After the explosion that occurred at the Manchester Arena following the Ariana Grande concert this past Monday, and that left 22 people dead and 59 injured, the artist cancelled six of her concerts in Europe which were part of her Dangerous Woman Tour. The American singer, however, will resume her tour starting June 7 with the concert scheduled in Paris, France at the Accorhotels Arena. One ...

Costa Rica, May 25, 2017. US-based Okay Industries reinvested US$ 2 million in Costa Rica, which will expand its plant operation and will also acquire new state-of-the-art equipment to manufacture medical device industry parts. Okay industries, located in El Coyol, Alajuela, at Z Free Zone, is a manufacturing company focused on high engineering metal components and assemblies. Its focus on the ...

Family Vacation Critic, TripAdvisor's family travel site, has released its annual list of the best hotels for families in 15 regions across the globe. Every hotel on the list has met a strict list of family-specific criteria, having been highly-rated by family travelers and personally vetted by Family Vacation Critic's team of family travel experts. "When planning a family vacation, it's import...

Kenneth Tencio, better known in Costa Rica as “Pollis” is the currently the country’s best BMX rider and has represented the country in different competitions worldwide; this week he will be competing in the UCI BMX Freestyle competition at the FISE (Festivale International des Sports Extremes) World Series in Montpellier, France. Tencio has had a very busy 2017 having already participated in c...

The Costa Rican Tourism Insitute (ICT) confirmed through a market study that Americans interest in vacationing in the country continues to increase. While back in 2001 the study showed that 10.2 million Americans showed interest in visiting this country, by 2015 these number almost duplicated reaching 20.2 million interested parties. People that show a strong interest on visiting Costa Rica a...

The Costa Rican government celebrated yesterday the National Culture Awards ceremony at the National Theater. These awards are given every year and they recognize the work, effort, achievements and excellence of individuals or cultural-artistic groups in different cultural disciplines such as visual arts, audiovisuals, dance music, theater, literature, cultural research, culture promotion, to n...

Smile Direct Club, an American company specialized in orthodontic services, has announced an aggressive recruitment plan for this 2017 in which it plans to add 400 more people to its current operation of 160 people in the country. To date the company has invested around half a million dollars and expects to double that investment by August. The company serves as an orthodontic products distribu...

The Rincón de la Vieja Volcano in Guanacaste registered unexpected activity this Tuesday at 10:20 a.m. with a phreatic eruption (steam and water) that elevated 400 meters over the crater, reported the National University's Volcanology and Seismology Research Institute. The short eruption lasted under two minutes, but neighbors mentioned hearing a sound similar to a jet’s engine; material (mud, ...

Costa Rican surfer Leilani McGonagle won the bronce medal in the ISA World Surfing Games in France. McGonagle earned her pass to the semifinals yesterday, and competed early this morning to take the first place in her heat, getting to the finals where she faced Bianca Buitendag from South Africa and locals Pauline Ado and Johanne Defay. Ado took the gold with a score of 12.17 points, followe...

A reported explosion at the Ariana Grande’s concert in the packed Manchester Arena in England happened towards the end of the concert late this Monday night, causes are still unknown. The police said in a statement which was also posted on twitter: “Police responded to reports of an incident at Manchester Arena. Emergency services responding to serious incident at Manchester Arena. Avoid the ar...

Animal Rescue Zoo Ave and the Minister of Environment and Energy (MINAE) confirmed the release of 16 red macaws in the Bosque Escondido Wildlife Refuge in the Nicoya Peninsula. Each of the birds released has a coded identification ring on their leg to enable their monitoring. The macaws were born in the Endangered Species Reproduction Center of the Zoo Ave where they were cared for until the...

After four seasons of not being able to win La Liga championship, Real Madrid took the title this Sunday, with a flawless performance of goalkeeper Keylor Navas. Zinedine Zidane’s Real Madrid defeated home team Malaga in La Rosaleda stadium 0-2. Malaga was a worthy opponent who played a good game, but their efforts were simply not enough against a superior Real Madrid. The score opened in ...

In the second day of competition in Biarrtiz, France at the ISA World Surfing Games, the female competitors of “La Sele de Surf”, Costa Rica National Surfing Team, had a sweet and sour outing. Leilani McGonagle finished round 2 with a total score of 11.73 beating Minami Nonaka from Japan (9.74), Marion Philippe from Tahiti (7.37) and Russian Irina Kosokubina (4.27). In round 3 McGonagle dropped...

