Wiebke+Marie+Friedewald

Here is my blog entry:

Costa Rica is in Central America, above Panama and below Nicaragua. The country has four million inhabitants and is more or less as big as Niedersachsen. It´s west coast is on the Pacific and to the east lies the Atlantic ocean. I went there for one year during highschool in 2002. I have lived in a host family for nearly eleven month. The purpose was to learn another language (Spanish) and to get to know a different country and another culture. I am going to write now about the beautiful landscape of Costa Rica and the places I visited. I went to several places during my stay there and I went back to Costa Rica in 2004 for 3 weeks to visit my host family and during this trip a saw a lot of the country also.



But first of all lets start with the city where I stayed in 2002.

The city is called Limon and located on the Atlantic coast of Costa Rica. It is a really multicultural place. Due to the proximity to Cuba, Jamaica and Puerto Rico, a lot of inhabitants are of dark colour and everybody has a good reggae feeling. The people there are all very joyful and happy. A had a lot of good friends in my near neighbourhood to which I still stand in contact. The city has a very tropical climate with humidity often above 90%. The sun is shining every day and the temperature is never below 25 degrees, even at night. The city is located directly on the coast with a lot of nice city beaches, where surf contests often take place. I loved a mural directly on the sea, where people sit together talking or reading books. I liked the city very much, I thing that I never forget is the huge Christmas tree in the middle of the city and me in summer clothes in front of it. This is a really green place in the north of Costa Rica. It is called a cloud forest, the humidity is very high, but the temperature is lower than in Limon for example because Monteverde is located on a higher level than Limon. I went the with a friend of mine from Germany and we had a lot of fun sleeping in a backpacker hostel nearby. I have never seen such a green place before with trees as high as the sky. So many beautiful plants and flowers. And everything is wet all the time. Monteverde is a natural resort and is attended very carefully by the country.
 * Limon:**
 * Monteverde:**



It is another national park. I have only driven through it because to get to Limon by bus or by car you have to drive through this national park. I have never seen a road like this before. It was so windy and sometimes on the side there was just a deep canyon and nothing more. Braullio Carillo is a typical rain forest, with a lot of green plants and very high trees. The way from San Jose (Costa Rica´s capital) to Limon was an adventure every time I had to pass it.
 * Braullio Carillo:**

Another one of the big national parks. It is likely to be the most beautiful one, located on the Pacific coast. I went there for 3 days during my second stay and I have never seen such a beautiful landscape before. I met monkeys, sloths and every other kind of animal there. The most impressive thing about Manuel Antonio is a viewpoint located on a small mountain. I climed it up, but on half of the way I nearly turned back because the hill was so steep and it was very exhausting to climb it up, but I didn´t reverse and when I finally reached the top of the hill it was worth everything. The view was just fantastic and the ocean was so green… This national park should be visited by everybody who comes to Costa Rica.
 * Manuel Antonio:**



Costa Rica is also a very explosive country, a lot of vulcan’s are located there. Some of them are still active, but not all. I have visited only two of them but it was a very impressive experience to see the crater and to climb up a volcano.
 * Volcan Arenal and Volcan Irazu:**

A village located at the Atlantic coast very close to Panama. It is a very relaxed and chilled out village, a lot of dropouts from other countries live there and enjoy the beaches and the sun of Costa Rica. The town is a little bit touristy but if I went with my host family further down the coast, nearer to Panama, and we reached a lot of beautiful beaches, which were never crowded.
 * Puerto Viejo:**

Finally I want to say that Costa Rica is one of the most beautiful countries in the world, its landscape and climate are very diversified and the people are so hospitable and happy. You should go and discover Costa Rica during one of the next holidays!