//
This national park covers a large region ranging from just beyond El Castillo to San Juan del Norte (aka San Juan de Nicaragua) and northwards. Typically it is visited either in a day trip from El Castillo, or by staying at the Refugio Bartola on the edge of the park. There are plentiful guides providing such trips from El Castillo and the Refugio, who will provide you with the requisite rubber boots. Visitors will see verdant and varied rain forest vegetation, and are very likely to also see various types of monkey, leaf cutter ants, poison dart frogs, and plentiful bird life, with other wildlife sightings possible. In March/April 2018 there were significant fires in the region to which the government responded slowly and rejected Costa Rican aid, causing protests which were soon overshadowed by protests against a social security reform which left to several dead and the ongoing (as of July 2018) civil conflict in the country. It is not fully clear how much of the reserve is still biologically intact or what caused the conflagration.
Indio Maíz Biological Reserve is situated on the southeastern corner of Nicaragua bordering the San Juan River and Costa Rica. Measuring about 3,180 square kilometers, it is one of the largest protected lowland forest system in Central America, the second largest lowland rainforest reserve in Nicaragua and is a key component in the proposed Mesoamerican Biological Corridor. It has previously been referred to as "the gem of Central American nature reserves" by UCLA biologists. Indio Maíz is rich in biodiversity, holding a higher number in species of trees, birds, and insects than all of Europe. In recent years, a growing timber and oil palm industry has led to increasing rates of deforestation along the northern and western flanks of Indio Maíz.
© OpenStreetMap contributors