Costa Rica Factoids

* Costa Rica is about the same size as Maine;
* Dry season or summer is December to April;
* Currency is the Colon, about 500 Colon per USD;
* Costa Rica is GMT -6, the same as CST in the US;
* The indiginous people of Costa Rica - originally Chorotegas people from the North (think Aztec) and Chibcha from South America once numbered 400,000;
* By the year 1675 that number dwindled to under 500 - fewer than 1% of current population decends from these 500 - current population = 4.1M;
* Gil Gonzales Davila first settled Costa Rica from Panama in 1522, natives wore gold wrist bands so he named it the "rich coast" (aka Costa Rica);
* 09/15/1821 Costa Rica gained independence from Spain, however didn't know it till October when a mule messenger brought the news;
* Coffee and Bananas, Costa Rica's primary exports, are not indiginous to the area;
* Current President Oscar Arias is a Nobel Peace Price winner (1987);
* Costa Rica speaks spanish, but often -ico or -ito is added to words to make them more cute - chiquito becomes chiquitico;
* This -ico appendage is the birth of "tico's" - which is what Costa Ricans call themselves;
* Costa Rica signed recently a Domincan Republic - Central American Free Trade Agreement - very controversial among local unions, and called Tratado de Libre Comercio (TLC) in Spanish;

** Interesting plant and animal facts **
* Home to over 10,000 plant species, 240 mammal, 850 bird, 180 amphibian and 230 reptile species (known).12 distinct ecosystem zones exist in Costa Rica;
* 25% of the geography is protected by national reservation;
* 6% of the worlds plant and animal species exists here, while only .03% of the worlds land mass;
* 7.5% of the worlds snakes exist in Costa Rica;
* There's a red flower in Costa Rica called, "Labios de Puta" or "Hooker's Lips";
* Costa Rica has 52 species of hummingbird;
* There's a species of frog called "Glass Frog" who's stomach skin is transparent and shows it's intestines