Source: iTunes App Store Mobile app Wigo has become a hot topic of discussion among college students and it is the pet project of Ben Kaplan, the 23 year old college dropout. Wigo (Who is Going Out) is an application that helps college students to find out where their friends are going to meet up (study, meet up and do anything). Students have to sign up on the products website and download the ...

Flickr Commons How can I develop the skills of a successful entrepreneur? This is a question that gets repeatedly asked in business circles in Costa Rica and anywhere else in the world. This question refers to the skills needed to be learned to become a successful entrepreneurship wizard. It is trickier to learn the soft skills of successful entrepreneur since these are not found in textbooks ...

Pixabay Commons The United States is offering a $3million reward for information on a Russian hacker charged with bank conspiracy and fraud. Russian citizen Evgeniy Bogachev is charged with running computer attacks that diverted more than one hundred million dollars. He was indicted in Pittsburgh last year on serious charges of bank fraud and conspiracy. The FBI has released pictures of Evgeni...

Flickr Commons What is productivity really about? It essentially refers to doing more and more things in less time. Productivity is very important in this contemporary age of hectic work schedules. As we all know, time management is the most important and most talked about aspect of increasing productivity. As unexpected and unimportant tasks consume time, it is good to abstain from them by al...

Mogadishu - Wikimedia Commons President Barack Obama has named seasoned diplomat Katherine Dhanani as the new ambassador to the African nation of Somalia after 24 years. According to the U.S. State department, they are planning to reopen the Embassy in Somalia's capital city, Mogadishu. The relationship between U.S. and Somalia got deteriorated in the beginning of 1990s as riots engulfed the p...

Locally crafted beer will surprise palates at the Costa Rican Craft Brewers Association’s 3rd Annual Craft Beer Festival. -The Festival will take place at Avenida Escazu Saturday, April 5th beginning at 11am and running until 5pm. -There will be more than 32 craft beers available for attendees to sample and enjoy. San Jose, Costa Rica - Craft brews created only in Costa Rica by small produ...

On March 12, Costa Rican authorities in conjunction with animal protection groups rescued 17 dogs allegedly subjected to a hoarding situation. Humane Society International-Latin America, the Costa Rican Department of Animal Health (SENASA) and the Asociación para el Bienestar y Amparo Animal (Association for Animal Protection and Welfare, ABBA) participated in the operation. All the animals were ...

Flamingo, Guanacaste, Costa Rica: APEGUA (the Alliance for Progress of Education in Guanacaste) will be hosting a 5k/10k race on Saturday, May 3rd along the beautiful Guanacaste coastline. This popular annual event will see some changes in its fourth edition, including a new location (the race route will now span from Flamingo to Playa Potrero) and a new date. This year’s race, which is being orga...

In Costa Rica you can find just about any type of smartphone, from a variety of manufacturers, for all tastes and needs. But as of last Friday there is one particular cell phone that is made right here in Costa Rica and rivals any other smartphone in the market. Introducing the Sky II by Agora Wholesale, located in Lagunilla de Heredia. According to its creators, the smartphone was designed ...

The TEDx Pura Vida 2014 event, with 25 local and foreign exhibitors presenting their innovative ideas, will take place today, February 27th, at the Auditorio Nacional del Museo de los Niños. The event will also be available by video streaming at dozens of halls in different parts of the country at schools and businesses, like the TEC in San Carlos and Cartago and the Museo de Guanacaste, among ...

Leaders and residents of Guanacaste’s coastal areas, Photo by Daniel PerazaLeaders and residents of Guanacaste’s coastal areas will take to the streets on Monday, February 24 to pressure congressmen to approve the Coastal Community Territories bill (TECOCOS – Ley de Territorios Costeros Comunitarios). A protest march has been scheduled for Monday on the Interamerican North highway, in the area...

Municipal Office in Nicoya Costa Rica, Photo by Adam DietrichThose interested in the effort to create a new Municipal District Council (MDC) that includes Nosara and Samara are now able to realize their goal, due to the approval of the Municipal District Council Autonomy Law on Tuesday, February 11th. The law, which regulates the creation, organization and functions of the MDCs, declares them ...

When a devastating earthquake hit Haiti in July 2010, within 30 frightening seconds, 220,000 were left dead. In the wake of this tragedy, nearly one million children were orphaned or abandoned. To simply sit back and only contemplate the atrocity of this situation was not an option for Nosara resident Kristin O’Connell. She felt the need to act. After volunteering as a midwife in Haiti in 2010,...

