By Wendy Anders Female condom; Pixabay Public Domain Although 78 percent of women in relationships reported using some form of contraception, a recent study in Costa Rica found that half of women’s last pregnancies weren’t desired. Women aged 15-49 said the ideal number of children is two. Results of the Second National Survey of Sexual Health and Reproductive Health-2015 we...

By Wendy Anders Photo for illustrative purposes, a police catch in Costa Rica. After police trade union representatives protested last week’s dismissal of 115 police officers linked to serious crimes, Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis Rivera reiterated his support of the decision, and stated that illegal acts and corruption in the exercise of public function are not allowed. The...

By Wendy Anders Housing Minister Rosendo Pujol surveys damages to housing in the wake of Hurricane Otto, source Mivah. A total of 204 families need new homes after Hurricane Otto passed through the country in November. Preliminary data from the Ministry of Housing and Human Settlements (Mivah) confirmed that these houses are distributed throughout the areas affected by the extreme weather t...

By Wendy Anders Increased rainfall caused by the mid-November cold front followed by Hurricane Otto in late November resulted in large losses for Costa Rica’s coffee producers in the regions of Coto Brus and Perez Zeledon. To date, Coto Brus and part of Buenos Aires, in Costa Rica’s extreme south, have experienced a loss of up to 25 percent this year’s crop, or an estimated 50,000 bushels, a...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rican 'corrida de toro', Flickr Commons Along with tamales, ronpope (spiced rum), and school vacations, December and January also bring typical bullfights or “corridas de toros” to many small towns across Costa Rica, and with them, divided opinions and strong feelings. A recent survey by the National University in Heredia, Costa Rica found that 46.4 percent of Costa...

By Wendy Anders Residents of a public nursing home in Costa Rica, source Facebook. Welcome to the Latin America of contrasts. Whereas Costa Rica used to be a relatively egalitarian society, that can no longer be said, as the gap between the very rich and very poor widens each day, said researchers at the State of the Nation (Estado de la Nación) institute. A recent list of the country to...

By Wendy Anders The new payment service offered by Banco de Costa Rica, called Tucán, photo Facebook. Costa Rica’s left-leaning Citizen Action Party (PAC) legislator, Javier Cambronero, denounced a new advertising campaign by the state-owned Banco de Costa Rica (BCR) as sexist, and demanded they withdraw the publicity, reported Elperiodicocr.com, a Costa Rican digital news source yesterday....

By Wendy Anders University students in Nicoya, Guanacaste. On Tuesday, Costa Rican Legislator Luis Vásquez of the Social Christian Party (PUSC, in Spanish) filed a motion against Education Minister Sonia Marta Mora in the Constitutional Court, reported Elmundo.cr, a Costa Rican digital news source. The Legislator claims that requiring high school students to take mandatory admission test...

By Wendy Anders Cahuita, Limón, Costa Rica. Yesterday, police captured a 21-year old Costa Rican man at his home in Hone Creek, Limón in connection with the murder of a hotel owner in late October this year, reported the Judicial Investigative Police (OIJ). A 50-year-old French woman by the last name of Claire was found lying dead and bound on the ground at her boutique hotel south of Pu...

By Wendy Anders A view of Turrialba Volcano's craters by scientist Javier Francisco Pacheco, courtesy of Ovsicori-UNA. After a 5-day period of calm, Cartago’s Turrialba Volcano rumbled back into action yesterday, said scientists at the National University’s Seismology and Volcanology Research Institute (Ovsicori-UNA). This most recent “passive phase” started at 7:00 a.m. yesterday with e...

The Holcim plant in Lourdes, Agua Caliente, Cartago, source Facebook. By Wendy Anders In Lourdes de Agua Caliente, Cartago, the air, trees, roofs, cars, and houses are regularly bathed in dust. And it isn't the Turrialba Volcano's fault this time. This ongoing saga which is having serious health implications for the small town, was reported on yesterday by Costa Rica’s Repretel TV statio...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica cell phone tower. The Superintendence of Telecommunications (Sutel) postponed until the first quarter of 2017 a decision on whether market competition conditions exist in Costa Rica’s postpaid mobile telephony service, reported the superindentency’s office yesterday. After a thorough analysis of the country’s 11 telecommunication markets, Sutel determined there...

