10 Interesting Facts about Costa Rica

These following facts about Costa Rica might make you want to visit this country. If you have enough time to travel around the world, then Costa Rica is going to be one of your favorite country to visit on your list. Costa Rica, as you know, is a country in Central America, which is bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east. To get to know more about it, below are other facts about Costa Rica you may be interested in.

Facts about Costa Rica 1: Biodiversity

If we’re talking about Costa Rica’s biodiversit, it itself hosts more than 5% of the world’s biodiversity even though its landmass only takes up 0.03% of the planets surface.

Facts about Costa Rica 2: Costa Rican Diet

The staples of the Costa Rican diet are rice and black beans, along with bread, chicken or meat, vegetables, salads, and fruits.  Rice and beans mixed together for breakfast is called Gallo Pinto.

Facts about Costa Rica 3: Terms

It’s unique when we find something different from a country. For example, Costa Ricans refer to themsleves as “Ticos” (males) and “Ticas” (females).  Foreigners are often called “Gringos” (males) and “Gringas” (females).

Facts about Costa Rica 4: Names

Names are confusing in Costa Rica.  Ticas do not take their husband’s last name.  The woman uses her full maiden name for life.  No changing of national ID cards, drivers licenses, etc.  She also adds her mother’s maiden name. Children take their father’s name.

Facts about Costa Rica 5: Coastline and Volcanic Formation

There are about 801 miles of coastline in Costa Rica while otherwise there are also more than 121 volcanic formations there. Seven of them are active. Poas Volcano has the second widest crater in the world and Arenal is the most active.

Facts about Costa Rica 6: Faunas

Every countries have at least, one special characteristic of fauna. Monkeys are one of the most common mammals in Costa Rica, next to bats.  The four common species are the Howler, Spider, White-Faced and Squirrel.

Facts about Costa Rica 7: Insects

There are about 750,000 species of insects that live in Costa Rica, including about 20,000 different types of spiders. Also, more than 10% of the worlds butterflies live here.

Facts about Costa Rica 8: Government

The Costa Rican government is democratic, with presidential elections every 4 years. While on the election, there are no standing army.

Facts about Costa Rica 9: Climate and Season

They don’t really have summers and winters like the United States or in subtropical countries. However, they only have 2 seasons a year. A dry season runs December-April and a rainy season runs May-November.

Facts about Costa Rica 10: Female President

Costa Rican president Laura Chinchilla is the first woman president of Costa Rica.

Those following facts about Costa Rica might be really interesting to you to read. The country has itself really unique with its culture and biodiversity and floras and even fauna. These things are going to make Costa Rica more interesting than ever. Hope you would find Costa Rica facts interesting and useful.