Costa Rica Info Link

Schedule: from Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Phone: +506 2287-6034
Address: on 7th avenue, between 9th and 11th streets, at the INS building, district: Carmen, canton: San José, Costa Rica. Zone postal code: 10101.

Address map: Click here to view directions from Central Park, San Jose, Costa Rica TO the Jade Museum in San Jose, Costa Rica at Google Maps

On October 30th, 1924, the Congress of the Republic of Costa Rica adopted the Law No. 12 which created a monopoly on insurance in favor of the State, giving it the name of Insurance National Bank, and 24 years later, changed its name to the National Insurance Institute (INS in Spanish). This institution aims to provide protection and service to the people of Costa Rica.

In the seventies, the National Insurance Institute faced the situation of relentless stealing and commercialization of archaeological objects, both inside and outside the national territory, so the museum acquired artifacts from collectors by purchase and in a few cases, by donation. By then, the INS had made up its objects collection from pre-Columbian times to approximately 7000 pieces of various materials such as jade, ceramics, stone, gold, shell, wood, resin, bone and others. For these acquisitions and for historical reasons the aesthetic prevailed in contrast to the daily. On October 31st, 1977, the INS opened the Museum under the name “Archaeological Collection of the National Insurance Institute”, and then in 1980 with the agreement of the XI Session of 6556 of the current Directorate, it was renamed to Jade Museum (Museo del Jade).

Following the failure to restructure a lost cause due to the non-scientific excavation methods, the Jade Museum was given the task of promoting research projects, in order to learn the context, if possible, through the association of scientifically excavated objects. These investigations have worked in fields such as: anthropological, archaeological, geologist, artist and ethno-musical.

Jade Museum Costa Rica with over twenty years of operation has enabled thousands of nationals and foreign visitors to visit their exhibition halls, having the opportunity to admire one of the richest institutional collection of America. The variety of its objects, consisting of four collections, archeology, art, ethnography, numismatics; reflects one of the INS objectives, to generate a social contribution, through registration, documentation and exhibition of expositions.

For more than quarter of a century, the cultural heritage that the museum guards, has served as an ambassador to Costa Rica, by being part of international exhibitions displayed in different cities in America, Europe and Asia. The high quality of the art collection is reflected for instance in the significant number of works by renowned Costa Rican artists, representing various periods of the national plastic production, which on many occasions have been given on loan for exhibition and research.

The Jade Museum throughout these years has facilitated its showrooms, both to publicize the product of national and international artists as for exhibitions related to a wide range of subjects like history, science, technology and other topics related to human activity. Today it’s the only existing museum of pre-Columbian jade and the largest collection of this type in exhibition, since this archaeological museum shows not only jade objects but valuable pieces carved in stone and ceramics of high artistic quality. The museum is located on the first floor of the National Insurance Institute of Costa Rica.

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In 1869 Mr. Robert Ross Lang, a British immigrant, acquired the property that includes what is now the Santa Ana Conservation Center. The Ross Family took advantage of the existing sugar mill on the farm for processing sugar cane, a tradition that was continued by their descendants. The sugar cane processing consisted of three operations: the extraction of juice, purification and concentration. Sugar cane was taken to the refinery in carts and then to the sugar mill, which was aimed to crush the cane and extract the juice.

This sugar mill had a small steam plant that moved the juice extractor, and then the sugar refinery machinery. The plant consisted of two boilers and a steam engine. From the twentieth century, owners of the farm began to produce sugar, which imported and assembled the necessary machinery to carry out this process. The Ross family sugar mill began with energy provided by steam. Currently, the entire invaluable historical legacy that this family left to the Santa Ana Canton and the people of Costa Rica is available through the Agricultural Historical Museum (Museo Histórico Agrícola de Santa Ana) located at this Conservation Center.

