Rising up between the Atlantic and the Pacific as a land bridge between North and South America, Costa Rica lies in a region unique in the world: no other area is both between two oceans and between two continents.

What makes such a geographic location special? For Costa Rica, it means a rich biological and cultural mix. In a corridor between two continents, the land is home to plants and animals from both North and South America as well as to species native to Costa Rica. Indigenous peoples, though small in number compared with neighbors to the north and south, were influenced by the advanced civilizations of both Mesoamerica and South America.

The rugged terrain of this small Central American country, wedged between Nicaragua on the north and Panama on the south, springs surprises on those who come expecting tropical temperatures to be always balmy. Believe it or not, ice forms at certain times of the year at the highest elevations.