Guácimo is a

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

of the Guácimo canton, in the

Limón Limón (), commonly known as Puerto Limón, is a district, the capital city and main hub of Limón province, as well as of the Limón canton in Costa Rica. It is the seventh largest city in Costa Rica, with a population of over 55,000, and is ho ...

province of

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

. This rural town on the east coast of the country has many banana and pineapple plantations. The area is not much visited by tourists.

Toponymy

Its name is taken from the fast-growing malva family tree, Guacimo, native to Central America.

History

Guácimo was created on 26 June 1971 by Decreto 1769-G. The town began with the construction of the railway built by West Indian employees of

Minor Cooper Keith Minor Cooper Keith (19 January 1848 – 14 June 1929) was an American businessman whose railroad, commercial agriculture, and cargo liner enterprises had a major impact on the national economies of the Central American countries, as well as on th ...

in the 1880s. Keith built the so-called "Old Line" from Siquirres west through Guácimo to Carrillo before it was decided that the track line, instead of continuing from Carrillo directly to San José, should be built from

Siquirres Siquirres is a district of the Siquirres canton, in the Limón province of Costa Rica. It is a center of commerce and has most of the services for the area's locals. Toponymy The name is derived from a native word meaning reddish colored. His ...

through Turrialba and Cartago along the Reventazon River.

Geography

Guácimo has an area of km² and an elevation of metres.

Locations

*Neighborhoods (''Barrios''): África, Cantarrana, Guayacán * Villages (''Poblados''): Aguacate, Angelina, Bosque, Cabaña, Edén, El Tres, Estación Rudín, Fox Hall, Guaira, Hogar, Parismina, Selva

Demographics

For the 2011 census, Guácimo had a population of inhabitants. Longstanding English surnames in Guácimo include the Abrams, Anderson, Arboine, Bailey, Barnes, Berry, Blackwood, Budd, Burke, Burger, Byfield, Chambers, Channer, Clarke, Cook, Cowan, Crawford, Creed, Cyrus, Daily, Daniels, Davis, Douglas, Edwards, Fennell, Forbes, Gabriels, Gale, Gibson, Graham, Grant, Harris, Hemmings, Henry, Howard, Jones, Knowles, Leacock, Lee, Lovemore, McCarthy, McDonald, McFarlane, McGregor, Meyers, Myrie, Parchment, Peart, Philips, Porter, Poyser, Samuels, Slack, Stewart, Strackman, Taylor, Thomas, Valentine, Walcott, Watson, White, Williams, and Young families, as evidenced by the monthly active Linea Vieja local newspaper, current election registration sheets (known as the "padron electoral"), and 20th-century Jamaican

Gleaner A gleaner(Noun) is a person who engages in gleaning, utilizing crops and resources left behind in a harvest. Newspapers *''The Gleaner'', a newspaper of record in Kingston, Jamaica, published by: **The Gleaner Company, a newspaper publishing enter ...

articles. For much of its history Guácimo was mainly made up of English-speaking West Indians.

Education

The town elementary school, Manuel María Gutiérrez, was originally an English school when established in 1914.

EARTH University EARTH University (Universidad EARTH, ''Escuela de Agricultura de la Región Tropical Húmeda'') is a private, non-profit university that offers one program of study: an undergraduate ''licenciatura'' degree in agricultural sciences. The universit ...

(''Escuela de Agricultura de la Región Tropical Húmeda''),Escuela de Agricultura de la Región Tropical Húmeda
EARTH, December 1999. is a private agricultural sciences university in Guácimo.

Transportation

Rail transportation

The railroad bridge in Guácimo, built by the Baltimore Bridge Company in 1905, is the oldest still standing in the Atlantic Zone of Costa Rica. Across the bridge, Guácimo's sister city of Africa was a bigger town than Guácimo until "colonists" began moving in from other parts of Costa Rica.

Road transportation

The district is covered by the following road routes: * CR RNP 32

National Route 32 * CR RNS 248

National Route 248 * CR RNT 816

National Route 816

References

{{CostaRica-geo-stub Districts of Limón Province Populated places in Limón Province