Facts

1. continent – central america
2. land – mountains, plains, beaches
3. population – 5 million
4. official language – spanish
5. grow – bananas, coffee beans, cacao, sugar cane
6. makes – fabric, metal, furniture, paper, plastic
7. Making good coffee is so important that coffee tasters train for 5 years to learn to choose the beans. To make sure they’re sampling all the flavors as they drink, these professionals slurp their coffee as loudly as possible!
8. Because of Costa Rica’s location near the equator the sun rises and sets around the same time 365 days a year. Goodbye winter blues!
9. The Achiote plant has a waxy red coating that’s used as a dye in everything from ice cream to lipstick. That’s why it’s sometimes called the lipstick tree.
10. With its warm, rainy weather, the tropical land of Costa Rica is the perfect place to grow a very picky plant: the cacao tree! If the name seems a little familiar, it’s probably because beans from this tree are roasted to create cocoa – the key ingredient in chocolate. No wonder this plant is called “food of the gods”