The ghastly practice of dog fighting dates back to the early centuries of the First Millennium. It has been outlawed in many countries, and it is illegal in Costa Rica. Sadly, the clandestine culture surrounding dog fighting, particularly between breeds like the American Pit Bull Terrier and American Staffordshire Terrier, has seeped into our country in the last few years. It is believed that d...

Author’s Note: This is the fifth item in a series of articles that touch on the subject of sustainable practices in Costa Rica. There is a high degree of innovation and street smarts involved in sustainability; if you happen to know of a good sustainability tip, please feel free to share it with The Costa Rica Star. In a previous article, The Costa Rica Star looked at The Economics of Organic a...

In Playa Hermosa yesterday, Noemar McGonagle was crowned the Quiksilver King of the Groms in Costa Rica for 2012. The 15-year old surfing prodigy had an easy day at the beach yesterday, according to sports news daily Al Dia. The Pavones native will now advance to the next round of the 2012 Quiksilver King of the Groms in Acapulco in July. Should young McGonagle take the crown in Acapulco as...

First Division champion Liga Deportiva Alajuelense (LDA) has not enjoyed a good summer tournament thus far, but earlier today the reigning team looked like a champ for 90 minutes. Playing at the fearsome "lair of the purple monster" (the Ricardo Saprissa Stadium in Tibas), the LDA "manudos" looked very solid, particularly in the second half when they scored the only two goals of the game. C...

An underwater colossus the size of our Miravalles volcano is moving towards our Central Pacific coast and causing earthquakes as it gets closer to the shores of Costa Rica. Three articles written by Carlos Arguedas and published in La Nacion on Sunday mention the results of years of oceanic and seismic research that culminated in theories posited by scientists at our National Seismology Net...

If you are planning on visiting our imposing volcanoes during Easter Week, the National Council on Emergencies (CNE in Spanish) wants you to take exercise extra caution. There are currently  five active volcanoes in Costa Rica now, and some have been acting up lately. The seismic and volcanic research departments at the University of Costa Rica (UCR) and the National University (UNA) are ke...

Author’s Note: This is the fourth item in a series of articles that touch on the subject of sustainable practices in Costa Rica. There is a high degree of innovation and street smarts involved in sustainability; if you happen to know of a good sustainability tip, please feel free to share it with The Costa Rica Star. EARTH University is a unique private institute of higher learning with campuse...

The financial news media is abuzz with the latest massive security breach of a computer system containing sensitive credit and debit account information. A security analyst at Gartner, one of the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company, reported on March 30th that she heard "the crime was perpetrated by a Central American gang that broke into the company’s system by...

The picture accompanying this article shows Costa Rica rendered in Google Maps' new Quest view. Google Maps Quest was released on April 1st, 2012 as a cartridge for the 8-bit Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). According to a software engineer at Google: "Our engineering team in Japan understood the importance of maps on retro game systems. With the power of Google's immense data center...

Real estate investors take note: Purchasing a new home in Las Heliconias makes more sense than a short sale or foreclosure in the United States. Puntarenas, Costa Rica – April 1, 2012. Las Heliconias is a new, one-of-a-kind residential project located just 250 yards (229 meters) from Playa Agujas in the Central Pacific coast of Costa Rica, right on the edge of the Carara National Park. Playa Ag...

At an official ceremony held last week in Jaco Beach in the Garabito canton, Province of Puntarenas, the coastal resort town was confirmed as one of the host cities for the 2014 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup. Jaco Beach is the second host location selected outside of the Greater San Jose Metropolitan Area. There was an additional announcement made at the ceremony: the construction of a new st...

Kolbi wireless subscribers all over Costa Rica received the following text message from the quasi-governmental electric utility ICE today: It’s time we put a stop to energy waste. Join us today, March 31st at 8:30 pm in Earth Hour.  ICE, saving energy right by your side. The message is part of the worldwide event Earth Hour, organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).  Earth Hour star...

Over the last few days, online news daily Costa Rica Hoy has appealed to its readers to help Rebeca Flores Rivera, a two-year old girl with a delicate heart condition. Rebeca's heart has not been transporting the necessary amount of blood to her lungs since she was born. She was rushed to our Children's Hospital just four days after she was born and an emergency surgery was performed. The s...

