If you love horses, but topes, the traditional Costa Rican horse parades, aren't your thing, you might enjoy the Spanish purebred horse fair starting Thursday, March 2 and lasting through the weekend. The event is free and open to the public, and will run daily from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m (see program here). It will feature equestrian exhibitions, special theme nights, children's entertainment...

Yesterday, Costa Rica’s legislature voted 23-16 in favor of requesting international action on recent restrictions of press freedom in the United States, reported the local Costa Rican digital news source AmeliaRueda.com. The motion, drafted by National Liberation Party Legislator Rolando Gonzalez, condemns recent moves by the newly elected U.S. President Donald Trump to restrict some major U.S...

This weekend, the Costa Rican Public Security Ministry (MSP) announced plans to build eleven new police stations throughout Costa Rica for a total investment of US$21.3 million. The infrastructure project began with the inauguration last week of Pérez Zeledón’s new facility in southern Costa Rica which is valued at US$2.3 million. The structure will improve operations of the region’s nearly 2,0...

Starting with Costa Rica's coasts, and later continuing inland throughout the territory, the National Institute of Innovation and Transfer in Agricultural Technology (INTA, its acronym in Spanish) is about to embark upon a much-needed land-use mapping project. The new maps will prove an essential tool for Costa Rica’s municipal governments to draw up and enforce zoning plans. And zoning plans a...

Amidst increasing traffic accidents and road-related fatalities, Costa Rican police are calling on drivers to always, and correctly, use safety seats for children. A safety device is required for all children in a private vehicle under the age of twelve in Costa Rica, said the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT, in Spanish), who said in January this year 69 drivers were fined for...

Over the past nine months the Burger King fast food chain has been resurrecting after its operations bottomed out in Costa Rica in October 2015, reported Costa Rica’s business daily El Financiero. The brand's new franchisee, Corporación JV de Centroamérica, has invested no less than US$2.5 million to open eight eateries in that time. Mario Jiménez, general manager of Burger King Costa Rica, ...

Costa Rica is slowly digging its way out of decades of delays in infrastructure improvements, one of the main priorities of the current Solís administration. Along these lines, much needed improvements to another Virilla River bridge, this one on the heavily transited highway connecting Belén to Santa Ana, will begin at the end of March, and last an expected 13 months. Ministry of Public Wor...

—Currently a situation of rivalry between government institutions in Costa Rica hinders efforts to improve small-scale fisheries, found a case study on Costa Rica. A report released this week by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Department and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Fisheries Expert Group analyzed the role o...

The case of a 13-year-old girl which came to light yesterday in Costa Rica and who is alleged to have been impregnated by her biological father has been cast into the spotlight of a moral debate surrounding child rights, health and access to therapeutic abortion in a country where the topic is still virtually taboo due to the predominant Catholic religion. The non-profit Costa Rican Acceder Fou...

An unexpected tragedy was in store last weekend for Canada’s Manitoba Rugby team who was in Costa Rica competing in the Rainforest 7s competition. On a trip to Costa Rica’s Pacific coast, player Peter Scouras, 33, drowned Monday around noon in the rough surf at Playa Hermosa beach, and Red Cross officials who responded to the accident were unable to resuscitate him, according to local Red Cross...

By Wendy Anders The Second Judicial Circuit prosecutor’s office in San José, Costa Rica detained a man yesterday, suspected of recruiting women, promising them jobs as models, and then sexually abusing them. According to the Public Security Ministry, the suspect, a man by the last names of Porras Rodezma (21), was arrested Monday afternoon in a house in Desamparados, where he apparently invi...

By Wendy Anders In December, scientists from Conservation International (CI) joined efforts with biologist Mario Espinoza of the University of Costa Rica (UCR) and several of his graduate students for an intensive ocean data gathering expedition. The site: The waters of the Cocos Island National Park with their thriving shark colonies, and colorful tropical marine life and coral reefs. The p...

By Wendy Anders Have you ever filed for child support in Costa Rica, lodged a complaint for sexual harassment, or requested a restraining order from a partner or former partner? Your input and evaluation of these services is sought out as the Costa Rican justice system works to strengthen and improve their services for victims of gender-based violence, said the judiciary oversight department...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica’s Ombudsman's Office has given the Ministry of Public Education (MEP) a timeline to insure their compliance with across-the-board road safety educational programs in all of the country’s schools, from pre-school on up, said the Defensoría de Los Habitantes this week (The Defender of the Inhabitants or National Ombudsman’s Office). The country’s traffic and road saf...

