I have a friend whose family is from Costa Rica so I’m excited to share more about this Central American country with you. Officially the Republic of Costa Rica, it borders both the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, and has a maritime border with Ecuador, as well as physical borders with Nicaragua and Panama. 

Costa Rica Basics

The country has a population of about five million and a land area of about 19,760 square miles (or 51,180 square kilometers). The capital, San Jose, is also the largest city, with a metropolitan area population of around two million. 

Costa Rica had an indigenous population before Spain colonized it in the 16th century. It became part of the First Mexican Empire, then the Federal Republic of Central America, from which it declared independence in 1847. 

Costa Rica abolished its army in 1949 following a civil war, making it one of the few sovereign nations without a standing army.

The official language is Spanish but other indigenous languages and patois are also recognized. The name means “the rich coast” in Spanish. 

It is a presidential republic with a president and two vice presidents, as well as a legislative assembly. 

Costa Rica has a tropical climate and has a great amount of biodiversity. The country has stopped deforestation and worked to restore habitats that had been destroyed. 

As of 2023, about 95 percent of the nation’s electricity was generated from renewable resources (mostly hydropower).

Costa Rican National Symbols

The Costa Rica flag features blue stripes at the top and bottom, with white stripes next to those and a wider red stripe in the center. The same flag has been used, with minor modifications and changes to the coat of arms, which is shown on some versions of the flag, since 1848. Because the country gained its independence during the French revolution the colors stand for the ideals of that struggle: freedom, equality and brotherhood. 

The colors can also represent the blue sky and perseverance, clear thinking and the sun casting its light of freedom on the people of Costa Rica, among other things. 

The national anthem is “Himno Nacional de Costa Rica,” or “National Anthem of Costa Rica,” also sometimes known by the lyric “Noble patria, tu hermosa bandera” (“noble fatherland your beautiful flag”). It was fist adopted in 1852, but the lyrics have changed through the years and became official in 1949. 

La guaria morada, a purple orchid, is the national flower of Costa Rica. Guanacaste, or elephant ear tree, is the national tree.

The national bird is the Yigüirro or clay-colored thrush, and the white-tailed deer and manatee are considered symbols of the fauna of the country. The two native species of sloths are also considered national symbols. 

The marimba is the national instrument, and the oxcart (la carreta) is considered a national symbol for its historic role in the economic and social development of the country. 

Indigenous stone spheres, recognized as a world heritage site by UNESCO, are also a national symbol (more on them below).  

And of course, coffee is recognized as being of national importance to the country’s economic development. 

Costa Rica Activities for Kids

Pull out all your rainforest activities to talk about the animals and plants of Costa Rica. A few to get you started: jungle math from Turner Tots, rainforest animal coloring pages from The Craft Train, rainforest bingo from Precision Roller, and a climbing tree frog craft from Barley & Birch.

Learn about the phrase “pura vida,” which means pure life but is also kind of a way of life in Costa Rica.

Check out how Unremarkable Files studied Costa Rica at home, and learn some cool Costa Rica facts with these printable fact sheets from Kids Activities Blog.

Find Spanish resources for teaching about Costa Rica from Srta Spanish. There are lots of resources in English and Spanish for learning about Costa Rica at Teachers Pay Teachers.

Read some books about Costa Rica like ABCs of Costa Rica or Animals of Costa Rica. 

Listen to some Costa Rican marimba music (that link is to a long playlist of videos to choose from). 

Learn more about the mysterious stone spheres and talk about how and why you think they were made. 

One of the most popular dishes in Costa Rica is gallo pinto, which despite sounding like meat (it literally means spotted rooster) is actually beans and rice. Of course everyone’s abeula has their own recipe but you can try this one from Striped Spatula, which uses black beans, or this one from Pura Vida Moms, which I love because it specifically calls for day old beans and rice. 

The prisons we choose to live inside hardly ever look like prisons while we are living in them.

