Education
Costa Rica enjoys a very high literacy of over 96%. The country provides free and compulsory education; 92% of high school students successfully complete an English proficiency exam. With some of the best universities in all of Latin America, Costa Rica has a highly educated work force. Opportunities for higher education are numerous with both private and public institutions (approximately 70 private, 4 state).

Weather and Beaches
The Papagayo and the Northwest coast of Costa Rica have an excellent year-round climate, with over 320 days of sunshine and an average temperature of 78Fdegrees. The beaches of the Papagayo are for resort and residential tourism, snorkeling, scuba, fishing and a number of other water activities are popular here in the area. Ocean water temperature is warm year round.

Current Weather

Infrastructure
Due to the growth and development in this area, Papagayohas a significant amount of new infrastructure. It is also one of only a small number of areas in the country that has access to municipal water and high speed internet. About two years ago (January 2004), the Four Seasons opened a significant resort property at Peninsula Papagayo. According to the Costa Rican Tourism Board (ICT) a total of 18,000 new rooms will be required by 2012 in order to satisfy the demands of international tourism.

Government
The government of Costa Rica, compared to other Central American countries, is politically and economically stable. The government has decided that Guanacaste will be a major focus and has made significant investment into upgrading the region’s infrastructure: roads, municipal water, telephone, internet and cable and satellite TV, and expanding the new airport to handle the incoming traffic.

Economy
Costa Rica’s economy is dependent on tourism, agriculture, and electronics exports. The economy emerged from recession in 1997 and has since shown strong growth. Costa Rica’s location in the Central American isthmus provides easy access to American markets as it has the same time zone as central US, and  Europe and Asia. The economy has been growing partially because the Government implemented a seven year plan of expansion in the high tech industry. The government has provided certain tax exemptions for those who are willing to invest in the country (primarily incentives for manufacturers). Several global high tech corporations have already started developing in the area exporting goods. The unit of currency is the colón(CRC), which trades around 450-500 to the US dollar; currently about 600 to
the euro.