INSIDE COSTARICA.COM | COSTA RICA NEWS | Thursday 07 April 2011
Costa Rica's Chirrip� Declared National Symbol
The Cerro Chirrip� is the highest point in Costa Rica, standing at 3.819 metres (12.600 feet) above sea level and now its crests declared a national symbol.
Overview of Valle de los Lagos, Chirrip� National Park
The declaration as made on Wednesday following second debate in Committee with the full legislative power of Legislatrive Assembly (Congress).
This recognition will increase the potential of the crests to the national economy, thus becoming a tourist reference.
Chirrip� National Park is located in the middle portion of the Talamanca Range of Costa Rica, approximately 30 km northeast from the city of San Isidro del General (Perez Zeledon).
It protects a number of important ecosystems on the Costa Rican Pacific slope and is notable for including the largest extension of p�ramo vegetation in the country.
Because of these conditions, the Chirrip� National Park preserves a number of plants, animals, fungi and insects, some of which are under study by the scientific community.
With a particular climate that includes only two seasons, a dry one approximately from December to April and a wet one from May to November, this national park is among the most exciting ones for locals and tourists from around the world.
This is based on the fact that in order to get to the summit (Cerro Chirrip�) the visitor has to walk along a 16 km uphill trail from the town of San Gerardo de Rivas to the park ranger's refuge in the Los Crestones sector and save energies for the next 5 km walk from here to the peak.
Considering that Chirrip� is the 38th most prominent peak in the world, this journey is a once in lifetime experience for most tourists.
This national park encompasses parts of three Provinces in Costa Rica - San Jose, Lim�n and Cartago, and contains five different ecosystems according to the Holdridge life zone classification system, being these: lowland tropical wet forest, premontane tropical wet forest, lower montane wet forest, montane wet forest and subalpine wet forest (paramo).
During the dry season the upper regions are susceptible to fires. The latest recorded events have occurred in 1953, 1958, 1976, 1977, 1981 and 1992. This last event, however, affected over 20 km� (5000 acres) of vegetation and forced the administration to close the park for four months.
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Cerro Chirripó, el más alto de Costa Rica con 3.820 metros.

Los crestones del Parque Nacional Chirripó, en Costa Rica, fueron declarados por una comisión legislativa como "nuevos símbolos patrios". El proyecto fue planteado por Edine von Herold Duarte, una ex-diputada del partido oficialista e impulsado por un representante de un partido de la oposición.

Los crestones se ubican a 3.720 metros sobre el nivel del mar, en la Cordillera de Talamanca, la más alta del país. Uno de los crestones más llamativos es uno en forma de "aguja" y que se eleva por más de 60 metros de altura.



El diputado recordó que estos crestones se encuentran en una zona calificada por la UNESCO como "Patrimonio de la Humanidad", y "Patrimonio Natural del cantón de Pérez Zeledón" por la municipalidad de esa localidad.