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GOLFITO |
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The former banana port of GOLFITO , 33km north of the Panamanian
border, straggles for 2500m along the water of the same name ( golfito
means "little gulf"). The town's setting is spectacular, backed up
against steep, thickly forested hills to the east, and with the glorious
Golfo Dulce - one of the deepest gulfs of its size in the world - to the
west. The low shadow of the Osa Peninsula shimmers in the distance, and
everywhere the vegetation has the soft muted look of the undisturbed
tropics.
Golfito's history is inextricably intertwined with the giant
transnational United Brands company - locally known as "La Yunai" -
which first set up in the area in 1938. United Brands built schools,
recruited doctors and police, and brought prosperity to the area, but
following fluctuating banana prices, a three-month strike and local
social unrest, they eventually decided Golfito was too much trouble and
pulled out in a hurry in 1985. The town died, and in the public eye
became synonymous with rampant unemployment, alcoholism, abandoned
children, prostitution and general unruliness.
Today, at the big old muelle bananero , container ships are still loaded
up with bananas processed further up towards Palmar Norte. This residual
traffic, along with tourism - Golfito is a good base for getting to the
Parque Nacional Corcovado by lancha or plane - has combined to help
revive the local economy. The real rescue, though, came from the Costa
Rican government, who in the early 1990s established a depósito libre -
or tax-free zone - in the town, where Costa Ricans can buy manufactured
goods imported from Panamá without the 100-percent tax normally levied.
Ticos who come to shop here have to buy their tickets for the depósito
24 hours in advance, obliging them to spend at least one night, and
therefore colones, in the town.
Golfito straggles for ages without any clear centre. The town is
effectively split in two - by a division in wealth as well as
architecture. In the north is the zona americana , where the
banana-company executives used to live and where better-off residents
still reside in beautiful wooden houses shaded by dignified palms. Here
you'll find the depósito libre , an unaesthetic outdoor mall ringed by a
circular concrete wall. To the south, the pueblo civil (civilian town),
is a very small, tight nest of streets; hotter, noisier and more crowded
than the zona . It's here you'll find the good-value hotels and sodas,
as well as the lancha across the Golfo Dulce to Puerto Jiménez and the
Osa Peninsula.
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