Puntarenas
city in Costa Rica
Puntarenas (Spanish pronunciation: [puntaˈɾenas]) is a city in the Puntarenas Province, on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. As the seat of the Municipality of Puntarenas canton, it is awarded the title of city, which comprises the Puntarenas, Chacarita and El Roble districts. As the city of the first canton of the province, it is the capital city of the Puntarenas Province as well, according to the Administrative divisions of Costa Rica.
Toponymy
The name Puntarenas comes from a portmanteau of punta and arenas, which means "point" and "sands", respectively. In English this would translate roughly to "Sand Point". The name is first referenced by the arrival in February 1720 of the pirate John Clipperton to the area, which recorded in his journals to have arrived to a "Punta de Arena", referring to the needle-like area on which the city stands today. The name is also given to the oddly shaped province of Puntarenas, which (as the most extensive province in the country), has its largest section in the South, far from the main city.
Overview
There are some 100,000 inhabitants in the town and surrounding neighborhoods. Its Pacific Ocean beaches attract many tourists, especially surfers. It is also a possible stopover point for the tourist destination Monteverde, to the northwest.
The public source identifies “Puntarenas” as city in Costa Rica. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Puntarenas, city and Costa.
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Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q30687. VIAF identifies the subject as 154716270. The Library of Congress control number is n82257819. Authority coordinates are 9.977, -84.835. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1720.
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This entry incorporates text from “Puntarenas” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.