Costa Rica Essay

Central America Central America, just south of Mexico and North of Panama, consists of just six countries; Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Of those six, all share a distinct common history except for Belize. Belize for one is incredibly small, and while Spanish is the official language of other Central American countries, in Belize English is spoken. So throughout this paper as I carelessly say 'Central American' I am not including Belize whose history and development was far different than the others. Although Central America is located close to the United States in relation to the Eastern Hemisphere, our ways of life are indescribably different.

Colombia, republic in South America, situated in the northwestern part of the continent, and bounded on the north by Panama and the Caribbean Sea, on the east by Venezuela and Brazil, on the south by Peru and Ecuador, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. Colombia is the only country of South America with coasts on both the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. The total land area of the country is 1,141,748 sq km (440,831 sq mi). The capital and largest city is Bogotá.

Costa Rica is currently at the population of 4,500,000. The national territory is 31,682 square miles. If you compare that to size of the United States at 3.79 million square miles, its a very small piece of land. The capital is San Jose located in almost the middle of the country. Spanish is the official language, like many of the other surrounding countries. Their currency is called colon which was named after Christopher Columbus. Catholic is

The mountainous country bordered by the Pacific Ocean, Guatemala, and Honduras in Central America. Known as the land of the Volcanoes, El Salvador, the only country in Central America that does not have a coastline on the Caribbean Sea. Having beautiful beaches on the coast of the Pacific Ocean and warm summers that make it impossible to withstand the heat. Most of the population is made up of the poor who do not have electricity or running water in their homes. My grandfather was is this social class and stayed for most of his life. El Salvador the land of dictatorship, volcanoes, and tortillas.

The daily life of the Dominican Republic is very interesting. During the day they do many different things like cleaning and doing crafts with others. They have to regular meals breakfast, lunch and dinner. Things that they would eat would be their national dish beans and rice. Rice was the most important crop for them.

Christmas means a lot to the Haitian culture because this signifies the birth of Jesus. They celebrate the birth of Jesus and mourn during the dates of December 23- January 6. New Year’s

     Ecuador is one of the smallest countries of South America. It lies on the West Coast of the continent between Colombia and Peru. The equator crosses Ecuador and gives the country its name. Ecuador is the Spanish word for equator.

We ate at a restaurant there in which the owner made ox carts. He did all of the woodwork using hydroelectricity with a waterwheel in the back. They were all also hand painted and hand carved pieces. It was very beautiful. We finally got to Turriabla that night. The next day we went to the college and botanical gardens of CATIE. In the botanical gardens we got to try all of the different fruits grown in Costa Rica. They are all very good and different tasting. Even the mangos and pineapples taste so much better there. Now that we are back I dislike the ones here. One example of something we tried there was called the miracle fruit. It made anything you ate afterwards that was sour taste sweet and it actually worked. We toured the coffee plantation there as well as the college campus and had more traditional Costa Rican food in the cafeteria there. Finally, in Turriabla we went to a fruit market and an ice cream shop and practiced our Spanish. We then prepared for our third stop.

Costa Rica has a narrow Pacific coastal region that rises abruptly into central highlands. The highlands, forming the rugged backbone of the country, descend much more gradually toward the generally wider Caribbean (Atlantic) Plain. The Pacific coast is generally lowland in character, and, like the Caribbean coast, it is lined with white sandy beaches. The country has made use of its

Many people immigrate to Costa Rica for the education and literacy rate there are extraordinary. There’s Many goods in Costa Rica such as Coffee Beans, Bananas, Lumber and Sugar and they are all exported from Costa Rica. The people from Costa Rica depend on fruit, mining, lumber and other resources the country has adapted to the area by building houses with area conditioning and bridges for areas that are separated by bodies of water they have also build dams that provide energy and big factories for producing mass production products they also have airlines, airplanes, the postal mail services and etc. They have also evolved in communication because back then they could only communicate through person and now they communicate through email, text, and

Costa Rican cuisine is known for being flavorful, yet fairly mild, with high reliance on fresh fruit and vegetables. Rice and black beans are a staple of most traditional Costa Rican meals, often served three times a day; gallo pinto, a breakfast dish of rice and beans mixed together with onions and bell peppers, is often considered the Costa Rican national dish.

Costa Rica has a surprisingly diverse geographic layout. It's land mass is roughly the same size as West Virginia, but has many mountains, gorgeous rivers and active volcanoes. Costa Rica is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the west and Pacific Ocean on the east.

“Estas flores aqui es Guaria Morada” he said pointing to a pink flower growing on the side of the path we were walking on. He was saying that it was the Guaria Morada, the national flower of Costa Rica. Alejandro also pointed the different trees out to us. The larger ones were Quanacaste, and most of the smaller ones were Costa Rican native trees that weren’t popular and almost extinct. While he was talking, a bright green frog jumped onto the tree he was talking about.

The beautiful island of the Dominican Republic is positioned in the Caribbean Sea, and it is a portion of the West Indies. Its region equals that of Vermont and New Hampshire combined. The Dominican Republic shares the land with Haiti and the whole island is known as Hispaniola. The Dominican Republic lies on the east side of

Three-fourths of Colombia is situated in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the same size as France, Spain, and Portugal combined. Colombia claims two islands San Andres and Providence. Colombia is located in the northern corner of South Canal. It is bordered by Panama, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, and Brazil. The Eastern half of Colombia is low jungle area. The Southern pacific is covered in marshy lowlands. Some of the Andes Mountains run into Colombia. The southern sector of Colombia runs through the Equator. Colombia’s Amazon Region is located in the Southern Hemisphere.