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Costa Rica located in Central America, is an isthmus where life seems to have created its roots. Covering only 0.03% of the surface of our planet, Costa Rica has approximately 6% of the world's biodiversity.  In addition, Costa Rica is characterized by impressive scenic beauty, a consolidated system of protected areas, social and political stability, high educational levels, and efficient infrastructure and services.

All of this offered in a territory of only 51 thousand square kilometers, surrounded by both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, at a distance from each other of only three to four hours by land or 45 minutes by air.

If one examines the different ecosystems that exist in Costa Rica, it becomes apparent that it is one of the biologically wealthiest nations in the world. From the forested slopes of its volcanoes to the coral reefs off both coasts, Costa Rica possesses an almost unfathomable diversity of flora and fauna. During the last few decades, more and more Costa Ricans have come to realize what an important part of their national heritage that biodiversity is. They have consequently created an exemplary National Conservation System to ensure the survival of endangered species, and a National Biodiversity Institute to catalogue and study the country's flora and fauna.

The greatest manifestation of Costa Rica's natural heritage is the diversity of its flora and fauna. About 9,000 different kinds of flowering plants grow in the country, including more than 1,300 species of orchids. Nearly 850 species of birds have been identified there, which is more than are found in all of the United States, Canada and the northern half of Mexico combined.  The country is also home for 209 species of mammals, 383 kinds of reptiles and amphibians, about 2,000 species of butterflies and at least 4,500 different types of moths. Though Costa Rica covers only 3.4% of the surface of the Earth, about five percent of the planet's plant and animal species are found there.

The country's forests sometimes seem like the biological equivalent of a cathedral; those giant tropical trees have the appearance of columns, and the canopy they support holds a collection of epyphitic vegetation more complex than the paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Mother Nature seems to work overtime in the tropics, and the consequent diversity of forests has been classified by biologists into a dozen different life zones.

However, most of those forests can be lumped into three more general groups: rain, cloud and dry forests. Rain forests, with their massive trees, very high canopies and little growing on the dimly lit forest floor, can be found in the Atlantic lowlands and the southwest. The northwest contains some of the last remnants of the tropical dry forest, a less exuberant life zone that shares much of the diversity of the rain forests. Cloud forests, which cover the upper slopes of most mountains and volcanoes, are the most luxuriant of the tropical forests, with mosses and other small plants covering the trunks and branches of trees. They are all beautiful, and in many ways similar, but each one has plants and animals that won't be found in the rest.

Copious rainfall has endowed Costa Rica with an abundance of rivers, but surprisingly, there are very few lakes. Nearly all the country's rivers begin in the mountains, where many are frothy white water routes perfect for rafting and kayaking. Once those rivers flow into the lowlands, however, they become languid waterways, many of which are lined with verdant walls of vegetation. Those lowland rivers are excellent routes for trips in small boats, which allow passengers to observe some of the local flora and fauna.

The seasonal lake of Cano Negro is also an excellent spot for wildlife watching, whereas larger Lake Arenal is a popular windsurfing spot.

A trip down one of Costa Rica's lowland rivers, either in a small boat or rubber raft, can be an excellent way to observe some of the country's extraordinary wildlife. The trees that line most river banks may hold lounging iguanas, troops of monkeys and such birds as ospreys, anhingas, colorful kingfishers, several species of herons and tiny mangrove swallows.  Boat trips are offered on such lowland rivers as the Sarapiqui, San Carlos and Rio Frio, in the Northern Zone, and the Tempisque, Bebedero and Corobici, in the Northwest.

The most popular lowland waterway trip heads up the Caribbean Canals, which run along the Atlantic coast north from the port of Moin to the communities of Parismina, Tortuguero, and Barra del Colorado. Most travelers head to Tortuguero National Park, which protects an important sea turtle nesting beach and vast expanses of lowland rainforest and swampy yolillal palm forests. A trip down any stretch of the canals is a true jungle adventure, offering opportunities to spot such animals as crocodiles, three-toed sloths, oropendolas and boat billed herons. They also offer world-class fishing for tarpon, snook and other species.

Actually, the reservoir for the country's most important hydroelectric project, Lake Arenal is a vast body of water surrounded by rolling hills that hold pastures and patches of forest. Towering over the lake's eastern end is the conical form of Arenal Volcano, which regularly erupts spewing streams of lava and great clouds of ash. Though everyone who drives around the lake is impressed by the scenery, Arenal is especially popular with fishermen and windsurfers. The anglers are drawn there by the guapote, or rainbow bass, a feisty fish that thrives in the lake's waters. The windsurfers gather at the western end of Lake Arenal, where strong and consistent winds making it one of the world's premier windsurfing spots.

Caño Negro, a shallow, seasonal lake near the country's northern border, is a bird watchers paradise during the second half of the year, when great flocks of ducks, herons and other waterfowl gather there.  Cano Negro has been designated a wetland of international importance under the RAMSAR convention. Representations of Caño negro on most maps are actually misleading, since they show the lake's extension at the height of the rainy season. Once the rains die down in December, the lake rapidly shrinks, and by February it disappears completely, and most of the waterfowl has moved onto the Rio Frio -- the river that Caño Negro drains into. The river trip on the Rio Frio, which is the most common way of reaching Caño Negro, is consequently often more interesting that actually visiting the lake.