Cahuita National Park is a national park

National park

A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...

 in the Caribbean La Amistad Conservation Area

Caribbean La Amistad Conservation Area

Caribbean La Amistad Conservation Area is an administrative area which is managed by SINAC for the purposes of conservation in the eastern part of Costa Rica, on the Caribbean coast...

 of Costa Rica

Costa Rica

Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....

 located on the southern Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

 coast in Limón Province

Limón Province

Limón is one of seven provinces in Costa Rica. The majority of its territory is situated in the country's Caribbean lowlands, though the southwestern portion houses part of an extensive mountain range known as the Cordillera de Talamanca...

, connected to the town of Cahuita

Cahuita

Cahuita is a small city located on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. Cahuita is located in the Talamanca Canton of Limón Province. Cahuita is the capital of the Cahuita District. Due to its proximity to the Caribbean shoreline, Cahuita is renowned for Afro-Caribbean influence on dining and local...

. It protects beaches and lowlands and attracts tourists and other visitors who are able to scuba dive

Scuba diving

Scuba diving is a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater....

 and snorkel

Snorkeling

Snorkeling is the practice of swimming on or through a body of water while equipped with a diving mask, a shaped tube called a snorkel, and usually swimfins. In cooler waters, a wetsuit may also be worn...

 in the protected marine area which contains the Coralline Reefs, as well as being a nesting ground for sea turtle

Sea turtle

Sea turtles are marine reptiles that inhabit all of the world's oceans except the Arctic.-Distribution:...

s. This is also one of the nicest and least developed beaches in Costa Rica.

The reef

Reef

In nautical terminology, a reef is a rock, sandbar, or other feature lying beneath the surface of the water ....

 is known to have at least 35 species of coral

Coral

Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.A coral "head" is a colony of...

, 140 species of molluscs, 44 species of crustacean

Crustacean

Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...

s, and 123 species of fish

Fish

Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

. On land there are many types of animal as well including Northern Tamandua

Northern Tamandua

The northern tamandua is a species of tamandua, a small anteater in the family Myrmecophagidae. They live in tropical and subtropical forests from southern Mexico, through Central America, and to the edge of the northern Andes....

s, Paca

Paca

The Lowland Paca , also known as the Spotted Paca, is a large rodent found in tropical and sub-tropical America, from East-Central Mexico to Northern Argentina...

s, White-nosed Coatis, Raccoon

Raccoon

Procyon is a genus of nocturnal mammals, comprising three species commonly known as raccoons, in the family Procyonidae. The most familiar species, the common raccoon , is often known simply as "the" raccoon, as the two other raccoon species in the genus are native only to the tropics and are...

s, sloth

Sloth

Sloths are the six species of medium-sized mammals belonging to the families Megalonychidae and Bradypodidae , part of the order Pilosa and therefore related to armadillos and anteaters, which sport a similar set of specialized claws.They are arboreal residents of the jungles of Central and South...

s, agouti

Agouti

Agouti refers to a number of species of rodents as well as a number of genes affecting coat coloration in several different animals. Agouti fur contains a pattern of pigmentation in which individual hairs have several bands of light and dark pigment with black tips.* When referring to a rodent,...

s, Mantled Howler

Mantled Howler

The mantled howler , or golden-mantled howling monkey, is a species of howler monkey, a type of New World monkey, from Central and South America. It is one of the monkey species most often seen and heard in the wild in Central America...

s and White-headed Capuchin

White-headed Capuchin

The white-headed capuchin , also known as the white-faced capuchin or white-throated capuchin, is a medium-sized New World monkey of the family Cebidae, subfamily Cebinae...

s.
It has a variety of bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

s as well including the Green Ibis

Green Ibis

The Green Ibis is a wading bird in the ibis family Threskiornithidae. It is the only member of the genus Mesembrinibis....

, Green-and-rufous Kingfisher

Green-and-rufous Kingfisher

The Green-and-rufous Kingfisher, Chloroceryle inda, is a resident breeding bird in the lowlands of the American tropics from southeastern Nicaragua south to southern Brazil.-Description:...

 and Keel-billed Toucan

Keel-billed Toucan

The Keel-billed Toucan , also known as Sulfur-breasted Toucan or Rainbow-billed Toucan, is a colorful Latin American member of the toucan family. It is the national bird of Belize.- Description :...

.

History

Originally the site was created as the Cahuita National Monument in 1970, and was reformed as a National Park

National park

A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...

in 1978. This change was ratified in 1982. Cahuita National Park also has the distinction of the only national park in Costa Rica not to charge an admission fee (at the Cahuita entrance) and instead relies on donations.