Victor C. Krumm

Cocos Island is one of the treasures of the planet. The famous Jacques Cousteau called this Costa Rica island the most beautiful island he had ever explored, Costa Ricans have selected this little national park one of its Seven Wonders, and it is being considered as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.

Though it is a small island located nearly 350 miles off the Costa Rica Pacific coast, it is world famous for its unique scuba diving. Indeed, its waters are filled with fish, porpoises, whales, and sea turtles, and there are sometimes so many sharks, it is often called Shark Island. Experienced scuba divers travel here from across the planet because it is renowned as the greatest place on earth to dive with large sea animals.

For centuries, the island has been famous for pirates, real and imagined. It is thought by some that it served as inspiration for Robert Lewis Stevenson’s famous pirate adventure Treasure Island but real pirates often sailed to it to get away from the English fleet and to bury treasure there. Indeed two great treasures, the Devonshire Treasure and the incredible Lima Treasure, were buried there and, to this day, may still be there. Buried treasure, hundreds of millions of dollars in gold and jewels, waiting for discovery.

It also fired the imagination of Michael Crichton whose world famous Jurassic Park is set off the coast of Costa Rica.

The island is very isolated, hundreds of miles from any other land. Except for a few Costa Rica park rangers who are there to prevent its waters from poaching, it is uninhabited. That isolation has protected its rainforest from destruction and for centuries its underwater splendor was also unmolested .

Only a few lucky people get to visit Cocos and if you want to go ashore, you will need previous permission from the rangers. Overnight camping is forbidden. But, no matter. As you walk the shores, looking out over the great Pacific, your imagination can soar. You’ll be walking the very shores that famous pirates hid buried treasure and you will not be alone. It is almost as if some of the stones themselves can talk for you are going to find rocks and boulders bearing the inscriptions of past sailors who left their moment of history behind, writing their names, the names of their ships and ports of call, even the dates. Sailors, long gone but not forgotten by the rocks. Like Kilroy, they were here, and will stay!

Writer Victor Krumm posts from his home in Costa Rica. Go to his very popular website about Costa Rica Vacations and be sure to look at the magnificent Seven Wonders of Costa Rica This and other unique content ‘costa rica’ articles are available with free reprint rights.

Tags: beaches, cocos island, costa rica, costa rica tourism, costa rica vacations, destination, ecotourism, family, fishing, medical tourism, surfing, tourism, travel, vacation —