Costa Rica

We're headed back to Central America for one of the world's happiest nations, a jungle paradise full of sloths and ghost crabs, and a country with more than 745 miles of coastline: Costa Rica! 

The waves here are prime for surfing (people love Witch's Rock for that), and people flock to this calm, safe country for beach vacations. But having everyone see the value in what your country has to offer isn't always the best thing. More than 2/3 of that 745 miles of coastline has been bought up, and not by the ticos (mean) and ticas (women) of Costa Rica. Instead, that 2/3's of the land is foreign owned, and development often outpaces sustainability. (Luckily Costa Rican's are proud and protective of their coastlines and are pretty vocal and vigilant about protecting it). 

Our landmark for Costa Rica was the Nicoya Pininsula. This Peninsula on the Pacific Coast, varies from 19 to 37 miles wide and is approximately 75 miles long. It features gorgeous sparkling beaches, and dense forests. A big tourist destination, there is everything from cattle ranches to fishing communities to beach towns. 

But it is also considered a 'Blue Zone'. Back in 2005 when a couple of guys started looking for the places in the world where people live the longest. Out of 5 places identified, the Nicoya Peninsula was listed. People here commonly live active lives past the age of 100. 

Some other Costa Rica facts for you: 

Costa Rica's trademarks include rainforests, beach bums, active volcanoes, soccer fans and foaming waterfalls. 

341 miles off the coast is Cocos Island, the inspiration of the books 'Treasure Island' and 'Jurrasic Park'. Legend has it there are 200 treasure chests buried on the island. 

Every morning at 7 AM all the radio stations play the Costa Rican National Anthem. 

Since 1948, when the Civil War ended, Costa Rica has had no armed forces. 

The boys made their Costa Rica postcards. 

Calib's featured soccer players and a sloth in his tree. 9If you look really closely his stick person below his sloth has a walker) 

Peyton drew a dinosaur out on his Cocos Island for Jurassic Park. 

And Hayden's featured the jungle with sloths and the National Anthem being played on Costa Rican radio. 

For dinner we had Gallo Pinto. I don't think that is the exact recipe we used, but it's close. Our recipe suggested adding sausage or bacon (we picked bacon, because of course we did) and even serving it with a sunny side up egg. So, we went with that. It was like a Costa Rican breakfast for dinner night. We also had some pineapple to go along with it.

This dinner earned three spoons up. 

I surprisingly loved it. There was a moment in time when we wavered on what to do about dinner. It had been a long day, and even though I had taught about Costa Rica, Asa and I weren't feeling too inspired by the recipe or the thought of cooking. And honestly it was the third day in a row dinner had rice with it, and I was just feeling kind of over the rice. When we discovered the Rays didn't win (thus half off Papa Johns Pizza wasn't an option) we decided to rally, and just make it. I'm glad we did. Hayden and Peyton both ate some of it (they were the hold outs on the spoons up)- but when Asa and Calib had a second bowl, Hayden asked for another egg without the rice. 

Worth noting: I had also planned to have Ensalada Palmito , but as it turned out the tortoise had the rest of our lettuce and our tacos for lunch used up the rest of the tomatoes. We still have the hearts of palm in the secret pantry, so hopefully that'll come up for some other use sometime. 

Also planned was the Starfruit Upside Down Cake. I really wanted to make this one, but there was no starfruit to be had at Sprouts, Trader Joes, Target or Publix. Maybe they just aren't in season? The recipe says it's a Caribbean and Central America favorite, so maybe it'll come up again, and I'll have the chance to try it.

Costa Rica was colored in purple next to the light green Nicaragua and blue Panama. 



That is 92 down, 101 to go!

Next Up: We're on to a mini theme until on countries who are in danger of disappearing due to global warming. First up with that is Tuvalu!