Did you know that.....?
Costa Rica (Spanish for "Rich Coast") is located between Nicaragua and Panama in Central America. Its 50,000 square kilometers makes it a little bigger than Switzerland. Its length is about 500 km. and width about 150 km. The highest mountain, Cerro Chirripó stands at 3,820 m. or about 12,000 ft. high. The coastline has a length of almost 1,300 km which include three peninsulas (Osa, Nicoya, and Papagayo) . 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, found 500 km off the Pacific coast. There are several active volcanos here: Irazú, Poás, Rincón de la Vieja and Arenal, the most active of all with eruptions every 15 minutes.
Ten percent of the country's 4 million inhabitants live in San José, and more than half of the population live in the Central Valley. 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. At the moment, some 250,000 foreigners live in Costa Rica. Costa Rica is a founding member of the United Nations since 1945.
Are you looking for information and articles about the Wild Side of Costa Rica: Flora, Fauna, Survival Skills, Building your Home and much more? Or perhaps the more practical topics of Finances, Traditions, Arts and Crafts, Learning Spanish, Legal Updates, Immigration, and Health? Visit the books section.
Text and pictures by Angela and Jörn Malek. The team of 1-CostaRicaLink wishes you the best of times in our little paradise called Costa Rica.
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