A bit of Puntarenas History

1519 - The spaniel conqueror Hernan Ponce de Leon  gets into San Lucas Gulf (today known as Gulf of Nicoya) and discover the little peninsula that later will name Puntarenas

1522 – Another spaniel Gil Gonzales Davila arrives to Caldera and follows the same path of his compatriot Hernan Ponce de Leon, and start trading with the natives tribes like The Chorotegas who work with gold and stone.

1814 – September 21 because of the growing population Puntarenas was race to de category of “Puerto Mayor” (mayor harbor) this thanks to the effort of Mr. Tomas de Acosta. The Catholic King of Spain was happy about this.

1821 – Independence of Costa Rica from Spain.

1858 –September 17 the town of Puntarenas proclaimed city under the presidency of Juan Mora Porras

1870 – 1890 the building of the railroad brought lots of changes to the community like mixture of races, customs and culture this due to  the fact that the majority of workers where brought from Jamaica as well as china and Italy.

1887 - The section between Barranca and Puntarenas was carry out by the “Burrocarril” (the donkey road)

1909 – The first trip between Puntarenas and the capital of Costa Rica took place under the government of Cletus Gonzales Viques who create the railroad law. With the locomotive call “Maria Cecilia”.