As a region, the Americas has the second-highest number of most women parliamentarians in the world, with an average of 28.1 percent of those elected to parliaments, according to a study by the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM) of the Organization of American States (OAS) and International IDEA. This achievement is attributed to policies aimed at increasing the number of women in nationa...

On the southern Pacific beaches in and around Costa Rica's Osa Peninsula, there are four types of sea turtles that nest at different times of the year: Olive Ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea), Green (Chelonia mydas), Leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea) Hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata). All of these are in danger of extinction, mainly due to human pollution and other human intrus...

An in-depth health study that looked at Costa Rican's over-100 population - in particular the notable cluster of centenarians on Guanacaste's Nicoya Peninsula - has found some remarkable results. Specialists from the Costa Rican Social Security Agency's (CCSS) National Geriatrics and Gerontology Hospital visited the elderly in their homes and for the first time gathered data to gauge their phys...

In July, a suit was filed with the Costa Rican Administrative Litigation Tribunal requesting the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC, its initials in Spanish) and the Ministry of the Environment and Energy (MINAE) undertake a scientific study to determine whether or not there is an over-population of crocodiles in the country. Each year there are at least a few human encounters with cr...

Costa Rica's aging population, together with risk factors that are becoming more common such as smoking, alcohol, poor diet, obesity and sedentary lifestyle are some of the reasons for increasing rates of new cancer cases and also deaths due to cancer, said the Costa Rican Ministry of Health. In 2015 - the most recent data available - 4,667 people died from cancer - which averages 12 people per...

Costa Rica is among the Latin America countries seeking new sources of suppliers for cars, and other items such as apparel, said the Canadian Manufacturing trade magazine. A recent study by UPS on import activities by businesses in Latin America have opened a window on new opportunities for exporting countries. Costa Rica, Colombia, and Peru were found to have the highest percentage of impor...

Twenty-one new businesses have agreed to participate in a gender equality and women's economic empowerment program organized by the Costa Rican National Institute of Women (INAMU, its initials in Spanish) with support from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). The female employment rate in Costa Rica is 39.9 percent, while that of men is 68 percent, based on the Continuous Employment S...

Banana Azul  located at Puerto Viejo's Playa Negra on Costa Rica's Caribbean coast is a top-ten pick of CNN's travel section. Ranked the top budget resort, the hotel was selected due to its generous amenities at a reasonable cost and luxurious tropical surroundings. Founded in January 2005 by a Canadian couple who quit the fast lane and jumped into this tropical adventure with no prior hotel...

Name an area of Costa Rica that is not at risk for volcanic eruptions, mosquito-borne diseases, flooding, landslides, or affected by high crime rates .... take your time. There are hardly any, right? This was part of the highly critical statement published by the Union of Private Sector Businesses today in response to a proposal by the Costa Rican Education Ministry (MEP, in Spanish) to rais...

What could be more paradoxical than kids in the newly proclaimed wellness tourism capital lacking outdoor areas to get exercise and have fun? Well, strangely enough, many rural areas in Costa Rica - whether due to hilly terrain, very wet climates, and other environmental and political factors present in this tropical country - do not have safe or apt areas for kids, especially young ones, to ru...

German carrier, Lufthansa, announced today that it will include a direct Frankfurt - San Jose connection on its summer flight schedule for 2018. Starting March 29, 2018, a non-stop Lufthansa flight will take off every Thursday and Saturday from Frankfurt to Costa Rica. This is the seventh European airline to announce a direct connection to Costa Rica in the last three years. Lufthansa, one o...

The British engineering firm, Mott MacDonald, announced yesterday the delivery of the much-awaited masterplan for the proposed new international airport in Orotina, Alajuela, Costa Rica. The project will replace Costa Rica’s Juan Santamaria International Airport, which will be unable to meet future passenger demand beyond 2026. The 12-month feasibility study forecasts a demand of 7.8 million...

Crackle is being offered to Tigo customers in Costa Rica and Guatemala, reported Argentina's Telesemana.com. Sony Pictures Television Networks Latin America announced an agreement to incorporate its OTT service into the operator's pay television network in all markets where Tigo has a presence two weeks ago. Crackle is now in eight Latin American markets through alliances with Internet servi...

