In the Canton of Osa is one of the most important archaeological sites in the country, where the National Museum, in coordination with the community, aims to create and open the second archaeological park of Costa Rica to the public. “In this area the signs show the presence of an important pre-Columbian settlement,” said Francisco Corrales, director of the National Museum.

The creation of the theme park has gone through different stages: the first one consisted in the acquisition and conservation of the land where the archaeological remains are; Then the archaeological investigations have been carried out to evaluate the degree of conservation of the structures present and to be able to determine their integrity, and finally the site will be marked, the routes will be drawn and an exhibition center will be built. Also it is tried to recover the original vegetation, for which the identification of the flora of the zone has been realized by the Department of Natural History of the Museum.

In the place, the archaeologist Adrian Badilla next to a group of professionals found two mounds of around 25 meters of diameter. One of them has a stone ramp about 18 meters long. These structures are close to “in situ” alignments of stone spheres in different sizes.

The creation of the archaeological park is an integral project, because in parallel with it is being carried out an investigation on history of the area, on the part of the historian Gabriela Villalobos. Just as an attraction, in a house representative of the banana period, will be located an exhibition hall that will illustrate the different historical stages in the life of the Canton of Osa.

“The room will make a tour first by the Pre-Columbian Period, followed by the Colonization. It continues in the mid-thirties when banana activity enters the area, to end the journey with the crisis of the late eighties with the banana companies. Its location next to the school of the place aims to integrate the students, so they are the tour guides of the historic center, “said Villalobos.

The theme park will be located in Finca 6, district of Palmar, in the Canton of Osa, comprises about 10 hectares of forest that had previously been banana plantations.
The park will consist of four sectors. The first of them houses at least 5 spheres of stone in situ, which are perfectly aligned with each other; The second quadrant has two mounds of 25 meters in diameter and associated structures; In the third sector will be placed the spheres of stone that were removed and recovered and in the fourth sector is located an area with large quantities of ceramic fragments. In addition, it is planned to make a trail that crosses the most important points of the park and that could reproduce a pre-Columbian design.

Stone spheres are abundant in the Canton of Osa, and at this time the National Museum is preparing a dossier for the cultural landscape of the Delta of Diquis * to be declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.