Cahuita Transportation

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Between Puerto Limón and Sixaola, at the border with Panama, busses operate from the company "Autotransportes Mepe". This company has one line between these two placeswith busses driving every hours to each direction, between sunrise and sunset.

Cahuita is right in the middle of this line: at about 1,5 hours from Limón and about just as long to the Panamese border. From both places the price is about 2,5 dollars for a single way ticket. These tickets are sold in a ticketoffice and printed there, but if you weren't able to get one for some reason you can also get another version in the bus: these ones are white for southbound connections and yellow for northbound connections.

On the way south from Cahuita you can easily visit some other villages. This costs close to nothing and doesn't take very long either. To Puerto Viejo -another tourism place- it is only 30 minutes and to Bribri -just another nice, quiet town- it takes an extra 30 minutes. Another half an hour further you'll end up in the village Sixaola, when you can cross the scary bridge to enter Panama.

When you are coming from San José and you are heading for the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica, you will have to go to the so called "Caribbean Busstation" in the capital. From here busses depart to several destinations in the eastcoast of the country. One destination these busses will always go to is Puerto Limón. This is the biggest city in this part of the country and one of the biggest in the whole of Costa Rica.

The busride from the capital to Puerto Limón takes about 3,5 hours and costs 2080 Colones: about 4 dollars. From here you can take a connecting bus further south to the villages Cahuita, Puerto Viejo, Bribri and others. From here you can also get a bus directly to the border with Panama.

At the Caribbean busstation in San José there are also busses that cover the complete distance to Cahuita, Puerto Viejo or the border. These busses run less frequently, bus if you miss one of these busses it is always easy to get another connection once you are in Limón.

We found the the direct bus is better than the more expensive shuttles. They are very comfortable and have more convenient times. Station Caribe in San Jose has tons of buses going all over the Caribbean Coast . Take the direct routes for faster arrival . The terminal is much cleaner and nicer than I imagined . They have a bank and an ATM ...money available in US dollars or Colones. There are tourist police and security so...it was safe. Trip to Cahuita took less than 4 hours including a snack stop. Cost $7.00