By Wendy Anders Last week, after a year of preparing for their first kidney transplant surgery, the public hospital in Cartago, Costa Rica successfully helped a man receive the much-needed procedure. Maria Eugenia Villalta Bonilla, medical manager of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS, in Spanish) hailed this as a milestone for the Max Peralta Hospital which can now offer a whole new...

The Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law will be presented to Montserrat Solano at a ceremony on February 21 in San José. By Wendy Anders Montserrat Solano Carboni, Defender of the Inhabitants of the Republic of Costa Rica, will receive the Franco-German Prize for Human Rights at a ceremony to be held this Tuesday, February 21, at the Residence of French Ambassador Thierr...

By Wendy Anders Late Sunday afternoon, police observed suspicious activity at an automated teller machine (ATM) near the National University campus in downtown Heredia, Costa Rica which led to the detention of two men, said Pablo Calvo, Public Security Ministry spokesman, yesterday in a press conference. After observing the men leave the ATM and then head to another nearby ATM, police interv...

By Wendy Anders Exports from Panama fell for the third consecutive year in 2016, according to a recent report by Panama’s Comptroller General. Overall losses associated with the decline are estimated at 25 percent over the past three years, said officials, although a few exports did experience gains According to figures from the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MICI, in Spanish), the econ...

By Wendy Anders One of Costa Rica’s most remote schools, the 15-student Shinabla public school in Limón province’s Talamanca region, was awarded a grant from the Ministry of Public Education (MEP, in Spanish) to establish a garden. The school’s teacher, Antonio Lázaro Leiva, took the initiative to apply to the MEP’s School Gardens Program, and the support was provided last August. The stu...

By Wendy Anders Last week the Costa Rican Ministry of Finance and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) signed a Technical Cooperation Agreement this month for US$280,000 to support mechanisms for managing public works programs in the country. The donation is designed to support the Costa Rican government as they adopt technical, legal, administrative and procedural reforms. Specific out...

If January’s lowered alcohol-related traffic deaths are a sign of things to come, then Costa Rica’s streets are getting a lot safer. Mario Calderón, director of Traffic Police, said his force was able to stop 228 drunk drivers last month through increased efforts. This may have led to a lowering by more than two-thirds the road deaths connected to drunk driving in January compared to December. ...

On Wednesday this week, San José, Costa Rica municipal police closed the Levi’s store in the downtown retail area for a 24-hour period, reported local media. The closure was due to the store failing to comply with set hours for public trash pick-up along downtown’a Central Avenue, a highly transited dense commercial area. The store was given written notice about the time-frame for curbside t...

By Wendy Anders Yesterday, the Costa Rican Ministry of Health issued a statement to inform the public that Manuel Antonio National Park was granted a 3-month extension on the period of time allotted to carry out necessary improvements to the area’s infrastructure. The Central Pacific Regional Directorate extended the time-frame granted under the sanitary order ARS-A-OS-022-2017 issued earlie...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rican border police have had their hands full trying to stop the flow of sickly equines near the northern border with Nicaragua. Apparently the animals were being smuggled into Costa Rica for sale under the guise of beef, said the Public Security Ministry. So far in February, officials report having confiscated 41 animals in three different captures. The horses, plus...

The Acosta Orchid Association will hold its 14th Annual Orchid Show this weekend, and invites all orchid enthusiasts to attend the internationally juried competition. This show, one of the country’s largest orchid displays, is open to viewers from Friday, February 17 - Sunday, February 19 from 8:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. in the gymnasium of the Desamparados Olympic Village. The association meets r...

The Costa Rican State Electricity Agency (ICE, its Spanish acronym) is working to get the Pacific surf towns of Mal País, Santa Teresa and El Carmen better connected, said the company yesterday. With a team of 50 technicians, the country’s fiber optics network is being expanded in this region of the Costa Rican Pacific located on the southern end of the Nicoya Peninsula. The improvements wil...

  By Wendy Anders The Costa Rican public health system offers smoking cessation clinics through 28 of its 29 hospitals, making the program available to much of the country’s population, said the CCSS (Costa Rican Social Security Agency). The Heredia Hospital was the most recent to offer the interdisciplinary program to aid in quitting smoking. They are offering an evening class sched...