If the twentieth century was the age of dictatorships — I grew up in one — reducing human beings to a herd, the twenty-first century, with its self-appointed moral despots, is the age of the tyranny of the herd itself. Having invented a merciless weapon of individual destruction — the pitchfork of the cancel mob — we are now doing to human nature what we have already done to nature, turning a biodiverse wilderness into a monoculture of a single crop deemed correct, forgetting there are infinitely many valid ways of being alive, that they can and must be complementary rather than contradictory if the ecosystem is to thrive.

It takes courage to resist this moral colonialism, to rewild the human spirit with the insistence that life, allowed its full aliveness, is not a symposium of self-righteousness but a festival of wonder, not a military parade of masses marching behind generals uniformed in the moral fashions of the day but a carnival of felicitous participancy on equal terms — people of all kinds, each costumed in some choice expression of their light, together constellating a collaborative cosmos of belonging to something both transient and transcendent.

This model of life calls to mind a long-ago essay by pioneering musician Brian Eno, originally published in The Utne Reader in 2002, contemplating the qualities of a good carnival. They are, he argues, also the qualities of a good culture — a natural parallel given carnival is the consecration of aliveness through play and play is the lever by which humankind lifted itself from survival to civilization.

Looking back on his many years of taking part in London’s Notting Hill Carnival — the world’s second-largest carnival after Rio’s — he writes:

Carnival is good when the number of participants isn’t grossly outweighed by the number of spectators. Carnival is good when many of the `spectators’ are actually also joining in (dancing and singing along). Carnival is good when the participants exhibit a range of skills from the absolutely minimal to the absolutely astonishing (the first being an invitation not to be intimidated — “Hey! I could do that!” — and the second an invitation to be amazed). Carnival is good when people of all ages, sexes, races, shapes, sizes, beauties, inclinations, and professions are involved. Carnival is good when there’s too much to look at and everything’s mixed up and you have to sort it all out for yourself.

Culture, in the modern sense, is the container we have created for human nature. But before a small clan of rebel anthropologists in the early twentieth century began using it to describe the customs of human societies, “culture” was a term of the natural sciences: in botany, the cultivation of plants; in biochemistry, the cultivation of cells in a nutrient-rich solution. It strikes me that effective conservation — the safekeeping of living systems — also shares the features Eno identifies in a good carnival. In a passage that reads like a perfect description of biodiversity in a thriving ecosystem and of the evolutionary processes of competition, collaboration, elaboration, and adaptation by which life came to occupy such different niches, he writes:

Carnival is good when it dignifies and rewards all sorts of abilities — singing, jumping, laughing infectiously, dressing weirdly, writing the hit song of the carnival, wiggling your backside, standing on a soapbox praising Jesus or the local hardware store, frying salt fish over an oil drum in public, inventing symphonic arrangements for steel bands, designing and building fabulously impossible things. Carnival is good when people try to outdo each other, and then applaud with delight those who in turn outdo them. Carnival is good when it gives people an alibi to become someone different.

At its heart, a carnival is — as a healthy culture should be — an affirmation of our aliveness, in all its blessed improbability. Eno concludes:

Carnival is good when it lets people present the best part of themselves, and be, for a little while, as they’d like to be all the time. Carnival is good when it gives people the feeling that they’re really lucky to be alive right here and now. Carnival is good when it leaves people with the feeling that life in all its bizarre manifestations is unbeatably lovely and touching and funny and worthwhile.

Complement with Leonard Cohen on what makes a saint and Walter Lippmann on what makes a hero — those twin pylons of a culture — then revisit Brian Eno’s reading list of 20 books essential for civilization.

Characterized by a dimension that’s mysterious …almost mystical, the cloud forests of Ecuador are a realm suspended somewhere in between heaven and earth. Situated high on the mountain slopes of the Andes, these exuberant jungles are superlative examples of the biodiversity of the continent. Sites where time feels momentarily suspended, this forest sheltering its best-kept secret for serenity and sensory delight.

For those aiming to get far from the world— though refusing to rough it – cloud forest eco-lodges in Ecuador present the perfect paradox: The wild and raw nature balanced with refined world-class comfort.

