Costa Rica, the tiny country between the Pacific and the Caribbean, offers something for everyone:  Whether you want to live in Costa Rica all year round, or just spend the winter here, have an adventure or simply get away from the daily grind. Many celebrities live in Costa Rica: Mel Gibson owns a 30 million dollar farm in the province of Guanacaste, even Gisele Bündchen, the world’s top-earning super model from Brazil, owns a beautiful house by the sea, as do Sting, Harrison Ford, Bobbie Phillips, Tim Robbins, and Susan Sarandon to name but a few. Bill Gates and his family also spent their holiday in Costa Rica again in April 08. If you bring enough reserves with you, it is possible to live a very comfortable life in Costa Rica, and excepting the capital San José, this small country is really quite safe. Costa Rica got rid of its army in 1948. Since then, the “Switzerland of Central America”, as Costa Rica is also known, has been a completely military-free area. Costa Rican law recognizes that owning real estate and properties is an absolute right, and does not treat local and foreign citizens differently. And the country is also very investor-friendly. Various studies (Nasa, National Geographic...) have also shown that it has the best climate of anywhere in the world.

The tiny country that is no larger than Lower Saxony boasts 12 different micro-climatic zones and enough flora and fauna to put an entire continent to shame. Costa Rica covers about 0.5% of the earth’s surface, but is home to almost 5% of the planet’s animal and plant species: 380 varieties of amphibians and reptiles and 130 species of fresh water fish, 12,000 known plant species, approx. 1900 species of butterfly (more than in the whole of Africa), 220 species of mammals, 390 different reptiles and amphibians, 860 bird species, more than in America and Canada together.

A potpourri of useful and entertaining links, thrown together for you:

Photos Nationalparks Costa Rica News ICE Costaricalaw Colegio de Abogado INS 

Clinica Biblica Cima Hospital Bupa ICT minae US Embassy Register Migracion UNI

Meteo NatureAir Transito Swisstravel SkySat Cabletica University for Peace BN

BCR Scotiabank BAC Lafise HSBC Cuscatlan Proamerica Popular BancoUno Inbio 

NacionNews Ticotimes Avis Hertz Nacional Dollar Saludas Golf1 Golf2 Golf3 Golf4

Tripadvisor GovisitTravel Monteverdetours Fishing1 Fishing2 Fishing3 Fishing4 GPS

Fishing5 Fishing6 CIA-Wordlfactbook Diving1 Diving2 Diving3 Diving4 Diving5 Diving

Diving7 Diving8 Harley-Davidson Wedding1 Wedding2 Wedding3 Wedding4 Wedding

Sansa Arte Arte2 Arte4 Arte5 La Paz ArcoAzul Cigar Travelmap Dental Arte

Kakao Berlitz Aresep Vertigo Cafe Fischel Surfing1 Surfing2 Surfing3 Surfing4 MU