Guácimo District

Guácimo
District
Guácimo district
Guácimo Guácimo district location in Costa Rica
Coordinates: 10.1711652°N 83.697841°W / 10.1711652; -83.697841
Country	Costa Rica
Province	Limón
Canton	Guácimo
Creation	26 June 1971
Area
• Total	223.27 km^2 (86.21 sq mi)
Elevation	114 m (374 ft)
Population  (2011)
• Total	18,326
• Density	82/km^2 (210/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC−06:00
Postal code	70601

Guácimo is a district of the Guácimo canton, in the Limón province of Costa Rica.^[1][2]

This rural town on the east coast of the country has many banana and pineapple plantations. The area is not much visited by tourists. ^{[citation needed]}

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.^[2]

The town began with the construction of the railway built by West Indian employees of Minor Cooper Keith 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 through Turrialba and Cartago along the Reventazon River.

Geography

Guácimo has an area of 223.27 km²^[3] and an elevation of 114 metres.^[1]

Locations

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

Demographics

Historical population

Census	Pop.	±% p.a.
1963	5,731	—
1973	4,755	−1.85%
1984	6,158	+2.38%
2000	13,950	+5.24%
2011	18,326	+2.51%
2022	21,885	+1.63%
Source: Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos[4] Centro Centroamericano de Población[5]

For the 2011 census, Guácimo had a population of 18,326 inhabitants. ^[6]

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 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 (Escuela de Agricultura de la Región Tropical Húmeda),^[7] 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:

• National Route 32
• National Route 248
• National Route 816

References

1. "Declara oficial para efectos administrativos, la aprobación de la División Territorial Administrativa de la República N°41548-MGP". Sistema Costarricense de Información Jurídica (in Spanish). 19 March 2019. Archived from the original on 24 February 2024. Retrieved 26 September 2020.
2. División Territorial Administrativa de la República de Costa Rica (PDF) (in Spanish). Editorial Digital de la Imprenta Nacional. 8 March 2017. ISBN 978-9977-58-477-5.
3. "Área en kilómetros cuadrados, según provincia, cantón y distrito administrativo". Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 24 October 2020. Retrieved 26 September 2020.
4. "Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos" (in Spanish).
5. Centro Centroamericano de Población de la Universidad de Costa Rica. "Sistema de Consulta a Bases de Datos Estadísticas" (in Spanish).
6. "Censo. 2011. Población total por zona y sexo, según provincia, cantón y distrito". Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 September 2020.
7. Escuela de Agricultura de la Región Tropical Húmeda^{[permanent dead link‍]} EARTH, December 1999.