. The railway project as well as the newly created banana plantations in the province attracted many Afro-Caribbean workers to the country, whose descendants now make up a significant proportion of the region's population.

tourism

Caribbean coast in Tortuguero , Limón

The entire Caribbean coast of Costa Rica lies in Limón. The province now has 336 km of white sandy beaches. There are also national parks to protect the tropical rainforest and coral reefs, as well as a large number of endangered plant and animal species. For example, the Tortuguero National Park in the north of the province . The main source of income for the residents today is tourism and no longer the deforestation of tropical forests. Over 300 different species of birds, caimans , sea turtles and other creatures can be observed here, making the area a popular destination for scientific research and ecotourism .

Cantons of the Province of Limón

Administrative division

The province is divided into six cantons. Cantons (with capital) from north to south:

Canton Capital Population (2011)
Pococí Guápiles 125,962
Guácimo Guácimo 41,266
Siquirres Siquirres 56,786
Matina Matina 37,721
Limón Puerto Limón 94,415
Talamanca Bribri 30,712

Individual evidence

  1. inec.go.cr ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ( MS Excel ; 119 kB) INEC; Retrieved October 13, 2012 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.inec.go.cr

Coordinates: 9 ° 57 ′  N , 83 ° 9 ′  W