National Parks

Location: 291 km (80 miles) straight north from San Jose, southeast of the town of Los Chiles, districts: Los Chiles, Caño Negro, El Amparo, canton: Los Chiles, province: Alajuela, Costa Rica.

Los Chiles GPS Coordinates: 11.031492, -84.712339 (11°01’53.37″N, 84°42’44.42″W)
Size: 9.969 hectares (25,100 acres)
Altitude: from 30m to 100m (100ft to 330 ft) above sea level
Arenal Huetar Norte Conservation Area (ACA-HN) Telephone: +506 2460-0055
Ranger station phone number: +506 2471-1309
INFOTUR Tourist Information: 1192

Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge Costa Rica: created on January 20th, 1984 to protect the wetlands, rainforest and swamplands in the Northern lowland, near the Nicaraguan border. This is one of the most biologically diverse destinations, as well as one of the most important reserves for birds and wildlife observation in Costa Rica.

The refuge lies close to the settlement of the Malekus, direct descendants of the Guatuso Indians that once lived in the area. The Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge is important as a wintering site for migrant waterfowl, as well as a year-round habitat for local wetland species. In fact, Caño Negro is considered by many to be the third most important wetland in the world and was named Wetland of International Importance in 1991.

The Frío River is the largest flowing river in the area and is the main water source for the Caño Negro Lake, a 2,000 acre (810 ha) and 3m deep lake, made by alluvial sediments that plays a crucial role on the environment. During the rainy season, the rising water level invades the surrounding landscape. This natural phenomenon creates a perfect environment for birds to procreate, thus providing a bird-watchers paradise, reason why this refuge is gaining popularity amongst nature oriented tourists. But in the dry season, from December to April, the lake dries up, only exposing the dried out basin and the main channel of the Frío River, which surges from the Tilaran Mountain Range slopes.

From October to April, when the migrant birds are at the refuge, the variety of species and sheer quantity of individuals creates a spectacle that even non-birdwatchers will marvel at. More than 200 bird species can be found inside such as the curious Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja), Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus), White Ibis (Eudocimus albus), Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis), Anhinga (Anhinga anhinga), Green-backed Heron (Butorides virescens), Osprey (Pandion haliaetus), Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata), Wood Stork (Mycteria americana), Snail Kite (Rostrhamus sociabilis), Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus), Olivaceous Cormorant (Phalacrocorax brasilianus), Blue-winged Teal (Anas discors), Black-bellied Whistling-Duck (Dendrocygna autumnalis), American Widgeon (Anas americana), Northern Jacana (Jacana spinosa) and the Jabiru (Jabiru mycteria), which is the largest bird, and seriously endangered, as well as storks, cormorants, ducks and egrets. One species that birdwatchers hope to see here, since the refuge also protects the only permanent population in Costa Rica, is the Nicaraguan Grackle (Quiscalus nicaraguensis) an endemic bird of the Nicaraguan Lake Basin.

The delicate ecosystems found in Caño Negro National Wildlife Refuge supply a plethora of different plants and animal life, many of which are rare or endangered. Some of the animals being protected here are pumas, jaguars, ocelots and caymans, as well as some more common species such as three species of howler, spider and white-faced monkeys, peccaries, raccoons, otters, sloths, tapirs, giant anteaters, deer, turtles, bats, iguanas, emerald basilisk and even Jesus Christ Lizards, as well as numerous tropical plants and diverse fish population such as snook, Wolf Cichlid or Guapote (Parachromis dovii), Alligator Gar (Atractosteus spatula), Drums or Hardheads, Garfishes (Belone belone) – half fish half mammal, with lungs gills and nose, the huge Tarpon (Megalops atlanticus) which can weigh up to 90 kg, and even Bull Sharks (Carcharhinus leucas), giving to vacationing fishermen a good shot at reeling in some trophies during fishing season inside the Frío River, which extends from September to March.

The Caño Negro National Wildlife Refuge daytime temperatures are quite warm and it is usually very humid, where temperature ranges from 21ºC (70ºF) to 32ºC (90ºF), with an annual precipitation average of some 120 inches. Although this refuge is on the Atlantic side of Costa Rica, it is far enough inland in the northern plains to have a weather pattern with a short but distinct dry season from December to April.

Throughout the dry months, the refuge can be easily accessed by road, as during this time many of the swamps and wetlands dry up. The resulting lagoon filled basin attracts thousands of birds flying overhead. During the rainy season boats are the main form of transportation as flooding causes many of the roads to be inaccessible for vehicles.

