Cahuita and the Caribbean Coast

The Caribbean coast feels like a different country from the Pacific side, and in cultural terms it partly is: the communities here are largely Afro-Caribbean, descended from Jamaican workers who came to build the railway and work the banana plantations, and the everyday language includes an English-based creole. Food follows suit, with rice and beans cooked in coconut milk and rondón stew. Cahuita National Park protects one of the country's few living coral reefs close to shore, and its coastal trail runs for several kilometres through forest along white sand, with howler monkeys, sloths, agouti and raccoons along the way and snorkelling off the point. Further south, Puerto Viejo and Manzanillo have the surf and the nightlife.

What you actually see

• Cahuita coastal trail - a flat forest and beach walk with reliable sloth and monkey sightings.
• The reef at Punta Cahuita - snorkelling over living coral close to shore.
• Puerto Viejo and Manzanillo - surf beaches, reggae bars and the road south to the Panama border.
• Caribbean cooking - rice and beans in coconut milk, patties and rondón.

When to go

This coast runs on its own weather: February to April and September to October are the driest windows, which is the opposite pattern to much of the country. Snorkelling visibility depends on recent rain, since river runoff clouds the reef.

Honest expectations

Rain here is heavy and can arrive in any month. Reef visibility is unreliable and the coral has suffered from sedimentation and past earthquakes, so it is not Caribbean-postcard snorkelling. The road from San José is long. Puerto Viejo has a party reputation that suits some travellers and not others; Cahuita is the quieter base.

Nearby

Tortuguero lies north along the coast; the Panama border and Bocas del Toro are south.