ROUTE OF NATIONAL PARKS OF CARTAGO
TURRIALBA VOLCANO NATIONAL PARK – CHIRRIPÓ NATIONAL PARK
The Turrialba Volcano National Park is not as popular as others because it is not as developed as others. However, its homologous city: Turrialba is a place worth visiting.
Then, the highest Volcano in Costa Rica is the Irazú Volcano, the landscape is silent because most of the forest is on the Caribbean side of the volcano. The vegetation is a rainforest with hollows of shrubs.
The attraction of the park is to climb the crater Diego de la Haya which has in the center a green lake. You can climb the crater by car or on foot, but as a recommendation, you should wear thick clothing in the cold. The best months to go are March and April because there is little rain and you can see the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, if the day is clear.
Near the Irazú Volcano is Prusia Park, Durán Sanatorium and Guayabo National Monument, the largest and most important archaeological site in Costa Rica. It was declared a National Monument in 1973, and only a small part of these ruins have been discovered. The Guayabo National Monument is found in only 10% of its total area, the rest of 90% of the land is a premontane tropical forest.
WHAT TO VISIT?
- Turrialba Volcano National Park
- Irazú Volcano National Park
- Guayabo National Monument
- Cachí
- Orosi
- Navarro River and Sombrero River Protected Area
- Lankester Botanical Garden
- Tapantí National Park
- La Marta Refuge
- Protected Zone Tuis River Basin
- Chirripo Indigenous Reserve
- Rio Macho Forest Reserve
- Chirripo National Park
Cachí is a community in the Orosi Valley and is well known for being one of the first hydroelectric projects in the country, the lake and the Cachí dam provide power and avoid flood risks in the area.
For those who want to see the kind of plant life in the rainforests, marshes and mountains that Central America has to offer, the Lankester Botanical Garden is ideal.
The Tapantí National Park is also known as Tapantí-Macizo National Park Cerro de la Muerte and is one of the rainiest parks in the country. This park has a picnic area as well as a natural pool and a gazebo.
La Marta Refuge is part of the Amistad Biosphere Reserve, considered by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, and is the country’s first private wildlife refuge. The refuge shelters resident animals and migratory species.
The Chirripó Indigenous Reserve is part of the Chirripó National Park, where Chirripó Hill is the highest mountain in Costa Rica, known for the fact that every year thousands of hikers climb to the top. How to get to the reserve? Walking 3.820 meters uphill.
The next reserve is the Rio Macho Forest Reserve, which is an extension of La Amistad Reserve and is one of the most important ecological zones in Costa Rica and the largest and most biologically beautiful in Latin America.
