About Costa Rica

Costa Rica, republic located to the south of Central America, limited to the north by Nicaragua, to the east by the Caribbean Sea, to the southeast by Panama and to the Southwest and west by the Ocean Pacific. The Isla del Coso (island of Coconuts) is inhabited and has dense forest, around 480 km to the Southwest of in the Ocean Pacific, is low Costa Rican sovereignty. The total area of Costa Rica is of 51,060 km2.

The capital of the country is San José.

Land and Resources
Most of Costa Rica is formed by mountainous land, around 1830 m on the level of the sea. Several mountainous chains they extend along almost the whole country. These include the Mountain range of Talamanca, Central Mountain range and the Mountain range of Guanacaste. The highest picks are Chirripó, Big (3819 m /) and the active volcano of Irazú (3432 m). The Central Plateau is located among the mountain ranges and it contains most of the population. Wide plains extend along the coast of the Caribbean. The plains of the Pacific they are but you narrow. Here the coast is interrupted for several bays, being the main ones the Gulf of Nicoya, the Gulf of Sweet and Bay and Crowned Bay. The main river of the one country is the San Juan that is part of the frontier of the country with Nicaragua, to the north.

Climate
The climate of Costa Rica varies from the tropical one in the plains coastal to temperatures tempered in the interior plateaus. Those temperatures annual averages vary among 31.7° C in the coast and 16.7° C in the interior. A rainy season extends from April or May until December. The average of annual precipitation in the country it is of around 2540 mm.

Natural resources
Those good floors for the agriculture are concentrated in the Plateau Central and in the valleys of the rivers. Around a third it leaves of the total area it is covered for forests, many of those which are productive commercially. The mineral resources, including bauxite, they are extensive, but they remain in their majority without being developed. The hydroelectric energy is you are plentiful yourself and it is used for industrial operations.

Plants and Animals
The Costa Rican forests are rich in ebony, raft, mahogany and cedar. In Costa Rica they are more than 1000 species of orchids. The wild fauna is abundant and it includes pumas, jaguars, deer, monkeys and around 725 species of birds.

Population
Most of the population from Costa Rica is of origin European (mainly Spanish). The targets and mestizos constitute around the population's 96 percent; the small community quarter note is mainly of Jamaican origin. Around the 50 percent of the population is rural. Spanish is the official language, but English is spoken by some of the Jamaican descendants. The Roman Catholicism is the state religion, but the freedom of cult it is guaranteed by the constitution.

Characteristic of the population
The population from Costa Rica (dear of 1995) it is of around of 3,424,000, giving to the country a populational density of 67 people for km2.

Politic Division
Costa Rica is divided in seven counties: San José, Alajuela, Carthage, Puntarenas, Guanacaste, Heredia, and Lemon. Each one of the counties he/she has a governor named by the president.

Main Cities
The capital is San José, with a population estimated in 1991 of 296,625. Important cities are Lemon (population, dear of 1991, 67,784), a trade center and one of the main ones ports of the country; Puntarenas (92,360), an important port in the Pacific; and Alajuela (158,276), a center for the production of coffee and sugar.

Education
Costa Rica has one of the lowest indexes of illiteracy of Latin America ,estimado by 7 percent. The primary education and secondary is free, and the attendance is obligatory among the ages of 6 and 13. At the beginning of the 1990s around 453,300 students were signed up in some 3300 primary schools public and around 139,300 asistín some 256 high schools public and private. The important University of Costa Rica, in San José, it was founded in 1843.

Culture
Costa Rica, with a population Indian native small reletivamente, it has been strongly influenced by the culture and traditions of Spain. The pattern cultural Roman Catholic, with emphasis in the family and the church, it has evolved toward a lifestyle national. The festivals in patron saints honor are a part colorful of the life of towns and villages. The guitar, the accordion and the mandolin traditionally has been the musical instruments more popular and the reflective music a Spanish inheritance.

Government
Costa Rica is a republic governed under a constitution of 1949.

Executive.
The Executive Power is invested in a president and two vice-presidents, each one of which it is chosen by direct vote popular for a period of four an˜o. Each candidate should to receive more than 40 percent of the votes. The vote is obligatory for all the citizens bigger than 18 years of age. The president it is attended by a cabinet of about 20 ministers.Legislative.
The Power Legislative in CostaRica is constituted for an Assembly Legislativa of a single camera, with 57 deputies, chosen by four year-old terms.

Political Parties.
The main political groups in Costa Rica are the Party of National Liberation, or PLN, to an organization reformadora, and the Party of Unit Social Christian.

Judicial Power.
The Judicial Power in Costa Rica is constituted by one Cut Supreme, appeal courts, a cassation court, and cut provincial. The capital pain has been eliminated.

Social Services
The expectation of life average in Costa Rica is of 78 years, the more high of the western hemisphere. A national plan of health it was estabecido in the 1970s. The sericios of health is concentrated in urban areas. A program of social security has been in operation from 1942, with obligatory participation for all the employees smaller than 65 years.

Defense
Costa Rica has not had armed forces from 1948, when the one PLN assumed the power and it eliminated the army. The only forces of security they are the Civil Watch of 4500 members and the Watch Rural of 3200 members.

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