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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.
Upon arrival to Las Pailas Section of the National Park we will start the hike of approx. 1 1/2 hours in a loop trail that shows you the dry tropical forest and the volcanic activity consisting in fumaroles, hot mud pools and steam holes spreaded in this amazing landscape. The tour not only provides the opportunity to appreciate Rincon de la Vieja´s
geothermal wonders, it also allows a close view of an ancient forest hundreds
of years old. Huge trees protect spider monkeys, leaf-cutter ants, toucans and
all kind of great and small creatures.
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 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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