Costa Rica

The land that became Costa Rica sat between the great Mesoamerican and Andean cultural spheres and had no large state when the Spanish arrived. Its Indigenous population was relatively small and was devastated by disease and conquest. Colonial Costa Rica was a poor, isolated backwater of the Captaincy General of Guatemala, with few enslaved people and little of the plantation economy found elsewhere — a fact later woven into a national myth of rural equality.

Independence from Spain came in 1821 as part of a brief Central American federation, which soon dissolved. Coffee, and later bananas, brought the first real wealth in the nineteenth century and connected the country to world markets. Politics was more stable than in its neighbours, though not without conflict.

A disputed election in 1948 led to a short civil war, after which the victor, José Figueres, abolished the army, nationalised the banks, and gave women and Afro-Costa Ricans the vote. The absence of a military, along with steady investment in education and health and, from the 1980s, in conservation and ecotourism, has defined the country since.

Costa Ricans call themselves ticos, and the national catchphrase pura vida — "pure life" — is used as a greeting, a farewell, and a shrug at misfortune, capturing a broadly relaxed, conflict-averse, and optimistic outlook. The country is proud of its democracy, its stability, and its environmental record.

Society is largely Catholic, though evangelical churches have grown, and family life is central. Football is the main sport, and the national team's occasional World Cup runs are moments of collective joy. The Caribbean province of Limón has a distinct Afro-Caribbean culture, with calypso, Jamaican-influenced food, and Creole English, and there are eight recognised Indigenous peoples in the highlands and the south.

Environmental awareness is genuinely mainstream: reforestation has reversed decades of clearance, a large share of the land is protected, and the electricity grid runs almost entirely on renewables.

More than half the population lives in the Central Valley, in and around San José, Alajuela, Heredia, and Cartago — a temperate plateau of coffee farms, suburbs, and traffic. The coasts and the north are more rural and, in the tourist zones, increasingly shaped by foreign residents and the visitor economy.

The economy has moved well beyond coffee and bananas to medical devices, technology and services (many US companies run operations here), and tourism. Incomes and social indicators are among the highest in the region, though the cost of living is high and inequality has grown.

Daily life runs on the casado lunch, strong coffee, the neighbourhood soda and pulpería shop, and weekend trips to the beach or a hot spring. Buses are the backbone of getting around for most people.

Costa Rican cooking is mild, fresh, and built on rice, beans, and plantain. The day starts with gallo pinto, rice and black beans fried together with onion, pepper, and cilantro, often with eggs and a spoon of the tangy sauce Salsa Lizano. Lunch is the casado: rice, beans, a salad, fried plantain, and a piece of chicken, fish, or beef.

Olla de carne (a hearty beef-and-root-vegetable soup), chifrijo (rice, beans, pork, and pico de gallo in a bowl), ceviche, and tamales wrapped in banana leaf at Christmas fill out the repertoire. The Caribbean coast adds rice and beans cooked in coconut milk, rondón seafood stew, and patí pastries.

Tropical fruit is everywhere, blended into frescos with water or milk. Costa Rican coffee, grown in the highlands, is a point of pride, traditionally brewed through a cloth chorreador.

For its size, Costa Rica packs in an enormous variety. Arenal, near La Fortuna, is the classic volcano base, with hot springs, hanging bridges, and Lake Arenal; Monteverde and Santa Elena offer misty cloud forest, zip lines, and quetzals; and Poás and Irazú are drive-up craters near the capital.

The Pacific coast runs from the surf and wildlife of the Nicoya Peninsula and Santa Teresa, through the accessible rainforest-meets-beach of Manuel Antonio, to the wild Osa Peninsula and Corcovado National Park, one of the most biodiverse places on Earth, with tapirs, scarlet macaws, and all four Costa Rican monkeys.

The Caribbean side is quieter and greener: Tortuguero, a maze of canals and nesting turtle beaches reached only by boat or plane, and the laid-back Afro-Caribbean towns of Cahuita and Puerto Viejo. Inland, the Río Celeste's blue water, the Rincón de la Vieja geothermal park, and river rafting on the Pacuare round out the options.