This is really worth a visit when you come to Costa Rica. It is almost unique not only because the indigenous communities in Costa Rica did not create sites not even far as grand as the ones created in northern Central America or Mexico, but also because in this country there has not been an adequate protection to archaeological remains, it happens the same as historic buildings, if a private owner finds some archaeological remain in the lot he is planning to build a supermarket, a hotel, a plantation, a road or anywhere else, quickly and silently bulldozes it before the archaeologists of the National Museum appear. Guayabo could have suffered the same destiny because it is located in a very fertile area in Turrialba highlands, eastern Cartago province, but late archaeologist Carlos Aguilar Piedra started back in the 60s regular excavations and campaigned to protect the site, already sacked and vandalized. As a site, it is small (4 ha), but the excavations have come just to the point that the government owns and it is believed that the site extends up to 15 or 20 ha.

The site culturally belongs to the intermediate zone, influenced primarily by the Chibchas and other cultures to the south, but having contact through Guanacaste to the Mesoamerican cultures.

The main features of Guayabo are the mounds that indicate through their size, height and location, the importance of the character that lived there on the mound. The houses were made of wood and organic material, reason for which they have disappeared long ago, before the site was abandoned even before the Spaniards came to Costa Rica, but it has been discovered through studies that this conical houses were large and needed a high degree of specialization, which corresponds to the refinement of the other features found.

Apart from an important number of significant petro glyphs, tombs, and stone sculptures, the two other features that stand out are the aqueduct and the perfectly aligned and build pre-Columbian roads or calzadas, which are believed to extend several kilometers far from the site.

About the aqueduct, it is composed of very refined systems that include underground tanks, sedimentation tanks, catchment outlets, a bridge and other features. But the most important factor is that the aqueduct still supplies water, almost 1500 years later after it was built. This was the main factor for which the whole complex of Guayabo was declared in 2009 a "world engineer heritage" by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Besides the cultural elements of the site, it is important to say that the setting of Guayabo is also impressive, on the foothills of Central Volcanic Sierra, with a view to nearby Turrialba Volcano and the exuberant montane rainforest that covers most of the 232 ha of the national monument has recovered from the time this was agricultural land and depicts several species of mammals (such as the anteater, armadillo, agouti, squirrels) but stands out for its abundant -and easy to see- birdlife.