A world veiled in cloud and mystery

Only two scenic hours from the Ecuador’s bustling capital city of Quito, you’ll see for yourself the dramatic transformation of the landscape itself.

The twisting road begins to climb into the highlands before reaching the forest. You’ll smell the scent of fresh rain and orchids, with each breath filling your lungs with a heavier, damper air. The forest is inhabited by hundreds of bird species and orchids, in addition to numbers of unclassified butterfly species.

The cloud forest is distinct from rainforests at higher elevations; their cooler, more temperate temperatures; and on being consistently covered in its enigmatic mist. From the call of Kingbirds high in the branches above to Tayras, tiny mink-like animals, rooting around in the undergrowth below, each layer provides bastions of life, much of it native and rarely spotted elsewhere. As such, the cloud forest represents never-ending discovery for any naturalist, photographer, or easy-going adventurer.

Lavish camps at the center of the wilderness

In recent years a few key eco-lodges have revolutionized our experience of the wild in style. These aren’t bare bone cabins or spartan shelters. Instead, floor-to-ceiling glass walls open up panoramic views of ravines clouded over by thick blankets of mist; while sumptuous organic meals are prepared by private chefs; personal walks are led by expert naturalists at lodges such as Mashpi Lodge, Bellavista Cloud Forest Lodge, and El Monte Sustainable Lodge — each constituting a new standard of luxury that values being embedded in nature as much as thread counts.

Amongst such primeval surroundings, Mashpi Lodge presents a very noteworthy instance of modern architecture. Seated on stilts rising above the forest floor, the framed-glass structure blurs the visitor-jungle distinction. Inside, the décor is understated and soothing — smooth wood, soft light and soft beds with vistas of moving leaves.

During the day, hike or bike the “Sky Bike” of the lodge — a gondola suspended by ziplines high in the forest canopy that allows you to move quietly along the tops of the trees. As darkness falls and frogs’ croaks and insects’ hums are a background lullaby, the mist comes back again.

Encounters with Nature – on its own terms

Cloud forest getaways aren’t designed for chasing down Instagrammable moments or checking off boxes. People spend extended periods peacefully observing the fragile and beautiful ecosystem of our planet while doing nothing except absorbing the environment; birding hikes at dawn could reveal a quick glimpse of either the plate-billed mountain toucan or the elusive Andean cock-of-the-rock.

Each dance step reveals the secrets of the natural world by teaching you about wind and steps and the hidden language of nature’s dance. Or a hummingbird, hovering inches away from you, might interrupt a peaceful morning on a wooden terrace.

Cloud forests are also crisscrossed with waterfalls and clear streams — perfect for short hikes or lazy picnics. And for guests with a taste for scientific intrigue, there are a number of lodges with access to field stations where conservation research is on-going. Visitors will be able to join in “citizen science projects,” thus enriching their experience.

The atmosphere here is incomparable; you simply live the present. Time stretches absent urban noise and digital overload. You begin to perceive the delicate pattern on a leaf, the weight of silence, and how the fog rolls in as if alive. It’s not unusual to hear travelers speak about a sort “cloud forest reset” — a rejuvenation that’s as emotional as it is physical.

Wellness in the wilderness

All that said, a lot of luxury lodges in the cloud forest have also been adding wellness experiences to the mix, and after a few days in this environment, you’ll get why. Anticipate open-air massages against a living soundtrack of water, yoga sessions on forest platforms and locally sourced herbal infusions that draw on ancient Andean healing practices.

The food at these lodges is part of Ecuador’s healthy, modern culinary legacy. Envision fresh trout from mountain streams, organic produce from neighboring farms, and tropical fruits you’ve probably never tried — cherimoya, naranjilla or taxo—in the form of a detox smoothie or a carefully plated dessert.

These are the little luxuries that are about more than things – wellness folded into the daily cadence of life, fostered by an environment that inherently fosters calm, mindfulness and wellness.

