This National Park is located in the Guanacaste Range of Mountains in the North
Pacific Region of Costa Rica. Las Pailas Sector is located 25 km northeast of
Liberia. Travel north on the Inter-American Highway, 5 km from Liberia to the
community of Guadalupe, then take the gravel road to the east, for 20 km.
This National Park was created to protect the biodiversity
around the Rincon de la Vieja Volcano area. It extends over 17083 hectares of
semi-deciduous forest and very moist forest and includes a barren rocky terrain
at altitudes that range from 1950 feet to 5748 feet above the sea level on the
Caribbean and Pacific sides of the Guanacaste Volcanic Mountain Range. Fumaroles,
hot mud pools and the eerie steam holes of Las Pailas create an amazing landscape.
The beautifully dry landscape, encompasses landscapes as varied
as rock-strewn savannah to patches of tropical dry forest and deciduous trees,
culminating in the blasted-out vistas of the volcano crater. This is a very
special national park that offers different types of vegetation, mainly the
dry tropical forest with transition to premontane forest. This area contains
a wide variety of trees that loose their leaves during the dry season when they
bloom. During the rainy season everything looks as green as a rainforest.
The 1,916 m-high Rincón de la Vieja massif is a stratovolcano
covering 400 km2 formed as a result of the simultaneous volcanic activity of
various eruptions points, which grew and became a single active mountain. At
the top, nine eruption sites have been identified, one of them, Rincón
de la Vieja, is active, but the rest are in the process of erosive degradation.
The active crater is located at 1800 meters ( 5400 feet ) of altitude. A hike
to the top requires very good physical condition. First you have to ride a horse
for 2 hours and then you hike about 4 hours. The view from the top is spectacular!
On a clear day you can see Lake Nicaragua, the Pacific Ocean and the Guanacaste
lowlands.
Birders, too, get excited about Rincon de la Vieja, in this
massif, 257 species have been recorded, including the three-wattled bellbird.
Some of the mammals present are the red brocket deer and the northern tamandua;
mammals abound in the upper reaches of the mountain. The park protects a great
ecosystem of hydrographic basins, and the largest population of wild purple
orchid, the national flower of Costa Rica.
The area is excellent for horseback riding and for swimming in natural pools
with waterfalls. There are also sulphur hot springs to enjoy. This is a great
terrain for camping, riding and hiking, with a comfortable, fairly dry heat
- although it can get damp and cloudly at the higher elevations around the crater.
The main attraction of the National Park, and easy to reach, is Las Pailas where
there is a 2 hour trail to see all the volcanic activity, with hot mud pots,
steam rising out of lush foliage, sulphur hot springs and a beautiful forest
with an abundance of wildlife.
The park contains different habitats appropiate to different
altitudes. The top of the volcano is covered with ashes and there is little
plant life.
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