Last week, Costa Rica hosted a meeting of the Central American Council of Tourism at which ideas were discussed to promote tourism investment in the region, said the Costa Rican tourism Institute (ICT). Central America's Tourism Ministers, businessmen and representatives of the region's tourism chambers participated in this first "Forum of Exchange of Experiences for the Promotion of Tourism In...

Costa Rica is a small country but with big commitments, and one of those is regarding safeguarding the rights of women to live free of discrimination in society. As a country that has ratified the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Costa Rica comes under regular review by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) which...

The University of Costa Rica's San Pedro, San José campus will host a free, public symposium consisting of three talks in English on different neuropsychology topics on Friday, August 11 at 1 p.m., announced the Professional Association of Psychologists of Costa Rica. The event, "Neuropsychology: Applications and Research," will delve into how cognitive neuroscience can lead to better understan...

National Geographic Kids and LEGO City are collaborating on a special partnership to inspire children to explore, discover and learn about jungles and the importance of their preservation. As part of the initiative, LEGO City & National Geographic Kids will launch an exciting new competition on July 1 to win a National Geographic Family Expedition to the jungles of Costa Rica in Central Ame...

This week, Costa Rica hosted the XLIX Meeting of Heads of State and Government of the Central American Integration System (SICA, its initials in Spanish) during which a concrete step forward on border control cooperation with Panama was taken, announced the Costa Rican President's office. Presidents Luis Guillermo Solís of Costa Rica and Juan Carlos Varela of Panama signed an agreement to creat...

Community-minded citizens in Heredia, Costa Rica are concerned about continued attempts by a coalition of business owners, local governments, and others to roll back protections of Costa Rica's water resources, said Conceverde (which translates to the Environmental Association of North San Rafael de Heredia). Rulings over the past years by the country's high court, the Sala IV, have upheld what...

In April, a Costa Rican woman, Eugenia Cartín, said a call she had made to complain about her Internet service with Tigo had been released on social media, and had caused her immense emotional strife and also affected her professional work as a translator, according to reports in local media. During the 15-minute call, apparently Cartín used very strong language. In the aftermath of the publ...

Merck Sharpe and Dohme will establish a regional center for financial services in Costa Rica to support the company's operations in Latin America, reported Costa Rica's Foreign Trade Ministry yesterday. Foreign Trade Minister Alexander Mora congratulated and thanked the company for its trust in Costa Rica. "Costa Rica has a recognized track record as a competitive destination for companies lik...

With the support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Central Pacific county of Garabito is the first in Costa Rica to implement a public policy on controlling and monitoring plastics on its beaches, said the international agency yesterday. The beaches of Jacó, Hermosa, Herradura, Tárcoles and Guacalillo will be jointly monitored by surfers and the municipal government to fight...

Businesses in the former agricultural towns near the frequently touristed volcano by the same name in Poás, Alajuela are reporting up to 70 percent decreases in sales over recent weeks since the volcano entered a new, eruptive phase. Tourism has become a mainstay of this national park and surrounding area due to its proximity to the main international airport and to San José - making it a popul...

"Costa Rica’s economy is growing at its estimated trend rate of about 4.25 percent," said economists at the International Monetary Fund. Their recently released report also summarized the situation as follows: "The colón has been depreciating moderately since mid-2016, while reserves have declined despite the narrowing in the current account deficit...inflation is returning to desire...

The Costa Rican government announced a new nationwide multi-institutional approach to preventing and combating violence against women, said the presidency this week. The focus is on prevention, redefining masculinity, and changing cultural gender norms. The policy envisions involving 22 state entities over the next 15 years to reduce violence against women in a country where over 13o women p...

The Costa Rican Chamber of Tourism (CANATUR, its initials in Spanish) sent out a notice to canopy tour operators in the country this week regarding an apparent expiration of the canopy patent, but the relief appears to be short-lived. For weeks, uncertainty has reigned among the industry since Canadian national, Darren Hreniuk, began attempting to charge canopy tours royalties based on a recent...

Are volcanoes in Costa Rica secretly conspiring to erupt simultaneously, or is there some science behind all the recent gas, lava and ash? Scientists are looking at the connection between the recent eruptions of three volcanoes and the energy released along fault lines. Two tectonic plates meet in Costa Rica: the Cocos and Caribbean,placing the country soundly within the globe's ring of fire, o...

