Costa Rica is a country of Central America, located between Nicaragua and Panama. The country has a lengthy coastline on the Pacific Ocean and a much shorter one on the Caribbean Sea. The principal ports are Puntarenas and Caldera on the Pacific and Limón on the Caribbean. Very little is known about lighthouses in Costa Rica, so additional information from visitors would be very welcome.
Aids to navigation in Costa Rica are regulated by the División Marítimo Portuaria, an agency of MOPT (Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Tranportes), the public works and transportation ministry. On the Pacific coast, the lighthouses are operated by INCOP (Instituto Costarricense de Puertos del Pacífico), a relatively new agency managing all the Pacific ports. Atlantic coast lights are presumably maintained by JAPDEVA, the port and development authority for Limón.
The Spanish word for a lighthouse is faro. In Spanish-speaking America, this word is used generally for all navigational lights, large and small, although smaller lights are also called balizas (beacons).
ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. Admiralty numbers are from volume J of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals for Caribbean lights and from volume G for Pacific lights. Light List numbers are from NGA Publication 110 for Caribbean lights and from Publication 111 for Pacific lights.
- General Sources
- Online List of Lights - Costa Rica South
- Photos by various photographers posted by Alex Trabas.
- Leuchttürme Mittelamerikas auf historischen Postkarten
- Historic postcard images posted by Klaus Huelse.
Punta Quepos Light, 2010
MOPT photo
