Shadows in the Sand: The Restless Spirits of Playa Grande Beach, Costa Rica

Shadows in the Sand: The Restless Spirits of Playa Grande Beach, Costa Rica
17 July 2025 J.W.H
ghosts

Was the popular surfing place in the Playa Grand beach in Costa Rica an age-old burial place? Do the spirits of buried here return in the same way as turtles return to this beach to lay eggs?

In the sun of the Nicoya Peninsula, Playa Grande beach near Montezum, Costa Rica, is eminent for its powder sands, rolling, live sunset and relaxed vibrations. But under his natural beauty, something much older lurks – and much darker. Whispers among residents and travelers talk about ghosts that arise with the evening surge, the remains of age-old people who do not want to forget.

It has been believed for centuries that this placid section of the coast, also known as Salinas, rests on a native commune, where the remains of the earliest Costa Rica nations were based long before the arrival of European settlers. And although time has survived many of their markers, ghosts are ongoing.

Big Beach: Sunset on the Playa Grande beach, a peaceful place in Costa Rica steeped in native history and local myths. Source: Federico Mata/Wiki

Nobody stays after obscure

Playa Grande can welcome guests during the day, and the nearby city of Montezuma is called montefum due to a gigantic party scene. Playa Grande ends in a forested Cypriot, and the point is filled with caves and compact coves in which pirates and Nazis were hiding. This is the most western point in Costa Rica-Parliament on every map of the region. Some call it Cerro Morro, some call it El Encanto, where the turtles return to the folded eggs.

But thanks to the custom and peaceful warning, no one can stay overnight. Local knowledge maintains that those who remain after sunset risk disrupting the sleep of the dead – and inciting anger.

Beachgoopers have long reported spectral shapes moving on palm trees, strange whispers in forgotten languages and chilly air pockets in a hot, tropical night. Many say that they saw obscure figures along the shoreline, watching, waiting. Some guests escaped after hearing the boundless voices, calling them to leave … or.

A repetitive story tells about travelers who have opposed warnings by camping near the dunes. In the middle of the night their tent was surrounded by a circle of imperceptible characters, chanting in a language that was not recognized. Until the morning they left the beach pale and trembling, and their things inexplicably soaked salty water, although the wave did not grow near their camp.

Ancient burial place

But what about a peaceful beach makes people run away at night? Some say that once it was an age-old burial group and that buried there, they remain on the beach.

To look at why this rumor has spread and can call, we must look at the island of Cabuya nearby, which really has age-old burials, still used as intended.

Silent Dead of Cabuya Island

Right next to the coast lies the island of Cabuya, a compact, amazing land available only at a low rate. It remains home for one of the oldest cemeteries of Costa Rica, a gloomy place where bleached tombs and injured crosses are destroyed by ocean winds. Several trees have bleached, empty appearance. It has been used since 1700, and funerals still occur several times a year. These ceremonies sometimes take place in black night, when mourners transport the body from the city of Cabuya.

“They put the lights on the whole path like candles” César Benavides, says a guide to proyect montezuma.. “When the moon is full and the tide is low, they hide the person under the full moon.

“It's very beautiful.”

However, long before using it, colonizers were used by native tribes, even before the Pacific Ocean divided the land from the rest of Costa Rica. Could it be the same thing that seems to persecute the Playa Grande beach?

Taradsf/Week

Residents say that the island takes its own life at night. Fisherman Wilber Mendez, whose family has worked these waters for generations, it resembles disturbing nights at sea:

“At night there are times when I hear voices from there … Sounds are not birds; they are something else.”

Others say that glowing balls floating above the graves or hear funeral hindows carrying through water. The most terrifying reports are described by the characters – slim, pale and hidden in the fog – wandering on the edge of Cabuya, disappearing before dawn.

Old remember

Folklorers say that Playa Grande and Cabuya Island visiting are deeply associated with the native history of the region. Before the conquest, these lands were holy, and their died carefully praised rituals that were to protect both the living and the dead. It is believed that the violent disturbances of colonization, and then the century of negligence, left these spirits uneven, forever longing for recognition.

Visitors to Playa Grande are subtly cautious today: respect the earth, move with caution, and when the night decreases – leave.

Because in this handsome, haunted episode of Costa Rica, they still watch.

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Image Source: Pixabay.com

  • J.W.H

    About John:

    John Williams is a Reincarnationist paranormal Intuitive freelance writer...he is living proof of reincarnation existence, through his personal exploration, he has confirmed its authenticity through visits to the very lands where these events transpired.

    Through guided meditation/s using hemi-sync technology he has managed to recollect 3 previous lives to his own, that go back to the Mid to Late 19th century.

    JWH - "You are the GODS! - Inclusion of the Eternal Light of Love and you shall never die”.

    “Death is Just the Beginning of Life”