Guanacaste

From San José 108 kms. the following route: San José-Grecia. Between San Ramón and Esparza, at Macacona leads a road 20 kms to the refuge.

Peñas Blancas Wildlife Refuge is located at the southern slope of the Tilarán Mountain Range. It was created to protect the flora and fauna of the high watersheds of the rivers Ciruelas and Barranca. Its 2,400 hectares include steep slopes and flat and rolling plains, 64% of which is covered with evergreen and semi-deciduous forests, the remainder being grassland.

The evergreen forests grow over 1,370 hectares that spread around the river canyons and Zapotal Peak. The semi-deciduous and deciduous forests grow in the lowlands, covering only 7% of the refuge. Typical trees are the gumbo-limbo, spiny cedar, freijo, mayflower and Spanish cedar, together with ferns, epiphytes and bamboo. For over a long period of time the region has been subjected to the traditional methods of deforestation and the subsequent deterioration of the natural environment. As a result, wildlife is scarce. However the forests provide shelter for several species of butterflies, birds and some mammals, mainly pacas, red brocket deer, howler and white faced capuchin monkeys, kinkajous, raccoons, and Southern opossums.

The waterways are fed by heavy and frequent rains, which in turn also wash away the banks and erode the slopes. In fact the entire zone is one of great instability and proof of it can be seen in the solifluction (slow creeping of soil) manifested in mud and rockslides.