Rincón de la Vieja Volcano National Park, in Spanish , part of the Guanacaste Conservation Area

Guanacaste Conservation Area

Guanacaste Conservation Area is an administrative area which is managed by SINAC for the purposes of conservation in the northwestern part of Costa Rica. It contains three National Parks, as well as wildlife refuges and other nature reserves...

 and the Area de Conservación Guanacaste World Heritage Site

Area de Conservación Guanacaste World Heritage Site

The Area de Conservación Guanacaste, is a World Heritage Site in the northwestern part of Costa Rica, which comprises Santa Rosa, Guanacaste, Rincón de la Vieja National Parks and the Junquillal Bay Wildlife Refuge...

, 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 northwestern part 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....

 which encompasses the Rincón de la Vieja and Santa María volcanoes, as well as the dormant

Dormant

Dormant means lacking activity. It can refer to:*Dormancy in an organism's life cycle*Dormant volcano, a volcano that is inactive but may become active in the future...

 Cerro Von Seebach. The last eruption here was by Rincón de la Vieja in 1998.

Geography

The nearest city is Liberia

Liberia, Costa Rica

Liberia is the capital and largest city of Guanacaste province, Costa Rica, located northwest of the national capital, San José.-Summary:With more than 35,000 inhabitants, Liberia is the regional hub of the Costa Rican northwest. The city center features a modern church, as many Costa Rican towns...

 to the south of the park, and there are two facilities at the park for visitors information and guides the Santa Maria and Pailas stations which are both on the southern side of the park.

The park has a variety of wildlife, such as over 300 species of birds, such as the three-wattled bellbird

Three-wattled bellbird

The Three-wattled Bellbird is a Central American migratory bird of the cotinga family.-Overview:One of four species of bellbird that live in Central and South America, the Three-wattled Bellbird is between and long...

 (Procnias tricarunculata) and emerald toucanet

Emerald Toucanet

The Emerald Toucanet, Aulacorhynchus prasinus, is a near-passerine bird occurring in mountainous regions from Mexico, through Central America, to northern Venezuela and along the Andes as far south as central Bolivia...

 (Aulacorhynchus prasinus), and also various quetzal

Quetzal

Quetzals are strikingly colored birds in the trogon family . They are found in forests and woodlands, especially in humid highlands, with the five species from the genus Pharomachrus being exclusively Neotropical, while the single Euptilotis species is almost entirely restricted to western Mexico...

s, curassow

Curassow

Curassows are one of the three major groups of cracid birds. Three of the four genera are restricted to tropical South America; a single species of Crax ranges north to Mexico...

s, eagle

Eagle

Eagles are members of the bird family Accipitridae, and belong to several genera which are not necessarily closely related to each other. Most of the more than 60 species occur in Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just two species can be found in the United States and Canada, nine more in...

s, etc. Mammals seen in the park include cougars, monkey

Monkey

A monkey is a primate, either an Old World monkey or a New World monkey. There are about 260 known living species of monkey. Many are arboreal, although there are species that live primarily on the ground, such as baboons. Monkeys are generally considered to be intelligent. Unlike apes, monkeys...

s, kinkajou

Kinkajou

The kinkajou , also known as the honey bear , is a rainforest mammal of the family Procyonidae related to olingos, coatis, raccoons, and the ringtail and cacomistle. It is the only member of the genus Potos. Kinkajous may be mistaken for ferrets or monkeys, but are not closely related...

s, jaguar

Jaguar

The jaguar is a big cat, a feline in the Panthera genus, and is the only Panthera species found in the Americas. The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, and the largest in the Western Hemisphere. The jaguar's present range extends from Southern United States and Mexico...

s and many more. The volcanic vents and geysers are habitat for certain extremophile micro-organisms. (C.Michael Hogan. 2010)