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In sharp contrast to the brutal internal conflicts in Guatemala or
the grinding poverty of Nicaragua, Costa Rica has become synonymous with
stability and prosperity - Costa Ricans enjoy the highest rate of
literacy, health care, education and life expectancy in the isthmus.
Unlike so many of its neighbours, the country has a long democratic
tradition of free and open elections, no standing army (it was abolished
in 1948) and even a Nobel Peace Prize to its name, won by former
president, Oscar Arias, a key architect in the Peace Plan that helped
bring an end to the conflicts in the region during the 1980s.
In recent years Costa Rica has also become the prime eco-tourism
destination in Central America, if not in all the Americas, due in no
small part to an efficient promotion machine that trumpets the country's
complex system of national parks and wildlife refuges. Every year
hundreds of thousands of visitors - mainly from the United States and
Canada - come to walk trails through million-year-old rainforests , raft
foaming whitewater rapids, surf on the Pacific beaches and climb the
volcanoes that punctuate the country's mountainous spine. More than
anything it is the enduring natural beauty that impresses. Milk-thick
twilight and dawn mists gather in the clefts and ridges divided by high
mountain passes; on the Pacific coast, carmine and mauve sunsets splash
down into the sea like meteors; vaulting canopy trees and thick
deciduous understoreys carpet large areas of undisturbed rainforest, and
vestiges of high-altitude cloudforest offer glimpses into a misty,
primeval universe, home to the jaguar, the lumbering Jurassic tapir and
the truly resplendent quetzal.
One glib accusation you're almost certain to hear lobbed at the tiny
nation is that it has no culture or history . It's certainly true that
there are no ancient Mesoamerican monuments on the scale of Guatemala or
Honduras, and just one percent of the population is of indigenous
extraction, so you will see little native culture. However, anyone who
spends some time in the country will find that Costa Rica's character is
rooted in distinct local cultures , from the Afro-Caribbean province of
Limón, with its Creole cuisine, games and patois, to the traditional
ladino values embodied by the sabanero (cowboy) of Guanacaste. Above all,
you're sure to be left with mental snapshots of la vida campesina , or
rural life - whether it be aloof horsemen trotting by on dirt roads,
coffee-plantation day-labourers setting off to work in the dawn mists of
the Highlands, or avocado-pickers cycling home at sunset.
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