Bottle of Coyol Wine, made from the sap of Coyol PalmsWith the arrival of the midday sun, the bottle of coyol wine (made from the sap of coyol palms) sits on a light blue wooden table that is covered with a checkered tablecloth and protected by a plastic cover with pieces of reflective tape on the sides, to immediately catch the attention of drivers passing by. The bottled sap looks clean and foa...

Finished in July, 1908, the historic prison in Heredia has long fallen into disuse and deterioration. But today it is undergoing a 450 million colon facelift that will turn back the clock from its decline through weathering and neglect. The project began last September, a project of the Ministry of Culture's efforts to preserve historic landmarks. The architecture is typical of the massive (and...

Guanacaste Community FundWhile the Costa Rica-USA Foundation (CRUSA) has been funding national environmental and educational projects for 18 years, its newest initiative, the Guanacaste Community Fund, will focus exclusively on Guanacaste-based societal improvements. The Fund’s executive director, Steve Mack, appointed by CRUSA’s Governing Board of Directors in August, said he has already dis...

Arsenic in the drinking water of various regions throughout Guanacaste Costa RIcaThe Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers (AyA - Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados) confirmed that they had hired the company Turbina S.A. to remove arsenic from the water of seven communities in Guanacaste and northern Alajuela on Wednesday, January 29th. The company will be placed i...

Roadways in the Nicoya Municipality of Guanacaste are in desperate need of repair and maintenance The lack of agreement between officials from Nicoya’s Municipality and the personnel of the regional office of the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT – Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes) has caused repeated tension and friction between the employees of both institutions. Th...

In the past the Costa Rica Star has published about organic coffee and coffee cupping tours in Costa Rica. The U.S. coffee chain, Starbucks, continues its expansion in Costa Rica with a fourth store location opening in March. The new store will be Plaza Freses, in Curridabat, on the east side of San José. No opening date has been set as of yet, though the company is already hiring staff and ...

Previous meeting of the Nosara Civic AssociationOn Tuesday, January 28th, the Nosara Civic Association (NCA) held their annual meeting with about 40 members in attendance. During the meeting, they elected a new board, with several changes, and also recognized two long-time board members for their service. The meeting went “according to plan,” according to the NCA president, Alvin Rosenbaum. A ...

El Avion Restaurant and Bar, 22 Manuel Antonio Road, Manuel Antonio, Costa RicaGail Harland visits an old cargo plane in Costa Rica, converted into a restaurant, and discovers a Cold War relic involving a tale of political scandal, the CIA, arms trading and the Iran-Contra Affair. When the C-123 was shot down over Nicaragua in 1986 by the Sandinista guerillas, it left behind an American owned ...

If this doesn’t make all of you avid saltwater anglers scurry to get on the next plane to Costa Rica, we don’t know what will! Los Sueños Marina, reputedly the finest marina on the Pacific coast south of the US border (Cabo San Lucas in Mexico and Viña del Mar in Chile might beg to differ, but who cares), is hosting the First Annual Los Sueños Signature Triple Crown tournament. There are three ...

The annual Que Lindo (How Lovely) art fair, held on Friday, January 24, at the Natural Center in downtown Samara, attracted close to five hundred visitors, eager to see the artwork, as well as to enjoy some guitar music and sample the goods being sold simultaneously at the weekly Samara Organic Market. The fair took place from 2 to 6 p.m., about 30 local artists and artisans showed their colorf...

Repretel interviewed the women that work at the Nosara Recycle CenterLast Tuesday January 14th the news organization Repretel NC11’s programming included a segment that pays tribute to the beauty of the Nosara area, as the community was chosen as one of the ten best worldwide vacation destinations to visit in 2014 by CNN. In addition, the area was featured by National Geographic as one of the 15 ...

This article was sent to us by the US Embassy in Costa Rica. Four Costa Rican fisherman are safe on dry land in El Salvador today, after a harrowing experience in the open ocean. Adrift at sea, they were rescued by the US Coast Guard cutter Boutwell, just moments before their fishing vessel sank. Their ordeal began on January 17th, when the vessel, the Calypso IV, lost power. After sending...

A trail of trash stretched out along more than two kilometers of Buena Vista Beach, between the communities of Esterones and Samara, on Thursday, January 9. The huge amount of it astounded members of the community and it took four days of volunteer labor and heavy machinery to clean it up. Elizabeth Jenkins, who lives near the beach in Esterones, related that her husband, Frank, was at the beac...

