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Costa
Rica |
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Costa
Rica
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| Costa
Rica is Central America's special jewel. It has a reputation for
being an oasis of calm among its turbulent neighbors, but
there's more to Costa Rica than a stable status quo. The
country's natural attractions, wildlife and reputation for
enlightened conservation draw tourists from all over the world,
and the ticos know it.
Successive governments have made a real effort to preserve
the country's image as an ecotourism heaven, making Costa Rica
one of the best places to experience the tropics naturally and
with minimal impact. |
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Geography |
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Costa Rica lies
between Nicaragua and Panama. Its width ranges from 119 to 282km
(74 to 176 miles). There are lowlands on both coastlines, swampy
on the Caribbean coast, with grassland savannah on the Pacific
side merging into swamps towards the south. Rivers cut through
mountain ranges, flowing down to both the Caribbean and the
Pacific. The capital, San José was founded in 1737 and
is a pleasant mixture of traditional and modern Spanish architecture.
Places of interest include the Teatro Nacional and the Parque
Central. On the Caribbean coast there are a number of beaches,
ports and towns worth visiting. Braulio Carrillo National Park
in the central region of the country has five kinds of forest.
Orchids and ferns, jaguars, ocelots and the Baird tapir may
all be seen here. |
| Common dishes include
casado (rice, beans, stewed beef, fried plantain, salad and
cabbage) and sopa negra (black beans with a poached egg). Coffee
is good value and has an excellent flavour. San José
has many nightclubs and venues with folk music and dance. |
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Population |
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| There are several
theatres and cinemas. Statistics Area - 50,895 square kilometers
Capital - San Jose (pop. 300,000) Population - Three million
Language - Spanish Location - Central American between Nicaragua
and Panama (between 8 and 11 degrees north of the equator) Currency
- Colon (Floats, currently $1 US = about 240) in notes of 5,000,
1,000, 500, 100 and 50 Religion - More than 90 percent of Costa
Ricans are Roman Catholic. Geography of Costa Rica The country
is divided by a backbone of volcanoes and mountains, an extension
of the Andes-Sierra Madre chain which runs along the western
side of the Americas. Costa Rica has four distinct cordilleras
or mountain ranges -- Guanacaste and Tilaran in the north, Central
and Talamanca in the south. Costa Rica is part of the Pacific
"Rim of Fire" and has seven of the isthmus's 42 active
volcanoes plus dozens of dormant or extinct cones. Earth tremors
and small quakes shake the country from time to time. The last
major quake hit on April 22, 1991. Centered on the Caribbean
side southeast of San Jose, it measured 7.4 on the Richter scale.
The country's highest point is Mt. Chirripo (3,797 meters).
The capital, San Jose, and the neighboring major cities of Alajuela
and Heredie lies in the middle of the Meseta Central (Central
Valley). Almost two-thirds of the nation's population live in
this small, fertile valley. The Pacific coastal plain is much
narrower than its Caribbean counterpart. Both coasts are lined
with white and black sand beaches. |
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Language |
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| Spanish is the main
language of Costa Rica. |
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Climate |
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| Costa Rica's Climate
Costa Rica is a tropical country which contains several distinct
climatic zones. There is no winter or summer as such and most
regions have a rainy season from May to November and a dry season
from December to April. Annual rainfall averages 100 inches
nationwide with some mountainous regions getting as much as
25 feet on exposed eastern slopes. Temperature is more a matter
of elevation than location with a mean of around 72 degrees
in the Central Valley, 82 degrees on the Atlantic coast and
89 degrees on the Pacific coast. |
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History |
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A Brief History of
Costa Rica Human habitation can be traced back more than 10,000
years but it appears Costa Rica was sparsely populated and a
relative backwater in the pre-Columbian era. There is little
sign of major communities and none of the impressive stone architecture
that characterized the more advanced civilizations of Mesoamerica
to the north and the Andes to the south. When Columbus arrived
near Lim¢n on September 18, 1502 on his third and last
voyage to the Americas, there were probably no more than 20,000
indigenous inhabitants They lived in several autonomous tribes,
all with distinct cultures and customs. Costa Rica's only major
archaeological site is at Guayabo, 30 miles east of San Jos‚,
where an ancient city, dating back to 1000 B.C. and though to
have contained 10,000 people at its peak, is currently being
excavated. Many interesting gold, jade and pottery artefacts
have been found throughout the region and are on display in
several museums in San Jose. The Indians gave Columbus gold
and he returned to Europe with reports of a plentiful supply
of the yellow metal. But the adventurers who arrived to cash
in found only hostile Indians, swamps and disease for their
trouble.
