Santa
Rosa was founded in 1972 as the country's first national
park. The 49,515-hectare park, which covers much of
the Santa Elena peninsula, is part of a mosaic of ecologically
interdependent parks and reserves--the 110,000-hectare
Guanacaste Conservation Area (GCA)--that incorporates
Santa Rosa National Park, Rincón de la Vieja
National Park, Bolaños Island Wildlife Refuge,
the Junquillal Bay National Wildlife Refuge, and the
Horizontes Experimental Station, abutting Santa Rosa
to the south. See the Information section, below, for
contact information.
Parque
Nacional Santa Rosa is most famous for Hacienda Santa
Rosa--better known as La Casona--the nation's most
cherished historic monument. It was here in 1856 that
the mercenary army of American adventurer William
Walker was defeated by a ragamuffin army of Costa
Rican volunteers. The old hacienda-turned-museum alone
is well worth the visit. Santa Rosa National Park
has other treasures, too.
The
park is a mosaic of 10 distinct habitats, including
mangrove swamp, savanna, and oak forest, which attract
a wide range of animals: more than 250 bird species
and 115 mammal species (half of them bats, including
two vampire species), among them relatively easily
seen mammals such as white-tailed deer, coatimundis,
howler, spider, and white-faced monkeys, and anteaters.
Jaguars still roam Santa Rosa, as do margays, ocelots,
pumas, and jaguarundis; they're all shy and seldom
seen. Santa Rosa is a vitally important nesting site
for ridleys and other turtle species. In the wet season
the land is as green as emeralds, and wildlife disperses.
In dry season, however, when the parched scrubby landscapes
give an impression of the East African plains, wildlife
congregates at watering holes--such as those on the
Naked Indian Trail--and is easily seen. Be patient.
Sit still for long enough and some interesting creatures
are sure to appear. Keep an eye out for snakes.
The park is divided into two sections: the Santa Rosa
Sector to the south (the entrance is at Km 269 on
Hwy. 1, 37 km north of Liberia) and the Murciélago
Sector (the turnoff from Hwy. 1 is 10 km farther north,
via Cuajiniquil), separated by a swathe of privately
owned land.
Santa
Rosa Sector
The Santa Rosa Sector is the more important and accessible
of the two sectors. On the right, one km past the
entrance gate, a rough dirt road leads to a rusting
armored personnel carrier beside a memorial cross
commemorating the Battle of 1955, when Somoza, the
Nicaraguan strongman, made an ill-fated foray into
Costa Rica.
Six km farther on the paved road is La Casona, a magnificent
colonial homestead with a beautiful setting atop a
slight rise overlooking a stone corral where the battle
with William Walker was fought. Inside the house are
photos, illustrations, carbines, and other military
paraphernalia commemorating the battle of 20 March
1856. Battles were also fought here during the 1919
Sapoá Revolution and in 1955. One room is furnished
in period style. Another is a small chapel. Large
wooden mortars and pestles are on display, along with
decrepit chaps and centenary riding gear. There's
also a good nature exhibit. Harmless bats fly in and
out. There's a large guanacaste tree outside.
Trails:
Trails are marked in detail on the map sold at the
park entrance. The Naked Indian loop trail (1.5 km)
begins just before the house and leads through dry-forest
woodlands with streams and waterfalls and gumbo-limbo
trees whose peeling red bark earned them the nickname
"naked Indian trees." The Los Patos trail,
which has several watering holes during dry season,
is one of the best trails for spotting mammals. The
Laguna Escondida and Caujiniquil River Trail (14 km
round-trip) also takes you to a pond that is a magnet
for thirsty wildlife. Other good spots for wildlife
are Platanar Lake, Laguna Escondida, and La Penca,
reached by trails north from the park administrative
area.
The
paved road ends just beyond the administration area.
From here, an appalling dirt road drops steeply to
the beaches--Playa Naranjo and Playa Nancite, 13 km
from La Casona. It's a good road to break your springs.
A 4WD with high ground clearance is essential. Park
officials sometimes close the road because they get
tired of towing vehicles out.
Beaches: The deserted white-sand Playa Nancite is
renowned as the site for the annual arribadas, the
mass nestings of olive ridley turtles which occur
only here and at Ostional, farther south. More than
75,000 turtles will gather out to sea and come ashore
over the space of a few days, with the possibility
of up to 10,000 reptiles on the beach at any one time
in September and October. Although the exact trigger
is unknown, arribadas seem to coincide with falling
barometric pressure in autumn and are apparently associated
with a waxing three-quarter moon. You can usually
see solitary turtles at other times August through
December. Stephen E. Cornelius's illustrated book,
The Sea Turtles of Santa Rosa National Park (Costa
Rica: National Park Foundation, 1986), provides an
insight into the life of the ridley turtle. Cornelius
initiated studies here in 1972. Latest data suggests
that the turtle population at Nancite is declining.
