Most of Costa Rica and all of the Southern Caribbean coast is immune from hurricanes. One of the reasons is that Costa Rica is at a fairly low latitude (8-9 degrees), but that lack of hurricanes there is also caused by something different. Most hurricanes in the northern hemisphere tend to move west, north, or some direction in between. Since the huge land mass of South America is south and east of Costa Rica, there is no path across an ocean for a hurricane to take before making landfall in Costa Rica. But Nicaragua is just north of South America, so hurricane can move due west across the Caribbean and make landfall there.
The rotation of the hurricane is caused by the coriolis force, which makes it rotate counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere. At the equator there is no coriolis force, which is why tropical cyclones tend to weaken if they get close to the equator.
Above NASA map shows the tracks of all Atlantic hurricanes which formed between 1851 and 2005 (click to enlarge). The points show the locations of the storms at six-hourly intervals and uses the color scheme below from Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale.
And remember hurricane has never hit the southern Caribbean Costa Rica area!
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