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Rincón de la Vieja National Park has been created in 1973 to protect the flora, fauna and watersheds around Rincon de la Vieja Volcano. The park extends over 14,083 hectares of semi-deciduous forest and very moist forest, and includes a barren, rocky terrain at altitudes that range from 650 meters to 1,916 meters above sea level on the Caribbean and Pacific sides of the Guanacaste Volcanic Mountain Range. The climate in this national park is so diverse that areas with a severe dry season lasting 4 or 5 months are immediately followed by others, near the summit or on the Caribbean side, where there is constant rainfall, which gives rise to a forest mass rich in epiphytes. The differences in altitude and climate play an important role in the distribution of the flora and fauna. There are three stories of vegetation: that of the lowlands found between 650-1,200 meters above sea level where typical growth includes masicaran, bitter wood, ear tree, gumbo-limbo and Spanish cedar; that of the intermediate zone at 1,200-1,400 meters above sea level with didymopanax, yellow man wood, yos and especially, cupey, which sometimes forms almost pure groves that are completely twisted out of shape by the raging winds; and that of the heights at 1.400 meters above sea level as far as the summit with low-growing forest and highly branched trees laden with moss and other vines and creepers.
Entrance
fee approx. US $ 10 p.p. , Closed on Mondays |
