Does anyone know why Costa Rican cities are so modern, compared to other Latin American countries?

[KostasKouvalis]

I think this is the only Latin American country whose cities have no "Old Town". It just seems to be a couple of heavily restored "historic" buildings here and there, but the rest is all ugly buildings used for commercial purposes. There's no forts even. What gives? Why is there no Old World Charm in Costa Rica?

Downtown San Jose

San Jose Plaza and Cathedral

Downtown Heredia

Liberia's Most Famous Landmark

Downtown Limon

[Prettygurl12]

This is a guess based on little to no actual evidence other than that my parents (in the US) own a condo on the beach in Costa Rica. So my guess is that for some reason the international tourist world (specifically the US) has selected CR as the vacation destination of choice for central America so there straight up is just more money coming into the country and they're using it to modernize/update/advance their infrastructure like other areas of the world.

[KostasKouvalis]

That's what I found on Google too, but other countries are doing that while still preserving their history, so my initial thought was earthquake, but on the other hand, Costa Rica seems to be solely focused on promoting eco-tourism, and 99% of the people who go there, don't care about historic sites.

[Birbman]

No army, so there is more budget for education, healthcare and everything else.

[KostasKouvalis]

but you can still be rich and preserve your historic sites