CABO BLANCO ABSOLUTE WILDLIFE RESERVE

This jewel of nature at the very tip of the Nicoya Peninsula is where Costa Rica’s quest to bank its natural resources for the future began. The 1,172-hectare Reserva Natural Absoluta Cabo Blanco (8 a.m.–4 p.m. Wed.–Sun., plus Monday and Tuesday during holidays, $8 admission)—the oldest protected area in the country—was created in October 1963 thanks to the tireless efforts of Nils Olof Wessberg, a Swedish immigrant commonly referred to as the father of Costa Rica’s national park system (for a discussion of Wessberg’s influence, see David Rains Wallace’s excellent book The Quetzal and the Macaw: The Story of Costa Rica’s National Parks). Olof and his wife, Karen, settled in the area in 1955, when this corner of the Nicoya Peninsula was still covered with a mix of evergreen and deciduous forest—an island in a sea of rapidly falling trees, rising settlements, and cattle ranches. They bought a rocky, mountainous plot of land and spent 10 years developing fruit orchards.

In 1960, when the first patch of cleared land appeared at Cabo Blanco, Olof launched an appeal to save the land. “Only in one spot is there today some of the wildlife that was formerly everywhere in the northwest,” Olof wrote. “Here live the puma and the manigordo (ocelot), deer, peccary, tepiscuintle, pizote, kinkajou, chulumuco (tayra), kongo (howler monkey), carablanca (capuchin monkey), and miriki (spider monkey). The jaguar and tapir are already extinct . . . . When we settled here six years ago the mountain was always green. Today it has great brown patches, and in March and April it is shrouded in smoke, much of it on fire . . . Two years more, and the mountain will be dead. Who is going to save it? It can be had at the ridiculously low price of $10 an acre . . . But it has to be done immediately.”

Although several international organizations responded with money, buying the land and protecting the area cost blood, sweat, and tears. Conservation had not yet entered national consciousness. The first warden killed the last 10 spider monkeys for their meat; the third warden felled trees to grow crops. When one of Olof’s supporters suggested the need for a national parks service to the Costa Rican government, they responded enthusiastically.

Olof Wessberg was murdered in the Osa Peninsula in the summer of 1975 while campaigning to have that region declared a national park. A plaque near the Cabo Blanco ranger station stands in his honor.

The reserve is named after the vertical-walled island at its tip, which owes its name to the accumulation of guano deposited by seabirds, including Costa Rica’s largest community of brown boobies (some 500 breeding pairs). The reserve was originally off-limits to visitors. Today, about one-third is accessible along hiking trails, some steep in parts. Sendero Sueco leads uphill and then down onto the totally unspoiled white-sand beaches of Playa Balsita and Playa Cabo Blanco, which are separated by a headland (you can walk around it at low tide). A coastal trail, Sendero El Barco, leads west from Playa Balsitas to the western boundary of the park. All have tidepools. Check tide tables with the park rangers before setting off—otherwise you could get stuck. Torrential downpours are common April–Dec.

back to top

Information
The ranger station (tel./fax 506/642-0093, cablanco@ns.minae.go.cr) sells a trail map. Camping is not allowed, even at the ranger station.

You cannot enter via the ranger station (puesto) at Malpaís, on the north side of the reserve.

back to top

Getting There
The Montezuma-Cabuya bus continues to Cabo Blanco (see Cabuya, above), conditions permitting. The Cabuya–Montezuma bus departs at 7 a.m., 9 a.m., 1 p.m., and 4:40 p.m.

Aventuras en Montezuma offers transfers to Cabo Blanco by reservation ($6 round-trip). Collective taxis depart Montezuma for Cabo at 7 and 9 a.m., returning at 3 and 4 p.m. ($1.50 pp). A private taxi costs about $12 one-way.

The dirt road deteriorates badly before Cabo Blanco and gets very muddy in the wet season.

Many people walk from Montezuma (11 km)—a hot and tiring walk.