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| NORTH
PACIFIC REGION |
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| SANTA
ROSA NATIONAL PARK |
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Santa Rosa National Park was created in 1971 to preserve the
site of the battle of Santa Rosa, one of Costa Rica´s most important historical
events and to protect the increasingly rare dry tropical forest. Today it is
one of the most popular, due to its good trails and great surfing. Excellent
opportunities for wildlife observation and photography exist during the dry
season, due to concentration of animals such as peccaries, coatimundis, and
tapirs at water holes. This big park protects a vast extension of dry tropical
forest. The most accessible site is the recently rebuilt monument La Casona,
that was totally destroyed by a fire in May of 2001. This big ranch house was
the site where the battle of Santa Rosa took place in 1856, and it is a museum
nowadays. Near the ruins of La Casona there is a good one hour trail to learn
more about this kind of forest.
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There is a suitable section for camping in the park at Naranjo
beach. This is a 12 kilometer ( 7.5 miles ) drive from the old Casona site toward
the beach. The road is only accessible during the dry season and a 4WD is recommended.
At this beautiful beach there are nearby trails to hike, with high chances to
see wildlife. Playa Naranjo is not frequented that much and therefore is unspoiled.The
beautiful beaches of Naranjo and Nancite are important laying sites for sea
turtles, mainly olive ridley, leatherback, the biggest of all, and Pacific greens.
Nancite is home to the largest arribadas of olive ridley turtles in all of Tropical
America. All in all Santa Rosa has an amazingly diverse topography for its size,
ranging from mangrove swamp to deciduous forest and savannah. Home to 115 species
of mammals - half of them bats - 250 species of birds and 100 of amphibians
ans reptiles, Santa Rosa is prime biological investigation territory, attracting
researches from allover the world. The appearance of the park changes drastically
between the dry season, when the many streams and small lakes dry up and trees
loose their leaves.
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