If you’re ever in Costa Rica, around the Jacó area, I would highly recommend this short walk to El Miro. The views are beautiful!
Whether this was intended to be a luxury hotel or someone’s private mansion, the location of this abandoned structure can be found at the south end of Jacó.
I know very little of its backstory and only came to find out about this through a friend from Costa Rica.
He suggested a quick stop here on our way down to Manuel Antonio for the week.
Whether you view this as art or graffiti, we found it very colorful and something of interest to see.
How to Find El Miro
Finding El Miro can be a bit tricky though. It does show a valid location on Google Maps, but relying on Google only gets you close.
Here are better directions to help. Start by navigating to Delta Jacó, a gas station right off Route 34 near Jacó’s south shores.
Immediately across from this gas station is one option for parking. A friendly local charged us 2,000 colones (about 4US dollars) to park our car there. The walk starts just a few yards south of this location.
You know you’re in the right place if these signs are still there. The big one is offering shaded parking while the smaller white one on the far right indicates the driveway for an Airbnb called Villa Mariposa.
Turn in and head for the cones across the pavement.
From this point on, it’s just a short walk… it starts out paved for a short stretch and then turns to dirt. The whole trail up is less than a mile with only 300 feet of elevation.
The first viewpoint is about a 1/2 mile in.
Keep going another 1/4 mile to the main building. If you’re in no rush, it should take you 20-ish minutes.
I bet watching the sunset from here would be awesome!
If you do end up somewhere along Jacó’s beachfront, look for El Miro over on the hillside.
After we got home, I found the trail clearly marked on this CalTopo map. It even looks like you can reach El Miro from the other side using the Calle Miro trail? I just don’t know what the road conditions are like along Calle Cerro Fresco. If you end up exploring this more, let me know what you found!
