Beautiful places in Costa Rica

 

Some of the most beautiful places in Costa Rica:

A mountain landscape, the rio celeste, the costa rican forest, the mountains of San Ramon, and the waterfall at Sarapiqui 

Link: 10 Wonders of Costa Rica

Costa Rica Adventure Activities - Part III

Costa Rica has Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, both with beautiful beaches framed by lush green forests. Depending on your expectations, and the activities that you want to enjoy, you may chose which beach is better for you. The Caribbean beaches such as Puerto Viejo, Punta Cocles and Manzanillo are specially good for relaxing vacations, while the ones in Guanacaste are very good for surfing and scuba diving. Manuel Antonio beach is one of the most visited beaches in the country and the ones in the South side of Costa Rica are virginal, wild and untouched.

With more than 212 volcanoes, Costa Rica is such an exotic wildly beautiful country. Most of these volcanoes are dormant or dead, and only 7 are active. These active volcanos are: Arenal, Irazu, Poas, Turrialba, Miravalles, Rincon de la Vieja and Tenorio. All of these volcanos are located in national parks, and they offer numerous trails and facilities to enjoy the wonders of the natural phenomena. Experience the hot muddy spots, fumarolas, thermal waters, and lava.

If you are a waterfall lover you have come to the right place. Just by driving through Costa Rica you can find hundreds of beautiful waterfalls of all sizes. Some of them are touristicly exploited, such as La Fortuna Waterfall, Celeste River Waterfall and Angel Waterfall, among others.

Canyoning in Costa Rica is all an adventure. There are three places where we offer this tour; the first one is in La Fortuna with 4 waterfalls and one drop, the second one is in Monteverde in the middle of the Cloud Forest, and finally in Rincon De la Vieja close to an active volcano located on the norht of Costa Rica.

Link: Costa Rica Adventure Tours

Coronado Mountain Biking Routes in Costa Rica

Coronado (Vazquez de Coronado) is a still rural place close to San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. It is a great place to practice mountain biking. There are many different routes depending on physical level required. The main biking route to Coronado is the main street that leads to the beautiful gothic Catholic church of Coronado donwtown. The most adventurous ones, continue the road towards Las Nubes de Coronado, where the landscape its a dream, with "potreros" and farming houses. Farther tan Las Nubes is Cascajal, where the paved road ends and the graved road begins.

There are many others, but one tat I personaly like a lot is the path that begins in Dulce Nombre, towards La Gallera, and detours on a graved road that leads to El Rodeo. on the way, which is hard, you will see amazing landscapes, beautiful houses, cows walking around, a Paintball location and a hidden bar in the mountains. Once on the top you can end the route down hill towards the Coronado Church or you can continue to Chocó further into the countryside.

Along te road, on weekends you will see a few people walking the same route and small groups of bikers proving themselves with this medium hard route.

For more information about the Canton you may visit the Coronado Municipality. Sometimes they have information about the races and competitions done in site. Or you can also buy the local news paper called El Coronadeño, which have important news about the events in the area.

If you want to try any of these routes or any other in the country you may visit the numerous options available. For more information about Costa Rica biking routes, please visit Banana Adventure Tours.

La Carreta - Costa Rica Culture

La Carreta is one of the national symbols of Costa Rica. The origin of the Carreta came from Spain on the 16th century, and underwent a series of modifications according to the culture of the country, to become what is now.

The first type of Carreta was the so called Cureña; it was very simple, built out of rough woods, with a triangular base, and with no painting. It was in the Central Valley where the Carreta was painted and stylized, around the 20th century. It was commonly use to carry coffee to the port. The design of the wheels is usually base on nature and the use of color is very important. The Boyeros are the people who accompanied the Carreta along the bulls. La Carreta has become a national symbol of Costa Rica and can be seen in many traditional places, or in the parades the Boyeros do during the year in many places of the country.

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Other interesting links:

Costa Rica Culture
Las Mascaradas - Costa Rica Culture
Costa Rica Architecture

Costa Rica: Public transportation in San Jose

Costa Rica has a pretty good public transportation service, connecting many different places from San Jose Downtown. Most places and all touristic places in the country can be reached by public pus with a low fee, although it may take few hours depending of the location. Inside the Metropolitan area, including San Jose, Heredia, Alajuela, and Cartago, there are pretty good public transportation services, with very good schedules:


San Jose - Alajuela and Airport: every 10 minutes from 4:20 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.

San Jose - Cartago: every 10 minutes from 5:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

San Jose - Heredia: every 10 minutes from 5:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.


There are also regular buses to the surrounding areas of San Jose, such as Guadalupe, Coronado, Moravia, Desamparados, Alajuelita, Paseo Colon, Escazu, Santa Ana, and many more.

