The Guanacaste North

Start at the park gate at 7am before the tour buses arrive. The mud pots are about two kilometres in — the sulphur smell announces them before you can see them. Allow three hours for the full loop.

Ninety minutes south toward Bagaces. The falls are wide rather than tall and the pool beneath them is warm and large — a complete contrast to the volcanic terrain of the morning. Bring lunch; the flat rock beside the pool is a natural picnic table.

Forty minutes north on the coastal road to Brasilito. Walk in from the car park through the scrub and the shell beach arrives without warning. The reef 200 metres offshore is accessible by snorkel on most days. Stay until sunset — the light on the shell ground in the late afternoon is different from anything else in Guanacaste.