In order to visit Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge, it’s necessary to join a day tour. These tours pick up guests from the Arenal area hotels at 7:30 a.m. to Los Chiles, a 1½ hour drive. Visitors are required to have a copy of their passport on hand, as the tour begins near a checkpoint with the Nicaraguan border.

Once guests arrive to Los Chiles they will board a boat and begin the tour. The tour consists of a four-hour floating safari along the Frío River, a slow-flowing river through canyons, tropical rainforest, pastures, and marshland on its way to the Caño Negro Lake. Once the tour is over, guests will re-board the bus and be back at their hotels by 4:30 p.m. Visitors are advised to bring light clothing, bug repellent, sun block, camera and binoculars. Also, it is important to make clear that the Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge tour does not actually bring visitors within the refuge, only near it. However, the area just outside the park is just as spectacular as the area inside, so visitors don’t need to worry about missing out on anything.

Other nearby Costa Rica parks includes Las Camelias National Wildlife Refuge, Arenal Volcano Emergency Zone Forest Reserve, Arenal Volcano National Park and Corredor Fronterizo Costa Rica – Nicaragua National Wildlife Refuge.

Getting to Caño Negro National Wildlife Refuge

Take the Pan-American Highway from San Jose to Ciudad Quesada also known as San Carlos, then drive toward Los Chiles, near the Nicaraguan border. About 4 miles before you reach Los Chiles, you will see the exit to the new bridge to Caño Negro. In Los Chiles, a number of boats are kept at the town dock, which can be hired for the approximately 15 km trip upriver to Playuelas on the northern edge of the refuge.

An alternative approach is to drive to Upala (especially for those coming from Guanacaste) and continue east on a gravel road for 36 km until reaching the village of Caño Negro. Here dugout canoes can be hired for exploration of the marsh area.

By bus

You can take a bus San José – Los Chiles, which takes about 5:30 hours (Auto Transportes San Carlos, +506 2255-4318). Or, you can also take a bus San José – Upala, which takes about 5 hours (Transportes Upala, +506 2221-3318). There is a bus that runs from Upala to Caño Negro.

By plane

You can also take a flight from the Juan Santamaria Airport to the Los Chiles or Arenal Airport, either with Sansa Airlines or Aerobell every day. From the Arenal Airport you can rent a car and drive to the refuge, which takes about 1.5 hours.

Location: just north of Boca Tapada, near the Nicaraguan border, canton: San Carlos, province: Alajuela and canton: Sarapiquí, province: Heredia, Costa Rica.
Pital GPS Coordinates: 10.451586, -84.273422 (10°27’05.71″N, 84°16’24.32″W)
Size: 6.307 ha (14,800 acres)
Altitude: about 200m above sea level
Arenal Huetar Norte Conservation Area (ACA-HN) Telephone: +506 2460-0055
INFOTUR Tourist Information: 1192

Address map: Click here to view directions from Juan Santamaria International Airport (SJO), Alajuela, Costa Rica TO Pital in Alajuela, Costa Rica at Google Maps

La Cureña Forest Reserve Costa Rica: created on April 7th, 1994, in order to protect the largest remnant of moist forest on the right bank of the San Juan River, near the border of Nicaragua on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. Now, this reserve is part of the Maquenque National Wildlife Refuge, in order to be converted into a biological reserve with the main aim of protecting the endangered Great Green Macaw (Ara ambigua).

La Cureña Forest Reserve is part of the Arenal Huetar Norte Conservation Area, in the northern part of Costa Rica, about 80 miles (130 km) north of San José, to the east of Boca Tapada. The best way to get to know the reserve is to take a boat on the San Juan River and go along one of the countless rivers and streams that crisscross the area and discharge into this river.

The reserve has the Cureña and Cureñita Rivers, which before disembogue into the San Juan River, form extensive lagoons and marshes crops. In fact, the Cureña River forms the Maquenque Lagoon. One of the main problems of these rivers is the same sedimentation as in ponds and marshes.

In the reserve outcrop lahars, mainly composed of heterogeneous volcanic materials, with a matrix comprising clay, sand and gravel. These deposits are characterized by an extended flat topography and rolling hills, known in the region as “lomo de cerdo” (Pork loin). These hills are surrounded by lower grounds, thus generally run rainwater, streams, or even “yolillales” and small marshes, surrounded by forest.

