BOLAÑOS ISLAND NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE

Size: 25 hectares.
Distance from San Jose: 281 kilometers.
Trails: Around the island
Dry Season: January through March.

Bolaños Island is an oval-shaped rocky mound, 81 meters high, with approximately 25 hectares that lies 1.5 kilometers off Punta Descartes, Salinas Bay, on the northwest region of the country, Guanacaste province. Its rugged terrain consists of numerous layers of sedimentary rock that are approximately 40 million years old, from the pacific Ocean.
 

The  scarce  vegetation is made up of stunted forest, which is very thick and  difficult to penetrate. It grows almost two meters high on very rock soils with very little  organic material. The forest, which completely looses its leaves during the dry season, consists mainly of paira and some medium sized trees, such as fraginipani and lancewood.

Bolaños Island is especially important for the conservation of seabirds.  It protects one the few known nesting sites in the country for colonies of brown pelican and also it´s the only  nesting site discovered to date for the magnificent frigate bird.

It´s also known as a nesting site of the American Oystercatcher and is one of the few places where there are nesting colonies of pelicans. Other species that live on the island are magpie jays, black vultures, and several species of bats and crabs. There are no facilities on the refuge site.

There is a white, sandy beach at the eastern tip of the island with mounds of seashells and clams. At low tide its possible to walk round the island  and gives visitors a chance to glance at several species of crab that live and mate here, specially the large sized land crab.