Rincón de la Vieja National Park

Rincón de la Vieja National Park is ober 1900 high and covers about 15.000 hectares of land. Es ist situated in the Guanacaste-Region und ist part of the Cordillera de Guanacaste.

The Rincón de la Vieja National Park is open daily from 7am – 15pm and closed on Monday. A simple map is available at the park entrance and describes the various paths. Most of the visitors take the informative two-to-three-hour ”Las Pailas Trail”. More demanding, because they’re steeper and take four hours, are the hikes to one of the two waterfalls ”Catarata la Cangreja” and ”Catarata Escondida”. Shorter hikes to a river, e.g. ”Pozo Azul” are possible. For the described eight-hour-tour to the crater, a local guide (or the use – and knowledge – of a GPS) is recommended. When fog and clouds appear, in spite of existing path markers, orientation can become difficult. For all other tours, the use of a guide is only suggested for a better view of the animal's or the description of the diverse plant world. 

Outside the national park, shortly before the park entrance, there are further waterfalls, ”La Chorreras” and ”Oropéndola” with short climbs, each around 20 minutes. A two-hour hike or riding tour leads to the sulfurous warm spring ”Azufrales”. One finds closer hot springs on ”Rio Negro”. Whoever goes back and forth from the cold water of the rustling torrent to one of the four hot basins doesn’t need a sauna anymore. And you can also then relax with a mud pack and further hot springs at a spa, located on the access road to the park. And for those who didn’t get enough from these tour options, them will be offered all possible fun activities, from canopy over climbing, rappelling and tubing. In a reinforced truck tire tube, one can propel down the raging ”Rio Negro” rapids – but bring a bit of courage along when you go try this.