Explore The Central Pacific and southern Nicoya
RESERVA NATURAL ABSOLUTA CABO BLANCO, 9km south of Montezuma, is Costa Rica’s oldest protected piece of land, established in 1963 by Karen Mogensen, a Danish immigrant to Costa Rica, and her Swedish husband Olof Wessberg. Until 1989, no visitors were allowed into the twelve square kilometres of reserve, which covers nearly the entire southwestern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula. Though hard to believe today, most of the reserve was pasture and farmland until the early 1960s. Since its inauguration, Cabo Blanco has been allowed to regenerate naturally; a small area of original forest that had escaped destruction served as a “genetic bank” for the re-establishment of the complex tropical forest that now fills the reserve.
Pay your entrance fee at the ranger hut, and they’ll supply you with a trail map (there are only two), which also outlines the history of the reserve and the species living here; walking the trails here can be very hot work, so head out early. The Sendero Sueco (5km; 2hr) leads from the entrance through tropical deciduous forest to Playa Cabo Blanco, a lovely, lonely spot (in low season, anyway). Swimming, however, isn’t great around here; due to the high tide (marea alta), you’ll need to walk back along the trail rather than the coast. Ask the ranger at the entrance when and where you’ll likely get cut off if you want to venture along the beach.
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Watching wildlife in Cabo Blanco
Watching wildlife in Cabo Blanco
The best time for animal spotting is around 8am, or on Wednesday mornings, after the reserve has been closed for two days. The heat chases a lot of the wildlife into the more heavily forested sections of the reserve, which are off-limits to visitors, but you’re still likely to see howler monkeys, white-faced capuchin monkeys and white-tailed deer; agoutis and coati are also common. Harder to spot mammals include the margay, northern tamandua and collared peccary – Cabo Blanco has what is thought to be the last herd of these boar-like creatures on the Nicoya Peninsula.
Birdlife is astonishingly plentiful, in the forest itself (where you might catch a glimpse of a long-tailed manakin or a sulphur-winged parakeet) but particularly down by the shore – you’ll often see scores of pelicans and clouds of magnificent frigatebirds, while Costa Rica’s largest community of brown boobies nests on Isla Cabo Blanco, the guano-encrusted island that lies 2km offshore.
