|
About Costa Rica! Travel Information Highlights & General Info Real Estate in Costa Rica
Travel
Information
Gateway to Costa Rica - San Jose': Most visitors enter Coast Rica through Juan Santamaria International Airport; and at least stay overnight in this prosperous and most populated city in Costa Rica. Tourism/Economy: In the past, agricultural exports, like, bananas, coffee and pineapple, have been the staple of the Costa Rican economy. Tourism has always played an ever increasing role and now it dominates the economic force. Costa Ricans love to show off their country and greatly welcome all vacationers.
Population: The Costa Rican population is now approximately 4,000,000 people. The official language is Spanish, but many of the people speak some English, a required course in all schools. Costa Ricans are affectionately know as Ticos and you would be hard pressed to find a more friendly and welcoming culture.
Religion: Catholicism is the dominant religion, as it is in most of Latin America. Nearly all major holidays are religious in nature. The government and popular culture is secular, though still conservative. Major Cities: San Jose', the capital and cultural heart of Costa Rica. Population; one million. Entry Requirements: You must have a valid passport. Check with your embassy and/or airline for any changes.
Time Zones: Costa Rica is Central Standard Time and one hour behind EST in the States. It does not currently use daylight savings time. Health: No shots are required. The water in the major cities of Costa Rica is safe and most hotels and restaurants offer purified tap water. You might prefer to drink bottled water to be sure. Costa Rica has excellent, low-cost medical care and well-qualified practitioners. Many North Americans come to Costa Rica for cosmetic surgery or dental work.
Safety and
Crime: Considered to be a safe destination for
99% of its tourists. It is always a good idea to
exercise caution whenever one travels just as you would
anywhere in the world. The country has a low crime
rate. Most eco-adventures involve some sort of
danger, so use common sense when deciding on your level
of participation in these activities.
Highlights & General Information Costa Rica has three mountain ranges or five geographically diverse areas; Northern Central Plains, Northwest Peninsula, Tropical Lowlands on the Pacific and Caribbean coasts and the Central Valley where 70% of the population reside all making up the seven provinces; Alajuela, Cartago, Guanacaste, Heredia, Puntarenas, Limon and San Jose'. Costa Rica is often compared to Switzerland and Hawaii due to its mountains and forests. Unlike many areas of Mexico, Central and South America, Costa Rica remains beautiful and warm year-round. This is partly due to it bordering the Pacific Ocean on the west, the Atlantic Ocean on the east, and has a string of towering volcanoes on the Central Plateau. Combine all this and you have a unique tropical paradise with 11 climatic zones.
Costa Rica is the most politically stable and the richest country in Latin America. Profound changes are taking place right at this moment. The government still controls highway construction and maintenance, traffic, telecommunications, electricity and water services. Nevertheless, there are strong signs of liberalization by the current government. The traditional pillars of the export industry (such as coffee, bananas and beef) become less important little by little. Costa Rica is positioning itself as an important and ideal location for hi-tech companies. Not only an excellent educational system (with German, English and American schools and several specialized universities), and a favorable tax system, but also the country's several duty-free zones play an important role in this process of transformation. They offer sound reasons to companies like the Swiss Schmiedheiny Group, Mercedes Benz, Intel and Microsoft to move to the "Silicon Valley of Latin America". Competent computer engineers offer their services here to foreign customers for a much lower salary than these companies would have to pay at home. Still, Costa Rica is mainly an agricultural country, but compared to other Latin American nations, it boosts much higher living standards. Forty percent of the country's territory is utilized for agriculture, chiefly coffee and bananas. Other important crops are organic vegetables, fruits, cacao, sugar cane, corn, rice, sorghum, beans, potatoes, pineapples, tobacco, cotton, and sisal hemp. The fishing industry, on the other hand, plays a rather subordinate role. Despite the great variety of mineral wealth (bauxite, copper, zinc, led, and manganese) only gold, silver and sea salt are being exploited. Electricity is produced by hydroelectric plants and is partly exported.
