Can you guess, which country, I’m referring to? This country is situated in Central America, has Nicarahua at its northern border, Panama to its east and south, the Pacific Ocean to the west and south and the Carribean Sea to the east.

So could you guess I was talking about Costa Rica, officially known as the Republic of Costa Rica? The New Economics Foundation, ranks Costa Rica first in the Happy Planet Index (HPI) considers it the greenest country in the world. The HPI measures how much of the Earth's resources nations use and how long and happy a life their citizens enjoy as a result.

In terms of the 2008 Environmental Performance Index, the Costa Rica ranks 5th in the world, and 1st among the Americans. In 2007 the Costa Rican government announced plans for Costa Rica to become the first carbon neutral country by 2021.

Before I proceed further, to tell you more about this beautiful and peaceful country, let me first share with you reminiscences of my visit to Costa Rica, way back in June 1986, during the summer vacations of my school. I got an opportunity to travel with my parents to Costa Rica.

We took a connecting Iberia Airlines flight via Madrid and landed in San Jose, capital of Costa Rica. In those days India did not have much diplomatic ties with Costa Rica, so with great difficulty we got visa. We stayed at Hotel Bougainvillea, close to the airport. The official language over there is Spanish, and we soon realized this, as we checked into the hotel. Majority of the hotel staff could speak only in Spanish.

Let me tell you, Spanish is spoken as mother tongue by 97% of the population the other 3% is composed by Amerindian languages and English-creole. English is a language commonly taught in educational institutions, as are French and Portuguese.

During our stay over there, we could only visit Poás Volcano National Park, one of the major tourist attractions in Costa Rica.   Our host Mr Vaklavek, a local resident, (originally a native of Czechoslovakia)drove us to the park.  My father was a part of the delegation from India to explore the possibilities of sulphur mining in Costa Rica, and hence our visit to that spot.  The park covers an area of approximately 16,000 acres (65 km²); the summit is 8,900 feet (2,708 m). One of the attractive features about Poás is that you can get all the way to the edge of the crater.

The volcano is located in the Central Volcanic Conservation Area located in the Alajuela Province near the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, which encompasses the area around the Poás Volcano. The main crater is 950 feet (289 m) deep and is quite active with frequent small geyser and lava eruptions, however the last major eruptions were during 1952-54.

Two more craters make up parts of the park, the extinct Von Frantzuis crater and the Botos crater. Botos is a beautiful cold, green water crater lake with a diameter of 1,200 feet (365 m). The Botos crater has not erupted for about 7,500 years. Well-marked trails will take you to see the two inactive craters. The park is frequently closed to visitors because of sulphuric gas emissions. At the tender age, I was simply spellbound to behold that `creation of nature`. 

Ecotourism is extremely popular  over there with the many tourists visiting the extensive national parks and protected areas around the country. Costa Rica was a pioneer in this type of tourism, and the country is recognized as one of the few with real ecotourism. In the 2009 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index, Costa Rica ranked 42nd in the world and first among Latin American countries. Considering, the sub-index natural resources, Costa Rica ranks 6th worldwide in terms of the natural resources pillar, and 89th in terms of its cultural resources.

By Rajeev Mavani