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Costa Rica

Costa Rica is one of the several small nations that together comprise the isthmus of Central America.  The country's borders are defined by Nicaragua to the north and Panama to the south. This convergence of land and water makes the region a great bottleneck, which is rich in ecological diversity.  Costa Rica is divided into seven provinces: Alajuela, Cartago, Guanacaste, Heredia, Limón, Puntarenas and San José (also the Capital City). Most restaurants include a 10% service charge on the bill. Taxi drivers generally do not receive tips.  If you are satisfied with the service you’ve received, hotel maids, tour guides and drivers would appreciate a tip .

History of Costa Rica:

The first European explorer to encounter Costa Rica, Christopher Columbus, arrived on September 18, 1502. This was his forth and final journey to the New World. A crowd of local Carib Indians greeted his crew warmly as he was setting anchor off shore. Later, the Spaniard Gil Gonzalez Davila named the country Costa Rica, or Rich Coast, impressed by the golden bands that natives were wearing in their noses and ears.

Thousands of years before the arrival of Columbus, civilization existed in Costa Rica.  Evidence of human occupation dates 10,000 years back.  Perfectly spherical granite balls found near the west coast are among the cultural mysteries left by the pre-Columbian inhabitants.  Some are small as a baseball and ranging up in size to that of a Volkswagen bus. Guayabo National Park has ruins of an ancient city with aqueducts and some marvelous gold and jade work made approximately 1,000 years ago. Evidence of the Olmec and Nahuatl Mexican civilizations´ influence is found in archeological sites in the central highlands and Guanacaste.
By the time when Columbus arrived, there were four major native tribes: the Caribs (east coast), the Chibchas, Borucas, and Diquis (southwest). None of them survived as landowners after the arrival of Spanish colonialism. Many died due to the smallpox brought by the Spanish, some worked as slaves, and some ran away to the highest mountains, where their descendants live until this day, making 1% of the Costa Rican population. Due to the lack of indigenous labor African slaves were brought by the Spanish to work in the Caribbean coast. Recent studies suggest that 97% of the country’s inhabitants -which call themselves ticos- come from the mestizaje, which is the mixture of races among the Spaniards and the indigenous that remained in the Central Valley.

During the colonial period, Costa Rica was a tough and unpopular place to reside, with few easily exploited resources and a lack of a labor force. The Spanish were much more interested in living in Peru or Mexico, where vast amounts of silver and gold were being obtained by hundred thousands of indigenous slaves. Thus, the first unfortunate settlers were left largely to their own means in this country.  The first successful colonial city was established in 1562, when Juan Vásquez de Coronado founded Cartago, which later became the first capital city.

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