Cahuita National Park
Location: This most popular spot is located in Limon
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.
Chirripo
National Park
Location: Located in the Talamanca mountain range, straddling the provinces of Limon. Cartago and San
Jose. 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.
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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 "tombolo" 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 Belen 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.
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Rincon
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.
Tapanti
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
Limon province, 84 Km. Northeast of the city of Limon.
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.
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Volcan
Poas National Park
Location: It is located 37 Km. North of Alajuela, on
the Central Volcanic range, on the Alajuela - San Pedro de
Poas 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 Tarcoles 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 Pajaros 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 Montague 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
Limon. Importance: t he 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 Tilaran 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 Limon.
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.
| G andoca
Manzanillo National Wildlife Refuge
Location: This refuge is located in Talamanca. County
on the Caribbean coast of the province of Limon. 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 Rio
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.
Curu
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 Curu. 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.
| | National Parks Locations
| | Costa Rica's National Parks. Select from any of Costa Rica's National Parks listed below to obtain the most comprehesive information pertaining to the natural jewels of Costa Rica. Fifteen National Parks are represented.
| | Arenal
| | Ballena
| | Braulio Carrillo
| | Cahuita
| | Chirripo / La Amistad
| | Cocos Island
| | Corcovado
| | Irazu Volcano
| | Manuel Antonio
| | Poas Volcano
| | Palo Verde
| | Rincon de la Vieja
| | Santa Rosa
| | Tapanti
| | Tortuguero
| | Barra Honda
| | Cahuita National Park
| | Manuel Antonio National Park
| Osa Conservation Area, Corcovado National Park
| Poas Volcano
| | The National Parks of Costa Rica
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