Everything about Costa Rican Central Valley totally explained
The
Central Valley is a plateau and a geographic region located in central
Costa Rica. The land in the valley is relatively plain, despite of being surrounded by several mountains of volcanos, the latter part of the
Central Range, and the region houses almost three quartes of Costa Ricans, including the capital and most populous city,
San José. The valley is shared between the
provinces of
Alajuela,
Heredia,
San José and
Cartago, and the region properly occupies an area of 11.366 km² (more than a fifth of the whole country).
Geographic dimensions
The Central Valley is commonly referred as extending from
San Ramón, Costa Rica in
Alajuela Province at west, to
Paraíso, Costa Rica in
Cartago Province at east. On the mountainous range at the north there are four volcanos from Central Range, namely,
Poás,
Barva,
Irazú and
Turrialba. The mountains that rounded the plateau to the south form part of Central Range and
Talamanca Range, but are less higher than the northern range. Also, there's a curious division through the valley (from north to south) by a less important range called
Cerros de la Carpintera, that beside its smaller size, it cause an important impact on weather and ecosystems of the region (because of the influence of
Pacific and
Caribbean climates and winds, that affects each part of the sectors divided by this range distinctively).
Climate
Because of the altitude, the temperature in the Central Valley oscillates between 15°C and 30°C, varying mainly because of the position toward the mountains (the altitude also varies between 800 mts. and 1,500 mts. above sea level). The western part of the Valley is influenced by
trade winds in summer, and, as the rest of the country with the exception of the Caribbean region, there are two climate seasons clearly defined,
wet and
dry. The eastern part of the Valley is more influenced by Caribbean conditions, which are more volatile.
Precipitation on the region varies from 1,900
mm in an urban an centrical place like
Pavas to 3,200 mm in a rural and mountainous place like
Fraijanes, and
humidity varies from 75% (10% of volatility) in Pavas, to 87% (rarely descending less than 80%) in Fraijanes.
Economic importance
The Central Valley had been traditionally the favorite place for Costa Ricans to live, and even today it produces an unequal distribution of population in the country, despite its size. This condition is because of the fertility of land in the region, helped by the influence of volcanoes and rivers who run the valley. Weather also favours agriculture and farming activities. Because of the agglomeration of population, the valley is the center of commerce, industry and service activities, just helped by ports on both coasts, and by
Liberia in Guanacaste (which has the other
international airport besides
Juan Santamaría Airport in
Alajuela) that have similar economic movement.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Costa Rican Central Valley'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://costa_rican_central_valley.totallyexplained.com">Costa Rican Central Valley Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