For the preparation of the work that preceded what is now the museum, there was historical research, buildings structural assessments and determination of the elements to restore, machinery movement to the exhibit site and mounting the museum exhibit. The museum has agriculture machinery from the 19th century in a 1757 farm house, small plantations, a traditional sugar mill and a coffee processing plant. Today the museum consists of the following elements:

• The Casona: Historical building of approximately 250 years old, consisting of a main hall, one bedroom, an area of cabinets, a kitchen and a chapel that served as the first Santa Ana church in 1850. This house has been declared National Historic Heritage.
• The Trapiche: houses the machinery from the late nineteenth century, used for the production of honey and sugar. It has a small steam plant, a “pailas” area and ovens and the equipment that make up a small refinery.
• The Coffee Benefit: located within the same trapiche includes containers which receive the coffee and where fermentation happens, some pulping machines for grains and a hydraulic system that through the power of water from the Uruca River operates other machinery of the same benefit.
• The Exhibit Hall: This is a collection of the machinery used for sorting and hulling coffee, a small collection of pulleys and elements of plows and harrow, and a panel depicting the history of agriculture in the Central Valley.
• Five Ranch Exhibit: these ranches store the heavy machinery used in farm work.
• The Coffee Benefit Courtyards: Shows the typical coffee benefit system called “de correteo”, and it includes the pipes through which the coffee was taken to the courtyards where it was extended for drying.
• The Plots: These are eight micro plots showing the different crops to represent the agricultural production that was developed at the ranch. In these plots are maintained at different times of the year, crops of rice, beans, maize (corn), yucca, coffee, sugarcane, tomato, cilantro, radish, carrot and onion.
• Walking trails connecting all the above elements.

Address: from Santa Ana High School 200 meters north on Ross Street in Rio Oro, district: Uruca, canton: Santa Ana, province: San José, Costa Rica. Zone postal code: 10904.
GPS Coordinates of the Rio Oro Road : 9.933519,-84.189772 (9°56’00.67″N, 84°11’23.18″W)
Schedule: from Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Saturday and Sunday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Website: www.fundazoo.org
Telephone: + (506) 2282-8434 / 233-6701
Fax: + (506) 223-1817

Address map: Click here to view directions from Central Park, San Jose, Costa Rica TO Santa Ana High School, San Jose, Costa Rica at Google Maps

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The Children’s Museum Costa Rica is the first museum of its kind in Central America. It is a magical place for both children and adults who want to learn through games. The museum is located at the Former Central Prison, an impressive brick structure built in 1906. The Children’s Museum offers guided tours that can be:

* Exploratory Visits: In this type of visit, the teacher may bring their students to learn about the contents of 37 interactive rooms, with such diverse subjects ranging from science, the universe, balance, music, Egyptian culture history, the recycling process to technological advances.
* Theme: On these visits you can tour some rooms of the museum by specific themes. Some of them are: “Technology in Everyday Life,” “Man and his environment”; “Bright Smiles”, “Costa Rica, its Land and its People”, “The Senses”. This option can be tailored to the teachers needs.
* Complete Sightseeing Excursion: On this type of visit, the Children’s Museum offers two hours of pure fun doing workshops, completing an interactive brochure, visiting new attractions and competing in a challenges rally. The teacher can choose the theme to be developed in accordance with the Museum’s available material.

