WHO WE ARE

There are four distinct mountain ranges or cordilleras in Costa Rica. The northernmost range is the Cordillera de Guanacaste consisting of a loosely connected chain of volcanoes of moderate height that are separated by comparatively low passes. The Cordillera de Tilaran roughly extends from the town of Tilaran southeastward to the Montes del Aguacate, between San Ramon and Atenas. The Cordillera de Tilaran is the shortest and lowest of the four major mountain ranges. The highest point of the Tilaran range is Cerro Los Amigos (1,842 m) located in Monteverde.

The Cordillera Central is home to the most imposing and familiar Costa Rican volcanoes including Poas Volcano, Barba or Barva Volcano, and Volcanoes Irazu and Turrialba that are located on the Caribbean slope.

The Cordillera de Talamanca extends from near Cartago southeastward into Panama, is the most extensive upland region in Costa Rica and contains the highest summits. The Pacific slope of the Cordillera de Talamanca is, in general, much steeper than the Caribbean slope. The highest Talamanca peaks are Cerro Chirripó (3,819 m), the highest in the country, and Cerro Kamuk (3,549 m), on the Caribbean side.

Costa Rica lies 10 degrees north of the equator and is part of the bridge that links North America to South America. Because of this geographic location, a favorable tropical climate and diverse habitats endemic species and flora and fauna characteristic of both North and South American can be found in Costa Rica. Costa Rica lies between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans and is bordered by Nicaragua to the north and Panama to the south.

The highly varied topography produces a remarkable range of climate conditions. The wet and the dry seasons are controlled largely by northeast trade winds, mountain ranges that form a backbone than runs the length of Costa Rica, and the doldrums. The dry season, referred to as summer (Verano, in Spanish), usually lasts from December to April in San Jose and the west and until May in Guanacaste. During the dry season the Guanacaste region may receive little to no rainfall. The Caribbean slope is driest from February to April, although there is no distinct dry season due to moisture-laden trade winds coming from North America that produce rain year-round over the Caribbean slope.

The Ministerio de Educacion or Ministry of Education manages education for all of Costa Rica. Several articles in the Constitution of Costa Rica ensure the integrity of the education system. For example, Article 79 guarantees the freedom of education and Article 80 decrees that the government should stimulate private education. Jose Maria Castro, the country’s first elected president was also a teacher, and because of his reforms and those of subsequent presidents, Costa Rica became the first country in the world where education became free and obligatory in 1869. Many of Costa Rica’s leaders have been educators and placed great emphasis on the expansion of primary and secondary education.


Costa Rica has one of the best educational systems in Latin America. Every community has elementary and high schools. All public schools use this system, but private grammar and high schools use an American or European system. Public school students are required to wear official uniforms to reduce social and economic distinctions among students.

Costa Rica has no army and combined with its long-standing commitment to the social and educational welfare of its citizens has produced a highly developed health care system. Currently Costa Rica devotes about 10% of GNP to health care resulting in service rates of one physician for every 700 people and a hospital bed for every 275 Costa Ricans. Costa Rica is known worldwide for high quality, low-cost health care and medical tourism for procedures such as cosmetic plastic surgery life-saving operations like bypass and heart transplants and high-quality dental work, from fillings to implants. Because of Costa Rica’s well-equipped modern clinics and hospitals and well-trained and highly-skilled medical community, many Latin Americas travel to Costa Rica for medical needs such as, hip replacement and heart valve replacement.

Although Costa Rica is a small country, 51.1 km2 that covers 0.03% of the planet’s surface and governs589, 000 km2 of territorial waters, Costa Rica is one of 20 countries with the highest biodiversity. Costa Rica’s geographic position, coastlines on two oceans, and mountain systems, provide numerous and varied microclimates, support tremendous natural wealth, both in species numbers and ecosystem diversity. Costa Rica contains more than 500,000 species, nearly 4% of the total species found worldwide.

A little over 25% of the country’s territory is under some level of protection, and this percentage continues to increase thanks to the support of the private sector, that has created many private reserves dedicated to ecotourism and research. Unlike most countries, Costa Rica has invested substantial resources into the well-being and conservation of natural resources and biodiversity for the enjoyment of present and future generations.