This reserve has a tropical rainforest, with an average temperature of about 26°C (78°F), ranging between 21°C (69°F) and 30°C (86°F). The rainfall pattern that characterizes the region presents a short dry season which occurs between the months of March and April, with the wettest months being between June and November, when rainfall exceeds 300 mm per month, with an average annual precipitation between 2,800 to 3,600 mm.

This is why the vegetation here consists of tall forest trees such as enormous Silk Cotton or Ceiba (Ceiba pentandra), Wild Almond tree (Dipteryx panamensis), “Guácimo colorado” (Luehea seemannii) and “Guayabo de charco” (Terminalia bucidioides), as well as a large number of endemic trees such as the “Tostao” (Sclerolobium costaricense), the “Naranjito” (Capparis pittieri) and botarrama (Vochysia allenii). Moreover, in the area there are many tree species threatened and endangered such as the “Repollito” (Eschweilera calyculata), the “Cuero de sapo” (Licania kallunkii), the Chiricano (Vantanea barbourii), the Coquito (Astrocaryum alatum), the Zapotillo (Pouteria uniloculares), the Cola de Pavo (Hymenolobium mesoamericanum), the Areno (Qualea paraensis), the Cipresillo (Podocarpus guatemalensis) and the Cativo (Prioria copaifera).

In secondary early forests of the Cureña Forest Reserve can be found the Bastard cedar or Light virola (Virola koschnyi), the Botarrama (Vochysia ferruginea), the Burío (Heliocarpus appendiculatus), the Oil Tree (Pentaclethra macroloba), the Guarumo or Trumpet tree (Cecropia peltata), the Turkey Berry or Tabacon (Solanum torvum), the Achiotillo (Vismia baccifera), the Manga Larga (Laetia procera) and the Jacaranda. In the lagoons and marshes are commonly found species of the family Amaryllidaceae, Araceae, Cyperaceae, Melastomataceae, Onagraceae and Papilionaceae, while the flooded forests mainly consist of Caobilla (Carapa nicaraguensis), Sangrillo (Paramachaerium gruberi), Malabar chestnut (Pachira aquatica) and Sotacaballo (Zygia longifolia).

On the other hand, La Cureña Forest Reserve also has a wide variety of mammals such as white-faced or capuchin monkeys, howler monkeys, spider monkeys, peccaries, tapirs, agoutis, kinkajous, spotted pacas, pumas, ocelots, jaguars and jaguarundi. Also, there have been reported some 20 species of amphibians and about 23 species of reptiles.

Furthermore, many species of birds indicate that the area of La Cureña Forest Reserve is a site of great importance for more than 340 species of birds conservation, such as endangered species like the Green Macaw (Ara ambigua) and the Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao) and rare species like the Great Curassow (Crax rubra) and Guan (Penelope purpurascens).

There are no public facilities at La Cureña Forest Reserve. Other nearby Costa Rica parks includes Maquenque National Wildlife Refuge, El Jardin Forest Reserve and Corredor Fronterizo Costa Rica – Nicaragua National Wildlife Refuge.

Location: just north of Boca Tapada, near the Nicaraguan border, inside the districts of Pocosol and Pital, canton: San Carlos, province: Alajuela and the districts of La Virgen and Cureña, canton: Sarapiquí, province: Heredia, Costa Rica.

Pital GPS Coordinates: 10.448623,-84.27637 (10°26’55.04″N, 84°16’34.93″W)
Size: 60 ha (148 acres)
Altitude: about 200m above sea level.
Telephone: +506 2479-8200 / +506 2479-7785
Fax: +506 2479-8219
Arenal Huetar Norte Conservation Area (ACA-HN) Telephone: +506 2460-0055
Pital’s (ACA-HN) office telephone: +506 24733939, +506 2473-3488
Maquenque Reserve Phone: +506 8818-0088
INFOTUR Tourist Information: 1192

Address map: Click here to view directions from Juan Santamaria International Airport (SJO), Alajuela, Costa Rica TO Maquenque Wildlife Refuge in Alajuela, Costa Rica at Google Maps

Maquenque Wildlife Refuge Costa Rica: established by executive decree in June 13th 2005, thanks to the initiative of Eduardo Artavia, his wife and six children, to maintain and conserve the wildlife habitat, protecting different types of ecosystems, such as the fragile wetlands and the tropical rainforest endagered species. This refuge is located to the north of Boca Tapada in San Carlos, Alajuela.

