Coco Park (Parque Ecológico do Cocó) is a linear green corridor following the Rio Cocó through the eastern part of the city, covering about 1,270 hectares of mangrove, gallery forest, and parkland. It is one of the largest urban parks in Brazil — an improbable strip of nature surrounded by dense residential development. The park has walking and cycling trails, birdwatching areas (the mangroves shelter egrets, herons, and kingfishers), and patches of Atlantic Forest vegetation that give a sense of what the coastline looked like before the city arrived.
Entrance is free; the main access points are from Av. Sebastião de Abreu in the Cocó neighbourhood. Early mornings are the most rewarding for birds and peace; by mid-morning joggers and families arrive in numbers. The trail alongside the river is particularly pleasant — shaded, flat, and remarkably quiet given its urban location.