What it feels like to be a Millionaire

With just 21 years of age I arrived to Costa Rica and was quick to become my families first millionaire. I have to say life has been good and living in the tropical paradise running a tour company I cant complain. Being a millionaire came easier than I expected. I did not find myself with a big house or fancy cars. I noticed I was still eating rice and beans every meal and living off tips from being a river guide on the river.

Today is your lesson on Costa Rican currency. It turns out that Costa Rica uses the Colone which was named after a sailor who first arrived on the Limon side of Costa Rica named Christopher Columbus. His name in Spanish is Cristobal Colon for which the currency was named. Costa Rica has moved through the years from using everything from the Cacao fruit as currency to the many different size coins that they have today. The largest bill of the colone is 10,000 colones which is worth around $18.50 US Dollars. Today the exchange is around 550 colones to the US $1. This my friends is how I became my families first millionaire. To say it correctly I am really only a thousandaire and on some days probably just a hundrednaire. This was your lesson on the Costa Rican currency and to let everyone know that you dont need a fancy car and nice house to live the life of a millionaire. Just a few rice and beans, nice people, and natural beauties is what I consider living the high life.

Tourism drops 8% in 2009

According to an article written in La Nacion. The tourism sector of Costa Rica took a drop of 8% in the year of 2009. For obvious reasons everyone expected a drop with the world wide recession and even the Swine Flew playing a roll in less tourist. In my personal opinion it could have been a lot worse and I think many people in the tourism industry that was not in extremely deep going into this year probably survived and is ready for this next year.

The number of tourist that entered the country were down 167,000 from 2008. In 2009 1.9million foreigners entered the country as compared to over 2 million in 2008.

I happen to think this was great for the country. I have been working in tourism down here for 9 years and there are plenty of people who have many more years than I working in tourism. The changes I have seen in the last 9 years are amazing and at such a fast speed that I can only imagine what this country looked like 20 years ago. The point that Im trying to make is that the people and natural beauties is what made this place the tourist destination it is. If you take the economic growth of the tourist section really fast it affects both the people and the natural beauties. When people find out they can make money in tourism and big money they tend to do it. Anyone knows that making big money fast can change some of your dailing habits and how you live your life. Im not saying the Costa Rican has turned into a country full of greedy snobs. All Im saying is that this is an excellent situation for the people here and extremely fast growth would not benefit anyone.

The second is the obvious that has been talked about for years and that is the more tourist, the more foreigners developing land, the more the natural beauties take a risk of being affected. Yes, 25% of Costa Rica is protected but every piece of bio-diversity on this planet is connected and just marking off your boundries does not make you a protecter of the environment. It is important that this developement be built very conscience of how their project will affect the nearby areas and its surroundings (air, soil, where materials come from, ect.)

So with this said, I feel the 8% drop in tourism is a chance for the industry to keep its feet on the ground and recieve this excellent blessing of opportunity of economic and natural wealth with a solid plan and mindset for the best future possible for everyone.