Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Puntarenas is a town in Costa Rica that translates into English as Sand Point. Indeed, the town is on a long sand peninsula into the Pacific Ocean. The location is not particularly worth a visit if you were driving around the country but Puntarenas is cruise destination due to the long pier that was built for cruise ships. Most visitors from the ship do shore excursions well into the mountains about an hour or two drive. The busses line up on the pier to take visitors away. But, nice sandy beaches are right next to the cruise pier so that is pretty amazing to walk off the boat and go for a dip. The town looked a bit rough to me but we did walk the beach for 1.5 miles to the end of the town to the El Faro de Puntarenas lighthouse.