| National
Parks
Guayabo
National Monument
Location: It is to be found in the slopes of the Turrialba
Volcano, in the province of Cartago, 19 Km. Northeast of the city
of Turrialba. Importance: It is the country's most
important and the largest archeological sight discovered to date.
 Arenal
National Park
Location: It is located in the country's Northern Region,
in the Northern sector of the Tilarán mountain range. Importance:
It is an refilling area whose waters drain the Arenal
reservoir and are later used in the production of hydroelectric
energy, and in the agricultural projects of the Moracia irrigation
district.
Barra
Honda National Park
Location: The Barra Honda Park is located in Guanacaste
Province, 22 Km. Northeast of the city of Nicoya. Importance:
It posses an extensive system of caves all independent one from
the other: Nineteen of them have been explored up to now.
Braulio
Carrillo National Park
Location: Located in the Central Volcanic range, to the
Northeast of the Central Valley. It includes the Barva Volcano,
the Bajo de Hondura and the Cacho Negro Peak. Importance: This
park is located in one of the country's most rugged areas. Most of
the landscape is made up of tall mountains densely covered with
forest and crisscrossed by countless crystalline rivers. In it lie
two dormant volcanoes: Cacho Negro and Barva.
 Cahuita
National Park
Location: This most popular spot is located in Limón
Province in the Atlantic seaboard. Importance: It's main
attractions are it's off - white beaches studded with thousands of
coconut palms, its white - colored sea, and its protective coral
reef.
Corcovado
National Park
Location: It is located in Puntarenas Province, Pacific
seaboard, to the Southeast of the Osa Peninsula. Importance: The
park protects a large number of species at risk of extinction,
such as felines and crocodiles. It also shelters some species of
birds, which are endemic or have restricted distribution.
Chirripó
National Park
Location: Located in the Talamanca mountain range,
straddling the provinces of Limón. Cartago and San José. Importance:
This is the tallest mountain in Costa Rica, with an altitude of
3,819 m. It proudly displays small valleys of glacial origin that
were carved by the action and movement of ice masses some 25,000
to 30,000 years ago. The vegetation of the paramo can be
appreciated.
Guanacaste
National Park
Location: The province of Guanacaste, 36 Km. North of the
city of Liberia. Importance: Its forests showcase a great
ecological diversity: very humid - tropical, cloud and tropical
dry forests are found within its confines.
Juan
Castro Blanco National Park
Location: Located in Alajuela province, East of Ciudad
Quesada. Importance: 50% of the area is covered with mixed
primary forests, with some patches of regenerative forest. The
vegetation is extraordinarily varied. It is important because of
the role it plays in the conservation of the forest, in soil
maintenance and the conservation of the springs that later become
the rivers that irrigate the San Carlos plains.
 Manuel
Antonio National Park
Location: It is located 7 Km. South of the city of Quepos,
on the Pacific seaboard of the province of Puntarenas. Importance:
Its white - sand beaches, such as Espadilla, South of Manuel
Antonio, are its main attraction. It includes 12 islands mostly
bare of any vegetation and located a short distance of the coast.
Ballena
National Marine Park
Location: It is located in the Osa County, Puntarenas
province, on the Pacific seaboard, between Punta Uvita and Punta
Piñuela. Importance: This park protects sandy and pebbly
beaches, cliffs, islands, rocky reefs, the Punta Uvita "tómbolo"
and coral reef, which represent a most important habitat for the
reproduction of marine life and the maintenance of its diversity.
Las
Baulas National Marine Park
Location: Located in Playa Grande in Puntarenas province,
35 Km. from the Belén crossing. Importance: This small
reserve was created to protect the turtle nesting beach of Playa
Grande. Every year, thousands of leatherback sea - turtles, the
planet's largest reptile, crawl onto at night and bury their eggs
in its warm sand. There is also an extensive mangrove swamp, which
is an excellent area to see birds.
Palo
Verde National Park
Location: Located in Guanacaste province, between the
Bebedero and the Tempisque Rivers. Importance: This
national park is made up of a mosaic of diverse flood - plains
habitats. Rivers and a row of calcareous hills board it. Palo
Verde's natural hydrologic system provides the most adequate
conditions for the area to harbor the most important concentration
of aquatic birds and waders in the country and in the whole of
Central America.
