Costa Rica (Spanish for “Rich Coast”) is in Central America between Nicaragua and Panama. With 51,100 square kilometers, it is a little bigger than Switzerland. Ten percent of the country’s four million inhabitants live in San Jose. More than half of the population lives in the central valley around San Jose combining less than twenty percent of the total territory. It has a length of about 500 kilometers and a width of 150 kilometers. The Coast line with its three peninsulas Osa, Nicoya, and Papagayo has a length of 1,800 kilometers. About one sixth of the country’s territory has been set apart for national parks or wildlife refuges. The famous Cocos Islands which lay 500 kilometers off the Pacific coast are part of the Costa Rican territory.