a beautiful, peaceful country offering outstanding beach properties, homes, farms, real estate investments and world class coffee and premium cigars. Whatever you are looking for, you will find it here; golf, tennis, fishing, surfing, rafting, hiking, birdwatching, waterfalls, volcanos, butterflies, hotsprings or you can enjoy a great cup of coffee and a handmade cigar while just plain relaxing.

The first European explorer to encounter Costa Rica, Christopher Columbus, arrived on September 18, 1502. This was his forth and final journey to the New World. A crowd of local Carib Indians greeted his crew warmly as he was setting anchor off shore. Later, the Spaniard Gil Gonzalez Davila named the country Costa Rica, or Rich Coast, impressed by the golden bands that natives were wearing in their noses and ears.

In 1542, the Spanish conquistador, Francisco de Orellana, with 55 soldiers and 2 priests, began an expedition to the new world to find the mythical city of EL DORADO.

Thousands of years before the arrival of Columbus, civilization existed in Costa Rica.  Evidence of human occupation dates 10,000 years back.  Perfectly spherical granite balls found near the west coast are among the cultural mysteries left by the pre-Columbian inhabitants.  Some are small as a baseball and ranging up in size to that of a Volkswagen bus. Guayabo National Park has ruins of an ancient city with aqueducts and some marvelous gold and jade work made approximately 1,000 years ago.

Explore and discover why Costa Rica is known as the ‘Switzerland of the Americas;' there is no army, no threat of terrorism, a very stable democracy and an exuberant natural wealth of flora and fauna. Come and experience the courtesy, culture and education of its peoples, commonly referred to as ‘Ticos.'

Costa Rica boasts the highest percentage (25%) of protected areas in the world: Forest Reserves, Biological Reserves, Nature Shelters and, of course, National Parks. This is another reason why many Europeans and North Americans have made this land their home and currently comprise around 1% of the total Costa Rican population.