The Central
Valley or plateau around San José has an altitude of
1,165 meters or 3,880 ft. Because of its
You will find
Costa Rica (Spanish for "Rich Coast") between Panama and
Nicaragua in Central America. With 50,000 square
kilometers, it is a little bigger than Switzerland. Ten
percent of the country's 4 million inhabitants live in
San José, and more than half of the population lives in
the Central Valley around the capital in less than 20%
of the total territory. Costa Rica is a founding member
of the United Nations since 1945. It has a length of
about 500 km. and a width of 150 km. There are several
active volcanos here: Irazú, Poás, Rincón de la Vieja
and Arenal, the most active of all with eruptions every
15 minutes. The highest mountain, Cerro Chirripó stands
at 3,820 m. or about 12,000 ft. high. The coastline,
with its three peninsulas (Osa, Nicoya, and Papagayo)
has a length of 1,800 km. About one sixth of the
country's territory has been set apart for national
parks or wildlife refuges (that's more than half of the
inhabitable territory of Switzerland). The country also
includes famous Cocos Island, which lays 500 km off the
Pacific coast. Eighty percent of the population is of
Spanish origin. Most of the black and mulatto
populations (7%) live in or around the harbor town of
Limón on the Caribbean. About 40,000 Indigenous live
mostly in isolated forests. Up to this date, some
250,000 foreigners live in Costa Rica.
Real Estate in Costa Rica
|
Currency:
Costa Rican money is the colon. It
floats against the dollar and can be exchanged at
banks. American dollars and major credit cards are
acceptable just about everywhere. ATM's are also
available in most cities with bank offices.
Education:
6% of its Gross Domestic Product is required to be
dedicated to education - and as a result it has a higher
literacy rate (95%) than the United States. Some
post offices have computers for general use, and high
speed internet connections available.
Driving or
Renting a Vehicle: Rental cars are expensive,
but a good way to see Costa Rica outside of San Jose'.
You should buy all the insurance offered - drivers in
Costa Rica are very aggressive behind the wheel combined
with unpredictable road conditions; there could be
"awkward" moments. Drive cautiously. In
rainy season, make sure you rent a four-wheel drive.
Costa
Rica's Parks & Surfing: Parks;
Much of the country is set aside forever into
protected National Parks, wildlife refuges and nature
reserves. Surfing; The secret is
out! Surfing is Great here! Those that
discovered it years ago camped
out on the beach and have
returned to buy and rent homes and condos on the beach.
Costa
Rica is the ultimate paradise. This small
state of 50,000 square kilometers between the Caribbean
Sea and Pacific Ocean has about the same size as
Switzerland. Eco-tourists and retirees praise it a
lot for its abundance of fauna, flora, and many varities
of trees. The country has no military, no nuclear
power plants, almost no illiteracy, lots of culture and
no winter - thanks to its openness and friendliness
toward foreigners and a thousand other reasons, Costa
Rica is the ideal country for people who want to
retire from an active professional or business life and
become a resident.
location an
almost constant temperature of 20ºC or 68ºF all year
round, Costa Rica's climate is considered the
healthiest climate of the world according to a NASA
research. Depending on the altitude and the
region in which you are, you can find a great variety of
micro-climates. Cool, wet and very green mountain
ranges, where many dairy farmers have established
themselves; rain forests and dry tropical forests; the
wet Caribbean coast and the dry Pacific coast; and cloud
forests. The highest-located hotel in Costa Rica, at
3000 m. or 9000 ft. of altitude, experiences frost
almost every night. This large variety of climates is
responsible for an incredible array of plants and
animals -9,000 species of flowering plants, 1,200 of
orchids, 850 of birds, 205 of mammals, and 376 of
reptiles and amphibians
Immigrants
who stay in Costa Rica prefer the dry regions of the
pacific coast and the mild districts of the central
plateau around the capital city of San José. Dairy
farmers who came from Switzerland, Italy, Austria and
Germany settled in the higher and cooler areas of the
mountains. Preferred residential districts in San José
are Rohrmoser, Los Yoses and Cariari. The
preferred suburbs are Escazú, Santa Ana and La Garita.
Of all beaches the most famous and exclusives are
Flamingo, Conchal and Herradura, because of their
five-star hotels, luxury condos, big golf courses and
marinas, and high-class residential subdivisions with
any luxury imaginable. But along the country's
1,800-km. coastline you can find endless untouched
beaches, not to mention the mountains. For
US$100,000-200,000 one can buy farms of 100 acres or
more.