Would you expect to find 19 roosters stashed in the trunk of a car? Well, Costa Rican police officers in the southern San José district of Desamparados were sure surprised when they decided to follow and search a suspicious-looking car. They found roosters stashed in the car trunk along with various implements used for cock fighting including 81 spurs for the roosters. When police were pa...

Costa Rica's lead researcher on snakebites and anti-venom serums says the health problem is unattractive to pharmaceutical companies due to the low profit margin, reported the Spanish news agency EFE this week. In an interview with EFE, Alberto Alape Giron, professor of biochemistry at the University of Costa Rica (UCR) said, “It’s not profitable (for these firms) to manufacture anti-venoms and...

In April this year, KLM Royal Dutch Airline announced they would start two weekly direct flights between Amsterdam and Costa Rica to accommodate growing European winter tourism to the tropical vacation haven starting October 31, 2017. This week the airline said they would be increasing that service to Costa Rica in the first quarter of 2018 with an additional flight. The third weekly flight ...

Around dawn today, Monday, June 26, San José, Costa Rica's police received an usual phone call. A man who had broken into someone's home was fast asleep on the couch, reported Channel 7 Teletica television news station. Apparently the man intended to rob a house in San Francisco de Dos Ríos, a southern San José district, but fell asleep in the living room instead. The home happened to be ...

The London-based company, OpenSignal, which studies coverage and performance of the wireless industry throughout the world, has published its most recent State of Mobile Networks Report for Costa Rica. The company analyzed 32,689,810 datapoints collected from 2,688 users during the period July 31 - October 30, 2016, according to the information on their website. The main deficiency among all t...

U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, entered the following statement into the Congressional Record earlier this year to recognize Costa Rica’s strategic role as a democratic partner in the Western Hemisphere: “Mr. President: I rise today to recognize the productive partnership between the United States and Costa Rica. I recently had the cha...

Last week, first vice-president and minister of finance, Helio Fallas, was called to make a statement before the Legislative Assembly's Commission of Income and Public Expenditure as they work to settle the country's 2016 extraordinary budget, said the Finance Ministry in a statement. At his appearance before the commission, the minister said, "you are well aware ... that this extraordinary bud...

Sport fishermen in Costa Rica are even happier than usual these days with regular sightings of larger schools of fish and dolphins, said the Costa Rican Fishing Federation, FECOP. They are chalking the increasing up to tough restrictions signed into law by Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solís in 2014 prohibiting tuna purse-seine operations within 45 miles of the coast. "This effectivel...

From July 14 to 26, downtown Santa Ana, a small city located about 10 miles west of San José, will be transformed into a fairground and cultural festival, said event organizers. The traditional patron saint festivities, known as "fiestas patronales" in Spanish, are being augmented with participation by the Santa Ana Chamber of Tourism to include a wide offering of free and fun activities. Be...

The Chamber of Exporters of Costa Rica (CADEXCO, its initials in Spanish) said it is concerned about the stagnation in exports in the country's priority sectors, according to reports in Central America's Summa business magazine this week. The agricultural sector, which represents 28 percent of the country's exports and is the largest employer in rural areas, has shown no growth this year compar...

As is typical around the new moon, tides will be higher than usual starting tomorrow and lasting until around Wednesday of next week on both the Pacific and Caribbean coasts of Costa Rica, detailed a report by Omar G. Lizano Rodríguez, coordinator of the Oceanographic Information Module (MIO, its initials in Spanish) at the University of  Costa Rica's Center for Research in Marine Sciences and Lim...

Acting Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Judith Garber is in San Jose, Costa Rica this week. Her 3-day visit will focus on environmental issues and sustainable trade, said the U.S. Department of State's office of the spokesperson in a statement Tuesday. On June 20, Garber met with Costa Rican Minister of Environment ...

Get ready for some great hoop in August when the University of Nevada men's basketball team arrives in Costa Rica for a week of matches. The Wolf Pack will take on the Costa Rican national men's basketball team and also squads from Canada from August 18 - 26. “We are so excited to take our foreign tour trip this year to Costa Rica in August,” said Eric Musselman, head coach, in a press relea...

