Wildlife of Costa Rica – Part 1

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The Wildlife of Costa Rica comprises all naturally occurring animals, fungi and plants that reside in this Central American country. Costa Rica supports an enormous variety of wildlife, due in large part to its geographic position between the North and South American continents, its neotropical climate, and its wide variety of habitats. Costa Rica is home to more than 500,000 species, which represents nearly 4% of the total species estimated worldwide, making Costa Rica one of the 20 countries with the highest biodiversity in the world. Of these 500,000 species, a little more than 300,000 are insects.

One of the principal sources of Costa Rica’s biodiversity is that the country, together with Panama, formed a bridge connecting the North and South American continents approximately three to five million years ago. This bridge allowed the very different flora and fauna of the two continents to mix.

On the next post we will make some park suggestion to see wildlife in Costa Rica.

President Venceslau’s observation tower, President Venceslau, São Paulo, Brazil

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President Venceslau’s observation tower has the Dutch style. But, in fact, it was the work of a Portuguese engineer Álvaro Coelho built in 1927 with four brick floors and wooden roof, with a structure reinforced with concrete base and the railway rails- exactly slabs beams are made of train tracks!

Coelho came to Brazil to sell land through a company he owned. Arrived at the Paulista West which was not yet President Venceslau where there were some explorers and many indians; he bought a large farm, built a luxurious site and this such observation tower from where he could see the horizon of his land and prevent the possible invasions of indians and “competitors” in the business.

For a long time, although useful in the safety of the earth, the observation tower of the highly innovative standards architecture for Brazilian structures at that time, even more for this corner of the State, served as a decoration, the site of the farm, which also became known as the Palace of Álvaro Coelho at the reception of the large dinners of high society, being visited by Brazilian politicians and even abroad, for example a Hungarian Minister visited it.

Álvaro Coelho became the first mayor, who then created the first municipality that President Venceslau had. Thus, the village grew. He sold the land and the farm was reduced. But the tower continued to attract curious eyes of residents and visitors.

Tips

The site is free and of an unrestricted access, the same for photos but as this is a hot country region, you will need solar filters, protectors against insects and water for hydration.