The museum also has a library, ramps for disabled access, a coffee shop and souvenir shop, without leaving behind that the Children’s Museum is home to the National Auditorium. The museum teaches about children’s rights, the universe, the Earth, living creatures, interactive exhibits, galleries, among others, that’s why the museum has several educational rooms, among which the following stand out:
• The Universe and the Solar System: shows some of the most important features of the Solar System and the planets that compose it.
• Space Technology: allows learning the evolution of technology and modern space research. Here in the spotlight is the figure of the Costa Rican astronaut Frankiln Chang, his work as a researcher and astronaut in the various space missions that he has participated.
• Ecosystems: shows the main features of Costa Rican ecosystems such as the rain forest, moorland, reefs and cloud forest. It also presents the various protected areas of the country.
• Technology EnSalada: An area that displays multimedia technology. Visitors have the opportunity to interact with educational software on various topics.
• Costa Rica, it’s Land and it’s People: A journey through the cultural history of Costa Rica, through spaces representing a time and place, in terms of population, economy, trade, religion and other aspects of social life. The primary objective of the room is to strengthen the cultural identity of the Costa Ricans.
• Kal Yok: exhibits a portion of the rich biodiversity in the ecosystems of Costa Rica, both on land and sea. Visitors can observe animals in terrariums and tanks that recreate their natural environments. The space is intended to make the visitor think on our responsibility in caring for these endangered ecosystems.
• That’s how my story begins: it develops the theme of heritage and human development. As well the room shows the subjects of fertilization, birth and the role of family in caring for the baby. Visitors can experience how much we weight inside a women’s womb.
• Radio Studio: shows visitors the world of radio through a recording studio, learning how to produce sound waves and transmit these to the whole world thanks to radio programs. Visitors can make their own recordings of known stories and songs.
• Television Studio: creating a small T.V. show, in a modern video recording equipment. Not only will you learn how various programs are developed, such as news and talk shows, but also how television comes from the studio to our house.
• Human Body: it teaches the most important features of the systems and senses that make up the human body and highlights some of the diseases occurring in different systems such as osteoporosis and AIDS.
• Bright Smiles: exhibits the importance of oral hygiene as a means of disease prevention. Shows the components of the mouth, the room also features models of the mouth and teeth and highlights tips for a healthier mouth. The site maintains a dental clinic “Dr Muelitas Program” where school groups have the opportunity to be diagnosed and treated.
• Electricity and Magnetism: it teaches the basics of electricity and magnetism through experimentation. Through a series of devices you can experience electrical currents in your body and produce magnetism. The room also shows electricity generation from various sources such as hydro, wind, solar and geothermal.
• Telecommunications: it shows the telephony history, telephone transmission and the importance of the 911 emergency service.
• The Bank: It reveals the history of banking and money, the importance of savings and the services offered by banks, along with the related technology to banking services, such as the ATM.
• Matter and Hydrocarbons: presents the characteristics of matter and its components, highlights the origin of hydrocarbons and it’s importance as a source of energy and other products.
• Pollution and Recycling: highlights the problem of solid waste and the importance of encouraging practices such as recycling, especially plastics and proper waste management.
• Prevention on wheels: it helps consider and analyze the prevention of accidents at home and tells us to whom we must communicate at these mishaps.
• Golden Bean School: displays and highlights the importance of coffee in Costa Rican society. It also explains the process from the coffee cultivation and processing until the coffee is consumed.
• Carmen Lyra: it highlights the work of Carmen Lyra, especially as a writer and educator. A robot with the Carmen Lyra figure tells the most famous stories of the writer.
• Torrejas House: built with an inclination of 20 degrees, deceives the senses to help us understand the physiological phenomenon of balance.
• Aviation: shows some of the most important aspects of the aviation history and how aircraft’s work. Recreates the cockpit of a 737 airplane and gives the opportunity to use computerized flight simulators, as well as observing the model of Leonardo Da Vinci’s flying machine.
• Games: highlights the importance of family games as a means for recreation, communication and respect.
• Musical Scale: shows how the sounds can be organized in a musical scale to create music.
• Musical Orchestra: shows the history of musical instruments, you can also experience the involvement of different musical instruments in a song.
• Technological adventure: designed to explore the world of microchips and computers. Children can interact with an industrial robotic arm programmed to form words from lettered cubes. Finally in this place lives “Voltio” a high-tech robot dog brought directly from Japan, capable of dancing, playing with his ball and showing his many other skills that make it seem real.
• Playing with numbers and shapes: introduces visitors to mathematical concepts and geometry through games.
• The Magic of Learning by playing: young children have the opportunity through toys and games to develop their skills and abilities.
• Nutritional Area: is divided into cereals area, which explains how to make a cereal and its nutritional significance, and the fruits and vegetables area which explains the nutritional importance of consuming them.
• Sustainable City: teaches how to better preserve our resources and how working together we can build a sustainable city, since environmental pollution is a problem that is growing, mainly in cities.

