Barra Honda National Park, Costa Rica

Unlike the volcanic stone found throughout northern Costa Rica, the Barra Honda area of the Tempisque Basin where the Nicoya Peninsula joins the mainland has a foundation of limestone. Water has cut extensive caves through the small mountains of the park, and this is its best known feature. However, the park also has well maintained hiking trails. The protected tropical dry forest (though mostly secondary) within its borders is some of the last in the world, and very different from the rain and cloud forests that attract many ecological tourists to Costa Rica.

Attractions
The soda straws, pearls, roses, needles, cave grapes, curtains, terraces, stalactites, stalagmites and other calcareous formations of the more than 40 limestone caverns are the main attraction at Barra Honda National Park. The caves are all in relatively good condition because their vertical entrances are difficult to negotiate. This is also why you need climbing gear, a guide, and permission from the Parks service in advance to enter them.
The caves range from a few feet to over 780 feet (240 meters) deep. Pozo Hediondo (Fetid Pit) Cave was named for the aroma of the guano deposited by its thousands of residents. Until the caverns were discovered and explored in the late sixties, many belived that Cerro Barra Honda was a volcano because of the roaring sounds made by the bats as they departed the caverns en masse, and the fumes from the caves they occupied.

The network of hiking trails used to access the caverns are great for exploring one of the rarest habitats on earth, tropical dry forest. The juxtaposition of capuchin monkeys and cactus seems odd, and some of the trees flower only after they've dropped all their leaves. Any time of year you can hope to see howler monkeys, deer, racoons, peccaries, kinkajous, agoutis, and anteaters.

If you are traveling on a budget, spend the night. It's one of the few places you can get a bed and a roof inside a National Park.

In the region:
Santa Rosa National Park
Guanacaste National Park
Palo Verde National Park

When to visit:
The caves are not open in the wet season because of the danger of flooding by the torrential rains that carved them from the stone. If you are a spelunker the dry season is your best bet.

Green Phoenix: Restoring the Tropical Forests of Guanacaste, Costa Rica
by William Allen, Samantha Burton (Illustrator), Paperback, 310 pages, Publisher: Oxford University Press, (April 2003), ISBN: 0195161777

Sort of a Biography of Daniel Janzen interwoven with a description of trying to recreate one of the most endangered habitats in the world. A compelling story of one of the most successful ecological comebacks ever.
From Amazon $US 18.95 -or-
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Caves : Exploring Hidden Realms
by Michael Ray Taylor (Author), Ronal C. Kerbo, Hardcover, 224 pages, Publisher: National Geographic, (March 2001), ISBN: 0792279042

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From Amazon $US 35.00-or-
Barnes&Nobel members $US 33.25