Costa Rica: Beautiful and Wondrous

Costa Rica is located in Central America. It's part of the land mass which connects North America and South America. Costa Rica is bordered by Panama to the south, The Pacific Ocean to the west, Nicaragua to the north, and the Caribbean Sea is its eastern border.

Costa Rica has many miles of beaches- approximately 635 miles on the Pacific side, and 132 miles on the Caribbean side. Costa Rica is about 10 degrees above the equator, so the climate is mostly tropical.

Since Costa Rica seats between two oceans and two continents, it has a wide variety of plant and animal species. Some have named Costa Rica has one of Mother Nature's greatest wonders. The country is defined as extremely bio-diverse, and is home to a huge number of plant and fauna species. Unbelievably, the region has 20 national parks, 8 biological reserves, and many other protected areas, guaranteed to thrill the most devoted nature lover.

There are seven provinces in Costa Rica: Alajuela, Cartago, Heredia, Limon, Guanacaste, Puntarenas, and San Jose. The ecotourism focus is evident in all these areas, as you experience a wide variety of natural formations, including rainforests, mountains, beaches, rivers and volcanoes. In addition, you can see more than 2000 kinds of trees, 200 species of mammals, 800 kinds of ferns, and 1,000 kinds of orchids. Clearly, there are many things to do in Costa Rica.

Five percent of all known animals live in Costa Rica. In fact, the land bridge that Costa Rica sits on is thought to be responsible for the diversity of animals within the country, as some traveled down from North America, and some traveled up from South America.

And the natural charm doesn't stop there. As mentioned previously, Costa Rica has several hundred miles of coastline- and where there is coastline, there are beaches. The edge of the country has hundreds of miles of beaches, with the ones on the Pacific side being more secret, less developed, and smaller than those on the Caribbean side. The interior geography of the country is defined by mountains which run from north to south. The country's capital, San Jose, is in the center of Costa Rica, and sits within a mountain valley.

Due to the presence of beaches and mountains, Costa Rica has a unique geographic environment. It has seven active volcanoes, along with several dormant ones. It also has a large network of rivers, in addition to the beaches and mountains we've already covered.

Costa Rica is definitely like paradise. Due to its location, temperatures are constant throughout the year, varying only a few degrees through the seasons. Since it is a tropical country, days are usually hot, but the nights bring with them a cool tropical breeze.

If you want to experience lounging at the beach, hiking in the mountains, and getting up close with all kinds of animals and plant species, you won't find a better place to do this than Costa Rica.