National Park General Information   Size:  14,084 hectares Distance from San José : 264 kilometers Trails: Yes. Dry Season: January through March.

Rincón de la Vieja National Park

Rincon de la Vieja is a strato volcano that soars 1,916 meters above sea level and spreads over 400 square kilometers.  It was formed by the simultaneous explosion of several volcanic cones that grew and merged into a single mountain. It has been possible to identify 9 sites of volcanic activity on the summit. One is active and the others are slowly eroding.

Hot springs form small streams with very hot water.  Solfataric lakes (containing sulfur dioxide) fill small hollows with constantly bubbling muddy water.  There's also vapor holes, which become specially active during the rainy season .Studies carried out in the park have identified 257 species of birds, including the three-wattled bellbird and the emerald toucanet. There's also a small amount of mammals that live in the park, like deer, peccaries, sloths, pumas and tapirs.  Rincon de la vieja is located northeast of Liberia , in Guanacaste. 

Rincón de la Vieja National Park, straddling the Guanacaste Cordillera, is invariably a favorite of those fortunate few people privileged enough to have visited the majority of parks in the system. Highlights of this park include six different life zones, abundant wildlife, gorgeous waterfalls, fascinating geothermal features and an active volcano.

One of the most unique and easily observed aspects of this park is an area known as Las Pailas, a 50 ha . sector on the southern slope of the volcano with numerous kinds of geothermal activity. Bubbling, boiling hot mud springs, sulfur springs, steam vents, and fumaroles are all present in this relatively small area at the base of the volcano.

For those in good physical condition, a hike from the Las Pailas ranger station to the volcano's summit makes for a rigorous full day outing. The walk starts out through a magnificent stand of tropical moist forest where the most striking trees are strangler figs seen in every phase of the process of enveloping the doomed host tree. As the trail continues upwards it enters premontane wet forest and the trees become smaller and covered with epiphytic vegetation.

The last hour and a half (or more) of the hike is on steep, exposed rock rubble that has resulted from past eruptions. Cairns mark the way to the summit since this part of the climb is frequently in the clouds.

To get there: From Liberia, take the Inter-American Highway north about five kilometers, turn right at the village of Cereceda and continue on for 23 kilometers (past Hacienda Guachipelín and Hacienda Rincón de la Vieja ) to the Las Pailas ranger station.

Climate: Around the Las Pailas area the temperatures are quite warm (scalding if you manage to fall into one of the geothermal features) and the typical Guanacaste weather pattern prevails. As you go up the slopes of the volcano, the conditions get progressively cooler and wetter.

History: The name Rincón de la Vieja means "the old lady's nook" and is attributed to indigenous people of the Guatuso tribe living on the eastern side of the volcano who believed that an old witch lived on top of the mountain and would send columns of smoke into the air whenever she got annoyed.

Indeed, the active crater which bears this name periodically lets off steam (and large quantities of ash, too). Since 1863, there have been at least eight episodes of intense volcanic activity, the latest one in 1991.