The Ostional National Park is famed for the turtles that come onto its beaches and lay their eggs between the months of June to December. The Park is located in the Guancaste province of Costa Rica between the counties of Nicoya and Santa Cruz. The park covers 300Ha of Land and then extends over 800Ha into the Ocean.

The Park’s main purpose is to protect the turtle nesting grounds of the Olive Ridley and Leatherback turtles as Ostional is seen as one of the worlds largest nesting grounds in the world with over 1 million eggs laid each year. Typically the turtles come onto the beach once or twice a month and this is typically governed by the moon and each laying of eggs can last from 3 -7 days.

In 1987 due to the large amount of turtles coming onto the beach and the consequently later turtles destroying the nests of the first laying turtles, local people can now harvest the eggs and this is the only place in the world that this allowed. It is designed to stop poaching of eggs and to help the local community.

The ranger station which is located on Playa Ostional is located on the beach and it is signed from the main road. The ranger station is open from 8am until 4pm and they can arrange guided tours of the beach if you wish. The beaches are now patrolled by nesting security to make sure that these grounds are safe for the turtles and the future baby turtles.

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Filed under: National Parks, Ostional on May 29th, 2008