Qualla: Rincon de la Vieja Volcano

Rincon de la Vieja Volcano: Introduction

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Yasif89, CC BY-SA 4.0. The legend goes like this: Princess Curabanda fell in love with Mixcoac, a chief from an enemy tribe. When her father Curabande discovered the affair, he threw Mixcoac into the volcano's crater. Curabanda, grief-stricken, threw their infant son in after him -- to reunite father and child -- and then retreated to the mountain's slopes, where she lived alone for the rest of her life, becoming a recluse healer whom locals called the old woman. They named the volcano after her: Rincon de la Vieja, the Old Woman's Corner. The mountain has been erupting, rumbling, and steaming ever since, as if the story's anguish never quite settled.

Image: Yasif89 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Rincon de la Vieja Volcano: A Volcano That Never Sleeps

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tim Ross, Public domain. Rincon de la Vieja is an active andesitic complex volcano standing 1,916 meters above sea level, roughly 23 kilometers from the city of Liberia in Guanacaste province. It is one of a handful of active volcanoes in Costa Rica -- alongside Poas, Turrialba, Arenal, Irazu, and Mirava...

Image: Tim Ross | Public domain

Rincon de la Vieja Volcano: The Heat Below

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hans Hillewaert, CC BY-SA 3.0. Fumaroles hiss from the slopes. Hot pools bubble in clearings. Mud pots gurgle and spit in two distinct thermal areas on the volcano's flanks. These surface expressions hint at the energy underground: geologists estimate Rincon de la Vieja has a generating potential of 140 megawa...

Image: Hans Hillewaert | CC BY-SA 3.0

Rincon de la Vieja Volcano: Cloud Forest and Crater Lake

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NASA/Milan Loiacono, Public domain. Rincon de la Vieja National Park covers 12,759 hectares and protects two distinct forest types that stack vertically up the volcano's slopes. Lower elevations hold montane forest where sloths hang in cecropia trees and spider monkeys swing through the canopy. Higher up, the veget...

Image: NASA/Milan Loiacono | Public domain

Rincon de la Vieja Volcano: The Backbone of Central America

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 2.5. Rincon de la Vieja sits on the volcanic spine that runs the length of Central America, part of the same tectonic system that built the entire isthmus. The Cocos Plate dives beneath the Caribbean Plate along this coast, and the friction generates the magma that feeds the chain of ...

Image: CC BY-SA 2.5