Costa Rica may not be as outwardly prosperous as the USA or Western European countries are, but unlike in other Central American countries, or in India, there is no widespread poverty. Cities are clean. Ticos are a healthy people. They enjoy an enviably high quality of life. This is not to say Costa Rica does not have its share of problems.
Foreign debt remains high.
Inflation is rising. The banana industry collapsed years ago and there hasn't been a real substitute. Its famed national park system is facing the same pressures from encroachment and logging that we are too familiar with. Those are all true and the country must solve those problems. But they don't tarnish Costa Rica's undoubted success story.