People first reached Florida at least 12,000 years ago. The rich variety of environments in prehistoric Florida supported a large number of plants and animals. The animal population included most mammals that we know today. In addition, many other large mammals that are now extinct (such as the saber-tooth tiger, mastodon, giant armadillo, and camel) roamed the land.
The Florida coastline along the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico was very different 12,000 years ago. The sea level was much lower than it is today. As a result, the Florida peninsula was more than twice as large as it is now. The people who inhabited Florida at that time were hunters and gatherers, who only rarely sought big game for food. Modern researchers think that their diet consisted of small animals, plants, nuts, and shellfish. These first Floridians settled in areas where a steady water supply, good stone resources for tool making, and firewood were available. Over the centuries, these native people developed complex cultures. During the period prior to contact with Europeans, native societies of the peninsula developed cultivated agriculture, traded with other groups in what is now the southeastern United States, and increased their social organization, reflected in large temple mounds and village complexes.
The majority of the
rain falls in the afternoon or overnight in Costa Rica. The hot August sun
evaporates moisture from the sea and rainforest canopy creating a layer of warm
moist air that rises as the day progresses. As the air rises it expands and cools
causing the water to condense out forming clouds. Later in the day as the
temperatures fall the air can hold even less water and some of it falls as
rain.
August is in the
middle of the rainy season but many years there is a lull in the rains
(especially in Guanacaste) usually starting in July and ending in August. Costa
Ricans call this little dry season veranillo
(how
does it happen?) and if you're lucky you
won't need your umbrella at all on a visit to the northwest.
The Caribbean side
is solidly in the rainy season weather pattern with some rain nearly every
evening or overnight.
The beaches and
lowlands have high temperatures in the low nineties and low temperatures in the
upper seventies or low eighties. A week or two of temperatures in the mid
nineties is possible at low elevations and especially on the Nicoya coast
during August. The higher you go the more it cools off so if you're looking for
some relief head to the mountains. Temperatures around the central valley are
usually in the upper seventies and low eighties this time of year.
The first European explorer to encounter Costa Rica was
the Great Navigator himself, Christopher Columbus. The day was September 18,
1502, and Columbus was making his fourth and final voyage to the New World. As
he was setting anchor off shore, a crowd of local Carib Indians paddled out in
canoes and greeted his crew warmly. Later, the golden bands that the region's
inhabitants wore in their noses and ears would inspire the Spaniard Gil Gonzalez
Davila to name the country Costa Rica, or Rich Coast.
Archaeologists now know that civilization existed in Costa
Rica for thousands of years before the arrival of Columbus, and evidence of
human occupation in the region dates back 10,000 years. Among the cultural
mysteries left behind by the area's pre-Columbian inhabitants are thousands of
perfectly spherical granite bolas that have been found near the west
coast. The sizes of these inimitable relics range from that of a baseball to
that of a Volkswagen bus. Ruins of a large, ancient city complete with aqueducts
were recently found east of San Jose, and some marvelously sophisticated gold
and jade work was being wrought in the southwest as far back as 1,000 years ago.
Some archeological sites in the central highlands and Nicoya peninsula have
shown evidence of influence from the Mexican Olmec and Nahuatl civilizations.
By the time Columbus arrived, there were four major indigenous
tribes living in Costa Rica. The east coast was the realm of the Caribs, while
the Borucas, Chibchas, and Diquis resided in the southwest. Only a few hundred
thousand strong to begin with, none of these peoples lasted long after the dawn
of Spanish colonialism. Some fled, while many others perished from the deadly
smallpox brought by the Spaniards. Having decimated the indigenous labor force,
the Spanish followed a common policy and brought in African slaves to work the
land. Seventy thousand of their descendants live in Costa Rica today, and the
country is known for good relations among races. Regrettably, only 1 percent of
Costa's Rica's 3 million people are of indigenous heritage. An overwhelming 98
percent of the country is white, and those of Spanish descent call themselves
Ticos.
Of all the Spanish colonies, Costa Rica enjoyed the least
influence as a colony. It was initially a tough and unpopular place to settle,
with few valuable or easily exploited resources. The Spanish were far more
interested in developing their holdings in Mexico and Peru, where vast amounts
of silver and gold were being obtained. The early hapless settlers who came to
Costa Rica were left largely to their own devices, and the first successful
establishment of a colonial city was not until 1562, when Juan Vasquez de
Coronado founded Cartago.
When Mexico rebelled against Spain in 1821, Costa Rica and the
rest of Central America followed suit. Two years later, a faction in Costa Rica
even opted to become part of Mexico, sparking a civil war in the country's
center between four neighboring cities. After the republican cities of San Jose
and Alajuela soundly defeated the pro-Mexican Heredia and Cartago, sovereignty
was established.
The first head of state was Juan Mora Fernandez, elected in
1824. Best remembered for his land reforms, Fernandez followed a progressive
course but inadvertantly created an elite class of powerful coffee barons. The
barons later overthrew the nation's first president, Jose Maria Castro, who was
succeeded by Juan Rafael Mora. It was under Mora's leadership that Costa Rican
volunteers managed to repulse a would-be conqueror, the North American William
Walker.
Walker was a disgruntled southerner who thought that the
United States should annex Central America and turn it into a slave state. He
was a lunatic, and a dangerous rather than charming one. With a piecemeal army
of about 50 men, Walker had earlier invaded Mexico, where he had been captured
and then released back to the States. Not to be discouraged, he next invaded
Panama, where he briefly seized control before being forced to flee--into Costa
Rica. After his bid for despotic rule there was defeated by Mora's forces, the
indomitable Walker turned his attentions to Honduras. The Hondurans, unlike
their predecessors on Walker's list, captured him, and Walker was finally and
summarily executed.
Military rule has reared its head in Costa Rica from time to
time, though it has not been marked by the sort of violent extremism that has
occurred elsewhere in Central America. In 1870, when General Tomas Guardia
seized control of the government, he made some of the country's most progressive
reforms in education, military policy, and taxation.
The Costa Rican civil war erupted in 1948, after incumbent Dr.
Rafael Angel Calderon and the United Social Christian Party refused to
relinquish power after losing the presidential election. An exile named Jose
Maria (Don Pepe) Figueres Ferrer managed to defeat Calderon in about a month,
and he later proved to be one of Costa Rica's most influential leaders, as head
of the Founding Junta of the Second Republic of Costa Rica.
Under Ferrer's leadership, the Junta made vast reforms in
policy and civil rights. Women and blacks gained the vote, the communist party
was banned, banks were nationalized, and presidential term limits established.
Ferrer was immensely popular, creating a political legacy that firmly cemented
Costa Rica's liberal democratic values.
In 1987, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez garnered
world recognition when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in
ending the Nicaraguan civil war. During that conflict, both the Sandanistas and
the Contras set up military bases in the northern area of Costa Rica, and Arias
was elected under the promise that he would work to put an end to this
situation. He was able to get all five Central American presidents to sign his
peace plan, and Nicaragua is now experiencing relative stability
The end of Westerndream tour... going back next year,something different ,something colder ,but something that will blow your mind away ,USA we'll be back @the 49th state 2012
