The Rincon de la Vieja region is famous for its bubbling 14,000 hectares of national park land filled with looping trails, steaming hot springs, gurgling mud pots, red-pink pools and other uncanny attractions that could make you feel like you’re on Mars. The area’s most iconic attraction is the massive Rincon de la Vieja Volcano, the largest volcano in Guanacaste province, with an elevation of 1,895 meters, and Costa Rica’s third most active.  The area is a collection of small, scattered villages, adventure ranches and lodges near the national park and volcano that share the same name. Rincon de la Vieja literally translates as “Old Woman’s Corner” and legend has it that it is named after a powerful healer who lived near the volcano. People referred to her home as the old woman’s corner, and the name finally stuck. Because of its remoteness, Rincon de la Vieja used to receive few visitors around the time when the park opened in 1973. Nowadays, visitors stay at the lodges near the park or arrange tours or day trips from Liberia.

​

Many tourists come to soak in the amazing hot springs, which are said to have therapeutic properties. The area also contains a vast number of trails leading to incredible lagoons and sights, such as the Las Pailas Trail, where you will find a volcancito or tiny volcano, smoking fumaroles and bubbling mud pots. Loads of adrenaline-pumping tours can be arranged at Rincon de la Vieja’s adventure lodges, including canyoning, white-water rafting, canopy ziplining, tubing, rafting and horseback riding. Without a doubt, Rincón de la Vieja National Park is one of Costa Rica’s most unique and yet, it is also one of the nation’s most secluded and not always found in your Costa Rica travel guide. You may encounter no other souls on your sojourns through the park; this seclusion takes on an almost spiritual quality, as if nature’s offerings were created for your eyes only. The park’s gentle trails take you through a volcanic Garden of Eden, weaving past a picturesque waterfall, steaming fumaroles, babbling brooks, bubbling mudpots, and a tiny volcano. The mossy river gorges and grassy plains of Rincón de la Vieja are a sight to behold and an adventure to traverse. These rural and rustic wilds have secreted away some of Costa Rica’s most incredible sights and sounds, from tumbling waterfalls to the rhythmic bubbling of the volcano’s mud cauldrons.