On February 2nd, at least thirteen municipalities in Costa Rica will be dry – prohibiting the sale of alcohol on election day, reports the Unión Nacional de Gobiernos Locales (Spanish acronym: UNGL). On the list of the thirteen municipalities is the city of San José, which also bans the sale of alcohol the day before, the day of and the day after the election. The remaining 12 municipalities...

Sebastian and ValeriaA 21-year-old farm worker gave himself up to the OIJ investigative agency in the twin murders of a pair of young musicians in the youth orchestra, Valeria Cortes, 15, and Sebastian Condori, 16. The attractive pair disappeared Monday afternoon and were discovered by searching friends buried in shallow graves in a lonely pasture. The double murder shocked residents of Parais...

A combination of less rainfall, coupled with the increased cost of generating electricity using bunker and diesel fuels, threaten a sharp rise in electricity rates this year. The Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos (ARESEP) – regulating authority for public services – has already approved two hikes for the first and second quarter of 2014 (the first already in force), followed by two...

The Ministry of Health has come to the aid of the Municipality of San José in combating a serious rat problem in the area of Parque Okayama, in San Francisco de Dos Ríos. The infestation has been ongoing since October 2013, when area residents began complaining of the infestation, a problem that the municipality had budgeted only ¢236,000 colones (US$570 dollars) to eradicate. A meeting at t...

More than 1,000 ICE (Kolbi) cell phone customers have been victims of a new scam that involves receiving a text message on their cellular phone and ending up with a long distance charge on their bill. Elberth Durán of the state telecom, Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), explains that telecoms in some countries like Africa and Oceania, pay a commission to receive and transfer commun...

Fabiana Granados, Miss Costa RicaFabiana Granados, the current Miss Costa Rica, who recently placed 11th in the Miss Universe pageant on November 9th in Moscow, Russia, will serve as one of the judges in charge of choosing the next queen of the upcoming 2014 Nicoya Fiestas, which will take place from February 4th to 10th. The beauty queen, who is originally from Hojancha, expressed her fondnes...

There are times when sportfishing is, to put it mildly, fantastic. You can’t drop a line without something biting. Right now is one of them. Los Sueños Marina, just north of Jacó on Costa Rica’s Central Pacific coast, is among the finest marinas south of the US border. Thanks in no small part to marina manager Bill Kirby, an unabashed workaholic who runs things smoothly and efficiently, Los Sue...

Campesino Bistro is a new restaurant and art gallery in Playa Guiones. For the project, they remodeled the old Casa Tucan location, re-using the most material possible. Marcelina Morcinek and Joseph Craig started cooking in Guiones two years ago with a catering service. Their food is made with organic vegetables from a private farm in Garza. The meat and chicken they use is raised in Nosara. ...

On Friday, January 24, the Samara Organic Market will offer more than healthy food during the third annual art fair, “Que Lindo” (How Lovely). Local artists and artisans will be exhibiting and selling their creations, including paintings and watercolors, mixed media, masks, clothing, jewelry, and fused glass, from 2 to 6 p.m. at the Natural Center Gym and Spa in downtown Samara, next to the sch...

“Competition isn’t for everyone,” emphasized Amber Ryan and Meagen Walsh, who teach dance in Nosara. But for those who do want to challenge themselves as dancers, in addition to the thrill of performing on stage, the two have decided to form a dance company that will compete against other dance companies in San Jose May 30 to June 1 during the JUMP international Dance Tour. Auditions for the...

Hector Zuñiga running from Nicoya to GarzaIf you enjoy fitness and are looking to take your routine to the next level, the Voice of Guanacaste (VOG) presents five routes to motivate you to boost your performance. Running from Nicoya to Garza With a pair of good shoes and adequate training you can run for a long time. Hector Zuñiga is an athlete from Garza who participates in at least one ra...

Oscar Morales convincing a customer to buy a product by using "mas o menos"This article is satire and designed to create conversation and humor amongst readers of the Costa Rica Star. Originally published on the ElPeji.com Blog. PLAZA VIQUEZ – Oscar Morales, a 20-year veteran of the Plaza Viquez feria in San Jose, finally cracked last week when he bravely became the first vendor in Costa Rican...

Sputnik, the original tiny satellite The offices of President Laura Chinchilla announced this week that the nation would launch its first satellite in 2016. Asked what the mini-satellite was good for, Carlos Alvarado, chief of the Central American Aeronautics and Space Association said candidly that "it will show we can do it." Actually, weighing in at less than 10 kilos (about 25 lbs) there's...

Azamara Quest docked at the Puerto Caldera, in PuntarenasA new type of tourism was launched in Costa Rica this past Wednesday, the very first time a cruise liner has started its journey from a Costa Rican port. Azamara Quest, a subsidiary of Royal Caribbean, launched the Ruta Mesoamericana, a journey from the Puerto Caldera, in Puntarenas to different ports in Central America, Mexico and Los A...

