Costa Rica guide

Costa Rica

The Republic of Costa Rica (Spanish: República de Costa Rica, IPA: [re' country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the south-southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, and the Caribbean Sea to the east. Costa Rica was the first country in the world to constitutionally abolish its army.

History of Costa Rica

In Pre-Columbian times the Indigenous people in what is now know as Costa Rica were part of the Intermediate Area located between the Mesoamerican and Andean cultural regions. This has recently been updated to include the influence of the Isthmo-Colombian area in the south-Atlantic region of the country, defined by the presence of groups that spoke Chibchan languages. It is still unknown if any of these groups created the famous Stone spheres of Costa Rica, between 200 BC and AD 1600.

Conquest
The country was visited by Cristopher Columbus on 1502, during his fourth expedition. He arrived at Cariay, in front of the Quiribrí island (present day Isla Uvita). The subsequent conquest and colonization of the area was complicated by its distance and the fierce indigenous resistance, however it paled in comparison to the Spanish conquest of Mexico.

During the 16th century the area found itself with a quickly diminishing workforce. The indigenous population, slaves at the time, were falling ill to many of the diseases brought by the colonists, or dying in resistance battles. Also, the lack of abundant mineral resources and the fact that the richest soils were found deep in the heart of the country (the Central Valley) severely hindered the colonization effort. All these circumstances made Costa Rica, the southernmost province in the Capitancy General of Guatemala, the poorest and most irrelevant region. However the colonizers that braved the hard trip in the Central Valley had established a provincial capital Cartago.

Independence
In 1821, the winds of independence had blown in from the north. The United States of America and Mexico had won their independence recently and in the capital of the Capitancy General of Guatemala, Guatemala City, protests broke out demanding independence. On September 15th, 1821 they declared their independence from the Spanish Empire. At the time, several present-day Mexican states and most of the Central American countries belonged to the Capitancy, so in order to send the news to all the states, a horse messenger was sent down through Central America.

Because Costa Rica was the southernmost province, it finally received the news of its independence on October 13th, 1821. The fact that not a single gunshot was fired to obtain its independence marked Costa Rica as a peace-loving nation. Among the independence documents received from Guatemala, there was a document prepared in Nicaragua. This document is called "Los Nublados del Dia" which means the "Clouds of the Day". In this document the Nicaraguan government, which was far more developed at the time and therefore closer to colonial rule, insisted that the states should not jump into independence and should wait for the "clouds of the day" to disperse before the states should make a final decision. However because, this document only reached Costa Rica, it had little effect.

After gaining independence, Costa Rica, along with the other provinces of the Capitancy, briefly joined the Mexican Empire of Agustín de Iturbide. However because of the distance to the Mexican capital and other underlying conflicts, the Central American states including Costa Rica became federal states of the United Provinces of Central America (see: History of Central America) from 1823 to 1839. In 1824, the capital moved to San José.

In 1838 Costa Rica proclaimed itself a sovereign and independent nation, under the rule of Braulio Carrillo.
In 1856 the Costa Rican army, commanded by Juan Rafael Mora Porras expelled a filibuster invasion, commanded by William Walker. In the battles of Santa Rosa, Rivas and the San Juan campaign, the filibuster army was forced to give up their intentions. The national hero Juan Santamaría fought in the battle of Rivas where he set on fire the "Mesón" where the invaders had taken refuge.

Costa Rica has avoided the violence that has plagued Central America; it is seen as an example of political stability in the region, and is referred to as the "Switzerland of the Americas". Since the late 19th century only two brief periods of violence have marred its democratic development.

In 1949, José Figueres Ferrer abolished the army; making Costa Rica the first country ever to operate within the democratic system without the assistance of a military (an example that was later followed by other nations such as Panama).

Costa Rica (Spanish for "Rich Coast"), was a largely agricultural country. However, during the last few decades, Costa Rica has achieved a relatively high standard of living. Electronics is a rapidly expanding industry, and along with tourism serves as the major industries of the country thanks to its social stability and rich natural environment.

