Page 70 - NORTHERN GUANACASTE TOURIST GUIDE

Santa Rosa National Park
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Fusion of history and nature
Santa Rosa National Park, located in Guanacaste, is a World Heritage Site that connects history and nature.
Santa Rosa preserves the only patch of dry tropical forest in Mesoamerica. This ecosystem is characterized by a long dry season (from December to May), with many of its plants losing their leaves during the dry season; water sources are very scarce and mostly seasonal. It is mostly secondary forest with forest patches that are characteristic of the original vegetation of the region. In addition to the conserving its natural heritage, the Santa Rosa Sector includes a wealth of historical, cultural, architectural, archeological and geological components. It is known for the Casona de Santa Rosa Historical Museum, dedicated to remembering the culture of the Guanacaste ranches, or haciendas, and the historical events of the Battle of Santa Rosa on March 20, 1856.
However, the main attraction of Santa Rosa National Park is that it is the only park on the planet where you can find 10 different habitats, including desert forests, oak forests, mangrove swamps, coastal forests, evergreen forests, swamps and savannas, which cover the entire area of the park. It is home to at least 115 species
of mammals such as white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), howler monkeys (Alouatta palliata), white- faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus), spider monkeys, white-nosed coatis (Nasua narica), agoutis, tapirs, coyotes, peccaries, anteaters, armadillos, jaguars, ocelots, pumas, jaguarundis (Puma yagouaroundi) and bats, as well as more than 10,000 species of insects, 250 species of birds, predominantly the white-throated magpie-jay (Calocitta formosa), the orange-fronted parakeet (Aratinga canicularis), the turquoise-browed motmot (Eumomota superciliosa), the scaly-breasted hummingbird (Phaeochroa cuvierii) and the gray- cowled wood rail (Aramides cajanea), as well as around 100 species of amphibians and other reptiles such as the famous olive ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea), leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea), rattlesnakes (Crotalus durissus) and the black spiny-tailed iguana (Ctenosaurus similis).
Currently, the Santa Rosa area is the only place in the world with an existing natural population of the tree Ateleia herbert-smithii, one of the few leguminous plants in the world that is wind-pollinated, making it a very particular plant from a biological point of view (Janzen, 1988a).
The park also contains some of the oldest land in Costa Rica, which emerged from the sea more than 85 million years ago.
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