Unlike the volcanic stone found throughout northern CostaRica, the BarraHonda area of the TempisqueBasin where the NicoyaPeninsula joins the mainland has a foundation of limestone.
Water has cut extensive caves through the small mountains of the park, and this is its best known feature. However, the park also has well maintained hiking trails.
The protected Costa Rica Tropical dry forest within its borders is some of the last in the world, and very different from the rain and cloud forests that attract many ecological tourists to CostaRica, HotelVillasPlayaSamara is dedicated to give you a first class traveling experience.
This tour will provide you a unique sight of soda straws, pearls, roses, needles, cave grapes, curtains, terraces, stalactites, stalagmites and other calcareous formations of the more than 40 limestone caverns are the main attraction at Barra Honda National Park. The caves are all in relatively good condition because their vertical entrances are difficult to negotiate.
The caves range from a few feet to over 780 feet deep. Pozo Hediondo Cave was named for the aroma of the guano deposited by its thousands of its nocturnal residents. Until the caverns were discovered and explored in the late sixties, many believed that Cerro Barra Honda was a volcano because of the roaring sounds made by the bats as they departed the caverns en masse, and the fumes from the caves they occupied.
