COSTA RICA VACATIONEVEN PIRATES NEEDED IT!
Even a pirate needed a Costa Rica vacation. I know a thing or two about pirates, having watched all of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies many times but I don’t think Jack Sparrow ever got to Cocos Island. But, others did. Pirates. Real pirates. With buried treasure. Real buried treasure. Lots of buried treasure. The Devonshire Treasure and the Treasure of Lima are the most famous. 300 expeditions have searched for them. But, both are still buried on Cocos Island. . .or not. Maybe on shore or in an underwater cave. You decide on your Costa Rica trip. But, wouldn't it be cool to look for buried treasure on your Costa Rica vacation? Benito “Bloody Sword” Bonito and the Devonshire Treasure
This is Benito “Bloody Sword” Bonito, swashbuckler. Before becoming a pirate, he was Captain Bennett Grahame, commander of the H.M.S. Devonshire. Dispatched in 1818 to survey the coast between Cape Horn and Panama he found the task distasteful. . .so he became a pirate. After all, he already had a ship! “Bennett Grahame” is a terrible name for a pirate. Think “Long John Silver” or “Captain Kidd”. So, he changed it to “Benito ‘Bloody Sword’ Bonito.” Quite the punster, he. “Benito” is a play on “Bennett” and “Bonito” means “handsome man” in Spanish. “Bloody Sword” surely impressed everybody that he was a real deal pirate. And by all accounts, he was a very good pirate. During his short-lived pirate career, he plundered Spanish vessels on the high seas and intercepted a huge shipment of gold in Acapulco, burying his enormous booty (the “Devonshire Treasure”) at Cocos Island’s Wafer Bay.
As the tale goes, about 20 years later, Mary tired of Tasmania and told her captors she’d witnessed Bonito (whose real name she knew to be “Grahame”) bury the Devonshire treasure. Yea, right. A tall tale from a pirate. Except. . .she said she had a map, made by “Bloody Sword” himself. Uh huh. And where is the bloody thing they asked? She still had it. A real pirate chart leading to real pirate booty. But only upon condition she be released. A deal was struck. By one account, Mary went to Cocos Island with the British but couldn’t find the exact location because a huge cedar tree that marked the spot had been used for firewood by later sailors. By another account, Mary misled the authorities and later put together a crew and returned to Cocos Island. Hmmm. Think she was taking a Costa Rica vacation? To this day the Devonshire Treasure, said to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, hasn’t been found. Wouldn’t finding this treasure be the perfect end to a perfect Costa Rica vacation? Only at Cocos Island. Maybe you'll find it when you travel Costa Rica. Good luck on your next Costa Rica adventure! Pura Vida! Did I Mention the Treasure Underwater?
Like the pirates, if you want to go to Cocos to look for the buried treasure, you'll need to take a boat-ride. A long boat ride--like 30 hours or so. Why so long? Because it's halfway to the Galapagos. So, here's some advice for this unique Costa Rica vacation experience. Since you've traveled 300 miles by boat to get to Cocos, be sure to check out another of its treasures. It's underwater. And it is what makes Cocos one of the Seven Wonders of Costa Rica. It's the best Costa Rica scuba diving site--and the world's best for large animal viewing. Click here for more great info about
Cocos Island scuba diving.
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