Dear Mom, Dad, Veronica, Dana and Keira,
Costa Rica is great! There are so many things I hope you'll like. It's just like home here, only a lot hotter! The beaches are the bomb. I like it here because I already met some friends and they speak English! I think you will enjoy it because the people here are friendly, there are a lot of coffee shops, delis, and cafes. I just hope Dana and Keira will like it here. I know Veronica will.
Costa
Rica is not as small as it looks. It's a total of 19,730 square miles. And 60%
of that land is covered by rain forests, the national parks cover 11% of land
and the rest of it is property and schools. The problem is, only 50% of the
people there attend college. But you know me, no matter how poor I am, I am
still going to college.
Dad, you're pretty good at history so you might be interested in this. Indigenous people lived in Costa Rica. Then, in 1502, Christopher Columbus came and claimed all their land. But the native people were all Mayans and they thought the settlers were safe, until all of the natives were sent to reservations. But then all the settlers left because there was no gold or riches. There are museums here that will give us more information. Spain influenced Costa Rican cultures almost totally, and that means that they speak mostly Spanish, Brazilian and English.
There
are beautiful beaches here too. They are public beaches or we might be able to
join a private beach if we need to. It's like summer all year long, so bring
shorts and T-shirts because it gets up to 110°Fahrenheit. The warm air feels
great, much better then NY. Some places are colder than others are. Those places
are a higher sea level.
And the national sport is soccer, but they call it football. It makes sense. You use your feet the whole time. Costa Rica's team is very good; they've even won the world cup! And the best thing of all is I am an excellent soccer player!
Having Miguel Angel Rodriguez Echeverria as president is very reassuring. He does not like war, and he tries so hard to stop them.
Mom, if you think I'm not going to have friends, think again. Because Costa Rica's population is 3.5 million people, and 45% of them are under 20. I hope we don't live in the city, because that’s where the majority of the people live. It would be a madhouse! The rural areas are great because they are good farming areas, but most of the people went to the city to find a new life in the cities. I suggest that we live in the suburbs. We could install solar panels in the roof and sell electricity to the electric company.
You're
always saying that there's not enough coffee, right? Well, guess what? Costa
Rica exports 168,000 tons of it! And you're always saying I don't eat enough
fruits and vegetables. Costa Rica exports tons and tons of bananas each year.
There are 1.7 million cattle for you and your hamburgers, Dad and 225,000 hogs
for Dana and Keira and their love for bacon. They also export a lot of minerals.
They have gold, silver, manganese, nickel, mercury, sulfur, petroleum and salt.
They also ship out loads of tobacco and cotton to foreign countries.
And last but not least, the last reason we should stay is that I like it here. I hope we have a great year in Costa Rica!
From,
Patrick