La Casona
A historic house.
Julián Monge-Nájera — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Julián Monge-Nájera — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Julián Monge-Nájera — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Geoff Gallice — CC BY 2.0
One of Costa Rica's oldest national parks, created in 1966 and covering about 495 square kilometres in the country's far north-west, within the Área de Conservación Guanacaste UNESCO World Heritage Site, protecting the largest remaining tropical dry forest in Central America. At its heart stands La Casona, a white historic ranch house with wooden verandas, scene on 20 March 1856 of the Battle of Santa Rosa, when Costa Ricans defeated the army of American adventurer William Walker, who was trying to seize the region, one of the key events in the nation's history. The house burned in 2001 and was rebuilt as a museum. Dry-forest trails around La Casona reveal deer, monkeys, coatis and iguanas, with trees shedding their leaves in the dry season. A rough dirt road reaches wild Playa Naranjo, known for Witch's Rock, a surfers' favourite. The beach road needs a high-clearance car and closes in the rainy season. It is very hot in summer.
A historic house.
Deer and monkeys.
Witch's Rock.
Route 1, about 36 km north of Liberia
It saw the 1856 battle in which Costa Ricans defeated William Walker's army; it burned in 2001 and was rebuilt as a museum.