Once the Atlantic coast's principal port, today PUERTO LIMÓN, 165km east of San José, has a somewhat neglected air. There has been little activity at the harbour since the big-time banana boats started loading at Moín, 8km up the headland toward Tortuguero. Sparsely populated Limón province sweeps south in an arc from Nicaragua down to Panamá. Hemmed in to the north by dense jungles and swampy waterways, to the west by the mighty Cordillera Central and to the south by the even wider girth of the Cordillera Talamanca, Limón province can feel like a lost, end-of-the-world place. Here you can watch gentle giant sea turtles lay their eggs on the wave-raked beaches of Tortuguero; snorkel coral reefs at Cahuita; surf at Puerto Viejo; drift along the jungle canal from Tortuguero to Barra del Colorado, a major sports-fishing destination, or try animal- and bird-spotting in the many mangroves.