Geography
Costa Rica is located on the Central American isthmus, 10° North of the equator and 84° West of the Prime Meridian. It borders both the Caribbean Sea (to the east) and the North Pacific Ocean (to the west), with a total of 1,290 kilometres (802 mi) of coastline (212 km / 132 mi on the Caribbean coast and 1,016 km / 631 mi on the Pacific).

Costa Rica also borders Nicaragua to the north (309 km / 192 mi of border) and Panama to the south-southeast (639 km / 397 mi of border). In total, Costa Rica comprises 51,100 square kilometers (19,730 sq. mi) plus 589.000 square kilometers of territorial waters.

The highest point in the country is Cerro Chirripo, with 3,810 metres (12,500 ft), the second highest peak in Central America, after Volcan Tajumulco in Guatemala. The highest volcano in the country is the Irazú Volcano (3,431 m or 11,257 ft). The largest lake in Costa Rica is Lake Arenal.

Costa Rica also comprises several islands. Cocos Island stands out because of its distance from continental landmass (24 km² or 9.25 sq mi, 500 km or 310 mi from Puntarenas coast), but Calero Island is the biggest island of the country (151.6 km² or 58.5 sq mi).

The country is highly recognized for its commitment with environment protection. Costa Rica protects over 25% of its national territory within national parks. It also possess the greatest density of species on the world.

Provinces of Costa Rica
Costa Rica consists of seven provinces:

1. Alajuela (central; north of capital San José, agriculture and industrial manufacturing)
2. Cartago (former Costa Rican Provincial capital during colonial times)
3. Guanacaste (north-west, important touristic and agricultural area)
4. Heredia (central; north of capital, manufacturing and core of Costa Rica's IT industry)
5. Limón (Caribbean coast, agricultural and eco-tourism area)
6. Puntarenas (along most of the Pacific coast, with a large bulge in the south-west and a smaller one at the northern end at both sides of the Golfo de Nicoya, where the eponymous capital is located)
7. San José (Capital)

Flora and Fauna:

Costa Rica is home to a rich variety of plants and animals. While the country has only about 0.1% of the world's land mass, it contains 5% of the world's biodiversity. As Costa Rica has no military or navy, but an abundance of wildlife, it has been said that the soldiers are the leaf cutter ants, the pilots are the macaws and the navy ships are the whales. Over 25% of Costa Rica is composed of protected forests and reserves.

One national park that is internationally renowned among ecologists for its biodiversity (including big cats and tapirs) and where visitors can expect to see an abundance of wildlife is the Corcovado National Park.

Tortuguero National Park (the name Tortuguero can be translated as turtle catcher or turtle hunter, it is also understood as full of turtles) is home to spider, howler and white-throated Capuchin monkeys, the three-toed sloth, 320 species of birds (including eight species of parrots), a variety of reptiles, but is mostly recognized for the annual nesting of the endangered green turtle and is considered the most important nesting site for this species. Giant leatherback, hawksbill, and loggerhead turtles also nest here.

The Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve hosts 2,000 plant species including numerous orchids. Over 400 types of birds can be found here, as well as over 100 species of mammals. Costa Rica as a whole has about 600 species of birds. The entity entrusted to do genetic and biochemical prospection on Costa Rica's biological wealth is the INBIO (Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad), and it is allowed to collect royalties on any biological discoveries of medical importance.

Also see:
• Wildlife of Costa Rica
• List of birds of Costa Rica

See:
• Guanacaste Province
• Liberia, Costa Rica
• San José, Costa Rica

• Tamarindo
• Manuel Antonio
• Arenal Volcano
• Osa Peninsula and Corcovado National Park
• Monteverde

• Kayaking
• Beaches

• Casa Mar Lodge
• Hotels in Monteverde
• Property

• Adventure Tours are in Costa Rica
• Costa Rica Luxury Real Estate Agents
• Costa Rica Scuba Diving Paradise
• travel to costa rica
• real estate in costa rica

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Costa Rica".