Shared work between humans and robots is on the horizon as a way to potentially reduce costs and errors, and to improve productivity and quality. Are service centers in Latin America ready to make this leap? This is one of the central themes being discussed at a regional meeting this week in San José of Latin American shared services center leaders. The event, organized for the fifth cons...

Credit card debt is on the rise in Costa Rica, reported the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce today. Over a 5-year period (from April 30, 2012 - April 30, 2017), the balance of credit card debt in the country has grown by 51 percent, with 21 percent of that growth occurring just in the past year (April 30, 2016 - April 30,2017). The debt has increased alongside a 60 percent increase...

The Costa Rica - United States Cooperation Foundation (CRUSA), the Costa Rican Coalition for Development Initiatives (CINDE), the North American Cultural Center - through its Education USA office, and the United States Embassy yesterday announced five scholarship opportunities for students at Costa Rica's Technical Professional Associations (CTP) and public schools that are part of the Internation...

A transnational effort to combat organized crime is taking off with leadership from the European Union. A 3-day meeting this week in San José marks the kick-off with representatives from 18 Latin American countries joining the new effort: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela an...

  A 22-year-old Colombian man who threatened an attack on an Ariana Grande performance July 9 at Parque Viva in Costa Rica got a big surprise - as did his family - when police stormed his house early Sunday morning in advance of the event. After police received reports Saturday about a message sent via social media to one of the event organizers, the search began, and security for the e...

A multi-agency commission charged with improving things at the Costa Rica's main international airport has identified priority areas in their first two months of work. Costa Rican Tourism Minister Mauricio Ventura said the commission detailed "seven internal problems at the airport, for which measures were proposed over the short and medium term." He was enthused at the speed at which the commi...

With the objective of expanding bilateral cooperation in a number of areas relating to "human capital development," the Costa Rican government signed this week a memorandum of understanding with Minnesota State University - Mankato, in the midwestern U.S. "I am honored to sign this agreement with the government of Costa Rica...we look forward to strengthening our existing partnerships and provi...

-- Gulf Coast and Central American Yacht Facilities to Collaborate on Service, Training, Activities Coastal Alabama’s Saunders Yachtworks and Costa Rica- based Marina Pez Vela have formed a strategic partnership that will allow the two full-service yacht yards to capitalize on their overlapping customer bases, announced the Gulf Coast shipyard earlier this month. For Saunders, the af...

Book by July 27, 2017 on Southwest for these great international fares. Tickets are nonrefundable. Seats, travel days, and markets are limited, and some blackout dates apply. Travel dates may vary for cities outside the contiguous U.S. And, also, points bookings do not include government fees that start from $5.60 per one-way flight, said the airline on their site. See below for the complete...

Costa Rica ranks highest in Latin America for its investment in public education, according to data from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). According to the commission's recent report, Costa Rica led the region in the proportion of resources allocated by the central government for public education, with 7.16 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) dedicated...

Envision a country with electric transportation, both public and private. That's all it would take to make Costa Rica cut its dependence on fossil fuels, with its already nearly total production of green electricity. Sound like a tall order? Monica Araya says that though she comes from a small country, she likes to dream big. The Yale-educated conservationist has turned her efforts over rece...

Costa Rican police were busy this weekend. They arrested eight members of a drug and crime ring in Jacó, and a Honduran trucker near the Nicaraguan border with cocaine hidden in his rig. This truck entered the country July 6, and when it attempted to leave Costa Rica Saturday near Los Chiles in northern Alajuela province, police acted on confidential information, and searched the truck. They de...

A private lawsuit has been brought against the Municipality of Garabito, in Costa Rica's Central Pacific region, the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT) and the Directorate General of Transit (DGT) for a perceived dangerous situation along the southern Pacific coastal highway. Walter Brenes, a lawyer with the Energy Law Firm (ELF), filed the injunction against the entities requesting ...

Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) has moved on from the beach communities on the northern Nicoya peninsula, to the central Pacific region of the Manuel Antonio National Park and its nearby small city of Quepos, for the country's second rural fiber optics installation project, reported the agency this week.   The project will benefit at least 1,087 customers will be move from the c...