Playa Nancite (about a one-hour hike over a headland
from Estero Real, at the end of the dirt road) is
a research site. Access is restricted and permits
are needed; anyone can get one from the ranger station,
or at Programa de Ecoturismo, c/o Centro de los Investigaciones,
tel. 666-5051, ext. 219). There's a limit of 30 people
per day.
Playa
Naranjo is a popular, beautiful, kilometers-long,
pale gray sand beach that is legendary in surfing
lore. Steep, thick, powerful tubular waves and "killer
beautiful Witches Rock rising like a sentinel out
of the water make this a must stop in the world for
top-rated surfers," says surf expert Mark Kelly.
The beach is bounded by craggy headlands and frequently
visited by monkeys, iguanas, and other wildlife. Crocodiles
lurk in the mangrove swamps at the southern end of
the beach. At night, plankton light up with a brilliant
phosphorescence as you walk the drying sand in the
wake of high tide. Witches Rock is a gigantic crag
split in two and jutting up straight from the ocean
bottom.
In
addition to Playa Naranjo, Playa Portrero Grande,
north of Nancite, and other beaches on the central
Santa Elena peninsula offer some of the best "machine-like"
surf in the country, with double overhead waves rolling
in one after the other. The makers of Endless Summer
II, the sequel to the classic surfing movie, caught
the Portrero Grande break perfectly. The beaches are
inaccessible by road. You can hire a boat at Jobo
or any of the fishing villages in the Golfo Santa
Elena to take you to Portrero Grande or Islas Murciélagos
(Bat Islands), slung in a chain beneath Cabo Santa
Elena, the westernmost point of the peninsula. The
Bat Islands are a renowned scuba diving site for advanced
divers; sharks (bull, tiger, and black-tip) are there
in numbers, along with whale sharks.
Murciélago
Sector
The entrance to the Murciélago Sector of Santa
Rosa National Park is 15 km west of Hwy. 1, 10 km
north of the Santa Rosa Sector park entrance (there's
a police checkpoint at the turnoff; have your passport
ready for inspection). The road winds downhill to
a coastal valley through spectacularly hilly countryside
to the hamlet of Cuajiniquil, tucked half a kilometer
south of the road, which continues northwest to Bahía
Cuajiniquil.
You
arrive at a Y-fork in Cuajiniquil: the road to Murciélago
(eight km) is to the left. There are three rivers
to ford en route. You'll pass the old CIA training
camp for the Nicaraguan contras on your right. The
place--Murciélago Hacienda--was owned by the
Nicaraguan dictator Somoza's family before being expropriated
in 1979, when the Murciélago Sector was incorporated
into Santa Rosa National Park. It's now a training
camp for the Costa Rican Rural Guard. Armed guards
may stop you for an ID check as you pass. A few hundred
meters farther, the road runs alongside the secret
airstrip (hidden behind tall grass to your left) that
Oliver North had built to supply the contras. The
park entrance is 0.5 km beyond the airstrip.
It's another 16 km to Playa Blanca, a beautiful horseshoe-shaped
white-sand beach--one of the most isolated in the
country--about five km wide and enjoyed only by pelicans
and frigate birds. The road ends here. Waterfalls
are surrounded by ferns and palms in Cuajiniquil Canyon,
which has its own moist microclimate. The Poza El
General watering hole attracts waterfowl and other
animals year-round and is reached along a rough trail.
Information:
The park entrance station, tel. 666-5051, ext. 219,
at the Santa Rosa Sector sells detailed maps (1:50,000
scale; 75 cents) showing trails and campgrounds. Hours:
8 a.m.-4 p.m. Both the natural history museum in La
Casona and the GCA park administration office, tel.
666-5051, fax 666-5020, email: acg@acguanacaste.ac.cr
or carrilloespino@latinmail.com, www.acguanacaste.ac.cr,
can provide additional information. The GCA office
in Liberia, P.O. 169-5000, Liberia, tel./fax 666-0630,
can also supply information. Entrance: $6.
The
Dry Tropical Forest Investigation Center, located
near the park administrative office, undertakes biological
research, and features a laboratory, documentation
center, and computer center, plus dorm accommodations.
It is not open to visitors, but anyone with a serious
interest in dry forest ecology will find the staff
and researchers invaluable resources.
