Tag Archives: hike

Welcome to Cocal

Barrio El Cocal: Costa Rica

There is a peninsula just off of Quepos that we have wanted to visit for some time.  We ventured to Barrio Boca Vieja a few times where spotted the ferry that would take us across.  However, we just never made it to Barrio El Cocal located on the other side of the peninsula.

The small grid area is downtown Quepos and across from Sueno Tranquillo is the peninsula and Barrio El Cocal.

Barrio Cocal

Finally, we decided we were going to explore Barrio El Cocal and the peninsula, and took the ferry across for 300 colones (or $0.26 each).

It is not your average ferry.  They have these open ended boats powered by a small outboard to take you across.  Very uneventful and as an added bonus you really feel like a Tico.

Ferry to Cocal

Ferry across the river

We decided to have the ferry drop us off on the village side as opposed to the beach side.  We wanted to explore the small town – one road.

Welcome to Cocal

As you enter the town on the one road, you pass a few homes, a decent market, and a huge park area just off the beach.

As we continued down the road this town continued to surprise us.  We were pleasantly surprised at the beauty of this spot.  On the left is the beach and on the right were small palm tree farms and banana plantations.

Cocal Plantations

We passed the local church

Church on Cocal

And kept walking. We passed some locals who seemed to think we were lost.  I take it they don’t get many gringos.

Cocal Beach:

We eventually decided to cut across to the beach so we could walk back toward the ferry dock.  It was a beautiful day on the beach with the blue sky reflecting on the water.

Beach at Cocal

Huge, beautiful trees and large ponds line the beach.

Beach at Cocal

We turned around after we had walked nearly 7 miles.  We were very tired and still had over 2 miles to go to get back to the apartment.  After rounding the tip, we hopped on a ferry, and rewarded ourselves with a cold beverage and an early dinner.

Hike to Barrio El Cocal

New Adventure:

  • Ferry across the ba
  • Visited a new town, Barrio El Cocal
  • Walked the entire peninsula
  • Almost hit 24k steps.

Hike to the Top

In an effort to get a little exercise, we decided to hike to the top of the mountain overlooking Spaanse Waters.  We had already hiked to the Indian which was almost to the top, but couldn’t find a trail from the Indian to the tippy top.

This is a shot of the mountain we hiked.  I took this from shore, just West of the Beekenburg Fort.  We were already a bit higher than the water, as you can see we are overlooking one of the anchorages.

Mountain overlooking Spaanse Waters.

Mountain overlooking Spaanse Waters.

The initial trail is pretty easy as it is on roads that lead to a dirt path.  You just have to watch for prickles (bushes with prickles), cacti, and other sharp, pointy plants.

Road leads to dirt trail just prior to the lava rock path.

The cacti are pretty easy to avoid, as you can walk around or over them, but the prickly plants that cover the path make it hard to pass without getting stuck.

Mean prickles that like to reach out and touch you.

As we continued to climb, our nice dirt path turned into a lava rock (or fire rock) path. As you might remember, I have a history with lava rock as they left a pretty memorable scar on my leg when we encountered each other last.  Besides being challenging to hike on in flip flops, the lava rock has catci growing in the crevices making it hard to avoid.

Lava rock with hidden cacti.

No stabbing today!

Matt forges ahead, attempting to find the best path while avoiding the pointy tips of the plants.

Matt searching for solid footing around the cacti.

Half way to the top, I stop to take a photo of Santa Barbara Beach Resort.

View of Santa Barbara Resort: half way to the top

We eventually made it to the top, after a round about way up and it was worth it!  The view takes your breath away.

“King of the World”

Panorama of Spaanse Waters.

After a short rest, we head back down – this is trickier for me than going up as my body protests.  But, we took it slow and made it down without incident.

 

Hidden Tide Pool

While I was in the States, Matt had explored some new territory and came across a pretty big tide pool that he wanted to show me.  We hopped in the dinghy and headed to Fisherman’s Harbor.  Hoofed it past the Pirate’s Nest and up the small hill,  past Van Den Tweel market, and past the Jan Thiel resort.  At the end of the road is a trail that will take you past the Aquarium and to Punda (we have not walked this complete trail yet which a little over 8 miles).

Looking at the map, there is a star in a circle (left) near Mermaid Boat Trips, that is close to the Fisherman’s Harbor.  Then if you look toward the bottom right corner, below the two “Jan Thiel Beach” marks you will see an upside down wish bone which is the tide pool we found.

Walk from Fisherman’s Harbor to Jan Thiel Beach tide pool. Lower right corner, see upside wish bone

However, we turned left toward the water and headed down the short cliff to discover a nice little, rocky beach with just a handful of locals.

Rocky beach looking back at Jan Thiel Beach Resort.

We kept going and somewhere in the middle of the beach was the perfect pedestal for a rock tower – compliments of Matt.

Matt’s beautiful rock tower.

Rocky beach

We left our tower and headed toward a bushy area that revealed a pretty tide pool – the deepest section is only about mid-thigh and it is protected by the reef on one side and the beach on the other.  Makes for a nice place to cool off.

Matt cooling off in the tide pool.

Cute little dog cooling off with the humans.

Tide Pool

  • Waiting pool for humans
  • Swimming pool for dogs
  • Home to the underworld