Travel
to Costa Rica
Climate: The weather
throughout the province of Guanacaste is characterized
by being hot with well-defined wet and dry seasons.
The one exception is the highland portion of the province
which consists of the upper Pacific-facing slopes
of the volcanoes in the Guanacaste Cordillera and
the northern half of the Tilarán Cordillera.
The cool, moist conditions along these ridges support
luxuriant cloud forests. Elsewhere, the natural vegetation
type originally found in Guanacaste is (was) tropical
dry forest.
This kind of forest extends
from parts of Mexico down the western side of Central
America to Costa Rica, where it reaches its southern
limit in the general area of the Carara
Biological Reserve. Due to
the pronounced dry season that affects this habitat
type for at least six months out of every year, fire
works very well as a land clearing tool, and hence,
most of the original forests have long since been
removed for agricultural activities, principally cattle
ranching. Thus, the noted tropical biologist, Dr.
Daniel Janzen has described the Mesoamerican dry forests
as "an endangered habitat." The parks and reserves
in Guanacaste protect much of the remaining examples
of tropical dry forest in the entire region.
The annual dry season
is caused by the effects of the northeast trade winds
that blow in off the Caribbean from November through
March. This humid air loses its moisture as it crosses
the Caribbean lowlands and the cordilleras. Given
that the Guanacaste Cordillera is both the lowest
and narrowest in the country, there is little to block
the passage of the arid air that comes gusting down
the western slopes drying out everything in its path,
as well as preventing any breezes from bringing in
moist air from the Pacific Ocean during these months.
When the trade winds
shift northward, air currents once again bring humidity
and life-giving rains in from the Pacific Ocean. It
is remarkable to observe how quickly the parched and
brown countryside regains its verdant appearance after
the first showers of each new rainy season. In Guanacaste,
these afternoon showers usually return by mid-May
and continue until about mid-November.
History: The pre-Columbian
inhabitants of Guanacaste are noted for the fine quality
pottery that they produced. The variety of ceramic
vessels found at archeological sites has led investigators
to theorize the existence of a well-developed system
of agriculture, and specifically grain production.
The fact that as yet no evidence of hunter-gather
societies has been unearthed in the region, has been
a motive for speculating that the first humans to
settle here already possessed a working knowledge
of agriculture.
Indeed, the native peoples
living in the area at the time of the Spaniards' arrival
in 1519, the Chorotega tribe, were a group whose ancestors
had emigrated south from Mexico. When Hernán
Ponce de León and Juan de Castañeda
sailed into what is now known as the Gulf of Nicoya
on the last leg of their exploratory voyage from Panama,
the name of the regional chieftan was Nicoya. Thus,
the origin of the name of both the gulf and the peninsula.
During the first two
decades of the Spanish Conquest in this region, the
invaders established a lucrative trade: the sale of
human slaves to Panama and Peru. This activity, together
with untold deaths resulting from disease, decimated
the local population.
Spanish settlement of
Guanacaste was slow since most of the colonization
from 1563 onwards was concentrated in the Central
Valley and there was very little native labor force
left in the lowlands to be employed in farming activities.
The Spaniards brought in zambos, a mixed race of escaped
black slaves and indigenous people from eastern Nicaragua
and Honduras, to help work the haciendas in Guanacaste,
but even so the population was too low to sustain
much agricultural production. And so, cattle ranching
developed as the most common activity in the region
due to the low manpower requirements.
In the 1500's and 1600's,
the primary revenue from cattle ranching was the sale
of leather and fat to merchants in Panama. By the
18th century, a market for beef existed in Guatemala,
but this meant a long and difficult cattle drive from
the faraway ranches in Costa Rica. Nevertheless, ranching
has persisted to the present day and was given a real
economic boost in the 1950's and '60's with the development
of the "hamburger connection" and North America's
increased demand for cheap beef.
The other agricultural
products of relative importance in the province are
sugar cane and cotton, and since the late 1980's,
with the creation of a large-scale irrigation program
(the water comes from Lake Arenal after passing
through several power generating stations), rice has
become a prominent crop. Tourism, of course, is currently
the region's most lucrative activity since Guanacaste
is blessed by having many of the country's most beautiful
beaches and its sun-drenched dry season coincides
with the winter months in northern latitudes.
During colonial times,
Guanacaste did not actually form part of the province
of Costa Rica, but instead pertained to Nicaragua.
Shortly after the nations in the region gained their
independence from Spain in 1821, the residents of
the communities of Nicoya, Santa Cruz, and Cañas
decided that they preferred to become part of Costa
Rica and announced their annexation on July 25, 1825.
