Puerto Viejo de Talamanca

“A different place on a quiet Tuesday”

Puerto Viejo de Talamanca is the cultural centre of Costa Rica's Caribbean coast, an Afro-Caribbean town whose identity is rooted in the Jamaican and Bribri heritage of the Talamanca region. The main street runs parallel to the beach and the Salsa Brava reef break — a short, powerful left-hander that breaks over a shallow reef in front of the town and is considered the heaviest wave on the Costa Rican coast. Non-surfers observe it from the waterfront; surfers who attempt it without local knowledge generally regret it. The town has a working cacao economy — several small chocolate operations use Bribri-grown beans and offer tastings and tours. The music on weekend evenings is punta and reggae, audible from the street. Bribri indigenous territory begins fifteen kilometres inland via the Sixaola corridor. The beaches south of town — Playa Cocles, Chiquita, Punta Uva, Manzanillo — are accessible by bicycle along the flat coastal road through the forest.