As for taxis, there are many around the city and the whole Metropolitan Area. The taxis use a taximeter they called Maria, which indicates the price to pay at the end of the ride; the Marias have a minimum for the first kilometer, after that, the prices goes up. Touristic locations also have taxis available, although some do not use taximeters, but they use a set price for each ride. People can stop a taxi in the street or they can call the Taxi company to ask for one to come to a specific location.


Link: Visit Costa Rica

Las Mascaradas - Costa Rica Culture

The dance of Las Mascaradas is a tradition very practiced by all Costa Ricans. Las Mascaradas are huge clowns, with big heads that dance in the streets. The most common clowns are La Giganta, el Diablo, la Muerte, el Policía, and la Calavera. They are present in almost every cultural activity of the country, especially in the regional fairs and the small town’s fiestas. They come accompanied by La Cimarrona, which are a group of people that play special Costa Rican music, with trumpets and drums.

Costa Rica Architecture

Costa Rica is a relatively young country, and its architecture is too. After the colonization, the Spaniards built what we later called colonial houses; however, little by little these buildings disappeared to open spaces to other kind of architecture. It is safe to say that from all Latin-American, Costa Rica, is one of the very fewest countries, which does not have a wide Colonial legacy such as the city of Granada in Nicaragua, Colón in Panama, Antigua in Guatemala, and Coro in Venezuela, among many others. Nevertheless, there are some great buildings that get noticed by tourists that come to the country. Among these buildings are:

National Theater, which opened on 1897, is located in downtown San Jose, Plaza de la Cultura.

Metalic Building (Edificio Metálico), located in front of Parque Morazan is just a beautiful and intriguing building. It was built in Belgium and brought by boat to Costa Rica in pieces, which were later ensemble in the country.


Other interesting historical buildings in San Jose and the Metropolitan area are the National Museum, which just to be a fort, and Heredia Fortin, located in Heredia city.

About the houses, in San Jose you can find from very luxurious houses to very small middle class houses, mostly build from wood, or plywood, with zinc roof. There are a lot of faraway areas that belong to San Jose; places such as Gallera, Monserrat, Purral, etc. In each little town or residential you will find the Pulperias, which are small basic markets where people living close by can get what the need at a good price.


Link: Visit Costa Rica

Winners of the Worlds Series Green Cup

Yolanda Magallón (Bikezona Massi) and Santiago Arnés (BH Pro Teams) won the Wolrds Series Green Cup. This Cup was a duatlon that took place in Los Lagos Arenal, Costa Rica. Los Lagos Hotel was the place that sponsored the 5th International Series Green Cup, on the Arenal Volcano skirts; it took place on November 29, 2009. It was a hard biking ride after a run around the volcano for 10 kilometers.

More about Worlds Series Green Cup

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Costa Rica Culture

Costa Rica was conquered by Spanish in the 16th century, so from the beginning it was heavely influenced by the Spanish culture. Limon and the Cordillera de Talamanca are the exception with the predominancy of Black Jamaicans and indigenous people. The Ticos and Ticas (the way Costaricans demoninate themselves) are generally of mixed origins. There was a great number of immigrants who came to Costa Rica during the construction of the railroad; mostly the immigrants came from Jamaica and from China, and stayed in the Caribbean side of the country on Limon Porvince.

Costa Ricans speak Spanish, although there have been a great effort from the government to teach English in most schools due to the wolrd necesities nowadays. Normally Ticos and Ticas speak in the respectful manner of "usted", and in the familiar form of "vos" rather than "tu", used in other latianmerican countries. The term Ticos and Ticas came from the way Costa Ricans talk using diminutives with the suffixing -ito and -ita.

Read more about Costa Rica Culture.

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Costa Rica Adventure

Costa Rica has so much to offer. It is a tropical country located on Central America, which has both coasts, Pacific and Caribbean, many active volcanoes, great mountains, lush green forests and swamps. It is truly a place to enjoy family adventures and high adrenaline adventures. There are so many types of adventure activities to do, that it makes Costa Rica a never end place of fun.


There are canopy tours (zip plining) located in every region of the country, canoynning tours and rappel on beautiful waterfalls, white water rafting of different intensity (from Class I to Class IV - V), ATV (four wheelers), bungee jumping, kayaking, mountain biking, surfing, horseback riding, and hiking among many others, Depending if you want low intensity adventure enjoying the forests, biodiversity, volcanoes and hot springs, or if you would like to try high intensity adventure involving white water rafting, canyonning and bungee jumping, Costa Rica is the place to be.

Adventures in Costa Rica

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