 Location
Barra Honda National Park is situated 22 kilometers east of the
city of Nicoya, in the Guanacaste province. There are two entrances
to the park. Tourists can consult their travel related queries at
the tourist center called Complejo Ecoturistico Las delicias. They
can also contact the ICT (Tourism Bureau), in order to find out
about agencies that offer tours to the caverns.
Topography
Barra Honda National Park is surrounded with tall reef rocks that
rise up to 300 meters and also constitute major portion of Barra
Honda hill. Barra Honda Peak, made largely of reef lime stones in
the Barra Honda National Park, rises more than 1,000 feet. Till
date, around 42 caves of varying depths have been found in the
mountainous zone, of which less than 20 have actually been
explored. The deepest cave is Santa Ana, which lies at a depth of
nearly 800 feet below earth.
 Flora and Fauna
Barra Honda National Park lies among reef and limestone rocks.
These reef formations were constituted by green and blue seaweed,
tiny sea protozoan, sponges and porcupines. The vegetation in the
park largely consists of the Ron Ron, the tempisque, the
jobo, the naked Indian, the poroporo, the gallinazo, the soncoya,
the guanacaste, the carco, the madroño and the peine de mico.
The rich wildlife belt of the park includes: white face monkey, the
coyote, the armadillo, the deer, the raccoon, the pizote, the fox,
the stinky fox, copetona magpie, the zapayol or catano, the red
head zopilote, besides other species.
The Park also has 400 varieties of birds and howler monkeys.
Also native to the region is the white-tailed deer, and
tepezcuintle (paca) that are forest scavengers', treading along
with armidillos and anteaters.
 Attractions
Barra Honda National Park is a network of meandering caves dating
back to the cretaceous periods. Terciopelo Cavern is the only cave
accessible to general public, and is memorable for its unique
formations. The Santa Ana cave is 240 meter deep. Other most
adventurous and striking cave formations include the Velvet, the
Tampa and Santa Ana, with stalagmites and stalactites, columns,
pearls, flowers, white wash needles, pop corn and shark
teeth's.
The park also has well maintained hiking trails. The protected
tropical dry forest that constitutes the chunk of Barra Honda
National Park is one of the few left in the world. It stands
distinct from the rain and cloud forests that attract many
ecological tourists to the region.
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