GENERAL INFORMATION

In 1502, while on his fourth transoceanic journey, Christopher Columbus dropped anchor off what is today Uvita Island near present day Limon. Upon viewing the natives adorned in gold, he dubbed this newly discovered land “Costa Rica” or “Rich Coast”. Capitan Columbus never bothered to land on the mainland coast and he apparently never realized that the gold that he saw being worn by the local Indian Chiefs, (commonly known as the “Caciques”), constituted the bulk of gold in the inhabitant’s possession.

In 1569, Spanish explorer, Juan Vasquez de Coronado arrived to conquer the territory. Vasquez found the local population unruly and was able to conquer only a small portion of the indigenous people. This famous explorer did however manage to establish Spanish control over the Central Valley of Costa Rica where the present day capital, San Jose, is located. The conquest of the Central Valley by Vasquez marks the inception of Costa Rica’s demographic growth. With few natives and very little in the way of natural resources to exploit, Costa Rica soon became a forgotten part of the Spanish Empire.

Given its origins as a small farm based society, Costa Rica was able to avoid the internal strife that marred the rest of Central America. When Nicaragua’s civil war led to the take-over of that country by U.S. mercenary, William Walker, Costa Rica found itself in its first international war. In 1856, when Walker turned his attention to Costa Rica, the Country raised an army and defeated the invaders at Rivas, Nicaragua in April of 1857.

After several failed attempts to build a railway to the Caribbean Coast in order to ship its coffee, Costa Rica signed an agreement with U.S. businessman, Minor Keith, to build a railway to the coast from the Central Valley. In exchange for this agreement, Keith was granted one-half of the land along the route, monopoly rights to the rails and tax exemptions. Keith’s work resulted in a railroad that made it possible to travel from the Central Valley to the Coast in less than one day. Using the laborers imported to build the railroad, Keith planted bananas and began exporting them to the United States. With his vast plantations and mass production of bananas, Keith’s United Fruit Company brought to Costa Rica thousands of migrants of African origin, an ethnic group virtually unknown in the country before that time.

In 1940, Rafael Angel Calderon, won the presidency of Costa Rica and embarked on one of the most sweeping social reforms ever to occur in Latin America. He established universal health care, minimum-wage laws, the University of Costa Rica and the right to unionize. After attempting to rig the 1948 elections in his favor, Calderon incurred the wrath of a little know son of Spanish Immigrants, Jose “Pepe” Figueres, who raised his “National Liberation Army” in revolt against Calderon. Calderon and his allies, the local communists, were subsequently defeated and Calderon and his communist allies were sent into exile. The Communist party was banned and by existing law today no political party is allowed to the use the name “Communist”. Before surrendering power, “Pepe” Figueres, nationalized the banking system, all utilities and communications and was instrumental in making Costa Rica the only country in the world to disband its army.

Costa Rica today has become a premier tourist destination and offers its tourists virtually every form of tourism. Internationally known for its Eco-Tourism this beautiful country has also become a center for adventure tourism at its finest.