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An Insight into Cahuita National Monument.

"The Caribbean coast including Cahuita"

Before arriving at this park may we suggest a "great read" about the area and Cahuita in particular? The book is called "What Happen" by Paula Palmer and is an oral history of Cahuita and the nearby villages as told in first hand accounts.

Cahuita is where the snorkellers go - it is home to Costa Rica's largest coral reef with 35 species of reef-building coral.

From another marvelous book, The Quetzal and the Macaw, "The beach apparently belonged to thousands of red and blue crabs that shuffled over the leaf litter or sat in swamp pools, to hundreds of lizards - geckoes, ameivas and anoles - and to smaller numbers of howler and capuchin monkeys, thee toed sloth's and small red squirrels. A pair of white necked puff birds, a large uncommon rainforest species, seemed to be nesting in a tree above the trail. Similarly swimming among the squirrel fish, parrot fish, butterfly fish and the wrasse of the reef, I saw little evidence aside from the odd dinghy that subsistence fishing went on."

The park was created in 1970 as a marine national monument and has since been enlarged to include the nearby swamp forest. Two visions were put forward at the time - one included "a mass of hotels, marinas and golf course which nobody (locally) wanted except foreign companies waiting on the sidelines".

Thankfully this vision never happened and never will. The beach camping area has restrooms, showers and picnic tables. Swimming is allowed only in this area, as other beaches of the park have strong currents or are protected turtle nesting areas. For some additional guidance on this area may we recommend: the Moon Handbook - our source for this nice map and many other great travel ideas.

If you'd like to visit the Cahuita National Monument email us at: InsightCostaRica for information or ideas?