Summer has arrived in force, and with the rise in temperature comes the temptation to try and escape the heat with air conditioning. However, there have always been theories that air conditioning causes sickness and promotes infection among people in closed spaces. In general, lack of maintenance is responsible for respiratory infections ranging from simple nasal colds to severe pneumonia, bron...

Photo by Wilbert VillalobosThe early morning of Tuesday, February 18 brought commotion to the coastal community of Playa Potrero in Santa Cruz, with the intervention of officials from the Public Force and the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers (AyA - Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados). The officials invaded the ASADA’s (water management committee) communal aqueduc...

Trash buildup and waste go uncollected in Playa Ocotal, Guanacaste, Costa RicaTrash and littering is still a major problem in Costa Rica, contradicting the self-proclaimed, ecological, diverse and clean reputation of the country. Tico littering mentality is combination of a number of factors, with short sightedness and laziness topping the list. Many in Costa Rica believe that someone else should...

“Dogs barking after midnight,” remembers David, “the dogs went crazy every time a humpback whale blew or there were whales breaching right at Rincon Bay”. Those are the memories of David Herra Miranda, who was born and raised in Golfo Dulce. Now, more than two decades later, he is a research associate with CEIC, Centro de Investigación de Cetáceos Costa Rica (Cetacean Research Center Costa Ric...

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s high-speed trimaran, the Brigitte Bardot has returned from its first successful patrol assisting the Guatemalan Department of Fisheries in its anti-poaching enforcement operations. Asked by Fisheries officials to help battle poaching in Guatemalan waters, Sea Shepherd is helping to lower the impact of illegal fishing of billfish by commercial fishermen. T...

Carlos Hiller hanging his artwork at the Liberia International Airport in Guanacaste Costa RicaFast, tenacious and colorful: these adjectives are subjective of course, but nonetheless describe the fundamental nature of these magnificent fish which have become icons of the sport and commercial fishing on Costa Rica's Pacific coast: sailfish, roosterfish and golden fish (Mahi-Mahi). The paintin...

Horse infected with equine anemiaSome Nosara horse owners are concerned about a possible outbreak of infectious equine anemia among animals in the area, due to the death of one horse that tested positive for the disease on February 8th. Carrie Anderson, a resident of Nosara, said that “Tornado” was the name of the horse that had the sickness, in addition to an ailment known as Laminitis that a...

Hotel guests enjoying a cocktail at Living Hotel NosaraThe Living Hotel is now a whole complex of services to cater to health-conscious guests. Located across from the Mini Super Delicias del Mundo, it is fully operational this high season with its own Living Café restaurant, full service spa, yoga classes, Nosaranet office center, bike rentals, surf lessons and airport transportation. Ricardo Mi...

Starting this weekend the traffic headaches on the Circunvalación will start again, as the Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes (MOPT) begin the process of removing the Bailey bridges, and erecting a new permanent bridge over the María Aguilar river. According to the MOPT press release, Saturday night is when crews will remove the first of four Bailey bridges erected last November after a...

Valentine’s Day is around the corner and what better way to express your feelings to your beloved than through a love letter. Historically, love letters were possibly the only form of communication between lovers who might be separated for months at time most commonly during times of war. And with this void, emotions often intensified and romantic feelings soared. The most engaging love letter ...

Natural gas is used extensively throughout homes in Costa Rica, a power source for cooking. Unlike in other countries, like Canada, the United States and Colombia, for example, in Costa Rica natural gas is not piped into homes: it is purchased in cylinders. According to a study by the School of Statistics at the University of Costa Rica (UCR ), which was released on Tuesday by the Autoridad Reg...

Asociación Nacional de Educadores in Costa Rica during a previous demonstration The labour movement said Wednesday that they are evaluating a nationwide strike call next month, in protest of the government’s decree of the 0.43% wage increase for the public sector. The leaders of the Asociación Nacional de Educadores (ANDE) – the largest of the public sector unions – met Wednesday, and accor...

Photo of Christine Laemer at Tropical Garden Cooking Classes, by Arianna McKinney for Voice of GuanacasteA year ago, in August of 2012, Christine Laemer went for a mammogram and found out she had breast cancer. This news changed her lifestyle and diet completely, and now she is sharing some of what she has learned about health and nutrition through Tropical Garden Cooking Classes. Originally f...

For a couple of years now, the sport of tennis has been making inroads in the Nosara community, and now a couple of developers are stepping it up a notch, although not everyone is happy to see courts being built in the heart of Playa Guiones. In Esperanza, in Villas Esperanza, known as the 506 tennis center, Sam Carver is developing a tennis community with 12 homes planned. He believes that suc...