Skeletal remains of Mesoamerican Indians with artificial cranial deformations and filed teeth, and who settled in Costa Rica centuries ago, are being exhibited to the public for the first time since their discovery near the Pacific coast in the northern part of the country. The temporary Jade Museum exhibition "Life and Death in the Jicaro Valley, Culebra Bay," dates the arrival of these settle...

Guanacaste is without a doubt the preferred destination of tourists in Costa Rica, specially foreign tourists, the beautiful beaches along the Northern Pacific coast are, of course, the main reason for this; however, there are so many other places to visit in Guanacaste aside from the beaches, one of them is the area of Miravalles in Bagaces. Bagaces was one of the communities affected by Hurri...

A record number of refugee and migrant children are travelling solo to escape violence and poverty, falling prey to abuse and human traffickers in their journey to a new life, the United Nations children's agency said on Wednesday. Be it to escape war in Syria or gang violence in Central America, natural disaster or famine, increasing numbers of children are on the move and are travelling alone...

https://youtu.be/Q22dw9dGQxI The Irish rock bank U2 headed by Bono and formed in 1976 became globally renowned in the mid 80’s and with their greatest album “The Joshua Tree” from which singles such as "With or Without You” and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking for” topped the music charts around the world. Costa Rica was no exception, the band gained many followers here in the 80’s an...

Finally! That’s what the vast majority of Costa Ricans exclaimed when the news was released that the bridge Alfredo González Flores, better known as “La Platina”, will finally open on Thursday, May 25. The bridge over the Virilla river in the General Cañas highway which connects San José to Alajuela, will open to allow normal transit on this date, some last detail work though, will have to be d...

The Prusia Forest part of the Irazú Volcano National Park, in the province of Cartago is one of the preferred destinations for tourists looking for a one-day tour; it actually increased its visitation in a 200% from 2015 to 2016 year in which it received almost 77 thousand visitors, the majority national tourists. Park authorities consider that the increase in visitation obeyed to the fixing of...

Costa Rica’s National Surf team finally got their boards and gear in Biarrtiz, France where they have been since Tuesday to take part on the ISA World Surfing Games. Yesterday the organization of the event informed that the first three days of competition will be for the female competitions, so in other words Leilani McGonagle and Emily Gussoni, female representatives of Costa Rica began compe...

These Saturday Parque de Diversiones will be the site of the Life in Color Festival, “an electronic music event that takes place in different countries around the world, this is the fourth time it makes a stop in Costa Rica. As in previous years the event will have musical performances by Costa Rican DJ’s and foreign artists featuring the likes of Nicky Romero from Holland recognized among the ...

Turrialba Volcano had a new eruption the afternoon of this Friday, May 19, breaking its period of "relative calm". Although both eruptions are considered small, they are a reminder of the fact that this volcano continues with high activity and precautions and security measures should be taken seriously. The eruptions from the Turrialba volcano usually contain ash, yet, because of the rai...

The traffic in certain areas of the metropolitan area of Costa Rica is usually difficult on a Friday afternoon, but the heavy rains that affected the country caused floods that made the problem much worse. San Rafael and San Antonio de Belén in Heredia; Desamparados, Pavas, Santa Ana and Paseo Colón in San José are just some of the areas affected by the rains, which are caused, according to the...

According to a report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) there are 3,812 endangered species of flora and fauna in Costa Rica ranging from those considered Critically Endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable, Extinct and of Least Concern. The IUCN Global Species Program assesses the conservation status of species, subspecies, varieties and even selected subpopulations on a gl...

They are popular, charismatic, talented, liked and disliked by many and that’s the recipe for entertainment, which is why so many are trying to push Floyd Mayweather Jr. out of retirement and back into the ring to face none other than MMA star Conor McGregor. This past Wednesday, McGregor, the UFC Lightweight champion, announced he had signed a contract with UFC agreeing to fight Mayweather; Da...

Believed to have been written in 1599 “As You Like It” is one of William Shakespeare’s most famous romantic comedies and the Georgian theater group Marjanishvili will be presenting its version at the Costa Rica’s National Theater in association with Teatro Espressivo. This show is part of “The Best of the World 2017” series of presentations, organized by Espressivo Theater. This rendition of "...

The Costa Rica National Surf Team arrived to Biarrtiz, France this past Tuesday to represent the country at the ISA World Surfing Games that will have its opening ceremony this Saturday, May 20, while the competition will officially kick off on Sunday. The team, formed by Jason Torres (Jacó), Jair Pérez (Jacó), Leonardo Calvo (Puntarenas), Anthoy Fillingim (Santa Teresa), Leilani McGonagle (Pa...

