& next up, Costa Rica!
Costa Rica, officially recognised as the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaguara to the North, Panama to the East and South the Carribean Ocean to the West and South and the Pacific Ocean to the East. The Country, which translates literally as Rich Coast, was the first country in the world to constitutionally abolish its army.
Their National Anthem is Noble Patria, tu Hermosa Bandera. [Noble Homeland, your Beautiful Flag] The lyrics to their Anthem can be found here.
The official currency for Costa Rica, is the Costa Rican Colon, where S$1 = to roughly 360CRC.
The Official language is Spanish, but Mekatelyu is recognised as well.
Despite being a country with many potential business sectors, Costa Rica is the 4th Latin American country in the world with the highest inflation rates. Over 16% of the people were under the poverty range in 2006, and 5.5% of their estimated 4million population were unemployed. However, the country is constantly growing, and is currently the most visited nation in the Central American region.
Costa Rica is also home to a rich diversity of Flora and Fauna. Although the country only holds 0.1% of the World's landmass, it contains 5% of the World's biodiversity in the country itself. About 25% of the country has been converted into natural reserves and protected parks. The largest amount in the World.
Christianity is the predominant religion in Costa Rica, &Roman Catholicism is the official religion. Some 84% of Costa Ricans are Christian, and like many other parts of Latin America, Evangelical Protestant denominations have been experiencing rapid growth. However, 70% still adhere to Roman Catholicism.
Once again, this is but the beginning of the story.
Feel free to leave questions on the tagboards (:
Feel free to leave questions on the tagboards (:
-Lex
Labels: Costa Rica
10:53 AM
Hey Queenstownians!
As part of the upcoming YOG festival, our school will be hosting the countries Mauritius and Costa Rica. In preparation for that, the Quest YOG blog Webmasters will be posting some useful information on these countries.
Firstly, let's have Mauritius.
Mauritius is an island located just off the Coast of the African Continent, in the Southwest Indian Ocean, roughly 900km east from Madagascar. The Republic of Mauritius consists of the islands of Mauritius, St. Brandon, Rodriguez & the Agalega Islands.
By itself, the island of Mauritius is renowned for being the only known home of the flightless Dodo bird, which was sighted by Europeans on the island around the 1600s. The Dodo was extinct less than 80 short years later.
The National Anthem of Mauritius is 'Motherland', the lyrics to which can be viewed here.
As a country, they speak English, not unlike Singapore, but their native language is Mauritian Creole. They are also well versed in French.
Their Currency is the Mauritian Rupee, $1 = roughly 22MUR.
The Hindus are the Majority in Mauritius, at about 52% of the population following the religion, while the Roman Catholics number about 2.48%, Muslims at 16.6% and other Religions taking up 3%.
The cuisine of Mauritius is a blend of Indian, Creole, Chinese and European influences. It is common for a combination of cuisines to form part of the same meal.
Leisure activities in Mauritius include deer hunting, quad & mountain biking, abseiling, zip lining, horse riding and trekking. However, all these are most often practiced by the wealthy only. Recreational activities usually revolve around water-based activities for tourists. Examples would include deep sea fishing, windsurfing, water-skiing, cruising in yachts and even submarines.
& this is just the tip of the iceberg in Mauritius' rich diversity and way-of-life.
Do feel free to look it up yourself, or post questions for the webmasters on the tagboard.
-Lex
Labels: Mauritius
10:29 AM