Sustainability is a philosophy, not a feature

What’s nice about cloud forest stays in Ecuador is that it goes hand-in-hand with conservation and community development. Most of the lodges are situated on private reserves, which serve as transitional zones to the national parks and avert deforestation. Nearby communities are the main pool of laborers, who are paid decent wages and are trained to care for the land rather than simply exploit it.

Visitors, too, are involved in conservation. These special ecosystem areas are concretely protected by travelers choosing lodges designed for low environmental impact and through participation in eco-tourism programs. This is travel that benefits not only the traveler but for the land and the local community as well.

The takeaway: More than just a vacation

A retreat in the cloud forests of Ecuador is an exercise in relinquishment, in the very best way. You yield to nature’s pace, to silence, to wonder. And in that surrender, you find something in yourself that maybe you hadn’t even realized had gone dim. The mist doesn’t only obscure, it illuminates. Out of it comes not just clarity, but the clarity you can only get from having stood still long enough to sense the world taking a breath with you.

For the seasoned traveler who’s tired of curated luxury, Ecuador’s cloud forests deliver to you something more lavish than opulence: a connection to the living world, cradled in one of its most splendid, endangered forms.

Forests cover nearly a third of all land on Earth, providing vital organic infrastructure for some of the planet’s densest, most diverse collections of life. They support countless species, yet humans clear millions of acres from natural forests every year, especially in the tropics, letting deforestation threaten some of Earth’s most valuable ecosystems.

We tend to take forests for granted, underestimating how indispensable they are for everyone on the planet. That would quickly change if all the forests on Earth disappeared, but since humanity might not survive that scenario, the lesson wouldn’t be useful then.

Indifference, in turn, often depends on ignorance. So to help the situation get better for woodlands around the world, we’d all be wise to learn more about the benefits of forests — and to share that knowledge with others. In hopes of shedding more light on why forests are so important, and how little we can afford to lose them, here are 20 things forests do for us.

1. Help Us Breathe

Forests pump out the oxygen we need to live and absorb the carbon dioxide we exhale (emit). A single mature, leafy tree is estimated to produce a day’s supply of oxygen for anywhere from two to 10 people. Phytoplankton in the ocean are more prolific, providing half of Earth’s oxygen, but forests are still a key source of quality air.

2. Home to Nearly Half of All Species

Nearly half of Earth’s known species live in forests, including nearly 80% of biodiversity on land. That variety is especially rich in tropical rainforests, but forests around the planet teem with life; insects and worms work nutrients into soil, bees and birds spread pollen and seeds, and keystone species like wolves and big cats keep hungry herbivores in check. Biodiversity is a big deal for ecosystems and human economies, yet it’s increasingly threatened around the world by deforestation.

3. Benefit Millions of Humans

Some 300 million people live in forests worldwide, including an estimated 60 million indigenous people whose survival depends almost entirely on native woodlands. Many millions more live along or near forest fringes, but even just a scattering of urban trees can provide benefits to humans, such as increased property values and reduced crime.

4. Keep Us Cool

By growing a canopy to hog sunlight, trees also create vital oases of shade on the ground. Urban trees help buildings stay cool, reducing the need for electric fans or air conditioners, while large forests tackle daunting tasks like curbing a city’s “heat island” effect or regulating regional temperatures.

5. Keep Earth Cool

Trees also have another way to beat the heat—absorb CO2 that fuels global warming. Plants always need some CO2 for photosynthesis, but Earth’s air is now so thick with extra emissions that forests fight global warming just by breathing. CO2 is stored in wood, leaves, and soil, often for centuries.

6. Make It Rain

Large forests can influence regional weather patterns and even create their own microclimates. The Amazon rainforest, for example, generates atmospheric conditions that not only promote regular rainfall in that forest and nearby farmland but potentially as far away as the Great Plains of North America.

7. Prevent Flooding

Tree roots are our allies in heavy rainfall, especially when it rains in low-lying areas like river plains. They help the ground absorb more of a flash flood, reducing soil loss and property damage by slowing the flow.

8. Soak Up Runoff, Protecting Other Ecosystems

In addition to controlling flooding, trees’ ability to soak up surface runoff also protects ecosystems downstream. Modern stormwater increasingly carries toxic chemicals, from gasoline and lawn fertilizer to pesticides and pig manure, that accumulate through watersheds and eventually create low-oxygen “dead zones.”

