The name of this national park in Costa Rica was given after the Hacienda Santa Rosa. The Hacienda Santa Rosa was witness to an important historic battle that took place in 1856, between Costa Rican civilians and the invading forces of an American filibuster William Walker who wanted to take over the country. The battle was won by Costa Rica and the filibusters had to retreat. The Santa Rosa Battle is considered to a battle were the sovereignty of Costa Rica was fought for and victoriously established. Considering this, it is not strange that the main reason for protecting this national park was due to its historic value. The Hacienda Santa Rosa was burnt down by angered poachers who were banned from hunting in the park in 2001. The Santa Rosa Hacienda was later rebuilt using historic photos and local timber.

 

Apart from the historic value that the Hacienda Santa Rosa has, this national park in Costa Rica protects the largest area in Central America of Dry Forest, along with very important sites of nesting of endangered sea turtles. The dry season is the best time of the year to visit this national park. During the dry season there is a shortage of water, leaves from the trees fall to limit their water needs to the minimum, and mammals, insects, birds, and reptiles all gather around the remaining water resources; thus making them more easy to spot than during the rainy season. A lot of research investigation goes on at Santa Rosa National Park, the park has a simple but comfortable accommodations for students and researchers. The INBio Institute also works with this national park to catalog as many species of plants to screen them for potential pharmaceutical value which could translate into more funding of the park and better protection of it. Knowing that the best conservation of national parks is through conjunct work with the locals, Santa Rosa National Park has dedicated a lot of efforts into educating the surrounding communities. The park also teaches them how to improve their own living standards by using conservation techniques that also help them improve their land use.

 

Santa Rosa National Park not only protects the largest remaining stand of Tropical Dry Forest in Central America, it also contains habitats of savanna woodland, oak forest, deciduous forest, evergreen forest, riparian forest, mangrove swamp, and coastal woodland. Over 250 bird species have been recorded in this national park, and one of its mostly seen species is the white-throated magpie jay. Bats are to be found in great numbers in this national park; about 60 species of bats have been identified in Santa Rosa Park. There is about 115 different species of mammals, thousands of insect species and more than 4000 moths and butterflies. Playa Nancite, which is one of the several beaches this national park has, is best known for the massive nesting of olive ridley sea turtles. The best season to see the olive ridley sea turtles is from July to December. After they nest in Santa Rosa’s shores they range all over the tropical eastern Pacific, from Mexico to Peru. They are huge turtles, weighting up to 88 pounds. In order to see the nesting at Playa Nancite a permit from the Santa Rosa headquarters is required. Seeing the turtle nesting at Nancite Beach is definitely worth all the necessary paperwork hassle.

 

The entrance to Santa Rosa National Park is on the west side of the Interamericana Highway, 35 km north of Liberia and 45 km south of the border of Nicaragua. This national park is more crowded during the dry season, so going during the midweek is better. The rainy season is also a good time of the year to visit Santa Rosa National Park, especially if you want to watch the nesting of sea turtles. The downside of going during the rainy season is that wildlife species are not as easily spotted as they are during the dry season, but on the other hand you will have the park for yourself and that could increase your sightings of wildlife species of Costa Rica.