Housing and Investments

Housing Rentals and Apartments can still be a bargain and Condos, 
which have the advantage of already having phone lines and cable set
up. Utilities are inexpensive, compared to the United States. You can
vacation at the beach or rainforest, in rustic Cabinas for as little as:
$20.00, $25.00 to $30.00 a night!

There also are good deals to be found with real estate in Costa Rica,
as property values will continue to rise in the coming years. So this
is your opportunity, to own a piece of Paradise, with a high quality of 
life that is unsurpassed.
 

And Costa Rica is a tax haven, with many opportunities of investment
that can not be found anywhere else. Permanent Residency requirements,
are liberal, but getting harder after 911.  They either require an investment
in Costa Rica or proof of a regular monthly income.

The Children
 

In 1987, a group of Swedish elementary school children 
raised and donated enough money to purchase 15 acres
of rainforest.
 

Now, with support from young people in the United States, England,
Japan, Canada and Costa Rica, the "Children's Eternal Rain Forest",
(being saved "by" and "for" children), covers some 20,000 acres,
(8,000  hectares), adjacent to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve.


The Children's International Theater for the Environment also develops
young people's environmental awareness through both local and
international production of plays by children.

The Culture

The blood that flows in the veins of the people of this
Republic, is too generous. The Costa Ricans are a people
of such excellent mettle and are ardently patriotic.
 

They are very proud of their independence, their autonomy,
and of their prosperity.  An air of ease, combined with 
antique simplicity, characterizes the majority of these villages.
 

The Costa Rican has a graceful sense of the universal corruption, around
him, but he actually believes that it can and will get better. Travelers to
Costa Rica find it difficult to identify the feeling, the sense that Costa
Ricans are somehow different from those in other Central American
countries, but Visitors notice it in subtle ways.

In Costa Rica the vendor displays artful pyramids of Avocado, apples,
mango, cashew fruit, papaya and dozens of fruits that are never seen
in the United States.  In the small towns of Costa Rica there is a 
connectedness, a familial unity, that is tangible to all one's senses.

There is a formal kindness, even a sweetness to the way in which they
speak Spanish. "Ticos" are politically temperate, shy and not aggressive.
They are a prudent people, respectful and discreet.

Perhaps that is why the big city of San Jose' can feel unreal at times,
as though it is out of place and time, because it is a basic contradiction,
to  the  terms  of  Costa  Rica.

Costa Rica is somewhere that is more idealized and more precious
like treasured remembrances of things past. One wants to protect it,
to shield it from the gross intrusion of foreign influence.

Geography

Costa Rica is definitely not an island, in the Caribbean. Although, it 
does have a Caribbean Coast and Culture. 
It is in the center of the Central America 
"Isthmus". 

Traveling around the countryside, one has 
the sense of being in a large country, 
geo-physically, there are so many things 
going  on.

There is the feeling, that it would take months to really explore it all.
Yet it is, in terms of physical size a small country with less than 20,000
square miles. It is one of the smallest countries in Latin America. 

It is bounded on the north by Nicaragua and to the south by Panama.
Two  countries, often in the international news and two countries
profoundly different from this usually benevolent and prosaic land. To 
the east, is the tranquil Caribbean Sea and to the west, is the 
tumultuous Pacific Ocean. 

Costa Rica is as complex and perhaps more diverse than any place
of it's size. Divided into several distinct regions, each of them looks
and feels as an entirely separate place.
 

Perhaps it is the hot coastal plains in the tropical zones, with it's 
rolling wild grasses and plantations of palms and banana trees, or 
the thickly-forested valleys and coastlines, fringed with beaches of 
every description, that drew many of the early travelers here.

Or perhaps, it is the fertile Central Plateau in the temperate zone,
higher at 3,200 - 6,500 feet, with it's rich, fecund cloud forests and 
magical tropical jungles, which has attracted an international 
community of conservationists, biologists, birdwatchers, 
environmentalists, naturalists, and the ecologically attuned.

And many a Northern European or "Gringo" from Midwestern
or Northern United States or Canada has found Costa Rica's
cool highlands, to be an ideal place, consisting of gently rolling, 
wooded pasture land, that are reminiscent more of Switzerland
than a tropical country. 

The highland mountains  traverse Costa Rica, from the Northwest
to the Southeast in three ranges, rising to more than 12,500 feet.
These are the magnificent Guanacaste, Central and Talamanca
Ranges.

Never far away, is the coastline. There are many easily accessible
points throughout the country from where you can simultaneously
view both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

The Atlantic coast measures only 135 miles in length, while the
Pacific coast of Costa Rica, with its deep gulfs and indentations, 
is several times that length.  On the pacific there is the Nicoya
Peninsula to the north and the Osa Peninsula to the south.

Each of these large Peninsulas harbor numerous small islands.
And remote and mysterious, many miles off the Pacific Coast,
is the exceptionally beautiful and still pristine Coco Island.

Running as veins of a precious ore,  through the body of the
country, is a network of waterways and rivers. They rise and fall,
through the mountains, flow to the sea on both coasts and provide
a seemingly endless source of fresh water and hydraulic power.

The soil of the Central Valley is exceptionally fertile, due primarily
to the volcanic ash, which has fallen through the centuries.

The rich, drainable soil, is ideal for producing Costa Rica's coffee
and exceptional Cigar Tobacco Crops and traveling through the high
country, one can view seemingly endless coffee fincas, with their
deep green, jewel-like foliage flowing up impossibly steep ridges
and across the floor of great alluvial valleys. Remnants of the ancient
art of  Terrace Farming from the Mayans.

Although most of Costa Rica's volcanoes are extinct, there are
some which are still active.

Poas  Volcano, at  8,900  feet,  is  located  not  far  from  the 
town  of  Alajuela,  and  has  what  may  be  the  world's 
largest  crater,  measuring  more  than  a  mile  in  diameter.

And Irazu Volcano, at 11,322 feet, not far from the city of Cartago,
is active and can be viewed at relatively close range.

On some nights, Irazu provides a fiery show, but it pales in 
comparison, to the rumbling, explosive spectacle of  Arenal Volcano,
at 5,538 feet in height, which is the most consistently active of 
Costa Rica's Volcanoes.

Other mountains are Chirripo' Grande, at 12,532 feet, and Terbi, at 
12,512 feet, the highest elevation points in the country.

Although geographically situated in what earlier travelers used to 
call the "torrid zone", the great majority of Costa Rica's population
are never really torrid at any time of  the year. 

Living as they do, for the most part on the Central Plateau at 
elevations between 1,500 feet and 6,500 feet, in very acceptable
"perennial springtime" temperatures of between 68 and 78 degrees,
morning, noon and night.

However, near the coasts the temperatures are indeed "tropical"
and there are distinct alternating wet and dry seasons, at different
times of the year, for both the  Atlantic and  Pacific.

And for those people that do live year round at the ocean's edge 
there are certain times when they will be overwhelmed by the
"too sensuous" hot and humid midday air and be driven, as most
species are, to seek shade and hopefully, onshore trade winds, for 
a 2 to 3 hour "siesta".

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