Reasons we love Costa Rica, illustrated with animal bums

It’s all been about wildlife sightings and what accommodation we like, and food of course. We realise we haven’t shared some of the other things that make Costa Rica so amazing. So here’s 10 other things we like about the place.

And a bunch of pictures of animal bums, because that’s what happens when you’re taking photos of wildlife. They have nothing to do with the 10 things but we like them, and this way we only have to do 1 post not 2, especially not without pictures.

Starting with a sloth bum, because the only thing cuter is a sloth face and there’s 2 of those as well!

1. The people are wonderful - friendly, kind, generally interested in you and most we met had a great sense of humour.

  

 Blue jeans frog bum

2. It has about 0.06% of the world’s population, 0.03% of the world’s land mass, and nearly 5% of the world’s biodiversity.

 

 A baby howler monkey bum

3. It has a wild chicken called a Chachalaca.

 

 3 Chachalaca bums for the price of 1 

4.  It has successfully and peacefully managed without a military for nearly 70 years, and uses the money saved to provide services to its citizens such as free education and health services. They proudly tell you of their 96% literacy rate as a result of such policies.

  

 A baby anteater bum

5.  Hunting is illegal. People are encouraged to conserve and utilise the natural resources in other ways to stimulate the economy, like through ecotourism 

 

Alan’s (agouti)  bum 

6. In agricultural areas, the farmers plant ‘living fences’ - trees all along their fence lines to create a corridor for tree dwelling wildlife to move safely between forests.

 

 A delightful toucan bum

7. Everywhere we went the toilets were clean, even in petrol stations and similar establishments where you often find toilets of questionable cleanliness at home.

 

A raccoon bum 

8. They are changing their pineapple production to organic methods after realising the multinationals with massive pineapple plantations have destroyed thousands of hectares of land with chemicals, and the knock on impact it has on the ecosystem. And they have the most delicious pineapples we’ve ever eaten. And they make vegan leather out of pineapple waste.

 

 A deer bum

9. More than 27% of it’s total land is protected.

Squirrel monkey bum. Particularly love the response to it from the monkey on the bottom 😂 

10. We hardly ever saw rubbish or litter anywhere.

Pirate Cove Resort doggo bum

11. (I know I said there were 10, but who’s counting?) we like that they have bullfights where the bull is allowed to injure or kill the person but not the other way around.

And then there’s this guy, whose bum you’d be able to see if he wasn’t showing off how much of a boy monkey he is