By Wendy Anders A flurry of concern by Costa Ricans, who thought visa requirements to the U.S. might have been changed in the wake of recent federal rulings on the 45th president’s immigration ban, were laid to rest by the U.S. Embassy in San José, Costa Rica. Visa requirements for Costa Ricans wishing to enter the U.S. remain the same, and are spelled out in detail on the U.S. State Departm...

By Wendy Anders A 55-year-old Costa Rican man was described by local media as being in “stable condition” after being bitten by a crocodile several times in his left leg yesterday evening at Herradura beach near Jacó along Costa Rica’s Central Pacific coast. Firefighter rescuers were called from the local Garabito station to aid just before 6:00 p.m., said Costa Rica’s Channel 7 Teletica new...

By Wendy Anders Starting shortly after 2:00 a.m. today, scientists at the National University’s Volcanology and Seismology Research Institute (Ovsicori) noted the Turrialba Volano began a new round of “constant eruptive activity.” At around 3:05, at 4:15, and again around 6:00 early this morning, strong eruptions sent columns that rose 1,000 meters above the crater height, for a height of 4,...

By Wendy Anders Last week, a Costa Rican court delivered a historic sentence, and for the first time served criminal charges for the illegal practice of shark finning. The court sentenced a Taiwanese business owner to prison over a haul of illegally hacked-off shark fins destined for sale abroad, officials and environmentalists said last Thursday, Feb. 9. The verdict, handed down last...

By Wendy Anders South Korea will hold meetings this week with six Central American countries for a legal review of their pending free trade agreement, said South Korean media sources. A team from Seoul's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy will meet its counterparts from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama and Honduras for three days of negotiations starting Monday, Feb....

By Wendy Anders The Minister of Communication Mauricio Herrera recently reported that Costa Rica returned 1,200 Cubans who were found in the country without legal documentation to Panama last year. He added that in January this year 120 additional undocumented Cubans were returned to Panama, and said he wished to make clear to all Cubans that Costa Rica was not open to receiving undocumented...

By Wendy Anders The Ministry of Health yesterday delivered an ultimatum to Manuel Antonio National Park officials: Comply with health orders, or face closure on Monday, said Protur, a pro-tourism business association based in Quepos, Puntarenas, the town adjacent to the park. A closure of the park at the height of tourist season could damage the country's international tourism standings, as ...

-- With over 2.9 million visitors in 2016, tourism in Costa Rica grew 10 percent over 2015. By Wendy Anders The Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT, its Spanish acronym) just released its data on last year’s tourist arrivals to the Central American country, and things are looking good. Costa Rica registered nearly 270 thousand more visitors in 2016 than in 2015, for a notable 10 percent in...

Coast Guard officials in Quepos, Puntarenas near Manuel Antonio National Park on Costa Rica’s central Pacific coast found a surprise visitor on their gate when they arrived for work yesterday morning: a three-toed sloth who appeared to be pregnant, reported the agency. Sloths are clumsy and slow, and therefore very vulnerable, on the ground. Their habitat is the canopies of small- and medium-he...

The French high-fashion company Chanel has drawn on ingredients from the world’s “blue zones,” areas of greatest human longevity, to create a new anti-aging serum, reported the company. “Inspired by the regions where people live longer: the Blue Zones, Chanel Research sourced three longevity ingredients from the diet of the Blue Zone populations for the first time in a breakthrough skincare,” s...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica’s northern border region with Nicaragua just got a little harder for human traffickers, and a little safer for its potential and current victims. The Rahab Foundation, a Costa Rica non-profit founded in 1997 and dedicated to stopping human trafficking and the human sex trade, set up shop last week in the border town of La Cruz, Guanacaste in northwestern Costa Rica...

Hate to pack? A nude cruise might be for you. The Bare Necessities 2017 Big Nude Boat, equipped to hold up to 3,000 passengers set sail from Tampa Harbor February 5 with four gorgeous stops in the Caribbean. Director of Bare Necessities, Nancy Tiemann, says that on average cruises, “Over 70 per cent of the passengers have been on a Bare Necessities cruise before, which is extremely competiti...

By Wendy Anders February is summer in Costa Rica, and the month of free concerts. It’s when the National Symphony Orchestra (OSN), a top notch and versatile group, hits the road for public concerts around the country before launching their official classical music season at the National Theater. This year, they join with the classy mellow rock group Suite Doble, Costa Rican pop singer Carlos...