Page 67 - NORTHERN PLAINS TOURIST GUIDE

Picturesque towns
From those lowlands to the magnificent volcanoes with their forests.
Bijagua is located in a unique wildlife area between the Miravalles and Tenorio volcanoes. Warm winds from the Caribbean rise to form condensation and then rain falls between the two volcanoes, resulting in a unique microclimate that is home to a wide variety of flora and fauna, including numerous endemic species.
The area has also been declared part of the UNESCO Agua y Paz Biosphere Reserve. Bijagua is the heart of the Tenorio Miravalles Biological Corridor. The reserve is made up of eight core zones that are legally constituted wildlife protected areas and are administered through the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC). There’s so much for nature lovers to love!
Los Chiles
Los Chiles, head of the canton of the same name since 1970, is located at an altitude of 43 meters above sea level in the San Carlos lowlands in northern Costa Rica. It is 198 km from San José, 97 km northwest of Ciudad Quesada and only 4 km from the border with Nicaragua, which is why there is a large settlement of Nicaraguan migrants in the community. Rio Frio, on the western edge of the city, is a very important means of communication to access small neighboring towns in both nations.
The community is also a center for agriculture and sport fishing.
Like many towns in northern Costa Rica, Los Chiles was first founded by Nicaraguan settlers in the early 19th century, although the region had been inhabited by Guatuso Indians since pre-Columbian times.
In 1857, during the second campaign against the filibusters, a road was opened that descended from the top of the Guanacaste Volcanic Mountain Range to the San Juan River, in order to cut off the use of the river by the enemy. From that moment on, a rich area covered, at that time, by virgin forest became evident. Years later, cocoa and coffee plantations began to form, as well as the exploitation of rubber and livestock, both in Los Bajos -today Villa Florencia- as well as in El Muelle and Boca Arenal.
The first Nicaraguans to arrive in the region, beginning in the second half of the 19th century, arrived by boat across the Frio River in search of latex from the rubber trees that abounded in the area in the wild. Some of them liked these lands and returned with their families to settle in the region.
There are two popular versions regarding the origin of the canton’s name, both related to the rubber workers who inhabited the region at the
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