COSTA RICA MUSEUMS

The earliest Costa Ricans hunted mastodons, mammoths, and other mega-species 7,000-9,000 years before the first pyramid was built in Egypt.

Over thousands of years, the great beasts passed into archaeological history while man took increasing control of the countryside.

Art, myth, ritual and religious practices formed a dynamic and evolving fabric of cultures, influenced by the animals and spirits revered within their communities and trade and travelers from other Central and South American places.

From the earliest migratory bands of hunters and their families to the domestication and harvesting of agriculture and, later, the tectonic changes in cultures due first to jade and a thousand years later, gold, the museums of Costa Rica offer a tantalizing glimpse of peoples who came before us and people and events affecting us today.

Costa Rica Childrens Museum

So, prison cells were replaced by exhibits and the building became the first children's museum in all of Latin America. It's a great place to spend a day with your kids on their Costa Rica vacation.

Locals know it as Museo de los Ninos but the rest of us call it the Costa Rica Childrens Museum.

Costa Rica Gold Museum

When you travel Costa Rica, take the time to see just how wrong he was by visiting the Costa Rica Gold Museum.

Costa Rica Jade Museum

However, the art medium chosen by ancient societies, whether pottery, stone, jade, or gold can reveal dramatic cultural and ideological changes.

In Costa Rica, one of the clearest examples of dramatic cultural changes in prehistoric America is the transition from jade-to-gold as items considered to have great value.

On your next trip to Costa Rica, we recommend taking in two great Costa Rica museums, the Gold Museum (above), and the world's largest collection of pre-Columbian American jade at the Costa Rica Jade Museum.

Costa Rica Art Museum

There are jogging paths, a small lake, basketball and tennis courts, and its brand new national stadium where thousands of people gather to watch soccer matches or concerts.

Before its present iteration, the land was Costa Rica's first international airport and, while airplanes no longer land there, its terminal remains where it is now home to the Costa Rica Art Museum

Costa Rica National Museum

It's sort of the law of unintended consequences. You see, in 1949, Costa Rica decided to constitutionally abolish its military which, of course, led to its need to do something with some of its buildings.

It's solution?

Turn the old military barracks into one of the most famous Costa Rica museums.

Located in the heart of downtown San Jose, it's worth a day trip to the Costa Rica National Museum, click.