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Guanacaste province , hemmed in by mountains to the east and the Pacific to the west, and bordered to the north by Nicaragua, is distinctly different from the rest of Costa Rica. Though little tangible remains of the dance, music and folklore for which the region is famous, there is undeniably something special about the place. Granted that much of the landscape has come about essentially through the slaughter of tropical dry forest, it is still some of the prettiest you'll see in the country, especially in the wet season, when wide open spaces, stretching from the ocean across savanna grasses to the brooding humps of volcanoes, are washed in a beautifully muted range of earth tones, blues, yellows and mauves. Its history , too, is distinct: if not for a very close vote in 1824, it might have been part of Nicaragua, which would have made Costa Rica very small indeed. Most tourists come for the beaches : specifically those where the Nicoya Peninsula joins the mainland (roughly two-thirds of the mountainous peninsula is in Guanacaste, with the lower third belonging to Puntarenas province). Several beaches are also nesting grounds for marine turtles . An enormous number of hotels, some all-inclusive resort types, are being built on both coasts, and with the opening of the Liberia airport to international traffic, winter charter tourism has well and truly arrived. Inland, however, mass tourism is less evident. Here the dry heat, relatively accessible terrain and panoramic views make Guanacaste the best place in the country for walking and horse-riding , especially around the mud pots and stewing sulphur waters of Parque Nacional Rincon de la Vieja and through the tropical dry forest cover of Parque Nacional Santa Rosa . The only towns of any significance for travellers are the provincial capital of Liberia , and Nicoya , the main town of the peninsula. If you are overnighting on the way to Nicaragua , La Cruz makes a useful base. Much of Guanacaste has long been put under pasture for cattle ranching, and a huge part of the region's appeal is the sabanero (cowboy) culture, based around the hacienda (ranch) and ganado (cattle). This dependence on cattle culture has its downside, however, and much of Guanacaste is now degraded pastureland. Although impressive efforts to regenerate former tropical dry forest are under way - at Parque Nacional Santa Rosa and Parque Nacional Guanacaste , for example - it is unlikely that this rare type of life zone will ever recover its original extent. The province is significantly greener, and prettier, in the "wet" season (May-Nov), generally agreed to be the best time to come, with the added benefit of fewer travellers and lighter rainfall than in the rest of the country.
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