Rincón
de la Vieja National Park
Location: One of the volcanoes on the Guanacaste mountain
range, straddling the provinces of Guanacaste and Alajuela. Importance:
It is probably the largest area where the Guaria Morada, the
orchid which is Costa Rica's national flower, can still be found
in the wild.
Santa
Rosa National Park
Location: Located 36 Km. North of the city of Liberia, the
capital of the province of Guanacaste. Importance: The old
house and the stone corrals served, on the 20th of March of the
year 1856, as the setting for the Battle of Santa Rosa, the
greatest military episode in this peace - loving country's
history.
Tapantí
National Park
Location: Located in the Province of Cartago, Orosi
district. Importance: It encompasses two habitats: A low
mountain rain forest and a pre - mountainous rain forest.
Tortuguero
National Park
Location: It is located in the Atlantic seaboard of Limón
province, 84 Km. Northeast of the city of Limón. Importance:
The Green turtle's most important spawning area in the whole West
Caribbean. Among the vegetation, the "yolillo" palm and
the "kativo" tree are the most common and can often be
seen by the side of both the natural and the artificial canals.
Volcán
Irazú National Park
Location: It is located 31 Km. Northeast of the city of
Cartago. Importance: This active volcano, with a long
history of dramatic eruptions and eruptive cycles, is easily
reached from the city of San José.
Volcán
Poás National Park
Location: It is located 37 Km. North of Alajuela, on the
Central Volcanic range, on the Alajuela - San Pedro de Poás
route.
La
Amistad International Park
Location: On the Talamanca mountain range. It is considered
the most extensive untouched tropical - forest - covered mountain
system in the whole country. Importance: It is one of the
parks that comprises the area of greatest biodiversity in Costa
Rica, and it is the largest virgin forest in the country, where an
extraordinary large number of habitats coexist: ferns and mixed
forests, product of the differences in altitude, soil, climate and
topography.
Isla
del Coco National Park
Location: Pacific Ocean, 548 Km. of Nicoya's Cabo Blanco in
the province of Guanacaste. Its point closest to the continent can
be found is 5°3'34" North Latitude and 87°18'6" West
Longitude. Importance: Isla del Coco Patrimony of mankind
and National Park, its importance transcends the national
boundaries to become an international legacy. Its greatest pride
are the marine resources. 235 species of plants have been
identified in the island, 70 of which are endemic; 57 crustaceans,
118 marine mollusks, 200 fish, 351 insects and 18 coral species.
Piedras
Blancas National Park
Location: the Esquinas forest is in southern Costa Rica. Importance:
is one of the last unprotected lowland tropical rainforests on the
Pacific coast of Central America, was declared a national park by
presidential decree.
National
Reserves
Carara
Biological Reserve
Location: It is located on the Pacific coast, along the
shores of the Grande de Tárcoles River, Southeast of the city of
Orotina, Puntarenas province. Importance: Carara displays a
high diversity of plants, predominantly evergreens. It has several
ecosystems, such as: swamps, a lagoon, a gallery forest, secondary
and primary forests.
Guayabo
Island, Negritos Islands and Pájaros Island Biological Reserves
Location: Guayabo Island is located some 8 Km. South of
Puntarenas. There are two Negritos Islands, one East of the other
one and are separated by the Montagué Canal. They are located at
only 500 m. of the Gulf's East coast, about 13 Km. Northeast of
Puntarenas. Importance: They were established as biological
reserves in order to preserve plentiful populations of marine
birds, its flora and fauna and to guarantee that so much natural
beauty could be permanently enjoyed.
Hitoy
Cerere Biological Reserve
Location: It is located in the foothills of the Talamanca
mountain range, Southeast of the Estrella Valley, 45 Km. from Limón.
Importance: the area is crisscrossed by an infinite number of
very pebbly rivers decorated with rapids and cascades, some of
which are tens of meters high.
