Costa Rica

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Costa Rica is a country in Central America.

Factbook

CS Membership in Costa Rica:


Other Wikis about Costa Rica:


Contents

Language

The official language of Costa Rica is Spanish, though English may be unofficially considered as a second language. Mekatelyu English -- a derivative dialect of Jamaican and other Caribbean English -- is common in the Caribbean province of Limon.

English and sometimes French is taught at public schools. There are other private ones that teach in German, Hebrew, French, Mandarin, and Italian. As Costa Rica delves deeper into the international commerce scene, more and more people are learning a second language in order to enter the work force.

Places

Costa Rica has 7 provinces in 3 main geographic distributions:

Central Valley:
San Jose, Heredia, Alajuela, Cartago

Caribbean:
Limon

Pacific:
Puntarenas, Guanacaste

Meetings happen quite often in the Central Valley, mostly in San Jose and Heredia.

The San Jose CouchSurfers Club is the best place to see what activities are going on in the city, and the Costa Rica CouchSurfers Club will give you a great general overview of what CouchSurfers are doing all over the country. You can meet the most active local hosts in both of these groups.

Costa Rica is well know for its beaches and rainforests, some of the nicest ones are:

Monteverde Cloud Forest

How to get around

  • Bus:
    • Heres is the Official Government Bus Schedule
    • Public buses in the metropolitan area are very cheap (less than $1) and can take you anywhere
    • Buses going to tourist destinations usually leave from downtown San Jose (Coca Cola bus station) and can be anywhere from US $3 - US $10.
    • There are also many private bus companies, $29 from most major destinations in the country to another in an air conditioned shared van.
    • Taxis are very affordable and probably the easiest way to get around in the cities. Make sure the taxi meter is on ("maria"), or you will end up paying "gringo price". Another tip here is to check that the taxi drivers do not speed up the taxi meter. They sometimes make it go double fast.
      • You may want to avoid taking an orange airport taxi unless you are going all the way to San José - they are expensive for shorter distances. However, the fact that they are pre-paid at the airport terminal gives you added security that the regular official taxis don't have.
      • Also watch out for non-official taxis, which are a security risk, to say the least.
      • If you are in Liberia, Guanacaste - taxi should not cost you more than 1000 colones by current rates (april 2007). If inside the city of Liberia you should pay between 500-900 colones.
  • Train:
    • There is a train that goes from Pavas to San Pedro during the week, crossing San Jose. Also another train that goes to Limon on Weekends.
  • Airplane:
    • Multiple major international airlines have flights both into the San Jose (SJO: Juan Santamaria Airport) and Liberia (LIR: Daniel Oduber Airport). SJO airport is not in San José, it's actually in Alajuela. A lot of tourist destinations (Guanacaste, Quepos, Arenal, Monteverde) are actually west of Alajuela, so if any of those is your first stop there's really no reason to go into San José; public buses stop at the airport and shuttles can pick you up there too.
    • For domestic flights, check Nature Air and SANSA. The domestic airport in San Jose is located in Pavas (Serves only Nature Air, SANSA flies from the international airport in Alajuela)

Safety Tips

Costa Rica is one of the safest countries in Latin America. Violent crime is not a daily occurrence, however, you must watch out for petty crime which is quite common.

Here is an extensive list of Costa Rica Safety Tips.

Volunteering in Costa Rica

In Costa Rica you will find plenty of opportunities to volunteer. You can find a project either through a placement service or with the organization directly.

More information about Volunteering in Costa Rica.


CouchSurfers

Be sure to use the Couchsearch! function to find great couches throughout Costa Rica. If you need a couch last minute, please post on "Costa Rica last minute couch request"

You can also contact the Costa Rica Country Ambassador: CyrilTalkCS or the Heredia City Ambassador: Sarah Joy. One of them may be able to host you, or put you in contact with other hosts in the area.

Trivia

  • Was the first country to constitutionally disband its army
  • Has more programmers per capita than any other nation
  • Its main export is Computer Microprocessors
  • One of the world's most biodiverse countries, with 4% of the planet's total land species on just 0.03% of the world's land, and 3.5% of all marine life in just 0.16% of the planet's ocean.


Retrieved from "http://wiki.couchsurfing.com/en/Costa_Rica"
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