La Cangreja National Park

• Departure at 6:00 a.m. from a convenient spot in San José.

• Arrival to the entrance of the park, where you will meet our local guide at 8:00am.

• Preparation for the hike to start at 8:30am.

• The hike ends and arrival at Finca Villas Mastatal, to have lunch at 12:00pm.

• Resting time, hammocks and coffee until 3:00pm!

The park has a total area of 2.240 hectares. Even though it is fairly small, La Cangreja is a refuge for migratory birds and has an abundant flora. This is the only site in the world where you can find the tree aplinia puriscalensis, which fruits direcly on its trunk. Adittionally, it protects the last forest in Puriscal. Its name relates to the shape of the hills that form the park (crab shapped hill), 1305 meters above sea level.  But the indigenous people have the anecdotal story about a great crab that lived on top of the hill, and did not allow people to walk through it, until a brave warrior fought him and was able to cut one of his legs. The crab was furious, and decided to turn to stone and that is why the hill has that shape.

Villas Mastatal is a family run farm, since the 70’s. Today, the grandparents are still living there, Mario and Lucía; but Javier and Raquel, third generation, are the ones running the show.  Villas Mastatal is in the outskirts of Santiago de Puriscal in the Central Pacific of Costa Rica. This is an environmental and conservation project.

• Transportation from and to San José.

• National Park entrance fee.

• Local guide.

• Lunch and coffee.

• Sunblock and insect repellent.

• Comfortable shoes to hike, light clothing with neutral colors.

• A second set of clothes and a towel, in case you want to swim in the river or if it rains.

• Bring snacks and water for the hike.