COSTA RICA: (official name, Republic of Costa Rica), republic located in the south of Central America, borders to the north on Nicaragua, to east on the Caribbean sea, to the southeast on Panama, and on the south and west on the Pacific Ocean. The island of the Coco, uninhabited and placed to approximately 480 km to the south-west of the peninsula of Osa , in the Pacific Ocean , is part of the national territory. The surface of Costa Rica is 51.060 km ². The capital of the country is San Jose.

CLIMATE: Costa Rica presents a tropical climate with two stations, dries (December - April) and humid. His climate is warm and humid in the coastal flatness up to 1.000 m , with an average temperature or annual average of 28 ºC. Inside the Central plateau the climate becomes more agreeable, with an annual temperature between the 15 and 25 °C . From 2.000 m of altitude the climate is cold. The station of rains spreads from May until November and they are very abundant on the coast of the Carib. Due to his geographical position, the country is exhibited during almost the whole year to the winds trade winds of the northwest that come from the Carib and come loaded from moisture; for it, the coastal regions, most of the flatness of the north and the mountainous hillsides that receive these winds

NATURAL RESOURCES: The suitable soils for the agriculture concentrate on the Central plateau and on the vales of the rivers. 47 % of the surface of the country is covered by forests, many of which are economically productive. One believes that the mineral resources, especially the bauxite, are very abundant. The fishing of tuna, shark, turtle, in addition to molluscs and crustaceans, is carried out along all the coasts. The hydraulic, very abundant energy, it is made use by the industrial sector.
The territory of Costa Rica is protected by one of the programs from conservation more self-seekers of Central America : 9,3 % (2004) of the entire surface of the country is protected as national parks and other natural reservations. Some of his national parks are: Cahuita, Hunchbacked, Pink Saint, Chirripó, Braulio Carrillo, Sandbank, Volcano Poás or La Amistad.

VEGETATION AND FAUNA: The forests of Costa Rica are provided with rich reservations of ebony, raft, mahogany and cedar, in addition to oaks, cypresses, swamps, ferns, guácimos, ceibas and palms. The country is provided with more than 1.000 species of orchids and 225 species of reptiles (principally snakes or snakes). Animal savages abound, as pumas, jaguares, deer, monkeys, coyotes or armadillos, and there exist approximately 725 species of birds, between which they emphasize the quetzal, the goldfinch and the hummingbird.
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