Costa Rica in a nutshell

Before we started our research on Costa Rica, we barely knew where the country was. Many confuse Costa Rica with the island of Puerto Rico. It does frequently land tourists

here who think they landed on an island. The country is located in Central America and is one of the countries that connects South and North America, borders Panama in the south and Niqaragua in the north. the country has two coasts, one facing the Pacific Ocean and the other facing the The Caribbean. We live in Uvita on the South Pacific coast.

Geography

The country is about 50,000 km2 - equivalent to the area of Jämtland.
Share of the land surface that is arable land: 4.9%
Land area with forest: 51.5%
30% of the country´s area is National Parks (approx. 8% of Sweden´s area is protected nature)
The country has 5 active volcanoes
Coastline: 1,290 km which faces the Caribbean Sea on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other side
Highest peak: Cerro Chirripo
3,810 m above sea level
Thanks to the country being close to the equator, the sun rises and sets at almost the same times all year round
The country has 12 different climate zones from calf mountain with subzero temperatures, to tropical rainforest.
The average temperature is 24 degrees in the highlands (where the capital San Jose is located) and 27 degrees in the lowlands.
Precipitation, up to 7600 mm/year! (Stockholm is the average 539 mm/year)
The sea temperature is an average of 27 degrees

Society

About 5 million inhabitants
One of the world´s blue zones. A blue zone is a special area of The earth where the average life expectancy is noticeably longer than the rest of the world. Nicoya in Costa Rica is one of these blue zones and there are plenty of people who live to be over 100 here. The secret is believed to be lifestyle, which includes a spirituality, healthy diet, good sleep, socializing and mineral-rich water.
It is one of the world´s most eco-friendly countries. Costa Rica has set itself the goal of becoming the first fossil-free country in the world and it is already well on its way, in total 99% of the country´s energy is renewable.
Costa Rica does not have a standing army. Only a few countries in the world are without a standing army. Costa Rica is one of these and the locals can pride themselves on being a friendly and peaceful country.
Street addresses do not exist! Our address for example 4 km north of Banco National. The postal service is basically non-existent, you have to go to an agent like DHL to pick up and drop off mail/packages.
As a car owner, you will be happy, no parking restrictions, no P fees, no P tickets, petrol costs 1/4 of the price in Sweden
Instead of saying that a woman has given birth to a child, one says "she gave light"

Animals & Nature

Costa Rica is home to a great diversity of plants and animals.
Many associate the country with the expression Pura Vida and is a tropical gem where you get to experience a fantastic mix of jungle, beach life and animal and nature life.
It is said that Costa Rica is home to between five hundred thousand and one million different kinds of plants and animals. Including 50,000 different species of insects, over 1,000 orchid species, over 200 different animal species, 850 bird species and a little over 200 reptile species, of which about half are snakes, most of them harmless.
As much as 27% of Costa Rica´s area is set aside for national parks, nature reserves, nature conservation areas or some other form of protected area, mainly state-owned, but also privately owned.
More and more private individuals in Costa Rica are buying up land to preserve it from devastation and human impact.
With more than a quarter of the country´s total area reserved for animals and the environment, Costa Rica is the country in the world with the largest percentage of area in nature conservation areas.
One of the explanations for Costa Rica´s biological diversity is that the country (together with the land area that is now Panama) three to five million years ago formed a bridge that came to connect the North and South American continents. The bridge made it possible for the different plants and animals to mix and the nature of Costa Rica became a real biological "hot spot".