The turnoff from the main road is easy to miss—a narrow track that descends through dry forest before opening onto a crescent of white sand no more than two hundred meters long. Playa Blanca de Paquera occupies a sheltered pocket of the Nicoya Gulf, protected by rocky points on either end that trap fine sand and slow the current. The result is water you can see through, the sandy bottom visible even at chest depth, every fish and ripple rendered in sharp detail.
“The clearest water on the northern Nicoya Gulf, thanks to a natural cove that filters sediment and slows currents.”
Tropical island lagoon from above
The beach itself curves gently, backed by low vegetation and a scattering of beach almond trees that drop shade in irregular patches. The sand is fine and pale, closer to bone than honey, warm under bare feet but not scorching. At low tide, the waterline retreats to expose tide pools in the rocks at the southern end, small universes of anemones and juvenile snappers. A few families from Paquera arrive on weekends, but midweek you might share the cove with no one but brown boobies roosting on offshore stones.
There are no facilities, no restaurants, no lifeguards. What you bring is what you have. The quiet is near-absolute, broken only by wavelets slapping the sand and the occasional growl of a panga passing offshore. When the afternoon wind picks up, it carries the scent of dry earth and salt, and the water shifts from turquoise to silver under fast-moving clouds.