Also in the coming months, the Children’s Museum will open three new attractions:
• Banana Room: CORBANA Company and the Children’s Museum came together to create a banana plantation, as well as their selection and packaging process before being exported. In the room there is also a recreation of a typical house of the banana-growing area and information about the impact of this crop in the country’s history.
• The farm: in this area children learn about life on a farm with real animals and many surprises.
• Glass Recycling: dedicated to the theme of glass recycling and its relevance to save the planet.
• Once upon a time: under construction exhibition, which aims to highlight the issues of the origin and history of writing. Through games the room tries to promote the reading habit.
• City Park: under construction, it will show the importance of the municipality and municipal services.
• Sustainable City: under construction, it pretends to make the visitor think on those practices and way of life that damages the environment and the importance of building sustainable cities, through waste management, energy use and environmentally friendly technologies.
• Water: under construction, will show the importance of water resources as a source of life and the different uses of the resource. The room highlights the importance of saving, proper use of the resource and its protection. It explains the technologies of harvesting and purification.

Address: 9th Avenue, 4th St., at the Former Central Prison, district: Merced, canton: San Jose, province: San Jose, Costa Rica. Zone postal code: 10102.
GPS Coordinates: 9.940383,-84.080183 (9°56’25.38″N, 84°04’48.66″W)
Schedule: from Tuesday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Phone: +506 2258-4929
Fax:+506 2223-0600

Address map: Click here to view directions from Central Park, San Jose, Costa Rica TO the Children’s Museum in San Jose, Costa Rica at Google Maps

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Costa Rica’s University Insects Museum is located inside the Agro-Alimentary Sciences Faculty at the Crops Protection Research Center (CIPROC in Spanish). The museum was founded in 1962 primarily for teaching and research purposes, as part of their academic activities and since then it has been accumulating important scientific collections developed as a result of specific research projects. To accomplish this task, the Insect Museum has established many contacts and interacted with scientists from major worldwide research centers, which has facilitated the exchange of information on the diversity of insects in our country and the role they play in our ecosystem.

For being part of the Crop Protection Research Center, the Insects Museum is related to its academic infrastructure, as with the national agricultural sector, especially providing diagnostic services for species that are of economic interest for their plague status or biological regulator role.

Since its inception it created a space for the national and international community, with that purpose a showroom accessible to all visitors was built, where it’s permanently displayed the lush insect diversity in Costa Rica. It started with 58.935 specimens, now it has approximately one million collected through several research projects. For this process the museum has the support of over 100 international specialists. Collections are represented by the orders: Odonata (dragonflies), Hemiptera (bugs), Homoptera (cicadas), Coleoptera (beetles), Diptera (flies) and Hymenoptera (bees, wasps and ants). They are available as reference materials for technical professionals in this field as well as farmers and the general public.

Currently, the museum receives visits from schools and colleges to show the student population our biodiversity, and in some way to guide students to a possible career specialty. It also has a showroom where samples of insects are concentrated with their corresponding explanatory sheets, parallel to this a narrator. The main objective sought by the Insect Museum is that visitors become aware of Costa Rica’s biodiversity and also learn the importance and benefits of insects in our environment.

Address: University of Costa Rica, district: San Pedro, canton: Montes de Oca, province: San Jose, Costa Rica. Zone postal code: 11501.
GPS Coordinates of the University of Costa Rica: 9.935081,-84.051364 (9°56’06.29″N, 84°03’04.91″W)
Schedule: from Monday-Friday 1 p.m. to 4:45 p.m.
Phone: +506 2207-5318

Address map: Click here to view directions from Central Park, San Jose, Costa Rica TO University of Costa Rica in San Jose, Costa Rica at Google Maps

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Haga click en el siguiente enlace para leer está página en Español: Museo de Ciencias Naturales La Salle en Costa Rica

La Salle Natural Sciences Museum Costa Rica was established in 1960. Its founder and current Director, Brother Eduardo Fernández Bárcena, a native of Burgos, Spain, as a professor of La Salle High School was led at first to pick up some jobs and application tasks and research produced by secondary school students in the Natural Science area, which served as encouragement for more students to become interested in observing and studying the biotic, so rich and varied in Costa Rica.

Subsequently Mr. Gregory Litwin was contacted, a person dedicated to the exotic birds importation from the several continents to supply zoos both from United States and Europe. Some of the specimens agonized in our territory, so they became a permanent donation to the museum during its early years, this fact coupled with collaboration from many people who love nature, led 10 years later with the unconditional support from the Lasallian Parent Dynamic Association, to build the first stage of the building, of 1.500m2, which today houses the collections, turned into an exhibition field of 2430m2, after undergoing several extensions.

