Costa Rica Maps
Costa Rica Information
The Republic of Costa Rica covers 19,560 sq. miles (50,660 sq. km) with an estimated population (2010 est) of 4,516,220. Laura Chinchilla is a Costa Rican politician and she was sworn in as the first female President of Costa Rica .on May 8, 2010. The government is Democratic Republic.
Costa Rica Currency
The monetary unit in Costa Rica is the colon but the American dollar is widely accepted and used. The Juan Santamaria International Airport is centrally located in San Jose allowing visitors to head in any directions to the many different areas of the country. Costa Rica offers beach goers a variety of riches with more than 1200km (750miles) of shoreline on its Pacific and Caribbean coasts. Both coasts are lined with white and black sand beaches.
Costa Rica Weather
Most regions of Costa Rica 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 Costa Rica is divided by a backbone of volcanoes and mountains which are an extension of the Andes-Sierra Madre chain running along the west side of the Americas. 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.
Costa Rica National Parks
In 1970 Costa Rica formed a national park system that has won worldwide admiration. Costa Rican law declared inviolate 10.27 percent of a land once compared to Eden; an additional 17 percent is legally set aside as forest reserves, "buffer zones," wildlife refuges, and Indian reserves. The National Conservation Areas System protects more than 186 areas, including 32 national parks, eight biological reserves, 13 forest reserves, and 51 wildlife refuges. The National parks/reserves of Costa Rica, that are the lure for 90 percent of all visitors to the park system--are Manuel Antonio, with its beautiful beaches; Braulio Carrillo, with its rainforest right beside a highway; Tortuguero, a watery, forested world teeming with wildlife and beauty; Irazú, where on a clear day you can see both the Caribbean and the Pacific; and Poás, where you can peer into a steaming crater and see the earth's crust being rearranged. Besides providing Costa Ricans and foreign travelers with the privilege of admiring and studying the wonders of nature, the national parks and reserves protect the soil and watersheds and harbor an estimated 75 percent of all Costa Rica's species of flora and fauna, including species that have all but disappeared in neighboring countries.
