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Costa Rica: land of adventure

Jacqueline Windh / 26.02.2006

Costa Rica was recognized as an adventure racers' paradise long ago – it was the site of the second ever adventure race: the 1990 Raid Gauloises. That race was a ten-day expedition, crossing the country from coast to coast. Since 2001, Adventure Racing Costa Rica has been running a similar expedition race, the Coast to Coast Challenge. The 6th edition of this event, a 500+ km, 6-day expedition, crossing Costa Rica from its Caribbean coast in the east to the Pacific Ocean, is set to take off in just a few days, on the morning of Tuesday February 28th. (My next report will give more of an overview about the course and the teams, and what to expect this year).

I have only just arrived here a few hours ago – so I cannot tell you much about this country from first-hand experience... yet! But for now, I offer you a bit of what I have found out about Costa Rica.

This country seems to have a bit of everything – from surf beaches on the Pacific coast, to dense tropical rainforest, to swift-running rivers that are great for rafting or kayaking, to high mountain ranges. Four main mountain ranges run roughly parallel to the coast, in a northwest-southeast direction: the Guanacaste, Tilarán, Central and Talamanca Ranges. These ranges are not super-high – for the most part around 1000-2000 m above sea level, with some higher mountains and volcanos, three of which are active. The Arenal Volcano is spewing out lava every day, and the Poás Volcano is the largest crater in the world. I hope I get a chance to see them while I am here! The wide range in environments means that this tiny country has an incredible amount of biodiversity – it hosts a whopping 6% of the world's species!

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