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Some 36km north of Liberia on the Interamericana is the PARQUE NACIONAL GUANACASTE (daily 7.30am-4.30pm; US$6), much of which was until quite recently under pasture for cattle until influential biologist D.H. Janzenhelped create the park virtually from scratch in 1991. Raising over US$11 million, mainly from foreign sources, he envisioned creating a kind of biological corridor in which animals, mainly mammals, would have a large enough tract of undisturbed habitat in which to hunt and reproduce. The result of his work, the Santa Rosa-Guanacaste (and, to an extent, Rincon de la Vieja) corridor , represents one of the most important efforts to conserve and regenerate tropical dry forest in the Americas. Covering the slopes of the dormant Orosi and Cacao volcanoes, with tropical wet and dry forests and a smattering of cloudforest, the Parque Nacional Guanacaste also protects the wellspring of the Rio Tempisque, as well as the Rios Ahogados and Colorado. More than 300 species of birds have been recorded, while mammals lurking behind the undergrowth include jaguar, puma, tapir, coati, armadillo, two-toed sloth and deer. It's also thought that there are about 5000 species of butterflies and moths. Few people come to Parque Nacional Guanacaste. The only primary rainforest exists at the upper elevations and, of the three biological stations, you are currently allowed to visit only the one on Volcan Cacao. Trails are being cut, however, and there are pre-Columbian petroglyphs lying around at El Pedregal, near the Maritza field station at the bottom of Volcan Orosi. Ask the rangers at the entrance about the best way to see them; they are not on any currently existing trail, nor are they marked.
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