Travel Guide Parque Nacional Tapantí – Macizo De La Muerte

Sometimes called Orosí National Park. 35 km southeast of San José via Cartago and Paraiso, south of Orosi. Created in 1992, this park was expanded in 2000 by adding the Río Macho Forest Reserve to one of the Country's largest protected forests. It covers the northern part of the Biosphere Reserve of La Amistad. Its scope is 58 495 hectares and is divided into two sectors: the Tapantí or El Humo sector and the Macizo sector of the.It is only partially explored because of its highly disturbed terrain by the rivers and waterfalls that abound in this mountainous terrain covered by a thick mountain rain forest. Between the 700 m elevation of Tapantí and the 3 941 m at Cerro de la Muerte, temperatures vary greatly and ecosystems also vary. The park occupies a zone considered the most humid in Costa Rica with nearly 8 000 mm of annual precipitation. It protects great ecological wealth in five areas: rain and rain forests of low altitude, rain forest of medium mountain, altitude forest and paramó. The specific tropical vegetation is the habitat of animal species that benefit from the vast biological corridor formed by all parks and reserves extending south to Panama. The hydrological reserves are huge and provide nearly 50% of the water in the San José agglomeration. Nearly 300 species of birds, including the famous quetzal, and 45 mammal species, including several species of monkeys, the ocelot, the tapir, or the cat-tiger, inhabit this protected area.From a purely practical point of view, the park is still poorly developed, and one can only really benefit from it in the Tapantí area or on its periphery as on the outskirts of the Reserva Forestal Río Macho north of Cañón. The latter, founded in 1946, is one of the oldest protected areas in Costa Rica.