Puntarenas Puntarenas Costa Rica

The Diquis culture (sometimes spelled Diquís) is a pre-Columbian indigenous culture of Costa Rica that flourishes from CE 700 to 1530.

The word "diquís" means "great waters" or "great river" in the Boruca language.

The stone spheres (or stone balls) of Costa Rica are an assortment of over three hundred petrospheres in Costa Rica, located on the Diquís Delta and on Isla del Caño.

Locally, they are known as Las Bolas (literally The Balls).

The stones are believed to have been first created around the year 600, with most dating to after 1000 but before the Spanish conquest.

The only method available for dating the carved stones is stratigraphy, but most stones are no longer in their original locations.

The culture of the people who made them disappears after the Spanish conquest.

The best-known stone sculptures of the Isthmo-Colombian area, they are thought to have been placed in lines along the approach to the houses of chiefs, but their exact significance remains uncertain.

Puntarenas, first known as Villa Bruselas in colonial times, had first been sighted by Hernán Ponce de León in 1519.

The Spanish immigration to Costa Rica began with the exploration of Hernán Ponce de León and Juan de Castañeda along the Pacific coast, soon after leading to Spanish control of the native population of this region.

Because of the small number of Indians who inhabit the region, only a relatively few colonists settle in Costa Rica.

Accounts differ as to whether the name la costa rica (Spanish for "rich coast") was first applied by Christopher Columbus, who sailed to the eastern shores of Costa Rica during his final voyage in 1502, and reported the presence of vast quantities of gold jewelry among the natives, or by the conquistador Gil González Dávila, who lands on the west coast in 1522, meets with the natives, and appropriates some of their gold.