The Island Life

Costa Rica. A green, luscious paradise. The name is often homologous in our minds with words like rainforest, beaches, paradise, exotic, beauty, and island. And with good reason. We certainly have some of the most beautiful cloud-forests that can be seen anywhere (which are different from [and colder than] rain forests, by the way!), our beaches are second-to-none, and—well, okay, you might find better beaches along some uninhabited coastline in some undiscovered reach of the ocean, but I think you'd still find ours to be pretty good!

By all means, Costa Rica is a tropical paradise in every way. But if your list of things that come to mind matches the one I wrote above, I'll slap ya 'cross the face!

Please, let it be known to all and shouted from the rooftops: Costa Rica is NOT an island!!!

One of the most common questions I get when people ask me about Costa Rica is, "What's it like living on an island?!"  To these people I like to say, "I don't know! You should totally ask someone who lives on one!"

Now, to be fair, this is an honest and common mistake. Another common misconception ( and yes, I've had people ask me this as well) is that we are part of the USA. That is, that though we're not officially a state, we are a US territory. This is also false and further supports the conclusion that many of us in Costa Rica have effectively come to: People think that we live in Puerto Rico.  Now, this at least makes a little sense. Puerto Rico is indeed an island nation, and it is also a US territory, meaning its people can vote and be involved in US politics. We can even do a phonetic breakdown of the two names and find that they are indeed quite similar. However, they are not the same. They never were, and they never will be. Costa Rica is not an island!

I can see that some of you are still scratching your heads.  "Huh'?", you're saying, "But how...I thought...island...", yadayadayadayada.  "Green. Oceans. Landlocked... Does not compute."; "How can a place be so jungle-ey and not be an island? It's like on Madagascar..."  All these things and more you are asking yourselves! And so allow me now to broaden your minds and further clarify your doubts.

*Clears throat*

In order to clarify and erase any further doubts concerning the possible island nature of the Republic of Costa Rica and its relation, if any, to the U.S. Territory of Puerto Rico, a step-by-step analysis will be carried out concerning both of the items in question, with the understanding that, should the results yield contrary to the reader's understanding, the reader will blindly change his understanding so that it is in accordance with the results of said analyses.

Okay, with that done, let's look at the definition of an island:

island: a freestanding kitchen cupboard unit with a countertop, allowing access from all—Wait a second. Sorry, that's not right. Ah, here we go:   

island: a land mass, especially one smaller than a continent, entirely surrounded by water.

In the following photo I have clearly marked both Costa Rica and Puerto Rico on the map.

Keeping in mind our definition of an island, let us observe Costa Rica. It is certainly a land mass, and we can see that it is indeed a great deal smaller than a continent! Let's take a closer look at the picture.  Notice how Costa Rica is bordered on two sides by the nations of Nicaragua and Panama, while only the other two are bordered by water! What is this?! It seems that we cannot by reasonable standards call Costa Rica an island.

Let us now go to Puerto Rico: We notice that Puer-to has two syllables, much like Cos-ta, and that in the same way Ri-co and Ri-ca are identical save their last letters. However, any notion that they are the same nation can be dismissed on the premise of their distinct geographical locations. In fact, if you look at Puerto Rico, you will notice that it is not bordered by Nicaragua or Panama. What's more, upon further investigation, you will find that it is not bordered by any country, but is surrounded by water on all sides! And since Puerto Rico is smaller than a continent, we can confidently say that Puerto Rico is an island!

No more need be said on the subject. We have successfully come to the very conclusion that we set out to prove. Reviewing our points we find:

1. Costa rica is not an island.
2. Puerto Rico and Costa Rica are not the same.

VOILA! It is my hope that this post has clarified beyond a shadow of a doubt any misconceptions you may have had about my island life.