On a hilltop in the Osa Peninsula, a magnificent home designed by Juan Robles of Robles Arquitectos sits majestically. Upon closer inspection of Casa Mecano, it is clear that the architectural design is a thoughtful exercise in sustainable planning and construction. Casa Mecano has been equipped with a series of bioclimatic mechanisms, meaning that the home adjusts to the particular climate...

An article published by International Living, a leading organization that provided information for people interested in real estate, retirement and relocation abroad, extols the charms and relative obscurity of our Zona Sur and calls it one of the World’s Best Real Estate Markets in 2012. On the list published by International Living, Costa Rica's southern zone placed third on a list of 27 ...

As we head into Easter, thousands of people are expected to crowd the beaches, rivers, lakes, and swimming pools of Costa Rica. The Red Cross has published a set of reminders for families who are planning to spend the next few hot summer days near the water. Most of the advice is common sense, and yet Red Cross volunteers find themselves busy each year responding to situations caused by fai...

Online digital newspaper La Fragua reports that former President Jose Maria Figueres has been named the Chief Executive Officer of the Carbon War Room, an entity founded by Sir Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin business empire. According to the website of Virgin Unite, a corporate social responsibility foundation, the Carbon War Room was created by Sir Richard Branson and a group of po...

Author’s Note: This is the second item in a series of articles that touch on the subject of sustainable practices in Costa Rica. There is a high degree of innovation and street smarts involved in sustainability; if you happen to know of a good sustainability tip, please feel free to share it with The Costa Rica Star. An artificial ocean reef project in the sandy bottoms of Playa Hermosa in Guan...

Increased enforcement by Fuerza Publica earlier this week near our border with Panama has yielded a few instances of "contrabando horminga" (small-time smuggling) of tires and liquor. It is customary for Fuerza Publica to look out for smugglers around this time of the year. The increased enforcement takes place at Paso Canoas and the border cantons of Corredores, Coto Brus and Golfito. I...

Life in Costa Rica in the years immediately following her unfortunate Civil War was filled with national pride when the army was permanently abolished by means of a new Constitution. The funds saved on national defense were destined towards free public education. "More Teachers than Soldiers" was the Ticos' motto around that time. According to a news report appearing in La Nacion, there may...

Author's Note: This is the first item in a series of articles that touch on the subject of sustainable practices in Costa Rica. There is a high degree of innovation and street smarts involved in sustainability; if you happen to know of a good sustainability tip, please feel free to share it with The Costa Rica Star. There are some aspects of sustainability that may strike people as revoltin...

Eduardo Ulibarri, Ambassador of our country's Permanent Mission to the United Nations, attended a high-level briefing in Minneapolis, MN earlier this week related to discuss the concept of peacekeeping forces that involve the contribution of civil society to the unarmed protection of civilians during periods of conflict. Costa Rica fully supports Nonviolent Peaceforces and is committed to t...

In the realm of Internet viral media, the sloths of Costa Rica have managed to retain supremacy thanks to their affable demeanor and overall cuteness. The latest sloth-related viral item currently making the rounds on the Internet involves a juvenile sloth that gatecrashed or photobombed his way (a Tico tour guide identified the sloth's male gender) into the picture frame of a youth volunteer grou...

If you think that the recent signing of Costa Rica's new anti-smoking law imposes too many restrictions, then you should not plan to move to the city Elk Grove in Sacramento County, California. According to a recent article written by Mary Elizabeth Williams for online magazine Salon, the council of Elk Grove is currently debating a citywide ban on smoking inside housing units in residential a...

Costa Rica's initiatives in forest conservation and replanting of trees are part of the plan that President Laura Chinchilla referred to as "becoming a Green Power" when she officially kicked off the Limpia tu Huella (Erase your Carbon Footprint) campaign a few days ago. Similar efforts are now spreading in South America. A recent article published by the AlertNet Thomson Reuters Foundation...

The Costa Rica Star has recently published information about receiving your permanent residency in Costa Rica to avoid border runs, wasting time, and money. Our current immigration law, which was published in La Gaceta in 2009 and went into effect on March 1st, 2010, has been questioned by the Institute of Social Investigations of the University of Costa Rica (Spanish acronym: IIS-UCR). Accordi...

SAN JOSE – Minister of Public Health Daisy Corrales has sent instructions to regional directors in Costa Rica to notify private businesses that they should immediately begin taking down all "Area de Fumado" (Smoking Area) signs. The old signs should be discarded and replaced with the new "Prohibido Fumar" 8.5" x 11" official posters. The measure described above can be implemented now, witho...

