About Costa Rica
My love affair with Costa Rica began over 10 years ago. I love to hunt great travel deals on the internet and one day I found an inexpensive all-inclusive package to Costa Rica at a resort in Puntarenas, 110km west of San Jose. I booked the trip, started to research Costa Rica on the internet and I bought several guide books. I learned that Costa Rica has world class surfing and fishing all along the Pacific Coast.
The day I had planned for finally came and I was on my way traveling to Costa Rica. As the plane descended from the clouds, I could see the tranquil blue waters of the Pacific Ocean and velvety green mountains of vegetation. It looked like we were flying into Hawaii.
As I drove from the airport to the resort, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that everything the guide books said about Costa Rica being different than Mexico or other Central American countries was true; we were not assaulted by malnourished children, beggars, juvenile gangs or graffiti.
The Costaricans (Ticos are what they call themselves) are friendly, clean, well educated and peaceful. They like and respect North Americans (they call us Gringos as a nickname, this is not said disrespectfully). They are clearly pleased when Gringos at least try to speak Spanish and will try to help you.
Costa Rica has a long tradition of democracy and equality similar to the USA.
It is a country where anyone who wants a job can find one and wages are the highest from here to the USA.
A Little History
On September 18th 1502, Columbus anchored near the city of Limon on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. He found this new land to have inhospitable jungles and swamps plus the natives owned only a few thinly pounded gold ornaments. He named this new land Costa Rica (rich coast) to impress the Spanish king with his find.
Several centuries passed before Costa Rica was colonized by the Spanish. The native Indians were fierce fighters who resisted becoming slaves or laborers and they withdrew deeper into the jungle. The Spanish were forced to work the land for themselves. From the very beginning all of the Spanish were equal, even the royal viceroy had to work his own land. The new Costaricans lived isolated lives. They were all but forgotten for centuries by the Spanish crown. Costa Rica was granted independence from Spain on September 15th 1821.
The first president of Costa Rica developed the coffee export by giving away free land to European families immigrating here if they were willing to become coffee growers. This continued the tradition of independence and equality. The spread between rich, middle and poor class was much narrower than other Central American countries and is still so today.
In 1824, the Nicoya – Guanacaste region seceded from Nicaragua and became part of Costa Rica.
In 1963, Cabo Blanco became Costa Rica’s first federally protected conservation area.
In 1987, Oscar Arias Sanchez won the Nobel Prize for his work on the Central American peace accords.
In 2006, Oscar Arias Sanchez was elected President of Costa Rica for the 2nd time.
Climates and Weather
Costa Rica has an astonishing range of climates, from the perpetual spring like weather of the San Jose area, the Arenal area and the misty rain forests of the Monte Verde area to the much dryer northern Guanacaste province and the tropical Caribbean.
There are only two seasons in Costa Rica, rainy winter and dry summer. The rainy winter season starts in June and lasts through November. September and October are the rainiest months and not a good time to visit Costa Rica. Many restaurants and small businesses are closed during this time.
Rainfall patterns, although seasonal, vary greatly in intensity across geographical areas. Most of the total rainfall for any given site occurs on less than 15 days of a whole year, and will often be experienced as days of torrential downpour.
The topography of the country also has a great influence on the weather patterns of a given area. The timing of the dry and rainy seasons varies on each slope of the mountain ranges that run from the north-west to the south-east and divide the nation into a Caribbean slope and a Pacific slope.
On the Caribbean slope the rainy season begins from mid to late April and continues through December and sometimes January. The wettest months are July and November, with a dry spell that occurs around August or September. Major storms, called "temporales del Atlantico". An average rainy season day will begin clear with a few hours of sunshine that will give way to clouds and rain by the afternoon. The driest months of February and March, might be almost entirely without rainfall.
On the Pacific slope the rainy season begins in May and runs its course until November. Days often begin sunny and pleasant, with rains coming later in the day. This is a period in which the trade winds coming from the north-east are much reduced in intensity, and as a result storms often come in from the Pacific Ocean in September and October. In the northern half of the country the Pacific slope experiences an intense dry season, in which no rain may fall for several months. Many of the trees of the North-West are deciduous, losing their leaves to conserve water.
I personally like July as it rains in the afternoon only enough to provide a glorious sunset with cooler temperatures. I’ve also had the best luck at this time of the year to view Arenal volcano.
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