Santa Rosa National Park

Santa Rosa was declared in 1971 as one of Costa Rica's first national parks, and it protects something rarer than rainforest: tropical dry forest, of which very little survives anywhere in Central America. It is a forest that drops its leaves in the dry season and turns brown and open, then explodes green within days of the first rain, and it supports a distinct set of species adapted to that cycle. The park is also the core of a decades-long restoration project that has been converting former cattle pasture back to forest. Down a rough track lie Playa Naranjo and Witch's Rock, one of the best-known surf breaks in the country.

History

Santa Rosa was once a farm, and its old hacienda house, La Casona, is now a monument to those who fell in the battles fought here. The best remembered is the Battle of Santa Rosa of 20 March 1856, when Costa Rican forces drove the filibusters of William Walker out of La Casona in fourteen minutes. A decree of 1966 first protected the area, the national park was created in 1971, and it was the start of the Area de Conservación Guanacaste, a World Heritage Site since 1999 (Wikipedia, Santa Rosa National Park; Wikipedia, Área de Conservación Guanacaste).

Highlights

• The dry forest - the largest surviving stand in Central America.
• Witch's Rock - the surf break off Playa Naranjo.
• The seasonal change - brown and open, then green within days of rain.
• Nancite beach - mass olive ridley turtle arrivals, access restricted.

When to go

December to April is the dry season, when the forest is leafless and wildlife is easy to see around the remaining water. The forest is at its most beautiful in the first weeks of the wet season from May. Surf at Witch's Rock is best from December to April.

Things to know

The track to Playa Naranjo is rough enough to require serious four-wheel drive and is closed in the wet season; most surfers reach Witch's Rock by boat from Tamarindo instead. The dry season is genuinely hot with little shade. Turtle arrivals at Nancite are strictly controlled and not open to casual visitors. The park's historical monument commemorates a nineteenth-century battle, which this guide does not cover.

Nearby

Liberia is 40 minutes south; Rincón de la Vieja is an hour east.

Key facts