People love Guanacaste for dozens of reasons, and one of the reasons most often mentioned by adventuresome tourists and expats is the wide range of outdoor activities that can be enjoyed in the province. Surfing, horseback riding, diving, hiking, stand-up paddle (SUP) boarding, mountain bike riding, kite boarding… the list goes on.

Guanacaste is the most active and exciting province of Costa Rica, and now visitors and residents have a smartphone made by Caterpillar that can actually keep up with their lifestyle.

Caterpillar, more commonly referred to as CAT, is known as one of the world’s leading manufacturers of heavy-duty vehicles, machinery and equipment for the construction, mining and farming industries. CAT is essentially synonymous with “rugged,” which is the best adjective to describe the B15 smartphone, an Android-powered mobile communications device that seems to have been specially designed for use in Guanacaste and similar regions in Costa Rica.

The CAT B15 is billed as being durable and virtually indestructible. It can actually be dropped 1.8 meters onto concrete, so dropping it on any dirt road near Playas del Coco will not affect it. The B15 can be dropped into the ocean at Tamarindo Beach as it is waterproof to one meter and can stay underwater for up to 30 minutes; in fact, the touchscreen remains operable even when it is wet. The dusty roads and multicolored sandy beaches of Guanacaste are no match for the B15 since it is completely dust-proof.

When exploring remote areas of Guanacaste such as the Rincon de la Vieja National Park and Volcano, the B15 provides hikers with peace of mind thanks to its built-in GPS and powerful battery that provides nine days of standby time and 16 hours of talk time. For volcano photography, the B15 has a 5 megapixel camera that can be augmented with digital photography apps for its Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system

In Costa Rica, the B15 is carried by MATRA, the same place where you can purchase a CAT backhoe. MATRA has nine showrooms around the country, including one in Liberia. The B15 costs 300,000 colones (about $600).

Source: El Financiero