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An Insight into Matapalo.

"Deserted beaches near Matapalo"

Or is it Matapalo or is it Playa Matapalo or is it Cabo Matapalo? The text below relates to a place on the map between #16 and #81 on the south end of Corcovado (southern Pacific coast).

We read somewhere that there are 47 San Rafaels in Costa Rica - this seems a bit high but could be true? There are also a number of Matapalo's and when you are on the road less traveled, you need to head for the right one if your hotel that night is to be found. Here is one Matapalo description from a guide book "near to many beaches in the Nicoya Peninsula this place has the most enormous strangler fig tree you'll ever see growing in the sand".

Here is a different Matapalo (about 350 km away) from a visitor's log "On the third day of my trip, we decided to take the long haul down to Cabo Matapalo. I decided to go with him. A deceptive 170 miles (~325 kilometers) south of the village of Dominical lay Cabo Matapalo, a rugged outpost on the tip of the Osa Peninsula.

The "road" to Matapalo traverses the Corcovado National Park, the largest single expanse of lowland tropical rain forest in Central America.". Interestingly enough if they had taken the coast road down, they would have arrived at Matapalo TWICE in the same day as they would have found this one en route "Along the sparsely populated middle Pacific coast region of Costa Rica, twenty miles south of Manuel Antonio, lies the unique little beach community of Playa Matapalo. Unlike its more popular neighbors, Dominical and Quepos/Manuel Antonio, it doesn't have world-class surf or a famous park to draw international tourists. Instead, it has a slow stroll-about peace and a beautiful, long sandy beach, perfect for swimming and watching sunsets . . . Because of the small size of the human population, there are many types of wildlife right in the middle of town. Sloths, iguanas, monkeys and toucans abound with even an occasional sighting of some of the regions small, wild cats".

This visitor continues, "I have set down here on an abandoned beach near Matapalo with a wood-log pillow, and am about to take a brief cat nap. The scene here is so surreal. Here I was sitting on an abandoned beach literally in the MIDDLE of NOWHERE, thousands of miles from home, and hundreds of miles away from the nearest "civilized" city. It just seems weird. What am I doing here? I don't know, but I am getting a chance to see things that 99.9% of the world will never see and I'm trying to appreciate it all. I can't help thinking, "what would happen if we got stuck here?" I mean, whom could we call? There are no phones, no stores, no houses . . . what would we do?

Yet, it's the raw nature of this place that's so appealing. It's unspoiled and unpopulated and the overall sense I get from being here is one of an explorer. I kind of feel like a Magellan or Cortez or Drake. I feel like I am someplace that has never been discovered before. I wonder, in fact, if anyone has ever sat here, and seen this, and thought what I'm thinking. It's an odd feeling, one I can honestly say I have never felt before. This one is sometimes known as Playa Matapalo. All of them locally are called Matapalo.

Make sure your driver knows how to tell the difference!

If you'd like to visit Matapalo email us at: InsightCostaRica for information or ideas?