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Located 20 km north of San José on the road to Guápiles,
It has terrain of rugged mountains, rushing rivers, dormant volcanoes,
deep canyons and rainforests. It is also one of the cloudiest places
in the country. The rain falls either in torrents or in heavy and
persistent drizzles that shroud the land in thick almost permanent
banks of fog. Waterfalls plunge down ravines that rend steep mountain
slopes, which are carpeted with evergreen rainforest thick with ferns,
palms, epiphytes, and carrizales, especially between 1,500-2,500
meters above sea level. Farther on, in the land of the volcanoes,
muffled in fog and battered by the wind, the forest is dark and
extremely humid with tall trees and an abundance of mosses and
bromeliads. It is the home of the resplendent Quetzal, considered to
be the most beautiful bird on the continent and symbol of the currency
of Guatemala, a country with dwindling populations of this species. |
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The park consists of 44,099 hectares with an unusual
wealth of flora and fauna. This is caused, in part, by a wide variance
in rainfall (from 2,500-8000 mm a year) in temperature (from 9 to 25
ºC) and altitude: the park protects a vast region, from lowlands near
the northern plains, at 200 meters above sea level, to the rim of
Barva Volcano, at 2906 meters above sea level. In the highlands the
most distinctive trees amid a lush foliage, which includes over 6000
species, are oak, mountain cypress, small cedar and magnolia.
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olive, alcanfor, mayo and copal. In clearings above 1,400 metres, a
common plant is that known as poor man's umbrella with very large,
rough leaves typical of highly saturated areas. Apparently, it is a
way of exposing a larger surface to the sun, thereby increasing the
rate of transpiration. |
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The rainforest provides shelter for an infinite number
of animals from the bushmaster sanke, the largest poisonous snake on
the continent, to the Bufo holdridgei toad, an endemic species that
lives in communities on Barba Volcano and at Bajos del Tigre.
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Below 1000 metres, it is frequent to see howler and
white-faced monkeys capuchin monkeys, tapirs, ocelots, cougars,
jaguars, jaguarundies, white-tailed deer, pacas, agouties, racoons,
white-nosed coaties, kinkajous, grey squirrels, Southern opossum, two-
and three-toed sloths and five species of bats. The birdlife consists
of over 350 species, which include the strange three wattled bellbird
(which migrates at great hights), king vulture, great curassow,
clay-colored robin (the national bird), solitary eagle, black-faced
solitaire and resplendent quetzal.
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The most suitable time to visit the rainy highlands (1,500 mts.
and up) is March and April, when it is sunnier and warmer.
(Text and pictures on this page
were taken from a public domain source and modified by Michael Dodson and Denny
Genovese)
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