We chose to go to Playa Cocles for our October Costa Rican adventure. Playa Cocles is located on the Caribbean side of the country, in the south near Panama. It is located between Puerto Viejo to the north and Manzilla to the south, along an 8-mile stretch of road. This area is attractive to a more rustic crowd, like backpackers and eco-tourists. We once again chose the Caribbean side because in San José, October is the rainiest month of the rainy season, and the Caribbean side of Costa Rica is supposed to be drier when the rest of the country is rainier. We scheduled our 3-night, 4-day trip for the last weekend in October.
This is the first post about our trip to Playa Cocles. Getting there and back is an adventure in and of itself, so here are some highlights …
Since we still don’t own a car in Costa Rica, we contacted a transportation service, EasyRide, to get us to and from Playa Cocles. EasyRide coordinates shared van transportation to and from popular destinations in Costa Rica. It was very easy for us to schedule on-line. The only catch was that we had to be picked up from and delivered to a hotel, rather than our Escazú Village apartment complex. The nearest hotel is the Wyndham Garden (the same hotel that the van driver recognized on our return from Tortuguero). Although the Wyndham Garden is technically within walking distance of our apartment, it is an impossible walk with 2 pieces of luggage, 2 backpacks, a camera case, and sidewalks only part of the way.
On Thursday morning we summoned an Uber to transport us to the Wyndham Garden. After we watched it make several wrong turns, the Uber car that finally arrived, a Chevy Spark, was size of a clown car. We somehow managed to squeeze everything, including us, in it, but we were glad it was only a two-minute ride to the hotel. The total Uber ride cost only about a dollar, so John was generous with the tip.
Our shuttle van pulled up to the Wyndham Garden only about 10 minutes late, which is nothing in Costa Rica. There was already one passenger on board. We loaded up and drove 20 minutes into San José and stopped at another hotel where the three of us were transferred to another van that would take us to Playa Cocles. There was already a passenger in the front of that van, an older male gringo with a cane and a bad leg. (Apparently, the front passenger seat next to the driver is where they seat all of the older gringos with bad legs. When the van picked us up for our return trip, there was also already a passenger in that van, seated in that same seat. She was also an older gringo with a bad leg that used a cane. Both gringos spent most of the trip sleeping. The woman came very prepared for a good nap – she had a neck pillow and blanket.)
Like our trip to Tortuguero we traveled on Highway 32 through the Braulio Carrillo National Park. This is the main road to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. The park is beautiful, but they are continuing to do road work. In multiple spots they let only one lane of traffic through at a time. If you are not on the side where the traffic is going through, you have to wait in line until they open up your side. Depending on timing you could be stopped more often and wait longer with each stop. This is what happened on the way to Playa Cocles. Our van was very near the front of the line when our side was stopped, which meant that we had to wait longer each of the three times we were stopped. On the return trip our timing was better; we only had to stop twice, and since we were near the end of the line each time, our wait was shorter. Of course, stopped vehicles with nowhere to go present an opportunity for enterprising individuals who walk along the line of vehicles selling food.
Beautiful scenery 
Cars lined up and waiting for their turn to go
Highway 32 takes you all the way to the Caribbean coast. On the Caribbean side we passed banana and pineapple plantations. We also passed a Del Monte compound, complete with a sign “Say Yes to the Best”, as well as a Maersk compound, both with stacks of cargo ship containers. Highway 32 ends at the coast at the city of Limón. Cargo and cruise ships stop at this major port city.
Once we got to Limón, we drove south along the coast on Highway 36 to get to our destination, with passing views of the ocean and beaches, including a black sand beach.
Interestingly, the Chinese are financing road improvements on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. The front-seat gringo on the way to Playa Cocles told us that this was China exerting “soft” influence here. However, the influence extends to infrastructure improvements only, and not to increased jobs. (I’m not complaining about better roads in Costa Rica, but jobs are also needed.) We were told that the agreement was that the Chinese government would finance the construction but that they would use Chinese workers. We were able to verify that based on who we saw doing the construction (Chinese), and also when we passed by a large camp where the Chinese workers live.
The trip from San José to Playa Cocles is about 4 or 5 hours, which is a long time in and of itself. Also, you never know what you are going to run into on the roads that can cause delays. In addition to the stops in the National Park, we also were stopped for nearly 30 minutes on the trip to Playa Cocles due to a large truck being pulled out of a ditch. We were on a two-lane highway, and apparently it was necessary to angle the towing vehicle across both lanes to get that truck out of the ditch.
With such a long ride, we were extremely happy to find that the vans do make stops along the way. This serves the purpose of allowing passengers much needed bathroom breaks and the opportunity to purchase food and drink. It also allows the vans to transfer passengers from one to another, as needed. Interestingly, we did not stop at the same places on our trips to and from Playa Cocles.
On the way to Playa Cocles, we stopped only one time, at a bus stop, Corporacion Terminales Del Caribe. The inside of it was divided into several sections, kind of like a truck stop. One section was a more sit-down cafeteria, one section had a kiosk surrounded by high tables where you could purchase coffee and smaller food items, and there was a section where you could purchase packaged snacks.
Of course, there were bathrooms. I don’t shy away from taking pictures of bathrooms that I think are … interesting … for whatever reason.
Our van driver told us that we had to wait there 45 minutes, because additional passengers that were transferring to our van were delayed 45 minutes. During our wait we did see a large bus pull up. When it did, several individuals approached (accosted?) the disembarking passengers trying to get them to buy the food they were hawking.
Hawkers getting ready to seize their opportunity 
Passengers mostly ignoring hawkers
Our return trip from Playa Cocles to San José was also in the morning. We were the second pick-up for the van, which then proceeded to pick up additional passengers, winding its way through narrow streets in the small towns along the road from Playa Cocles to Puerto Viejo. The pick-ups were at small, local, hotels, all on the opposite side of the road from the beach. After seeing these hotels, we were happy we had stayed in our “upscale” hotel (more on that in another post).
Once we had picked up all of the passengers for our return trip, we stopped twice on the way back to San José. The first stop was about an hour after we started, at a place that had coffee and sold packaged snacks in addition to other items. It looked like there was a large eating area to the side of it, but that was not selling food yet.
The second stop was at a curious restaurant-type establishment. From the outside it looked like it belonged in a European mountain range. There was a small buffet cafeteria in the front of the restaurant that was serving breakfast. To get to the bathrooms, you had to walk through the then-closed restaurant. The restaurant décor had an American Old West theme, complete with dark heavy-wood tables and surprisingly, framed posters of the Cartwrights from the old TV show, “Bonanza”!
The ladies’ restroom also had an interesting décor.
At the “Bonanza” restaurant, we were told to transfer to another van for the remainder of our trip back to Escazú. Like our return trip from Tortuguero, we once again found ourselves the only passengers in the vehicle. Our scheduled destination should have been the Wyndham Garden, as the shuttle service only picks up and delivers from hotels or the airport. The driver wasn’t a very talkative guy, but did tell us that since we were the only ones, he could drop us off wherever we wanted. We jumped on that! He didn’t know where Escazú Village was, but he took the appropriate Escazú exit and now that we have learned how to give directions in Spanish, we were able to direct him. I’m not going to give ourselves too much credit for that, pretty much it was two right turns and we were there.
Playa Cocles afforded beautiful scenery and wild-life viewing opportunities. Our adventures in Playa Cocles continue in our next posts …
Remember, it's an adventure. 