Population: 3, 500, 000

Area: 35,100 square miles

Language: Spanish. English is understood in most hotels

Time: - 1 hour from New York

Electricity: 110 volts AC / 60 Hz same as USA

Geography: Nicaragua is to the north, Panama to the south, the Pacific tot he west and the Caribbean Sea is to the east. The country is effectively split in two by a chain of volcano mountains which run north/south. The highlands go upward to 12, 000 feet. Located at about 4,000 are the country's leading cities including the capital of San Jose. The land is very fertile due to the past activity of the volcanos some of which are still quite active.

Tipping: Best to examine your restaurant bill and see if you are already paying a gratuity. If not, leave 10%. Smaller restaurants do not usually include a tip in the check, so you will need to do so. Taxi drivers are normally not tipped, but loose change is appreciated. Porters are given loose change or a $1 bill.

Shopping: Stores are usually open daily except Sundays from 8 am to 6 pm. with a two hour break for lunch which usually starts at noon. Popular purchases include wooden items, leather goods, and ceramics. Vanilla is extremely inexpensive. Fresh roasted Costa Rican coffee is well known worldwide and is a favorite item to take home.

Food and Drink: Costa Rican cuisine is simple but good. Much of it consists of items similar to what we might expect in Mexico such as tortillas, etc. There is a very unique dish to Costa Rica called "gallo pinto" which is a blend of rice, beans, sour cream, herbs and spices, and eggs. It is quite tasty and is often served for breakfast. This is similar to a "casasdo" which also includes a fried plantain, beef (or fish) and chopped cabbage. It also often has an avocado thrown into the mix. If you are looking for international fare both Italian and Chinese are easier to find. For the sweet tooth there is dessert called "cajeta" which includes milk and sugar boiled down to a thick syrup and poured between layers of cake to produce a torte-fudge cake effect. Imported beverages are pricey here. The alternative includes five brands of beers and some inexpensive wines. THere is a local specialty called "guaro" which is a distilled liquor made from sugar cane - it is strong! Local rum mixed with Coca Cola is well known as is something called "Cafe Rica" which is a coffee liquor.

Social: "Ticos," which the Costa Ricans are called (Ticas for women) are usually pretty friendly. People dress pretty well and are usually very neat in appearance. Most of the population are of Spanish extraction. There are a few of Jamaican origin who were originally used on the plantations there. Local indians have been largely marginalized. Handshaking is the norm at greeting.

Business: Dress is conservative and not flashy. In the highlands business suits are worn. In the lowlands, where it is hot and humid, the day begins with a suit and drops the jacket in the afternoon. Business cards are essential. English is widely spoken among business people here but best to know Spanish yourself.

As I crawl into a hammock under a thatched palapa, a troop of cinnamon-chested -- -them munching leaves, me lazing in the afternoon shade. It's hard to tell which primate is getting the better education. It's this kind of encounter that draws so many travelers to Costa Rica's rainforests and 1.3 million acres of wildlife preserves. Its growing number of eco-lodges have made this country, with 34 national parks, one of the easiest places to explore the rainforest. If you go in the dry summer (December to April), you'll find the dirt roads in good condition but also many other travelers. Choose the rainy winter (May to November), and the hiking paths will be less crowded, but the rain may wash out some of your plans. Either way, it's worth making a two- or three-day eco-lodge trek part of your vacation. Set in the jungle, the lodges can be anything from rustic retreats without electricity to first-class cabins on landscaped grounds, with guided hikes and boat rides that take you into the wilds. Still, not all lodges provide the same experience. To explore Costa Rica's forests and creatures, we chose one lodge on each coast and one in the mountainous interior. Two are easy to reach; the third is remote. Each offers its guests different wildlife-viewing opportunities, and a chance to escape the beaten track.

The Hard Shell
At Pachira Lodge on the east coast, endangered green sea and leatherback turtles are major attractions. Separated from the Caribbean by a lagoon and a narrow spit of land, the lodge sits close to one of the country's protected turtle nesting beaches. Every night from May to mid-October, the creatures drag themselves up the beach to lay eggs. For us, this was literally a hands-on nature experience: With our excellent guide, my group of 10 sat on the beach and petted the turtles.

But the turtles are just one of the lures. Pachira's location, just a 30-minute plane ride (or four and a half hours by bus) northeast of San Jose, makes for an easy two-night visit. And during the day, the same group of us hiked through never-logged rainforest in Tortuguero National Park, and with the help of our guides, spotted bright red poisonous frogs and white bats grouped under a banana leaf. During boat tours of the Tortuguero River and narrow canals, we saw sloths, otters, and kingfishers as we glided between walls of variegated green forest.

