● Palo Verde National Park Location: Guanacaste Province, along the northeastern banks of the Tempisque River.
150 miles northwest of San Jose; 19 miles west of Canas.
● National Parks of Costa Rica Palo Verde.
The Palo Verde National Park, in Spanish (Parque Nacional Palo Verde) is a National Park of Costa Rica, part of theTempisque Conservation Area, that contains much of the area of the valley of the Tempisque River and covers an area of 45,492 acres in Guanacaste Province, 30 km west of Canas.
Costa Rica has 26 national parks,
15 wetland areas/mangroves,
11 forest reserves and 8 biological reserves,
as well as 12 other conservation regions.
How to get there ?This park is located in Bijagua (pronouned bee-hog-wah), Guanacaste. Take highway #1 to Cañas and drive 6 more miles after Cañas. Turn right to take road #6 to Bijagua and Upala. 20 miles past Bijagua you will see the signs to Tenorio National Park.
When to go? The park is open every day from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The park, like many in Costa Rica's system consists largely of reclaimed pastureland. Fortunately, in the case of Palo Verde, the haciendas that preceded the park were somewhat different than the clear-cut ranches of the volcanic highlands. The underlying limestone, and the drier climate of the region gave rise to native forests where trees were sparser and there was more grass and forage in the natural ecosystem. Clear-cutting was not always necessary to ranching, and the park escaped it's tenure as pasture with less damage than most.
Palo Verde’s myriad of ecological niches makes it an ideal host for plant and animal life. More than 300 bird species have been seen in the park, and it contains the greatest concentration of shorebirds and waterfowl in Central America. Up to 250,000 birds reside here at once, with the most common being egrets, herons, storks, spoonbills, ibis, grebes and ducks. Forest birds like parrots and toucans can also be seen in the trees. Palo Verde hosts the only native colony of scarlet macaws in the dry Pacific.
The park’s mammal life is no less impressive. In addition to deer, coatimundis, armadillo, howler monkeys, white-faced monkeys and peccaries. Palo Verde is home to the largest jaguarondi population in Costa Rica. American crocodiles, which can reach up to 15 feet long, are another park mainstay, floating down the Tempisque River at a disarmingly relaxed pace.
National Parks of Costa Rica .
1.Refugio Nacional de Fauna Silvestre Isla Bolaños
2.Parque Nacional Santa Rosa y Guanacaste
3.Parque Nacional Rincón de la Vieja
4.Refugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre Caño Negro
5.Refugio Nacional de Fauna Silvestre Barra del Colorado
y Parque Nacional Tortuguero
6.Parque Nacional Marino Las Baulas de Guanacaste.
7.Reserva Biológica Lomas Barbudal.
8.Parque Nacional Palo Verde.
9.Parque Nacional Barra Honda.
10.Refugio Silvestre Peñas Blancas.
11. Póas Volcano National Park.
12.Parque Nacional Braulio Carrillo.
13.Refugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre Ostional.
14. Cocos Island National Park.
15.Reserva Natural Absoluta Cabo Blanco.
16.Refugio Nacional de Fauna Silvestre Curú.
17.Reserva Biológica de las Islas Guayabo,
Negritos y de los Pájaros
18.Reserva Biológica Carara.
19.Parque Nacional Volcán Irazú.
20.Monumento Nacional Guayabo.
21. Manuel Antonio National Park.
22.Parque Nacional Marino Ballena.
23. La Amistad International Park.
24.Parque Nacional Cahuita.
25.Refugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre Gandoca-Manzanillo.
26.Reserva Biológica Isla del Caño.
27.Parque Nacional Corcovado.
28.Parque Nacional de Fauna Silvestre Golfito.
29.Parque Nacional Juan Castro Blanco.
30. Arenal Volcano National Park.
31.Parque Nacional Tapantí.
32.Reserva Biológica Hitoy Cerere.
Tourism in Costa Rica is one of the fastest growing economic sectors of the country and by 1995 became the largest foreign exchange earner. Since 2004, tourism earns more foreign exchange than bananas and coffee combined.
The tourism boom began in 1987, with the number of visitors up from 329,000 in 1988, through 1 million in 1999, to 1.9 million foreign visitors in 2007, allowing the country to earn $1.9-billion in that year.
