In January and February 2020 I visited Costa Rica. North the equator, Costa Rica stretches diagonally from
the northwest, where it borders Nicaragua, to the southeast, where it borders Panama. Mountain ranges bisect
the country in the same direction, and nearly touch the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean in places. The
high mountain ranges divide the country into two big regions: the Pacific and the Caribbean part. But
regions are very different in terms of people, culture and nature. Even the weather pattern over the year
differ in both regions. In the time of my visit it was the dry season in the Pacific part of Costa Rica, but
the wet season in the Caribbean part.
Even if I traveled through Costa Rica during the high season, I didn't experienced any problems with
reservations for hotels or transportation. Not even by the most popular attractions of the country there
were no crowds of tourists. If exceptionally there was a shortage of services, the reason for this was the
insufficient infrastructure, e.g. the too small mountain refuge, the only accommodation available for
people, who want to climb to the Mount Chirripo, the highest mountain in the country. Other than by my
previous travels I didn't bring the tent and the camping equipment to Costa Rica, because camping is
prohibited in the national parks and other protected areas. Additionally there are no any long distance
trails in the country, which would afford overnight stay in the wilderness.
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When Christopher Columbus first arrived at the Caribbean Coast in 1502, he was met by gold-toting members of
small indigenous communities established near modern-day city of Limon, the biggest city in the Caribbean
part of Costa Rica. Dazzled by the metal (and even more so by the tribe's quantity of it), Columbus returned
to Europe with tales that ignited tremendous greed and ambition. Spanish explorers came to Costa Rica -
literally, the 'Rich Coast' - soon after in search of wealth.
The wealth of the present-day Costa Rica bases mainly on the big areas with the pristine nature. The country
is filled with national parks, biological reserves, and other protected areas where waterfalls flow, birds
fly, and all kinds of wildlife species can be spotted. Those protected areas account for more than a quarter
of Costa Rica's landmass. The pristine nature lures tourists from all over the world to the country making
the tourism industry the cash cow of Costa Rica.
This small country excels at the big landscape diversity: long coast lines, pristine beaches, high
mountains, volcanoes etc. This is one of the reasons that Costa Rica belongs to the most biologically
diverse places in the world. Due to the protected status of many areas spotting wildlife is nearly
guaranteed here. Many seldom, nocturnal and shy species loose their fear of human and could be observed in
Costa Rica even in broad daylight.
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Please click on the photo above to see the travel report from my journey to Costa Rica.
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Costa Rica is a unusual country. Not only because it abolished its army and exemplary protects their nature.
The country is almost as equally expensive as many western countries, but its towns look and 'smell' like
third world towns. Due to the high price level many inhabitants of Costa Rica have hard life and need two or
more jobs to survive.
Nevertheless life in Costa Rica is 'pura vida'. Literally translated as 'pure life', the phrase represents
the low stress, unrushed lifestyle practiced by most Ticos (the name for Costa Rica's citizens). But not
seldom their famously laid-back lifestyle makes the life for foreign travelers more complicated as
necessary. I most often experienced the chaotic conditions in the country traveling by bus, the most common
mean of transportation in Costa Rica.
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The northern province Guanacaste is the hottest and driest in Costa Rica. At time of my travel the dry
season lasted there. Although it would be interesting to see the tropical dry forest covering this area too,
the drought-ridden months cause the trees to drop their leaves and make for a bare and exposed ecosystem
with little wildlife intensity. For this reason I constrained my travel to the central and southern parts of
Costa Rica, where hot and humid subtropical climate prevails.
The most interesting parts of Costa Rica are its national parks protecting the pristine nature. The
architecture and the life in the towns is not very interesting, with exception of some museums. There are a
lot of beautiful beaches in Costa Rica, but it wasn't my highest priority to make beach holidays. The same
is true for some partly dubious adrenaline rush activities like zip-lining over the cloud forest. For this
all my travel to Costa Rica consisted almost only of visiting the most spectacular national parks and other
protected areas.
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