The Republic of 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. This page is for lighthouses of the Caribbean coast; there is a separate page for the Pacific coast. Costa Rica is divided into seven provinces and the provinces are divided into cantons. The entire Caribbean coast is included in Límon Province and the only navigational aids are in Límon Canton. In Spanish the word for a lighthouse is faro, baliza is a beacon, isla is an island, cabo is a cape, punta is a promontory or point of land, péñon is a rock, arrecife is a reef, bahía is a bay, ría is an estuary or inlet, estrecho is a strait, río is a river, and puerto is a port or harbor. Aids to navigation in Costa Rica are regulated by the Seaport Division (División Marítimo Portuaria), an agency of MTOP (Ministerio de Transporte y Obras Públicas), the public works and transportation ministry. On the Pacific coast the lighthouses are operated by INCOP (Instituto Costaricense de Puertos del Pacífico), an agency managing all the Pacific ports. Caribbean coast lights are presumably maintained by JAPDEVA (Junta de Administración Portuaria y de Desarrallo Económico de la Vertiente Atlántica), the port and development authority for the Caribbean coast. 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.
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![]() Outbound Leading Light, Puerto Moín, January 2019 Google Maps drone view by Alfredo Gallegos Jimenez |
Information available on lost lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Caribbean Nicaragua | Southeast: Northern Panama
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Posted (Central America page) January 24, 2005. Checked and revised April 15, 2024. Lighthouses: 5. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.