The long wait is almost over for the neighbors of Monteverde and the hundreds of tourists that visit this cloud forest reserve. The National Roadways Council (CONAVI) signed two weeks ago the contract with Grupo Orosi to pave the 18 kilometers (11.2 miles) of road between Guacimal and Santa Elena in the province of Puntarenas. The cost of this work is of close to $10 million dollars according ...

The Kardashian-Jenner family cannot make a move without being the center of controversy and criticism. Millions of followers are on the lookout for any little thing they do, and if you are not a follower you are likely to still find out, because they make headlines every week. The Keeping up with the Kardashians episode that was filmed in Costa Rica last January, just aired this week on E! Ente...

The American Life Sciences Company, Precision Coating Co., Inc. (PCCI), a subsidiary of Katahdin Industries Inc. is inaugurating its new plant located in Coyol Free Zone, Alajuela, Building B25. The company is receiving national and international customers to celebrate the inauguration of its coating plant for medical device parts. The company occupies a space of 1,300 m² with equipment that ha...

American actor, Kalpen Suresh Modi, known for his role as Lawrence Kutner on the television show House, and for his portraying of Kumar Patel in the film series Harold & Kumar, is currently in Costa Rica. Known for his stage name Kal Penn, the actor, who also served as an Associate Director in the White House Office of Public Engagement during the Obama administration, has been in Costa Rica s...

Warnings have been loud, frequent and clear both by the National Commission of Risk Prevention and Emergency Attention (CNE) and the Technical Assessment Vulcanology Committee (CAT) in Costa Rica regarding the danger of violating the restrictions in the access to both the Turrialba and Poás volcanoes; yet, time and time again, daredevils continue to disregard the warnings and find new paths and wa...

Foundation Casa GiáMaLa in Costa Rica reached an agreement with foundation DKMS of Germany, the biggest bone marrow donor center in the world, to have access to their data base and also import bone marrow. Leukemia is very common form of cancer in the blood, many children and adults in Costa Rica are diagnosed with this disease every year; a bone marrow transplant is the best treatment option f...

More than 800 properties in Costa Rica including houses, commercial spaces and land will be offered at the Properties for Sale Expo that will take place May 19-21 at the City Mall in Alajuela. Banco de Costa Rica, Banco Nacional, Banco Popular and BanCrédito, all public banks in the country, informed that important discounts and financing will be available for those interested. Banco Popular...

Anthony Fillingim took the male open competition while Leilani McGonagle was the winner in the female open in the fourth date of the “Kölbi” National Surf Tournament that took place in Playa Guiones, Nosara, Guanacaste. Fillingim, was in the fourth position when he reached the final and needed an 8.83 to take the first place, he caught the perfect wave at the right time and scored a 9.17 with o...

The National University (UNA) and the Latin America University of Science and Technology (ULACIT) have announced a series of activities to raise awareness and celebrate the rights of the LGBTI community. ULACIT will kick off the activities with the conference by American activist John Corvino, author of the books Debating Same-Sex Marriage and What's Wrong With Homosexuality?; scheduled for Wed...

In the calm, clean waters of the Golfo Dulce in the southern coast of Costa Rica near the Osa Península, scientists Alejandro Solórzano and Mahmood Sasa from the University of Costa Rica found the object of their investigation, a 60 cm entirely yellow sea snake. The investigators believe this is an endemic species, that has been isolated in this region due to the particular temperature and curr...

Toyota celebrated its second win in the third date of the Costa Rica Touring Car Championship CTCC this Saturday, May 13 at Parque Viva. Impeccable driving, excellent strategy and a little bit of luck played in favor of José Andrés Montalto from the Toyota team, who took the first place of the CTCC Shell Endurance Cup (150 kilometers) and also consolidated his first position in the general cla...

Romanian-American actor Sebastian Stan, best known for his role as Bucky Barnes “The Winter Solider” in the Marvel Universe, spent some time in Costa Rica, filming some of his scenes for the movie “The Last Full Measure”. Stan portraits Pentagon investigator Scott Huffman who is assigned the case of William Pitsenbarger, (role assigned to Grant Gustin,) an Air Force doctor who saved the lives of ...

Costa Rica will host for the first time the Central America Cruise Summit, the most important cruise conference in the region; the event will take place in 2019 at the National Congress and Convention Center. “Hosting this important event is a clear example of the work we have done in repositioning Costa Rica as a profitable destination for the cruise industry, which was an area we needed to s...