It should be noted that almost all the specimens have been dissected by Brother Eduardo, who in the absence of taxidermists in the country and the lack of economic resources, had to perform the dissections of animals in the museum’s laboratory, outside of his working hours, which at his beginnings were prolonged until late at night because at the time, there wasn’t even a cooling chamber.

Currently the museum is part of the educational structure of La Salle University. It’s outpouring of great historical and scientific value, place it as one of the most complete museums in Latin America, counting at the moment with over 55,000 specimens on permanent display. In addition the museum has more than 65,000 specimens in zoology, paleontology, archeology, and mineralogy, including an spectacular dinosaur.

Address: Southwest Sabana, district: Mata Redonda, cantón: San José, provincia: San José, Costa Rica. Zone postal code: 10108.
GPS Coordinates: 9.933386,-84.110344 (9°56’0.19″N, 84°06’37.24″W)
Schedule: from Monday through Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Website: www.lasalle.ed.cr/museo
Phone: +506 2232-5179

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Address: Costa Rica Zionist Jewish Center, next to AyA in Pavas, district: Pavas, canton: San Jose, province: San Jose, Costa Rica. Zone postal code: 10109.
GPS Coordinates: 9.937256,-84.117714 (9°56’14.12″N, 84°07’3.77″W)
Schedule: from 10 am to 2 p.m. by appointment.
Website: www.museojudiocr.tk
Phone: +506 2520-1013

Address map: Click here to view directions from Central Park, San Jose, Costa Rica TO the Costa Rica Jewish Community Museum in San Jose, Costa Rica at Google Maps

Costa Rican Jewish Community Museum is a cultural nonprofit institution founded in September 2005. It is an educational, scientific, cultural and research center attached to the Costa Rican Jewish Zionist center (CISCR in Spanish) whose only desire is to inform as many people as possible, about some of the most outstanding characteristics of this ancient culture. Its main mission is to collect, document, preserve, interpret and disseminate the knowledge and the material and spiritual life from the past and the present of the Jewish community in general and Jews in Costa Rica in particular.

The Costa Rica Jewish Community Museum is the product of dreamers and makers, some already left, others are still with us. What this museum holds in its walls, objects and texts are stories, sorrows and joys of an ancient community that has lived and traveled many places and lived many times. The Costa Rican Jewish community dedicates this effort to all the Jews of the world and of our country, to the presents and absents, to past, present and future generations as a legacy of what they have been and will be. This museum will serve as a meeting point of hope and solidarity for a community looking for a better tomorrow, as did ancestors and early migrants. The museum offers a comprehensive tour of Jewish culture in general, the arrival of Jews in Costa Rica and also addresses the Holocaust subject, a subject of great interest since it is included in the educational programs of the Public Education Ministry.

The Costa Rican Jewish Community Museum is a cultural contribution to their visitors, not intended to be neither religious nor political, but to offer a comprehensive tour through the Jewish history and culture. To achieve this task, the museum offers the following:
Overview of Culture and the Hebrew Tradition
With explanations of items such as: festivals, fundamentals of Judaism, ceremonies such as circumcision, marriage, reading of the Torah (Law), the meaning of some Jewish symbols, among others.
Arrival, establishment and consolidation of the Jews in Costa Rica
Arrival of Jews to the country, their motives, where they came from, their first jobs, the former synagogues and the Jewish community today in Costa Rica. Projected in a 10 minutes film.

Holocaust (Shoah)
Brief narration of what happened in the Holocaust (Shoah) during WWII. It shows a survivors testimonials film, which lasts 15 minutes. The journey takes approximately 2 hours and a half, but may be shortened if the visitors want.

The entrance to the museum is free, but you need to request an appointment and give your personal data (and of those who will accompany you as well), preferably one week in advance. The requested data is: full name, both last names (Costa Rica uses two last names), I.D., passport or resident number, place from where you visit and any phone number to reach you if necessary. The museum has a restaurant and coffee if you get hungry (kosher food) and also offers group packages, which must be coordinated in advance.