Caño
Island Biological Reserve
Location: It is located in the Pacific Ocean in front of
Corcovado National Park, 15 Km. out to sea from the San Pedrillo
post. Importance: It is archeologically most significant,
because it was used as a pre - Columbian cemetery. The area's most
important attraction is its marine resources. The ecosystems
forested by the reefs provide the organic platforms for the
maintenance of a great diversity of marine organisms, such as reef
- dwelling fish, mollusks crustaceans and echinoderms among
others.
Lomas
Barbudal Biological Reserve
Location: It is located 15 Km. Southeast of Bagaces, in
Guanacaste province. Importance: This spectacularly
beautiful reserve is washed by permanent rivers and a great number
of springs.
Cabo
Blanco Absolute National Reserve
Location: It is located in the province of Puntarenas, in
the Southeastern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula. Importance:
It provides a refuge for marine birds and it offers one of the
most beautiful scenery in the Pacific coast.
 Monteverde
Biological Reserve
Location: It is located in the northern plains. Importance:
The Monteverde area in Costa Rica is world famous for its cloud
forest. There are now two reserves, the original Monteverde Cloud
Forest Reserve and the new Santa Elena Rain Forest. In these
forests you can enjoy the cloud forest climate and hike the trails
amongst the varieties of plants and magnificent epiphytic laden
trees, there have been over 450 bird species seen in the
Monteverde area. The native birds are joined at certain time of
the year by those which migrate through from North America. The
resplendent quetzals with their long tails feed at various
locations in the area and one can at times hear the
"bong" of the bell birds. These areas sit astride the
continental divide at an altitude a bit above 5000 feet. They
protect and provide habitat for hundreds of species of plants and
animals.
Natural
Refuges
Montes de
Oro Protected Area
Location: Puntarenas province. The reserve is located on
the Southern watershed of the Tilarán mountain range, Northeast
of the city of Esparza. Importance: Peñas Blancas, part of
the Aguacate Mountain Group, is an area of very rugged terrain
made up of volcanic rocks.
Barra
del Colorado National Wildlife Refuge
Location: It is located on the border between la Barra del
Colorado and the Caribbean coast in the province of Limón.
Importance: It is made up of a swampy area almost totally
devoid of ligneous vegetation, with marginal soils not apt for
agriculture or cattle ranching. Nonetheless, it posses a very high
tourist potential.
 Gandoca
Manzanillo National Wildlife Refuge
Location: This refuge is located in Talamanca. County on
the Caribbean coast of the province of Limón. Importance:
It protects the wildlife, particularly those species threatened
with extinction or with very reduced populations. It protects the
only natural large mangrove oyster bank in the coastal reef.
Golfito
National Wildlife Refuge
Location: It is located in the Western area of Río Claro,
in the province of Puntarenas. Importance: Its location on
the lower Esquinas River basin favors the always - green
conditions of the forest, converting this into the only area in
the Costa Rican Pacific coast.
Ostional
National Wildlife Refuge
Location: Santa Cruz County of Guanacaste province, in the
200 meter wide band of beach between Punta India and the mouth of
the Nosara River. It includes the village of Ostional. Importance:
It protects the area's wildlife, which includes the Lora and
the Baula turtles, as well a large variety of marine birds.
Curú
National Wildlife Refuge
Location: The refuge is located almost in front of Tortuga
Island and it occupies a portion of terrain which is 200 m. wide
measured horizontally from the high - tide mark between Points
Quesera and Curú. Importance: This refuge has been
established for the purpose of conserving one of the last segments
of forest with fauna that are left in the Southeast of the Nicoya
Peninsula.
Caño
Negro National Wildlife Refuge
Location: It is located in the Guatusos plains, in the
Northern part of the province of Alajuela. Importance: It
protects one of the most important humid areas in the territory,
considered of international importance as its serves as refuge for
a large number of migratory bird species, species at risk of
extinction and commercially important species.
Peñas
Blancas Wildlife Refuge
Location: is an area of very rugged terrain made up of
volcanic rocks from the Aguacate Group. Importance: Most of
the refuge is covered by forests that have been altered to some
extent, although the original forest mass can still be found in
the remoter areas and in the river canyons. The vegetation in the
lower areas, towards the south, consists of tropical dry forest.
Towards the north and upper areas grows a promontane moist forest.
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