Adios

Source: António A Gonçalves

Off to Costa Rica for the next 10 days, so blogging will obviously be light (while some posts will appear, they will be scheduled and do not indicate I am anywhere even near a computer). Some interesting facts about the country:

• Costa Rica is ranked by the Heritage Foundation as the 49th most free economy in the world. This is one spot behind Mexico and ten places behind El Salvador but ahead of the rest of Central America. 

• In 2006 Intel's microprocessor facility in the country was responsible for 20 percent of Costa Rican exports and 4.9 percent of the country's GDP.

• Under Spanish rule Costa Rica was prohibited from trading with their neighbors in what is now Panama (Viceroyalty of New Granada at the time). Perhaps this explains in some small part why a 2005 pro-free trade rally in the country attracted thousands of participants.

• Former President Oscar Arias has an opinion piece in the most recent issue of Foreign Affairs on the role of culture in Latin American development.

• Costa Rica does not have a military, which may be one reason it gets picked on by Nicaragua.