Barra Honda National Park

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Barra Honda mountain range

The Barra Honda National Park is located in northwest Costa Rica on the Nicoya Peninsula . It was founded in 1974 to protect one of the largest cave systems in Costa Rica.

The park, with an area of ​​about 2300 hectares, is located on the southwest bank of the Tempisque River . It consists for the most part of deciduous, tropical dry forest ( secondary forest ), smaller parts are covered with evergreen forest and shrub vegetation. Representatives of the fauna are howler monkeys , agoutis , peccaries and anteaters .

In the area of ​​the national park there are 42 karst caves , which were created by erosion over the past 70 million years . They were discovered in the early 1970s. Bone remnants and stone artefacts testify that the caves were used by the ancestors of the Indian population more than 2000 years ago.

Around half of the caves have been developed so far. The deepest cave with 200 meters is the Cueva Santa Ana , in which there is the so-called “pearl hall” with stalactites and stalagmites , the shapes of which encourage visitors to use names such as “lion's head”, “fried eggs” and “shark teeth”. Here and in the cave Pozo Hediondo ( Stinkpot ) large populations live bats . The Terciopelo cave (named after the Terciopelo lance viper ) with five halls is relatively easily accessible to visitors . The descent can only be carried out under guidance with rope ladders and safety ropes.

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Coordinates: 10 ° 11 ′  N , 85 ° 20 ′  W