Maquenque National Wildlife Refuge is part of the Arenal Huetar Norte Conservation Area and an intermediate strip of the Nicaragua-Costa Rica Border Corridor National Wildlife Refuge, in the northern part of Costa Rica, some 130km from San Jose, 30km from Pital and only 21km from the San Juan river, the natural border with Nicaragua.

This property is surrounded by virgin nature, which includes a lagoon complex and swamp ecosystems of the tropical wet forest ecoregion, characterized by high biodiversity and the livelihoods of endangered species such as the Great Green Macaw (Ara ambigua), vulnerable species like the Manatee (Trichechus manatus) and other important species such as the Jaguar (Panthera onca) and the Gaspar Fish (Atractosteus tropicus), which makes the Maquenque Wetland unique in the country.

Also, the wetland plays an important hydrological function to the surrounding watershed. Inside the refuge 4 wetlands have been identified: Maquenque, Tambor, Colpachí and Canacas.

The refuge is part of a proposal to bring together a number of existing Nature Reserves, Wildlife refuges and Forest Reserves to form a new National Park, covering the areas between the San Carlos River, the Sarapiquí River and other areas near the Nicaraguan border. Among the existing reserves that would be consolidated would be Cerro El Jardin Forest Reserve, La Cureña Forest Reserve, Lacustrino Maquenque Wetlands and the Palustrino Tamborcito Wetlands.

Maquenque National Wildlife Refuge is a mix of habitats on both sides of the San Carlos River, with sections of former pasture lands that are now being reforested. There are about 40 hectares of secondary forest bordering the western edge, while to the east, the refuge borders a neighbor that holds hundreds of hectares of some of the oldest forests in northern Costa Rica.

Maquenque National Wildlife Refuge is home to a rich biodiversity of animals and plants, with large amounts of Almond trees, which can’t be found in any other national park or protected area of Costa Rica and is a favored food source of the Great Green Macaw, which has led the World Parrot Trust, among other organizations, to campaign to create this national park.

The refuge has a tropical rainy climate with an average temperature of 27ºC (81ºF), with the rainiest months between May through December, and occasionally, this can extend until February. This region has some of the best habitats for the Great Green Macaw and there is a big number of nests in the area. Also, among the species of accounted animals, there are approximately 139 mammals, 135 reptiles, 80 amphibians and 424 birds, since wetlands are of great importance as habitat for water birds, many are seen near the large lagoon and along the San Carlos River, such as the Scaly-throated Leaftosser (Sclerurus guatemalensis), Blue Dacnis or Turquoise Honeycreeper (Dacnis cayana) and Black-and-yellow Tanager (Chrysothlypis chrysomelaena).

The refuge is also of vital importance as it is the core of the San Juan – La Selva Corridor. This corridor allows connections between ecosystems (both public and private) in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, making it an important part of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor. It is also located in a zone designed to protect the whole group of native species and fulfill basic corridor functions of connectivity, while maximizing compatible sustainable forestry uses and benefits from environmental services.

For years, Maquenque Wetland has been competing with other wetlands, located throughout the world, to enter the Ramsar listing, abbreviated name for the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, which was an agreement signed February 2, 1971 in the city of Iran, Ramsar.

Other nearby parks in the area include Cerro El Jardin Forest Reserve, La Cureña Forest Reserve, Arenal Volcano National Park and an intermediate strip of Nicaragua-Costa Rica Border Corridor National Wildlife Refuge.

Getting to Maquenque Wildlife Refuge:

Take the Pan-American Highway from San Jose towards north. Turn right at Naranjo exit. Follow the road to Ciudad Quesada, passing through Zarcero town. Once in Ciudad Quesada continue for approximately 18 km (11 miles) more, and then turn right looking for Pital town, as Boca Tapada is accessed most easily from there.

By bus

You can take a bus from the route San José – Pital, which takes about 4 hours and then take a bus Pital – Boca Tapada, which takes about 2:30 hours. Or you can also take a bus San José – Cuidad Quesada which takes about 2:30 hours, then Cuidad Quesada – Pital, which takes about 1.30 hours and Pital – Boca Tapada, which takes about 2:30 hours.

By plane

You can also take a flight from the Juan Santamaria Airport to the Arenal Airport, either with Sansa Airlines or Aerobell every day. From here you can rent a car and drive to the refuge, which is about 4 hours.