Barra Honda National Park in Costa Rica
National Park Barra Honda is located in the Guanacaste province of Costa Ric, 22 km northeast of the town of Nicoya and with an area of 2.295.5 hectares. The National Park Barra Honda was funded by executive decree of August 20, 1974. The Barra Honda hill with 300 meters high consists of limestones of reef type, that’s mean by former reefs that emerged because of an uprising led by on tectonic faults, developed some 60 million years. These reef formations were formed by calcareous algae blue and green, plus foraminifera, tiny marine protozoa covered by a shell limestone, sponges and sea urchins.
Another important element of this area of Costa Ric is its capacity as a water reserve for the towns that are located around him. The hill of Barra Honda contains an extensive cave system independent of each other, of which 19 have been explored. The cave of Santa Ana reaches 240 meters deep, making it one of the most profound. The most attractive and interesting are La Terciopelo, the Tampa and Santa Ana, with a profusion of stalagmites, stalactites, columns, pearls, flowers, gypsum needles, helicitas, mushrooms, shark teeth, and other formations.
La Terciopelo is the cavern that contains formations in greater abundance. One of these is called EL Organo and has the characteristic of giving different sounds when it was hit softly. La Trampa is the one that presents the deepest abyss, from the entrance to the first decline, there is a perfectly vertical height of 52 meters. This cave also has the larger rooms that have been found, one of which is composed of white calcite, which gives an effect of dazzling beauty. In the Nicoa cave, were found a large number of human remains in 1970, and later, indigenous pre-Columbian artifacts.
The vegetation of this park in Costa Ric is in most deciduous; some of the most common species are Ron-Ron, Tempisque, El Jobo, the Indian naked, the poroporo, the gallinazo, the soncoya, the Guanacaste, the carao, the madroño, and peine de mico. The fauna is not very varied: the monkey white-faced, coyotes, the cusuco or armadillo, deer, the mapachín, the pizote, skunk, magpie, the zapayol, and the red head vulture are some of the species that can be observed in different areas of the Barra Honda National Park in Costa Rica.