The lodge itself is almost reason enough to visit. Three-year-old Pachira is the newest of eight hotels spread along the Tortuguero Lagoon. Set on 34 lushly landscaped acres, the lodge has 36 rooms in four-room bungalows. My room's large windows looked out on gardens splashed with red and yellow blossoms. And all of the lodge's rooms have peaked ceilings with fans, hardwood floors, and private bathrooms with large showers.

The dining room is even more dramatic, with a 20-foot vaulted ceiling. All meals are buffet-style; breakfasts were excellent, with dark, rich Costa Rican coffee, tro pical fruits, fresh juices, cereals, and omelets. Other meals, however, tended toward bland American standards (like spaghetti).

With an all-inclusive three-day, two-night package (the average stay), you'll take a nighttime turtle-viewing hike (in season), a rainforest hike, and boat tours of the jungle. Prices start at $239, including bus transportation to the lodge. You can fly in for about $60 extra, but I found the chartered bus more interesting-on the way we got an informative trip through a banana plantation and a cloud forest (Pachira Lodge; 011-506 256-7080).

Down Under
On the other side of the country, overlooking the Pacific, Drake Bay's Aguila de Osa Inn sits on the edge of one of the richest rainforests on earth and offers some of the best snorkeling and diving in the country. It's a bit of a haul, however: The trip requires a 40-minute flight from San Jose, a 30-minute cab ride, and a one-hour-and-15-minute ride downriver on a small fiberglass skiff through twisting mangrove forests.

But the seclusion is rewarding -- and surprisingly luxurious. The inn's 13 cabins are scattered in clusters on a hillside bursting with orchids, bromeliads, and plumeria. These thatched-roofed cabins all have hand-carved wooden doors, 30-foot A-frame ceilings with fans, and bamboo-frame platform beds. The tiled bathrooms have polished-brass fixtures, and on the wide verandas, coffee appears each day at 5 a.m. The place is so remote, you don't even get a room key unless you ask for one.

Of the three lodges, Aguila de Osa had by far the best food, with lots of vegetables and local fish with tropical sauces. One lunch was heaping plates of baked tuna and fried potato cakes, and each evening there was an interesting appetizer, such as a squash-like vegetable from the pejivalle palm stuffed with cheese.

I spent one afternoon scuba diving, and while we didn't see any sea turtles, we were visited by a giant manta ray (who seemed as taken with us as we were with him) and plenty of white-tipped reef sharks. But swimming isn't the only highlight. On our guided hikes through Corcovado National Park, we passed some of the same buttress-trunked trees, spooky spiders, and brightly colored birds I'd seen in Tortuguero -- with spectacular additions. In our typical small group of five, we saw scarlet macaws swooping through the treetops and passed palm-lined pocket beaches, and our Costa Rican guide was as excited as the rest of us when we spotted howler, spider, and white-faced monkeys.

Room rates start at $110 per person, per night, including three meals a day and kayaking. If you want to take advantage of such act ivities as diving, snorkeling, fishing, or horseback riding, you'll have to pay extra-and it's not cheap-but it's worth it (Aguila de Osa Inn; 011-506-232-7722).

A Whitewater Christmas
Pacuare Lodge is custom-made for those who want the full flavor of the jungle and have a penchant for adventure: There's no electricity, and the only way in is to raft down white-capped rapids. Traveling with Aventuras Naturales, rafters between the ages of 12 and 70 run the river year-round, with the water flowing easiest in January and February, and ripping in October and November. The usual approach is to raft six miles, spend one to three nights at the lodge, then raft an additional 13 miles on your way out (before busing back to San Jose). Outside of the wildlife-viewing, which is just as spectacular as at the other two lodges, the highlight here is a six-hour rainforest hike to meet Cabecar Indians.

The lodge's seven separate bungalows, built with local planks and logs and topped with thatched palm, blend into the forest beneath giant trees. Rooms are simple, and each has a private bathroom with shower. In the still morning, amid trilling birdsong, you sip coffee on the porch and sniff breakfast cooking-and wonder why you would ever leave.

The river guides do all the cooking at the lodge, including an afternoon happy hour on the second floor, which is hung with hammocks and open to the teeming jungle. Dinner is outside on picnic tables with white tablecloths; candles and torches light the area. It's amazing what the guides can do without electricity: grilled chicken with mango sauce served with rice, steamed baby vegetables, black mushrooms in wine sauce, grilled rolls and butter, and wine. For dessert there's often banana flambe with condensed milk and rum.

At Pacuare, as at the other lodges, the guides' areas of expertise range from biology to horse breeding. One was especially good with plants and trees, and another was a bird enthusiast, but they all worked hard to show us the best of the rainforest. Two-day trips cost $249 per person, and it's $75 for each additional night (Aventuras Naturales;             800-514-0411       or 011-506-225-3939).