Barra Honda National Park

Barra Honda National Park is a national park in western Costa Rica, part of the Tempisque Conservation Area about 12 kilometers from the Tempisque River. Established in 1974, it protects a limestone cave system beneath Barra Honda Peak that formed from Miocene era islets uplifted above the surrounding river plains and then hollowed out over more than 70 million years by percolating rainwater. By 2005 some 42 caves had been found, an estimated half of the system, including the Santa Ana cave, which plunges about 240 meters underground and shelters species such as blind salamanders and fish adapted to complete darkness.