Feriajobs.com is a new tool for job seekers, created solely for publishing job opportunities in Costa Rica, and to date they have posted over 2,000 of them. The website, for now, focuses on providing jobs available in Costa Rica, however, their goal is to cover Central America and later Latin America. Created by the folks at autos.cr, the car classifieds in Costa Rica, Feriajobs.com has two ...

The Technical Road Management Unit (UTGV -Unidad Técnica de Gestión Vial) of Nicoya’s municipality invested 24% of their 2013 budget in road maintenance and construction projects in the canton, while 76% of the budget was used for administrative and operating expenses. Those numbers were detailed in the regular municipal budget for the 2013 period in the communication routes section, where the ...

Gonzalo Pizarro Barrantes is one of the few Santa Cruz cowboys who still lives in the fields. Although he doesn’t work on a ranch, he is used to riding a horse at 84 years old. On a daily basis, it’s common to see him riding his horse in the middle of the city, shopping or having a drink at one of the popular bars in the area. For many years, before the folkloric city was full of cement, when t...

Just 30 minutes from the Daniel Oduber International Airport and 217 kilometers northeast of San José, the Gulf of Papagayo Tourism Pole (PTGP) offers white sandy beaches and lush tropical settings, with a wide variety of activities for nature-loving tourists. “The bay is rich in marine species due to the abundance of plankton in its waters, which develops in the mangroves in the area,” said Ja...

Costa Rica’s Constitutional Court or Sala IV, as it is commonly referred to, recognized its error in rejecting an appeal against the State for failure to approve In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF). The Court says it annulled the judgement issued on Tuesday in which it flatly rejected an “amparo” (appeal) against the State for failing to pass the law that regulates IVF in the country. Through a sta...

Sebastian and Valeria The disappearance of Sebastian and Valeria, two Cartago youths, ended fatally with the discovery of the bodies. But, they are not the only adolescents gone missing. According to the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ), in 2013 they received 853 reports of missing persons, of which 245 were aged between 13 and 17. November 2013 was the month with the greatest n...

The culture in Costa Rica is one that frustrates the work of the Bomberos (firefighters), as people insist on covering fire hydrants with garbage bags and drivers who block access with their parked vehicles. Another problem faced by Costa Rica’s firefighters is the continuing lack of hydrants. To that end, a large part of the country’s municipalities are not complying with the installation of h...

The Triple Crown surf competition returned for the third consecutive year, to choose the coast’s best surfer. The first day was January 11th in the waves of Playa Barrigona. Funds raised will be donated to a housing project to help build a home for a low-income family in the Nosara area. This year, the Nosara Surf Association took charge of the event’s organization along with help from Nosara T...

The 23rd National Sports Games (Juegos Deportivos Nacionales), which were to be held January 5-15, had their dates changed to March 1-16 for the cantons of Guanacaste and the southern Zona Sur. In Nicoya, the games will take place March 2-6, which will allow for changes to the internal structure of the sports complex (Polideportivo), the facility for the water sports competitions. In addition t...

Barco del Amor Macrobiotic SodaAfter sitting empty in the maritime zone of Garza Beach for about five years, Barco del Amor reopened in December, this time as a macrobiotic store and soda. Rachel Fregosi, a French woman who has been a resident of Costa Rica for 18 years now, was selling macrobiotic products in the streets and wanted to find a permanent location for her business. She noticed th...

Even though the latest engineer report presented by the Playas de Nosara ASADA’s (Administrative Associations of Rural Water and Sanitation Systems) affirmed the water infrastructure level can last 20 years with maintenance, the ASADA finds itself with a new question: how can they continue providing water service if growth exceeds the yearly 5% used in the study? According to ASADA Vocal Olivie...

Church in Belen de Nosarita, NicoyaThe community of Belen de Nosarita in the canton of Nicoya is in shock over the murder of Ingrid Hernandez Mayorga, age 38, by her romantic partner at around 5 a.m. on January 10th. The police are searching for the only suspect, last name Castro, about 40 years old, who witnesses say fled into the mountains, an area he knows well. The two were a couple alt...

During the new year, the fiestas season continues in Nosara from January 22 to 27, then in Nicoya from February 4 to 10, transmitting live on Channel 7 on February 8. Garza also plans to host fiestas in February, although the exact dates have yet to be defined. The Nosara Integral Development Association has scheduled a lineup of all the traditional activities, starting on Wednesday, January 22...