From March 28th through April 1st, 2012, the Vans Pier Classic returns to Huntington Beach, California, and Tico surfer Carlos Munoz will be competing among some of the biggest names in the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP). The Vans Pier Classic has been rated a 4-star competition by the ASP, which means that Carlos will be surfing against top-notch talent competing for the $115,000 ...

Residents of Playa Jaco in our Central Pacific coast are in for a spectacular sunset. On Sunday, April 1st, at the Malecon Bar Restaurant in Jaco, acclaimed Tica pop singer Debi Nova will perform an acoustic set as the sun goes down, as part of the Roxy Sunset Unplugged event. For those who are not familiar with Debi Nova, she is a talented singer and songwriter who has found success in the int...

"Innovative, forward-looking approaches and ideas" are needed, said Minister of Foreign Trade Anabel Gonzalez at the pre-conference event of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva. Our Minister was invited to address the conference by the Secretary General of the UNCTAD, Supachai Panitchpakdi. Fresh from her visit to the INDIASOFT 2012 IT and B2B expo in H...

By declaration of the United Nations, World Press Freedom is celebrated each May 3rd with the goal of developing initiatives that support freedom of expression, raise awareness as to the importance of news media, remembering those unfortunate journalists who were victims of censorship, oppression and violence. UNESCO San Jose will celebrate World Press Freedom Day proactively. In associatio...

More than 130 young judokas from different nations participated in the 2nd Kimura International World Cup at the Urraca Institute in Panama. On that tournament, martial artists from Costa Rica took first place in several categories and managed to earn 15 gold medals, 9 silver medals and one bronze medal. The second and third places in the tournament were taken by Panamanian judo teams Kimura an...

The life of 11 year-old Maria Fernanda Herrera Sandoval today is radically different from just a year ago. Fernanda's ideas on environmental conservation sent her from her humble home in Bajo Tejar in San Ramon to the capital of France. Fernanda is in the fifth grade at the Alberto Manuel Brenes school in San Ramon, an institution selected by Panasonic to represent Costa Rica at the awards ...

Chancelor of Foreign Affairs Enrique Castillo spent a day with his Israeli counterpart discussing the challenges and common interests between the two nations, according to digital news daily El Pais and Spanish news agency EFE. According to official sources, the meeting between Castillo and Avigdor Lieberman was "very open and satisfactory, in which a summary of international affairs and re...

The grand opening of the world's most recognizable brand of coffee shops will take place in May, and it is looking for 30 new employees to join its ranks. As expected, the first Starbucks will open in Avenida Escazu, on the ground floor of the new complex of upscale shoppes next to the Residence Inn Hotel. This is the only location that has been confirmed thus far. The Seattle-based coffee r...

Chef Keven Evan Lee of the Sherbourne Restaurant in Hollywood, California was recently interviewed by the Los Angeles Times. When asked about his favorite breakfast, he replied: "My favorite breakfast is from the time that I lived in Costa Rica. Waking up to the sounds of the ocean crashing and walking into my kitchen for a plate that consisted of freshly boiled beans with thyme and cilantro fo...

Costa Rica is part of a bloc of 18 countries led by Mexico that sent an amicus curiae brief to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) regarding SB 1070, a controversial law in the State of Arizona that aims to curb illegal immigration. The brief supports the administration of President Barack Obama, who has voiced his opposition to the measure in Arizona. An amicus curiae brief is ...

Government officials in Costa Rica met with a representative from the United Nations and agreed to hold talks with the Terraba indigenous people regarding their rejection of the controversial Diquis hydroelectric plant construction. James Anaya is a UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples who is an expert in the rights of native and indigenous people. He recommended that Costa...

In November 3rd of 1965, a military aircraft from the Argentinian Air Force carrying 68 airmen experienced damage in one of its engines and plunged into the jungle of the indigenous Talamanca region of Costa Rica. More than 45 years later, the mystery of what really happened to the crew and passengers of that unfortunate flight remains. According to newspaper La Manana de Cordoba, the famil...

SAN JOSE – With a brief ceremony, President Laura Chinchilla launched a nationwide campaign for residents of Costa Rica to get involved in achieving Costa Rica's goal of achieving carbon neutrality by the year 2021. "Limpia tu huella" (clean up your carbon footprint) is the name of the initiative, which officially started on Monday, March 26th, 2012. The official press release explained that th...