9. Refill Aquifers

Forests are like giant sponges, catching runoff rather than letting it roll across the surface. But they can’t absorb all of it. Water that gets past their roots trickles down into aquifers, replenishing groundwater supplies that are important for drinking, sanitation, and irrigation around the world.

10. Block Wind

Farming near a forest provides many benefits, such as bats and songbirds who come out of their forest home to eat insects that threaten crops. Owls and foxes that live in forests also often venture out to eat rats on farms. But forests can also serve as a windbreak for farmers, providing a buffer for wind-sensitive fruits and vegetables. And beyond protecting those plants from the wind itself, forests’ ability to block wind makes it easier for bees to pollinate the crops.

11. Keep Dirt in Its Place

A forest’s root network stabilizes huge amounts of soil, bracing the entire ecosystem’s foundation against erosion by wind or water. Not only does deforestation disrupt all that, but the ensuing soil erosion can trigger new, life-threatening problems like landslides and dust storms.

12. Clean Up Dirty Soil

In addition to holding soil in place, forests may also use phytoremediation to clean out certain pollutants. Trees can either sequester the toxins away or degrade them to be less dangerous. This is a helpful skill, letting trees absorb sewage overflows, roadside spills or contaminated runoff.

13. Clean Up Dirty Air

Forests can clean up air pollution on a large scale, and not just CO2. Trees absorb a wide range of airborne pollutants, including carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. In the U.S. alone, urban trees are estimated to save 850 lives per year and $6.8 billion in total health care costs just by removing pollutants from the air.

14. Muffle Noise Pollution

Sound fades in forests, making trees a popular natural noise barrier. The muffling effect is largely due to rustling leaves — plus other woodland white noise, like bird songs — and just a few well-placed trees can cut background sound by 5 to 10 decibels, or about 50% as heard by human ears.

15. Feed Us

Not only do trees produce fruits, nuts, seeds and sap, but they also enable a cornucopia near the forest floor, from edible mushrooms, berries and beetles to larger game like deer, turkeys, rabbits and fish.

16. Help Us Make Things

Where would humans be without timber and resin? We’ve long used these renewable resources to make everything from paper and furniture to homes and clothing, but we also have a history of getting carried away, leading to overuse and deforestation. Thanks to the growth of tree farming and sustainable forestry, though, it’s becoming easier to find responsibly sourced tree products.

17. Create Jobs

More than 1.6 billion people rely on forests to some extent for their livelihoods, according to the U.N., and 10 million are directly employed in forest management or conservation. Forests contribute about 1% of the global gross domestic product through timber production and non-timber products, the latter of which alone support up to 80% of the population in many developing countries.

18. Create Majesty

Natural beauty may be the most obvious and yet least tangible benefit a forest offers. The abstract blend of shade, greenery, activity and tranquility can yield concrete advantages for people, however, like convincing us to appreciate and preserve old-growth forests for future generations.

19. Help Us Explore and Relax

Our innate attraction to forests, part of a phenomenon known as biophilia, is still in the relatively early stages of scientific explanation. We know biophilia draws us to woods and other natural scenery, though, encouraging us to rejuvenate ourselves by exploring, wandering or just unwinding in the wilderness. They give us a sense of mystery and wonder, evoking the kinds of wild frontiers that molded our distant ancestors. And thanks to our growing awareness that spending time in forests is good for our health, many people now seek out those benefits with the Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku, commonly translated to English as “forest bathing.”

20. Are Pillars of Their Communities

Like the famous rug in “The Big Lebowski,” forests really tie everything together — and we often don’t appreciate them until they’re gone. Beyond all their specific ecological perks (which can’t even fit in a list this long), they’ve reigned for eons as Earth’s most successful setting for life on land. Our species probably couldn’t live without them, but it’s up to us to make sure we never have to try. The more we enjoy and understand forests, the less likely we are to miss them for the trees.