Parks and protected areas are on alert nationwide for forest fires. The alert went into effect on January 15th, but even before then one major fire had already broken out in the Nicoya area. On Saturday, December 28th, 9 hectares (22 acres) were burned in Corral de Piedra, according to Gabino Carrillo Arias, MINAE park ranger in charge of control. It is believed that the fire was caused by ...

In December 2013, La Creperie opened its doors in Playa Guiones, offering original French crepes to Nosara. The project was the idea of Franck Geers and is located 400 meters north of Delicias del Mundo supermarket, next to Hostal 4You. Geers says that the plates have a wide range of prices so that the food is accessible for all. Crepes start at 1,200 colones ($2.40) and the most expensive ones co...

Jorge Pita waiting it out in the cells of the Santa Ana police station before being taken to La Reforma prison.It doesn’t pay to mess around with a court order to pay child support. A U.S. businessman was thrown in jail last Thursday for not paying January child support of ¢3.6 million colones (US$7,500) plus school costs of ¢2 million (US$4,000) for his six-year-old daughter. The Juzgado de P...

Tourists in Playa Guiones during the month of JanuaryRecently the Costa Rica Star published about the tourism, wealth, and high unemployment in Guanacaste that comes as a result of foreign investment in the region. If you have been to Playa Guiones recently, in the district of Nosara, you probably noticed the incredible amount of commercial and residential construction underway as well as seve...

“Eat my dust” is no joke hereabouts. The solution, we are told, is asphalt or concrete paving. For what it is worth, paving is my least favorite solution to finding health and happiness on our roadways. So, let’s look at the problems with paving and examine alternatives. The problems with paving are legion. Paving increases both traffic and traffic speed considerably. Without signals and posted...

He takes me by the hand, guiding me gently through the water so I feel safe and I’m breathing fairly calmly. He points out a puffer fish, trying to catch it’s tail as it speeds away. Then he reaches down to pick up a bright blue starfish and hands it to me. Later he hands me a conch shell and a red sea snail peaks out timidly. I don’t feel like the Little Mermaid exactly; after all, I’ve got a tan...

Roadways of Rural Costa RicaThe roads in Costa Rica are one of the most important public services that the government provides us. We all use them, daily. They connect us to the municipality, to the commercial central, to the beaches, to the schools and the hospitals, and to each other. So what kind of public service is the local and national government entities providing us in this regard? I...

Nosara Yoga Institute adds new facilities for guests and teachersThe Nosara Yoga Institute (NYI), founded by Don and Amba Stapleton, brought yoga classes and training to the Nosara area since 1994, but teacher training and program participants had to look for accommodations elsewhere. Now the Institute has expanded its facilities to eight acres to include a hotel, restaurant, juice bar, a 25-mete...

Playa Barrigona, Costa RicaThe Municipality of Nicoya is currently conducting studies to open a roadway to connect the beaches of Barrigona and Barco Quebrado, as well as a road to connect the smaller beaches of Pavones and Bajo Escondido, between Barco Quebrado and Garza, according to Mayor Marco Antonio Jimenez Muñoz. Citing article 23 of Law 6043 regarding the Maritime Land Zone, the mayor ...

A large car hit this dog on February 2nd. His left front leg had to be amputated and his head injury treatedDog owners in the Nosara area are keeping a closer eye and hold on their pets these days. On January 29th yet another dog was run over and killed by a car in Playa Pelada. Amid high season volume, the roads are at their busiest with speeding cars, trucks, quads and motos. Without sidewalk...

Main street through Samara GuanacasteOn Sunday, January 12th, the Samara Development Association held their General Assembly meeting in San Fernando, during which they defined the boundaries for the new development association that will be created for central Samara. At the same time, Chinampas requested an extension to form their own development association. The meeting was called to order at...

Bicycle sports lovers will have the chance to see high-level athletes competing in the BMX War Jam 2014, the sixth annual event, which will take place in Nicoya’s multisport complex on Sunday, February 9 beginning at 9 a.m. Luis Elias Benavides, the event’s organizer, said that this year the competition will be very good, as there will be at least 50 participants from Canada, Chile, the United ...

In the shadows behind the bullring in Samara on January 1st 2014, the guys gather around, dressed in blue jeans and the blue and white plaid shirts that distinguish them as members of the professional bull riders known as Los Nicoyanos. Some stand, others kneel on the ground for a group prayer. A couple of them hold a child in their arms. After the prayer, one by one, they draw a name out of a hat...