Park information:
Foundation: 13 August 1973
Area: Approx. 218 ha
Opening hours: 8:00 am a 3:30 pm
Entrance Fee: USD 6 Adults
Facilities: Hiking trails, camping areas and bathing facilities.
Bilingual guide service available if arranged in advance.
What to bring: hiking shoes, or boots or gym shoes, rain gear, binoculars, camera.
Age limit: none
Rate: organized from Guayabo Lodge with guide/driver, transport: USD 55 (+ tax) per person, excluding entrance fee (min 2 persons).
The Guayabo National Monument is Costa Rica’s most important archeological site. Largely unexplored, the area contains ancient trails, bridges, water tanks and homesites, as well as petroglyphs estimated to be about 3.000 years old. Most remarkable is the engineering work that was achieved in the complex system of aqueducts around and through the city.
The rain waters still flows through it, and paved roads are still visible receding into the dense surrounding rainforest. A visit is a MUST if staying at Guayabo Lodge! The trails in the park give you the opportunity to walk through a charming piece of rainforest, that envelope the mystical Guayabo ruins. The site includes stone aqueducts, cobbled roads, mounds, walls and petroglyphs. No comparison with the great Mayas, Aztecs or Incas, yet this is a site with a mystical, positive life-giving force.
The beautiful rainforest in which it is set is worth the visit on its own, with plants, flowers, birds, butterflies etc. which will make you thoroughly enjoy the visit!