Guanacaste National Park

Size: 700 square kilometers
Distance from San José: 280 kilometers
Camping: Not permitted
Dry season: January to March

Guanacaste National Park was created in 1989 to protect the volcano slope evergreen forest and cloud forests of Orosi and Cacao volcanoes, and to increase the restored dry tropical forest and other lowland forest habitats. This area provide migrational corridors for animals that move into the highlands during the dry season. Many species of birds, butterflies, and moths have been found to migrate from the Guanacaste lowlands over the cordillera and into the moist rain forest of the Atlantic side.

The park contains an interesting if undeveloped trail system and four research stations, at least one of which will remain open to nature tourists, hikers, and photographers. The verdant forests that swathe the volcanoes are a pleasant contrast to the ecological monotony of the human-created grasslands that surround them. This park is as yet little visited, but it is well worth the trouble of getting to it.