Lighthouses of Costa Rica: Caribbean Coast

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.

General Sources
World of Lighthouses - Costa Rica
Photos by various photographers available from Lightphotos.net.
Online List of Lights - Costa Rica Caribbean
Photos by various photographers posted by Alexander Trabas.
Leuchttürme Mittelamerikas auf historischen Postkarten
Historic postcard images posted by Klaus Huelse.
Navionics Charts
Navigational chart for Costa Rica.


Isla Pájaros Light, Limón, May 2003
ex-Panoramio photo copyright Luis C. Alvarado salvaged by mapsights.com; used by permission

Limón Canton Lighthouses
For many years Puerto Limón was Costa Rica's only international port on the Caribbean Sea. Today most commercial shipping has transferred to the new Puerto Moín, a port recently developed by JAPDEVA and operated by APM Terminals, located on the Bahía de Moín a few miles to the west of Limón. Puerto Limón has redeveloped as Costa Rica's Caribbean cruise ship terminal.
Puerto Moín Inbound Leading
2018. Active; focal plane about 16 m (52 ft); continuous light, white, red or green depending on direction. Approx. 15 m (49 ft) square skeletal tower. No photo available but Google has a distant satellite view. This light leads containerships as they turn into the harbor. Located on the south shore of the Bahía Moín. Site status unknown. Admiralty J6067.7.
Puerto Moín Outbound Leading
2018. Active; focal plane 21 m (69 ft); continuous light, white, red or green depending on direction. Approx. 18 m (59 ft) square skeletal tower. Alfredo Gallegos Jimenez has the drone view seen at right but Google has only a fuzzy satellite view. The light guides vessels leaving the APM containership terminal. Located on a breakwater sheltering the general commercial dock. Site status unknown. Admiralty J6067.4.
Puerto Moín Range Rear
Date unknown. Active; focal plane unknown; continuous white light. Listed by NGA as a white mast, but the light must be mounted on a tall communications tower seen in the distant drone view by Alfredo Gallegos Jimenez and in Google's satellite view (neither show a mast). The front light is on a mast seen at the right in Melsen Felipe's photo. Located on the hillside behind the port facilities. Site status unknown. Admiralty J6067.21; NGA 16524.
Isla Pájaros (Bahía Moín) (?)
Date unknown. Apparently removed but listed with focal plane unknown; white flash every 2.5 s. This was an approx. 20 m (66 ft) square cylindrical skeletal tower, painted with red and white horizontal bands. Luís Alvarado's distant 2003 view is at the top of this page and Alfredo Gallegos Jimenez has a very distant 2019 drone view but the tower is not seen in Google's satellite view of the island, in Bing's satellite view, or in Bryan Videa's 2022 aerial view of the island. Located on an island off the Bahía de Moín, about 500 m (0.3 mi) offshore and 5 km (3 mi) northwest of Limón. Accessible only by boat. Admiralty J6067; NGA 16516.

Outbound Leading Light, Puerto Moín, January 2019
Google Maps drone view by Alfredo Gallegos Jimenez
#Limón (Isla Uvita, Isla Quiribrí) (2)
1891 (station established 1878). Removed although still listed by the Admiralty. This was a 25 m (82 ft) square skeletal tower, painted white. The lighthouse is not seen in Google's satellite view or in aerial views of the island in a 2018 YouTube video. The YouTube evidence is conclusive: the lighthouse no longer exists. This was the traditional landfall light for Puerto Limón. According to a history previously posted by the Museo Nacional de Costa Rica, the lighthouse was privately funded and prefabricated in London. The Northern Railway Company assumed control of the light in 1930 and maintained it until JAPDEVA took ownership in 1964. Huelse has a historic (but very distant) postcard view. The island was used to quarantine smallpox patients between 1881 and the 1920s. Located on an island about 3 km (2 mi) east of Puerto Limón. Accessible only by boat. ARLHS COS-006; Admiralty J6068; NGA 16504.
[Puerto Limón (Container Pier)]
Date unknown. Active; focal plane 15 m (49 ft); continuous red light. Approx. 14 m (46 ft) steel (?) post with a small gallery. Trabas has a photo by Rainer Arndt, Dan McGarvie has a distant view from the cruise ship pier, and Google has a satellite view. Located at the south end of the breakwater pier at Puerto Limón. Site status unknown. Admiralty J6069; NGA 16508.

Information available on lost lighthouses:

Adjoining pages: North: Caribbean Nicaragua | Southeast: Northern Panama

Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key

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.