Guanacaste National Park, in Spanish is a National Park in the northern part of Costa Rica. It is part of the Area de Conservación Guanacaste World Heritage Site, and it stretches from the slopes of the

Orosí Orosi is a district of the Paraíso canton, in the Cartago province of Costa Rica. History Orosi is one of the oldest communities in Costa Rica. The village of Orosi was chosen, together with Ujarrás, by the Spanish conquerors to establis ...

and Cacao

volcanoes A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...

west to the

Interamerican Highway The Inter-American Highway (IAH) is the Central American section of the Pan-American Highway and spans between Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and Panama City, Panama. History The idea of a road being built across all of Central America became a tangible ...

where it is adjacent to the

Santa Rosa National Park Santa Rosa National Park ( es, Parque Nacional Santa Rosa), is a national park, in Guanacaste Province, northwestern Costa Rica, it was created in 1966 by decree 3694. Geography The main entrance of Santa Rosa National Park is north of Liberia ...

. It was created in 1989, partially due to the campaigning and fund-raising of Dr.

Daniel Janzen Daniel Hunt Janzen (born January 18, 1939 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is an American evolutionary ecologist, and conservationist. He divides his time between his professorship in biology at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is the DiMaura ...

to allow a corridor between the dry forest and rain forest areas which many species migrate between seasonally. The park covers an area of approximately 340 square kilometers, and includes 140 species of mammals, over 300

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

s, 100 amphibians and reptiles, and over 10,000 species of

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three ...

s that have been identified. It was this high density of bio-diversity that encouraged the Costa Rican government to protect this area. The Guanacaste National Park weaves the neighboring

with the high altitude forests of the two volcanoes, Orosi and Cacao, and the rainforest of the Caribbean in the country's north. The

Tempisque River The Tempisque River, or Río Tempisque, is long, located entirely in Costa Rica flowing from the Guanacaste Cordillera near the Orosí Volcano and emptying into the Gulf of Nicoya. It passes through the Palo Verde National Park and is an impor ...

flows through the park's lowland areas. There are dry forests at lower elevations and cloud forests at higher elevations. There are several trails running through the park that offer up good hiking. The trail leading to the Orosi Volcano has pre-Columbian petroglyphs near the plain at El Pedregal. The nearest city is La Cruz to the northwest, and the park contains several facilities notably the headquarters of the

Guanacaste Conservation Area Guanacaste Conservation Area is an administrative area which is managed by the Sistema Nacional de Areas de Conservacion (SINAC) of Costa Rica for conservation in the northwestern part of Costa Rica. It contains three national parks, as well as ...

, as well as stations at Pitilla in the northeastern corner of the park, Cacao on the southwestern slope of the eponymous volcano, and Maritza which is situated near both volcanoes.

History

In 1989 the park was first established by Executive Decree 19124-MIRENEM/89, to become part of Area de Conservación Guanacaste along with the already existing Santa Rosa and

Rincón de la Vieja Rincon or Rincón (Spanish for ''corner'') may refer to: * Rincon (meadow) * Rincon (abandoned meander) People * Rincon (surname) * Rincón (footballer, born 1977), born Gilvan Santos Souza, Brazilian football striker * Rincón (footballer, 1 ...

National Parks. As a whole these formally became part of National System of Conservation Units (SINAC) in 1994 and then later in 1999 a

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

. In 1995 the

Junquillal Bay Wildlife Refuge Junquillal Bay Wildlife Refuge, also called the Bahia Junquillal National Wildlife Refuge, is a wildlife refuge in Guanacaste Province of northwestern Costa Rica. It is a part of the Guanacaste Conservation Area and the Area de Conservación G ...

was added to the group of sites. In 1989, 12,000 tonnes of

orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

waste was dumped on barren soil in agreement with park authorities. 15 years later, the area had grown into a variety of plants.

References

National parks of Costa Rica Geography of Guanacaste Province Protected areas established in 1991 Tourist attractions in Guanacaste Province 1991 establishments in Costa Rica {{CostaRica-protected-area-stub

History

See also

References