CostaRica Info

It is always a good thing to learn a bit about a country and the people when planning a trip or a vacation in a foreign country, horseback riding or not.  We've resumed in a few short paragrahes, some of the big "headlines" of Costa Rica's history and below that, we have gathered practical and general facts about the country.  To help you further into planning your trip, we have added a page "What to Bring to Costa Rica" and a page "All about money" which covers just about everything related to money/exchange rate/ credit cards.

Related topics On this Page: General Facts / CostaRica National Holidays
Related topic on -separate page- of this website: What to bring to Costa Rica / All About Money

Overview History of Costa Rica

After Columbus' "discovery" of Costa Rica, in 1502, it took about half a century of exploraton, sweat, diseases and mosquito-bites, before the Spanish explorators finally moved inland and established their first permanent settlement in the cooler highland area of Cartago in 1563, ending then, a serie of unsuccesful attempts to colonize Costa Rica's Atlantic Coast.  It is believed that the population of Costa Rca, back then, could have been of about 20,000 indigenous, living in small independant tribes; one major city is now beng dugged out by archeologist, but to this date, In Costa Rica, there have been no discovery of massive stone construction, typical of the "advanced" cicvilizations that spread north and south throughout Central and South America. 

A Spanish Colony for close to 250 years, Costa Rica along with Central America, finally declared their independance from Spain on September 15, 1821.  Shortly after, a short-lived civil war brought Costa Rica to join the United Provinces of Central America, alliance that barely lasted 15 years before it crumbled down and the then province of Costa Rica became The Repulic of Costa Rica.

The country went into a mix of political turmoil and growth, establishing their democracy bringing progressive policies and politics.  The second and last civil war ever recorded in Costa Rica exploded in 1948, after the party in power refused to step down after losing the elections.   The war lasted a little longer than a month, cost the life of about 2000 people.

The then, new goverment in Power, led by Figueres, sucessfully worked on Banishing the Communist Party, instaured a term limit for presidency, gave to the blacks their full citizenship, gave to woman the right to vote and completely abolished the army and armed forces from Costa Rica.  Figueres, considered a national hero by the people of Costa Rica, drew the lines and set the foundations for the Costa Rica we know: A fair, democratic and peaceful Country with a relatively high standard of living.

Costa Rica - Facts

Location: Costarica is located in Central America, between Nicaragua and Panama.
Capital of Costa Rica: San Jose

Language: Official Language: Spanish (English is taught as a second language).
Currency: Colon - Colones (pl).
Exchange Rate: This link will open in a new page and take you to the official exchange rate per the Banco Central de Costa Rica

Time Difference:  Time difference: UTC-6 (no day-light saving) - 1 hour behind New York City standard time

Climate: Tropical and Subtropical.
Seasons: Dry Season: December through April - Rainy season: May through November.
Note that the startng and ending of the two seasons are not set in stone, this varies
somewhat from one area to another.
Terrain: Coastal plains (BEACHES!) separated by rugged mountains (MONEVERDE!) including over 100 volcanic cones, of which several are major volcanoes (IRAZU, ARENAL)!

Communcation: Phone, cell phone, internet, mail.
International airports: San Jose (central), Liberia (North).

More Facts!

    
Costa Rica Flag: five horizontal bands of blue (top), white, red (double width), white, and blue, with the coat of arms in a white elliptical disk on the hoist side of the red band; above the coat of arms a light blue ribbon contains the words, AMERICA CENTRAL, and just below it near the top of the coat of arms is a white ribbon with the words, REPUBLICA COSTA RICA


Land Area: 51,100 km2 (Slightly smaller than West Virgnia / About 12 times smaller than France).
Population: 4,253,877
Etnicity: White/mestizo 94%, black 3%, Amerindian 1%, Chinese 1%, other 1%
GDP - per capita: $11,600 (2008 estimate)
Life Expectancy: 77.58 years
Literacy: 94.9%

Goverment: Democratic Republic
Legal System: Based on Spanish civil law system
Religion: Roman Catholic 76.3%, Evangelical 13.7%, Jehovah's Witnesses 1.3%, other Protestant 0.7%, other 4.8%, none 3.2%

Independance Day (National Holiday): September 15

Economy - Major sectors: Costa Rica's economy depends on tourism, agriculture, and electronics exports.
GDP by Sector: Agriculture: 6.5%, industry: 25.9%, services: 67.6%
Exports: bananas, pineapples, coffee, melons, ornamental plants, sugar; seafood; electronic components, medical equipment

 Costa Rica's National Holidays

Since Costa Rica is mainly catholic, most of its holidays are church-related holidays.  The main ones are Christmas and Easter. Easter is by far the longest of holidays, lasting the entire holy-week for many businesses, or at the very least most business will be closed from the Holy-Thursday all through Easter Day.  Easter is the holiday where many ticos will be traveling to spend some times at the beach.  Unless you love crowded beaches and the lack of hotel rooms, I would travel either before or after the holdays, or if that's the only time og the year you can travel, ake sure to book hotels, transportation and rental car several weeks ahead.

01-Jan-2010:  New Year's Day.
02-April through 05-April 2010: Semana Santa - Easter.
10-Apr-2010:   Juan Santamaría's Day.
01-May-2010:  Labour Day.
25-July-2010:  Guanacaste Annexation Day.
02-Aug-2010:  Virgin of Los Angeles, Feast of Patroness of Costa Rica*.
15-Aug-2010:  Mothers' Day and Assumption.
15-Sep-2010:  Independence Day.
11-Oct-2010:  Dia de la Raza (Columbus Day)*.
25-Dec-2010:  Christmas Day.

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