Have you ever wondered about the country your neighbors always visit? They always come back tan, and usually talkative about their experience. Recently, a friend of mine just came back from such a trip. They went to Costa Rica. Costa Rica is a beautiful country that attracts lots of tourism. It is a fun place to hang at the beach, or hang anywhere. But what’s on the inside? Inside is a deep, rich culture that I will be telling you about. Costa Rica’s landscape contains lots of valleys and some mountain ranges. Of course, it also has access to the sea. The climate varies according to what part of Costa Rica you are in. Some places it can be a humid, lowland jungle. Others, arid mountain peaks. In the Meseta Central (where about two thirds …show more content…
A vicious storm had caught Columbus off guard, so he took refuge to boost his crew’s moral. They beached on what Columbus called The Bay of Cariari (which in near today’s Limon). They took shelter there for 17 days. During those 17 days, Columbus had caught the attention of the natives, who were friendly and treated the newcomers with friendship. Columbus returned to Spain with a large amount of gold, which gave the subtle impression that Veragua (the name Columbus had given the eastern coast from Honduras to Panama) was filled with riches, and could the native people easily. Some years later, King Ferdinand of Spain sent the governor Diego de Nicuesa to settle “Veragua”. When Nicuesa got there, though, he was not greeted as eagerly as Columbus. Before Nicuesa’s crew had even got to Veragua, they had lost about half of the crew. When they finally reached Veragua, the natives refused to help the explorers. They even burnt their own crops to avoid feeding the explorers. Since Costa Rica had formidable terrain, and all the natives were scattered across it, the usual attack-and-conquer move that was usually put in didn’t work so well. In the end, Spain’s attempt at colonizing Veragua was a failure. The spanish were the ones who settled Costa Rica first (no surprise). They had found an new entry point to Costa Rica with the discovery of the Pacific Ocean. The first spanish settlements …show more content…
Like America, the government is run by an elected president, and a council of government. Costa Rica has seven provinces that is each run by a governor. All of the provinces are split up into a total of 81 counties, and 421 districts. Today, Costa Rica is the only country that doesn’t have a working military. It actually has no army or military of any kind. It has a density of about 203.5 people per square mile. The total population of Costa Rica is about 4.0 million people (as of 2000). Costa Rica has a pretty high literacy rate, which is about 96.2%. The area of Costa Rica is about 51,000 square kilometers (or 19,652 square miles). The capital city is San Jose, which is also the major metropolitan center. Costa Rica contains thousands of animal, plant and insect species. Also, Costa Rica is a country with one of the highest amount of protected land. They have dedicated 25% of their national land to the national parks, or biological, marine, and land reserves. As well as some other natural wildlife