:''For the Australian islands, see Cocos (Keeling) Islands. For the island off the southern tip of Guam, see Cocos Island (Guam).''

'Cocos Island' (Spanish: ''Isla del Coco'') is an island located off the shore of Costa Rica. It constitutes district 11 [1] (one of 13 districts) of Puntarenas Canton of Puntarenas Province [2]. It should not be confused with the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. It is one of the National Parks of Costa Rica. Tourists are allowed ashore only with permission of island rangers, and are not permitted to camp or sleep on the island. It is located in the Pacific Ocean, 550 km (330 mi.) from the Pacific shore of Costa Rica, at . Its area is 23,85 km² (16 mi²), about 8x3 km (5x1.8 mi), more or less in a rectangular shape. 'Wafer Station' (''Estación Wafer'') is located at Wafer Bay (''Bahía Wafer'') on the north coast. 'Cerro Iglesias', the summit, is 671 m high and rises in the southwestern part of the island. Its perimeter is about 21 km (12½ mi). Cocos Island and its surrounding rocks are the only emergent islands of the Cocos Plate, one of the minor tectonic plates. Surrounded by deep waters with counter-currents, it is admired by scuba divers for its populations of Hammerhead sharks, rays and dolphins. Cocos Island is located on almost the exact opposite side of the globe as the Cocos (Keeling) Islands south of Sumatra.

Contents

History

Discovery of the island and early cartography

World Heritage Site

2006 Electoral Process

See also

External links

History

Discovery of the island and early cartography

J. Lines (''Diario de Costa Rica'', May 12, 1940) cites Fernández de Oviedo who claims that the first discoverer of the island was Johan Cabeças. Other sources claim that Joan Cabezas de Grado was not a Portuguese sailor but an Asturian. D. Lievre, ''Una isla desierta en el Pacífico; la isla del Coco'' in ''Los viajes de Cockburn y Lievre por Costa Rica'' (1962: 134) tells that the first document with the name "Isle de Coques" is a map painted on pergamen, called that of Enrique II that appeared in 1542 during the reign of Francisco I. The planisphere of Nicolás Desliens (1556, Dieppe) places this ''Ysle de Coques'' about one and half degrees north of the Equator. (See also Mario A. Boza and Rolando Mendoza, ''Los parques nacionales de Costa Rica'', Madrid, 1981.) Blaeu's ''Grand Atlas'', originally published in 1662, has a colour world map on the back of its front cover which shows ''I. de Cocos'' right on the Equator. Frederik De Witt's ''Atlas, 1680'' shows it similarly. The ''Hondius Broadside map'' of 1590 shows ''I. de Cocos'' at the latitude of 2 degrees and 30 minutes northern latitude, while in 1596 Theodore de Bry shows the Galapagos Islands near six degrees north of the Equator. E. Bowen, ''A Complete system of Geography'', Volume II (London, 1747: 586) tells that the Galapagos stretch 5 degrees north of the Equator.
The book ''Desert Island'' (Robinson Crusoe Enterprises, North Vancouver, 1996) proposed the highly detailed theory that Daniel Defoe used the Isla del Coco as an accurate model for his descriptions of the island inhabited by the marooned Robinson Crusoe. However Defoe placed Crusoe's island not in the Pacific, but rather off the coast of Venezuela in the Atlantic Ocean. (see discussion page for further details)
Robinson's neighbouring ''Terra Firma'' is shown on the colour map of Joannes Janson (Amsterdam) depicting the northeastern corner of South America, entitled ''Terra Firma et Novum Regnum Granatense et Popayan''. It belongs to the early group of plates printed by William Blaeu from 1630 onwards. The properly called Terra Firma was the Isthmus of Darien (Bowen, 1747: 593, and Charles Theodore Middleton, ''A new and Complete System of Geography'', Volume II (London, printed for J. Cooke, 1777-1778, page 448). Crusoe's two references to Mexico are against a South American island as well.
The island officially became part of Costa Rica by the promulgation of the Constitution of Costa Rica on November 7, 1949. On May 12, 1970 the insular territory of Cocos Island was incorporated administratively into Central Canton of the Province of Puntarenas by means of Executive Decree Not 27, making it the Eleventh District of Central Canton. The island was declared a National Park by means of Executive Decree in 1978.[3]
The Michael Crichton novel Jurassic Park centers on the fictitious Isla Nublar that is off of the west coast of Costa Rica. Isla del Cocos may be the inspiration for this island. Supporting this argument is the Dreamworks Interactive game "''" (1998) which used Cocos Island's topography as a substitute for the fictional island on which it takes place.

World Heritage Site

"Cocos Island National Park" was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site list.

2006 Electoral Process

On February 5, 2006, during the electoral process of Costa Rica, for the first time ever 33 persons living there were allowed to vote. The only persons allowed to live on the island are Costa Rican Park Rangers who have established two encampments, including at English Bay.

See also

★ Cocos Island Finch

External links

★ Buried Treasure of Cocos Island"

★ Friends of Cocos Island Foundation

★ Other Cocos island information

★ "Island of the Sharks" - NOVA Online | Adventure to Cocos Island

★ "Shark Mountain" - Nature | Shark Island

★ "Fishes of Cocos Island" - Quicktime movie by the USGS

★ A story detailing buried treasure legends on the island, written by a student

★ the real treasure island

★ Videos of Isla del Coco

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