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Looking at the Pacific from the Paseo de los Turistas...

port city of Puntarenas is a much quieter place. It is still visited by Ticos but most Tourists only know it as the long strip of land bordered on both sides by water, which you drive past until you reach the tip and the Ferry Boat terminal to the Nicoya Peninsula. There are still small, mostly non-pretentious hotels that face the Pacific Ocean along the Paseo de los Turistas boardwalk and of course there are still a variety of no frills restaurants that cater mostly to a Tico clientele and we still find plenty of the small vendor carts that offer the shaved Ices and other sweet concoctions and a variety of quick food and drinks. The beach is the same as when I was a kid but now it looks much smaller and the long pier is still there which occasionally caters to the cruise ships that make a stop. The local municipality has made improvements and an effort to revitalize the area has been underway with mixed results but each time I visit, usually going to catch or getting off the Ferry, I can ´ t help but experience a bitter sweet feeling of a mix of past memories and a sadness for what this place was and no longer is...

The Lighthouse on the Tourists Walkway