There are two places in the area where you can visit Yellowstone or Rotorua - like geothermal sites. If you like to walk, boiling hot mud springs, sulfur springs, steam vents, and fumaroles are abundant at Las Pilas and Las Hornillas (not to be confused with Las Hornillas on the slopes of volcán … [Read more...]
Costa Rica's National Park System
Modeled on the U.S. national parks after a couple of young Tico soon to be conservationists visited the Great Smokey Mountains the whole story of the birth of Costa Rica's park system is told in a fascinating book called The Quetzal and the Macaw. However they came to be they are now the foundation of Costa Rica's billion dollar travel industry, the source of water for the population and the reason that in early 2015 Costa Rica could declare that 100% of it's electricity was from green energy - the vast majority from hydro on National Park fed rivers.
No matter where you visit in Costa Rica there is always a park nearby.
Santa Rosa National Park
Tropical Dry Forest Santa Rosa National Park protects some of the last remaining tropical dry forest in the world. The small patch of oak forest near the entrance to the Comelco Ranch is probably representative of the original habitat of much of the park. Ranchers burned most of the plateau … [Read more...]
Tenorio Volcano National Park
Quite possibly our favorite national park. I know, I know, they can't all be our favorite, but... Tenorio has everything you could want in a tropical forest natural area and every time we visit we find something new to love. Hiking to the sky blue Celeste waterfall is a highlight, but the … [Read more...]
Tortuguero National Park
This is one of the few Costa Rican National Parks where walking quietly isn't necessarily the best way to see things. The marked trail along the beach is used mostly for observing turtle nesting, but the best way to see most of the park is from a boat. That doesn't mean you can't get a workout … [Read more...]