The Seattle, Washington-based Starbucks is celebrating five years of operations in Costa Rica this week, and has announced its continued expansion both locally and in the rest of Central America. The chain has 35 stores in the region with 11 in both Costa Rica and El Salvador, seven in Guatemala, and six in Panama. Starbucks' first outlet in Costa Rica opened at Avenida Escazú. This year it ...

The Costa Rican Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT) announced the third phase of its solar conversion project, whose ultimate goal is to have all traffic lights running on solar power in the year 2022, said the institution in a press statement yesterday. This year, an additional 76 stop lights will have photovoltaic systems. The project has received US$1 million in funding from the Co...

With thousands of unresolved refugee applications, and more coming in each day, the country's Ombudsman's Office urged the country to comply with deadlines established under the law for processing the cases. In May alone this year 501 people applied for refugee status in Costa Rica, according to the General Directorate of Migration, bringing the total of pending refugee applications to 3,519. ...

To strengthen the country's national strategy on low carbon livestock (a program referred to with the initials ENGBC in Spanish), the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) and the National Institute of Learning (INA) have joined to enhance the country's sustainable livestock production with more resources. Mauricio Chacón Navarro, manager of the national livestock program and coordinator ...

Costa Rica will see the growth of gourmet coffee and chocolate options with the expansion of Britt outlets. "Britt, besides being a gourmet brand of coffee and chocolates, is characterized by the high level of service that strengthens the creation of memorable experiences. The Britt Chocolateries try to instill a taste for good chocolate. We have seen that the customer who already consumes our ...

Costa Rica and Japan yesterday signed a financing for the sum of about US$240 million (25,991 million yen) for the construction of the Borinquen I geothermal energy plant, reported the state-owned Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE). This will be the third geothermal plant in the country, coming after the Miravalles and the Las Pailas projects. The 55-megawatt facility in the northern Gu...

Costa Rica’s Attorney General's office notified the Labor Ministry that the ministry is correct in applying retirement benefits to same-sex partners in the same way they do for heterosexual partners. "The response of the Office of the Attorney General helps to determine with legal certainty and clarity the path the national pensions directorate should take for the implementation of this legal c...

Costa Rican health officials will be assisted by four U.S. helicopters next week on a first-ever building project in the remote indigenous Talamanca region in the country's Limón province. The country's public health system administrators, the Costa Rican Social Security Agency or CCSS, will require the fly overs to do an exploratory tour, and also to transfer construction materials that will b...

A U.S. native by the last name of Baylor was refused entry into Costa Rica on June 15 for traveling with a stolen passport, reported local Channel 7 Teletica TV news. The man somehow managed to evade security checks at the country's main Juan Santamaría International Airport in Alajuela near the capital city, and entered the country anyway, said the report. Police then issued an alert, and a...

The Costa Rican Social Security Agency (CCSS, its initials in Spanish) will offer hormonal and psychological treatment to transsexual individuals, in order to avoid both physical and emotional complications; reported the agency yesterday, Monday, June 19. Last week, the CCSS board of directors approved an agreement instructing the medical management to establish an interdisciplinary health prof...

This week, Costa Rica embarks on a high-level tour in Japan to seek new markets for investment, trade and technical support to build capacity in Costa Rica, said the Costa Rican Investment and Development Agency (CINDE). "Strengthening trade ties with Japan is part of our government's efforts to diversify our economy. This work tour involves ... the promotion of investment, events with potentia...

During a visit to Costa Rica, Minister Barbara Hendricks of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Construction and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) of the Federal Republic of Germany, announced support in the amount of 15 million Euros to aid Costa Rica work on mitigation and adaptation to climate change, reported the Costa Rican government. During a visit that began on Friday 16 ...

The Coto 47 airfield along Costa Rica's Pacific coast, in the southernmost area of the Puntarenas province, about 10 miles form the Panamanian border, just got a major overhaul. The investment exceeded €1.02 billion or roughly US$1.76 million, and will benefit businesses, residents and visitors in the southern Pacific region, said the Costa Rican government in a press statement. Coto 47 (IAT...