Cocos Island. Last of the wild places
Text by Eric Hanahuer. Photography by Avi Klapper.

What’s happened to the wild places? As soon as they are discovered by divers they become civilized. Resorts are constructed, live-aboard boats move in, and before you know it the reefs are trampled by thousands of eager divers loving them to death. As they become accessible and convenient, the spirit of adventure gives way to fish feeding, tamed animals, and the moray eels always appearing on schedule.

Cocos Island is a wild place that’s likely to stay that way. It lies 300 miles off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, a day and a half of sailing each way. Nobody lives on the island except about a dozen rangers. Only three live-aboard boats ply its waters. Is it worth the trip? Scores of repeat divers reply with a resounding “Yes”. This is a place where boat skippers and dive center operators from around the world come for their vacations.

Cocos Island is beautiful in a strange, mysterious sort a way. Mountaintops are shrouded in mists, and there are too many waterfalls to count. It’s an imposing island, 5 1/2 miles long by 2 1/2 miles wide, with 2,000 foot peaks that trap the clouds and create their own climatic zone. The resulting 20 annual feet of rain blankets its sheer cliffs with a carpet of green trees, bushes and ferns. Everything is covered with thick jungle vegetation except the occasional rock face, and even there plants are trying to get a foothold by spreading aout their roots over bare rocks. The look and feel is so primeval that you expect a brontosaurus to pot its head out among the trees at any moment. Tales of buried treasure have been told and retold many times, enough to motivate hunters to spend millions of dollars looking for it. Records indicate that pirates of the 17th through 19th centuries passed through there, but nothing has yet been found. For divers, the real treasure is the marine life of Cocos.

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