Isla del Coco

About Isla del Coco:

Isla del Coco sits roughly halfway between the Costa Rican mainland and the Galápagos, about 550 kilometres southwest of the coast, with 23 square kilometres of land and nothing but ocean around it. It became a district of the canton of Puntarenas on 12 May 1970 by executive decree, and it carries a postal code, 60110, like any other district. There is no airstrip and no ferry. Getting there means a crossing of around 36 hours from Puntarenas aboard a liveaboard dive boat, on charters that run eight to twelve nights; most passengers spend a night in San José first and ride the hour and a half down to the dock. Cliffs up to 90 metres high wrap most of the shore, so boats can only land at a few beaches, and Chatham Bay is the easiest way in.

The State is the only employer on the island. The people living there are SINAC park rangers, based in the stations at Wafer Bay and Chatham Bay, and they watch over a park whose waters draw illegal fishing boats; a radar now lets them spot vessels entering the protected area. When the rangers voted for the first time, in the February 2006 election, there were 33 of them, but they are not counted as permanent residents, so the census treats the district as uninhabited. Tourism is the only other activity, and nearly all of it happens underwater. Visitors may go ashore only with the rangers’ permission, may not camp or spend the night, and may not take away a plant, an animal or a stone.

The island rises steep and green out of deep water. It is the only oceanic island in the eastern tropical Pacific covered in rainforest, with cloud forest on its higher ground, more than 200 waterfalls and two main rivers, the Genio and the Pittier, emptying into Wafer Bay. Because it was never joined to a continent, everything that grows there arrived across the sea, and 70 of its 235 known flowering plants are found nowhere else. Offshore are the schools of scalloped hammerheads, the whitetip reef sharks, the mantas and the whale sharks that put the island on every serious diver’s list. Its old pirate-treasure legends are the other thing most people have heard about it.

Protection here has only ever been tightened. The park was declared by decree on 22 June 1978 and confirmed by law in 1982; UNESCO made it a World Heritage Site in 1997 and widened the listing in 2002, and it is also a Ramsar wetland of international importance. In December 2021 its marine area grew from 2,034 to 54,844 square kilometres. The Área de Conservación Marina Coco runs it as one of SINAC’s eleven conservation areas, and the island forms part of the Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Corridor with Malpelo, Coiba and the Galápagos. It also matters well beyond conservation: this speck of land is why Costa Rica’s exclusive economic zone stretches past 500,000 square kilometres.

FAQ:

• Can I buy land or a house on Isla del Coco?

  No. Under Costa Rica’s Forestry Law, national park land is natural heritage of the State, and that heritage cannot be sold or seized. Occupying it gives nobody any rights, however long they stay, and it cannot be registered in anyone’s name through an información posesoria. There is no private property anywhere on the island.

• Someone is offering a lot or a concession “on Cocos”. How do I check it?

  Start from the fact that the whole district is national park, so a deed, plan or concession placing private land on the island cannot be valid. Search the Registro Nacional (Registro Inmobiliario) and ask the Área de Conservación Marina Coco before money changes hands. If the seller actually means a place on the mainland, check which district the cadastral plan puts it in, because the name alone proves nothing.

• Can I stay overnight or live on Isla del Coco?

  Only park rangers live on the island. Visitors land with the rangers’ permission for walks and visits during the day, and camping and overnight stays are not allowed, so everyone sleeps aboard their boat.

• How do you get to Isla del Coco?

  By sea from Puntarenas, about 36 hours each way, on liveaboard dive charters of eight to twelve nights. Dry-season months from December to May bring calmer crossings; the rainy months from June to October are when the hammerhead schools are at their biggest. Most trips include a night in San José and the road transfer to the port.

• Why does an uninhabited island belong to the canton of Puntarenas?

  Because Costa Rica incorporated it that way: a 1970 executive decree made the island a district of the canton, with the same administrative standing as the city districts on the mainland. Puntarenas is also the port every boat to the island leaves from. The rangers stationed there first voted in a national election in 2006.