This date is commemorated by a government holiday,
even though it was not until 1858 that the change
in boundary lines was officially recognized and agreed
upon by the two countries involved.
National Parks:
1) Isla
Bolaños Biological Reserve
2) Santa
Rosa National Park
3) Guanacaste
National Park
4) Rincón
de la Vieja National Park
5) Barra
Honda National Park
6) Palo
Verde National Park
7) Lomas
Barbudal Biological Reserve
8) Las
Baulas Marine National Park
9) Tamarindo
National Wildlife Refuge
10) Ostional
National Wildlife Refuge
Other Points of Interest:
1) Lake Arenal: This
natural depression caused by local geological faults
formerly contained a small lake that emptied into
the Arenal River which flowed into the Caribbean via
the San Carlos and San Juan Rivers. However, in the
1970's, the Costa Rican Electric Company (I.C.E.)
began construction of what is currently the country's
largest hydroelectric generating project.
An earthen dam was built
only seven kilometers to the west of Arenal Volcano--that
had erupted violently just a few years earlier. As
the waters filled up behind the dam a thirty-kilometer
long lake was formed. Water from the lake is tunneled
to the Pacific side of the country, passing through
three turbine-driven generating stations, before being
channeled into a system of irrigation canals that
have substantially increased the agricultural productivity
of the lower Tempisque basin in Guanacaste.
As well as its importance
for energy and agriculture, Lake Arenal provides excellent
recreational opportunities, especially for windsurfing
and freshwater fishing. The northwestern end of the
lake is buffeted by strong winds, particularly from
December through March, that make for ideal windsurfing
conditions.
Fishing for guapote (Cichlasoma
dovii), often referred to as "rainbow bass" even
though it is not related to bass, is another popular
sport on the lake. The season is open year-round (on
this lake only) and there is a limit of 10 fish per
day.
Daytime temperatures around
the lake are pleasant all year long and evenings tend
to be cool. The driest months are March and April.
Lake Arenal is reached via the same roads that lead
to Arenal
National Park.
2) Geothermal Power
Plant (Miravalles Volcano)
3) Eco-museum (Las
Juntas): In the early part of the 20th century,
gold mining was an important activity along the Pacific
foothills of the Tilarán Mountains. Discovered
in 1884, the mines near Las Juntas de Abangares were
eventually sold to the North American entrepreneur,
Minor C. Keith, the same person who built the railroad
between San José and Limón. In their
heyday, the mines employed nearly a thousand workers,
but were also the scene of a violent labor dispute
in 1911.
The Eco-museum was developed
around the ruins of one of the oldest gold mines in
the region where some of the old machinery, hand tools,
and infrastructure can still be seen. The surrounding
area is forested to a large extent and provides good
opportunities for birdwatching and other nature observation.
The town of Las Juntas
de Abangares is located 6 km. northeast of the PanAmerican
Highway (the turnoff is 24 km south of Cañas).
Drive through the town and follow the signs for the
"Eco-museo", about 2 km. farther on. The museum is
open from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Tuesday through
Sunday. Phone: 662-0129 (in the Municipal Offices
of Las Juntas).
4) Indigenous crafts
manufacturing in the town of Guaitil: Continuing
a tradition that predates the Spanish settlement of
Guanacaste, the descendants of the Chorotega tribe
living in the village of Guaitil still produce fine
quality pottery. Having changed with the times, much
the way the oxcart manufacturers of Sarchí
have, the ceramic ware made in Guaitil is now
destined mostly for the souvenir trade and is not
so much a matter of creating vessels for daily usage.
Nonetheless, it is still interesting to observe the
process of making and decorating the variety of earthenware
products.
To reach the village
of Guaitil, take the road out of Santa Cruz to the
east past the town of Santa Barbara (about 10 km.).
5) Cowboy Museum (Liberia):
Known in Spanish as El Museo del Sabanero,
the Cowboy Museum is a tribute to the hard-working
plainsmen of yesteryear that are such an important
part of Guanacaste's past and tradition. The museum
showcases all sorts of memorabilia from old photographs
to chaps and branding irons, and gives an insight
into what life was like on the haciendas in times
gone by.
Located 3 blocks south
and one block east of the Municipal Building in Liberia,
the museum shares space with the Liberia Cultural
Center in a restored adobe house that was originally
built more than 100 years ago. Hours are from 8:00
a.m. to 12:00 p.m., and from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.,
Monday through Saturday. Phone: 666-1606.
