Puerto Limon, also Limon, city in eastern Costa Rica, capital of Limon Province, on a bay in the swampy Caribbean coastal lowland. It is a leading port of the country and a terminus of the Northern Railway to San Jose. Exports include bananas, coffee, cocoa, and coconuts. Puerto Limon is the site of a cathedral, a large trading market, and Vargas Park, with botanical gardens; beaches lie nearby. The city was built in 1871 on the site of the Native American village of Cariari, which was visited by Christopher Columbus in 1502. Prospering after the construction of the railroad in 1890, it was the leading banana port of Costa Rica until the 1930s.