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is a very expensive proposition, with baseline trips starting at several hundred dollars per outing. Assuming you have a serious pile of cash to burn, anyone can enjoy the thrill of getting a bite, though it definitely takes a bit of practice (and muscle) to reel in the big one. And, even if you’re traveling with nonanglers, few people can resist the pleasure of an open-water cruise on a stylish fishing vessel.

For those on a more modest budget, there are several inland spots where you can hook freshwater fish. Finally, if you want to do as the locals do, try your hand at surfcasting, which simply involves standing on a beach and casting a hook and line into the crashing waves.

Enjoy the thrill of going for the record ‘catch and release’ in Costa Rican waters.

RICHARD CUMMINS

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Caribbean Coast

* * *

THE ATLANTIC SLOPE

PARQUE NACIONAL BRAULIO CARRILLO

RAINFOREST AERIAL TRAM

GUÁPILES & AROUND

CARIARI

GUÁCIMO

SIQUIRRES

VERAGUA RAINFOREST RESEARCH & ADVENTURE PARK

PUERTO LIMÓN

AROUND PUERTO LIMÓN

NORTHERN CARIBBEAN

PARISMINA

PARQUE NACIONAL TORTUGUERO

TORTUGUERO VILLAGE

BARRA DEL COLORADO

SOUTHERN CARIBBEAN

RESERVA BIOLÓGICA HITOY-CERERE

AVIARIOS DEL CARIBE SLOTH SANCTUARY

CAHUITA

PARQUE NACIONAL CAHUITA

CACAO TRAILS

PUERTO VIEJO DE TALAMANCA

PUERTO VIEJO TO PUNTA UVA

MANZANILLO

REFUGIO NACIONAL DE VIDA SILVESTRE GANDOCA-MANZANILLO

BRIBRí

SIXAOLA

* * *

When the Spaniards arrived in this neck of the woods in the 16th century, the country’s jungle-fringed Caribbean coast was deemed too wild, too impassible and too malarial for settlement. For centuries, it developed at its own pace, with its own unique culture – a mix of indigenous and West Indian. In the 19th century, the arrival of thousands of Jamaican railroad workers infused the area with the traditions of the islands.

But even as the culture evolved, the landscape remained wild. This isn’t the postcard-perfect Caribbean stereotype of salt-white beaches and gentle turquoise waters. Here, you’ll find brooding, tempestuous seas and one of Costa Rica’s most notorious surfing waves. Not to mention black volcanic shores and dense swamps stocked with enough nesting sea-turtles and brilliant birds to keep the National Geographic set occupied for a lifetime.

In recent years, North American surfers and Italian hoteliers have emigrated here in droves, adding new flavors to what was always an intriguing cultural stew. Celebrated local cooks now produce spicy Caribbean dishes for a coterie of world travelers. Old cacao farms have been reborn as quaint B&Bs. And once-inaccessible jungle canals are plied by travelers in search of dozing caimans. It is as rugged as it is delicious – a territory you’ll never forget.

HIGHLIGHTS

Taking snaps of brilliantly plumed birds on the canals of Parque Nacional Tortuguero

Enjoying the wild surf, crazy parties and excellent cuisine scene in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca

Rolling up your sleeves to help guard the important turtle nesting site of Parismina

Taking lounging tips from the overhanging sloths and gently rocking the day away in a hammock in Cahuita

Snorkeling the colorful reef at the Refugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre Gandoca-Manzanillo

* * *

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History

In 1502 Christopher Columbus spent a total of 17 days anchored off the coast of Puerto Limón on what would be his fourth and final voyage to the New World. He dropped anchor at an isle he baptized La Huerta (today known as Isla Uvita), loaded up on fresh water, and then continued on his way to Panama and, ultimately back to Spain. It wasn’t a good trip: Columbus was imprisoned by a rival in Santo Domingo and shipwrecked in Jamaica. In 1504, unable to discover heaps of gold or a passage to the Far East, he returned to Europe a failure. Within two years he was dead.

For Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast, however, this small encounter would foreshadow the colonization that was to come. But it would be centuries before the Europeans would fully dominate the area. Because