Several early attempts to colonize the Atlantic coast failed
for the same reasons and for almost half a century Costa Rica
was passed over while colonization gathered pace in countries
to the north and south. In 1562, the Spanish main's administrative
center in Guatemala sent Juan Vasquez de Coronado to Costa Rica
as governor and Cartago was established as the capital the following
year. With no Indian slaves to work the land, the colonists
were forced to work the land themselves, scratching out a meagre
subsistence by tilling small plots. The impoverished colony
grew slowly and was virtually ignored by the Spanish rulers
in Guatemala. By the late 18th century, the settlements that
would buela had been founded and exports of wheat and tobacco
were making economic conditions somewhat better. Central America
gained independence from Spain on September 15, 1821. The news
reached Costa Rica a month after the event.
The question of whether Costa Rica should join newly independent
Mexico or join a new confederation of Central American states
resulted in a bitter quarrel between the leaders of San Jose
and their counterparts in Cartago and Heredia. A brief civil
war in 1823 was won by San Jose and Costa Rica joined the confederation.
Juan Mora Fernandez was elected the country's first head of
state in 1824. His progressive administration expanded public
education and encouraged the cultivation of coffee with land
grants for growers. This quickly led to the establishment of
a new Costa Rican elite, the coffee barons, who quickly put
their power to use by overthrowing the first Costa Rican president,
Jos‚ Maria Castro. His successor, Juan Rafael Mora, is
remembered as the man who mobilized a force of Costa Rican volunteers
and defeated William Walker, ending the persistent North American
adventurer's ambitions to turn Central America into a slave
state and annex it to the United States. After more than a decade
of political turmoil, General Tom s Guardia seized power in
1870. Though he ruled as a military dictator, his 12 years in
power were marked by progressive policies like free and compulsory
primary education, restraining the excesses of the military
and taxing coffee earnings to finance public works. It was Guardia
who contracted Minor Keith to build the Atlantic railroad from
San Jose to the Caribbean.
The post-Guardia years witnessed the fitful transition to full
democracy. The next important era began with the election of
Dr. Rafael Angel Calder¢n Guardia in 1940. His enlightened
policies included land reform, a guaranteed minimum wage and
progressive taxation. But when Calder¢n's United Social
Christian Party refused to step down after losing the 1948 election,
civil war erupted. The anti-Calder¢n forces were led by
Jose Mar¡a (Don Pepe) Figueres Ferrer who had been exiled
to Mexico in 1942. Supported by the governments of Guatemala
and Cuba, he won the war which lasted 40 days and cost 2,000
lives. Figueres became head of the Founding Junta of the Second
Republic of Costa Rica. He consolidated the reforms introduced
by Calder¢n and introduced many of his own: He banned the
Communist Party, gave women the vote and granted full citizenship
to blacks, abolished the armed forces, established a term limit
for presidents and nationalized the banks and insurance companies.
He also founded the Partido de Liberacion Nacional. (The PLN
won last year's presidential election behind Don Pepe's son,
now President Jose Mar¡a Figueres Olsen. Don Pepe died
in 1990 a national hero, his deeds having set the scene for
the social and economic progress that would earn Costa Rica
the reputation as a peaceful and stable island of democracy
in one of the world's most politically unstable, and often war-torn
regions. When civil war broke out in neighboring Nicaragua,
Costa Rica was drawn reluctantly into the conflict, its northern
zone being used as a base first for Sandinista and later for
"contra" forces. In 1986, a young lawyer called Oscar
Arias Sanchez was elected president on the platform of peace.
Arias' tireless efforts to promote peace in the region were
rewarded when the five Central American presidents signed his
peace plan in Guatamala City in 1987, an achievement that earned
him the Nobel Peace Prize. |
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Government and
Constitution. |
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| Costa Rica's Government
Costa Rica is a democratic republic. Under the 1949 constitution,
all citizens are guaranteed equality before the law, the right
to own property, the right of petititon and assembly, freedom
of speech and the right of habeas corpus. The constitution also
divides the government into independent executive, legislative
and judicial branches. The executive branch is composed of the
president, two vice presidents and a cabinet. The legislature
is the National Assembly, composed of 57 members (diputados)
elected by proportional representation. National elections are
held every four years, on the first Sunday of February. Under
a constitutional amendment enacted in 1969, a president may
serve only one four-year term during his lifetime. Diputados
also are elected for four years and may serve a second term
four years after the first ends. The largest political party
is the National Liberation Party (PLN). Its main rival is the
more conservative Social Christian Unity Party. |
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Map |
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