In 2015, Costa Rica's Ministry of Public Education started to undertake a "transformation" of its curriculum to include "sexuality and affectivity" as part of its offerings, explained Education Minister Sonia Marta Mora. She announced this week the creation of a new subject to be offered for all 10th graders in the 2018 Feb. - Dec. school year. The sexuality and affectivity class will be led...

Costa Rican women's rights defenders are in Geneva this month to report on the situation of women, as the UN evaluates the country's commitments to eliminating discrimination against women. They have painted a grim picture in a year when femicides - or deaths of women at the hands of their male romantic partners - are on the rise, and religious fundamentalism is steadily gaining a foothold in p...

Ever been curious about how those miniature trees are made? This weekend, the the University of Cota Rica's Lankester Botanical Gardens near Paraiso, Cartago, there will be exhibits of a variety of bonsai trees, as well as tea drinking ceremonies in the mornings, and free workshops (with your entrance fee) on bonsai techniques. Local bonsai groups, with support from the Japanese Embassy, are...

The Costa Rican Social Security Agency (CCSS), which runs the country's national public health system, announced the availability of a highly effective treatment for Hepatitis C. Whereas previously the virus was visually impossible to treat in a definitive manner, a pill became available in the U.S. in 2014 which gave up to 99 percent cure rates using a 12 - 24 week treatment, according to scie...

The U.S. State Department found significant improvement in Costa Rica's governmental efforts to prosecute human traffickers, protect victims and prevent this heinous crime, according to the agency's 2017 Report on Trafficking in Persons published last week. In the case of Costa Rica, the government's efforts showed notable success when compared with the 2016 study, allowing country to rise a le...

Got rice? Costa Rica consumer groups hope its locally grown, and are pushing for price subsidies to stay in place to support local farmers. The National Federation of Consumers (Fenasco) urged the President of the Republic Luís Guillermo Solís to maintain price subsidies for the country's basic staple, rice, and to not cede to pressures from organizations, companies or business chambers to roll...

Turtle Island announces Cocos Island, Costa Rica conservation scholarship Applications can be sent in English or Spanish The international marine wildlife protection organization, Turtle Island, is offering a scholarship for a person in the beginning or early stages of his or her marine conservation career to participate a ten-day shark and turtle tagging expedition. The expedit...

Costa Rica's red taxis have more than competing transportation services to worry about these days. All official taxis under new regulations were supposed to have new "talking" taxi meters up and running by July 1, said the Ministry of Transportation and Public Works (MOPT). According to the Public Transportation Council, only 8 percent of official taxis have the correct type of meter, but th...

A husband-and-wife veterinarian team has transformed their farm in Tarbaca de Aserrí, in the hills south of San José, into a refuge for abandoned and injured animals. When their good intentions of helping a few stray animals started to burgeon into a serious undertaking they formed a non-profit association called the Costa Rican Association for Animal Welfare (Acoproba, in Spanish). With the...

Want to see more of Costa Rica? Domestic flights on NatureAir can get you from place to place in far less time than it takes to drive, and reach destinations that span from Tortuguero in the northern Caribbean to the Osa Peninsula in the southern Pacific. From now until August 31, while supplies last, the airline is offering a 6-ticket package for US$199 to residents and nationals. Each o...

Want to see what's happening in the world of chocolate in Costa Rica? From July 14-16 the country's main chocolate trade fair takes place in downtown San José at the former customs building, also known as the Antigua Aduana. Entrance is 2,000 colones for adults, and children are free. If you want to be guaranteed a spot at the popular event, tickets can even be purchased in advance starting ...

Spirit Airlines opened on Saturday, July 1, a new sales and customer service office in Costa Rica to better serve local customers, said the airline. The office will be open Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. and Saturdays, 8:00 a.m. - 12 p.m. Phone queries can be made via (506) 4032-9449, where Spirit representatives will assist customers, "with the kindness and courtesy you deserve." With ove...

The President of Costa Rica's Criminal Cassation Chamber Judge Doris Arias Madrigal, inaugurated Tuesday June 27  the first biregional meeting on innovations in addressing drug related offenses in which Caribbean, European and Latin American countries exchanged information and experiences. Judge Arias Madrigal stressed the importance of working on strategies for a comprehensive approach to drug...