Planning and directions
Guanacaste's National Parks
Much of Guanacaste's territory is under protection, with several national parks and a multitude of wildlife preserves and refuges.
The Las Baulas Marine Park
The Las Baulas Marine Park is a marine refuge, established to protect one of the most important Pacific nesting sites of the endangered leatherback turtle. During the rainy season, this prehistoric creature clambers onto the darkened shores of Playa Grande to lay clutches of up to 100 eggs. While the beach is closed to the public at night, guided tours by park rangers are available to observe this natural miracle under red light so as not to disturb the nesting females.
The Rincón de la Vieja national park
The Rincón de la Vieja national park is located just 30 minutes from Liberia, and is home to one of Costa Rica's active volcanoes, as well as bubbling mud pits and colorful fumaroles. Here visitors can hike the through the lush forest, visit a tumbling waterfall, observe spider monkeys, agoutis, coati mundis and even a furtive Great Currasow, before continuing on to the forbidding scrubland of the volcanic slopes, where large pools of mud mutter and sputter. Dedicated hikers can continue on the full-day climb to the volcano's peak, topped with a luminous, acidic crater lake. Nearby are several tour companies that offer horseback riding, zip line canopy tours, river-rafting and rappelling.
Santa Rosa National Park
Just a little further north lies the Santa Rosa National Park, best known as the historical site of the battle that routed William Walker and his gang of filibusters in 1856. Today the park protects large areas of rare dry tropical forest, which is home to Costa Rica's five large cat species – jaguar, puma, margay, ocelot and jaguarundi – as well as the rare peccaries, tapirs, and three species of monkey as well as a host of resident and migratory birds. Santa Rosa borders several pristine beaches, and lies offshore from Witch's Rock which attracts dedicated surfers to Costa Rica's most famous wave, featured in the classic surf movie "Endless Summer".
Guanacaste National Park
Across from Santa Rosa lies the Guanacaste National Park, which, though less developed than some of the other parks, offers a bewildering variety of wildlife and bird-watching (including the prized quetzal), two volcanoes (straddling the continental divide between Pacific and Caribbean) as well as several hundred pre-Columbian petroglyphs. The park is part of a UN-designated World Heritage Site, the Guanacaste Conservation Area.
Miravalles and Tenorio volcanoes
Northeast of Liberia lie two adjacent volcanoes, Miravalles and Tenorio. The Miravalles volcano is the site of a geothermal electricity project that would harness the volcano's incredible heat to generate natural and renewable energy. As a result of this furious underground activity, the area is rife with hot springs and fumaroles, as well as waterfalls and several lakes. Its sister volcano, Tenorio, is surrounded by the Tenorio National Park, home to tapirs, peccaries and giant anteaters and hundreds of birds. A hike through the park takes visitors on a journey across the slopes of the volcano to the magnificent Rio Celeste waterfall, whose cobalt content gives it an intense, brilliant blue colour.
Barra Honda national park
South-east of the Sugar Beach hotel (about 2 hours' drive) is the Barra Honda national park, which houses a chain of more than 40 fantastical limestone caves. Day visitors are guided by professional cavers deep into the more accessible caves, where millions of years and the patient erosion of water have carved out surreal shapes into the limestone substrate. Formations include stalactites and stalagmites, flowstones, popcorn, soda straws, and fried eggs. Important pre-Columbian remains, dating as far back as 300 B.C., have been discovered in some of Barra Honda's caves.