By Wendy Anders A rendering of the Second Coming of Christ, source Facebook. U.S. computer programmer Nora Roth, has boldly claimed that “Jesus will come back to Earth and incite the rapture” at the end of December, reported aol.com this week. Her calculations are explained on her website, Mark of the Beast, where she asks the wild questions, "Are 6,000 years of sin almost over? Will Jes...

By Wendy Anders Photo posted on the Accidentes de CostaRica Facebook group page. As Costa Rica’s traffic police bolster their year-end patrols in an attempt to prevent the typical spike in traffic accidents and fatalities that accompany the holiday festivities, some hopeful data came in for November. With 20 traffic-related fatalities November 2016 had the lowest recent traffic mortality...

By Wendy Anders The Caribeño busline bus that went up in flames Weds., Nov. 30 on its way to Limón. All people aboard were uninjured. Three buses burst into flames over the past week in Costa Rica, bringing the total to at least 35 buses gone up in flames this year. Channel 7 TV, Costa Rica’s Teletica station, reported last Wednesday on a Caribeño busline fire. According to Fire Chief Hé...

By Wendy Anders The Ministry of Health is tracking the situation of people in the country's shelters after Hurricane Otto. Saturday, the National Emergency Commission (CNE, in Spanish) lifted all emergency weather-related alerts. The announcement came just in time for a new spate of rain to set in. The National Meteorological Institute (INM, in Spanish) said the rains that pelted the cen...

By Wendy Anders Evidence collected in last week's arrests of homicide and house theft suspects in Puntarenas, source OIJ. Last Wednesday saw a shoot out in Puntarenas as police closed in on suspects in recent thefts who are also linked to the gruesome murder of a Dutch couple around Christmastime last year, said the  judicial investigative police (OIJ) press office. The Dutch news servic...

By Wendy Anders Universal health care was established in Costa Rica after the army was abolished. "Blessed is the Costa Rican mother who knows that her son at birth will never be a soldier," said the well-known Japanese politician and philanthropist Ryoichi Sasakawa in one of his visits to Costa Rica, as reported in Costa Rica’s Elperiodicocr.com digital news source today on the anniversary...

By Wendy Anders This morning, Colombia's low-budget regional Wingo airline joins a growing number of regional flight options available out of Costa Rica when it touches down for the first time in the country with passengers from Panama. After an inaugural celebration at the Juan Santamaría Airport (SJO) in Alajuela, roughly 15 miles west of San José, passengers will then board for a flight t...

By Wendy Anders Damages reported near the epicenter of this afternoon's Cartago quakes, photo CRHoy.com. Lately there seems to be no end to the variety and amount of natural phenomena on display here in Tiquicia. Starting at 3:50 this afternoon, a 4.6 magnitude quake was registered 45 kms south of Dominical on the south Pacific at a depth of 10 kms, said the National Seismology and Volca...

By Wendy Anders Luis Alberto Monge Alvarez, Costa Rica President 1982-1986. Luis Alberto Monge Alvarez was a Costa Rican farmer and politician who served as President of Costa Rica from 1982 to 1986. He came from a humble farming family in Palmares and was involved from a young age in social and union movements, said Wikipedia. He passed away yesterday due to cardiac arrest at the San Ju...

By Wendy Anders A Costa Rican rainforest. After Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly ratified the Paris Agreement on climate change last month, Environment Minister Edgar Gutierrez said that, despite being a small country, “Costa Rica showed the world that it has the courage to take bold and timely decisions to work for a sustainable development,” as reported in the World Politics Review. I...

By Wendy Anders University students in Nicola, Guanacaste. According to the San José, Costa Rica-based American University (UAM, its acronym in Spanish), students who push to earn a college degree can wind up earning up to a 60 percent higher salary than their counterparts who don’t. According to recent census data, there are a total of 703,000 people with a higher education degree in Co...

By Wendy Anders The low-budget Mexican airline Volaris will launch its regional flights in and out of Costa Rica today, reported La Republica, a Costa Rican Spanish newspaper. Volaris will start its service by offering two daily flights to Guatemala from Alajuela's Juan Santamaría (SJO) airport; one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Over the next three years the airline plans t...

By Wendy Anders Moín, Limón port. The French container company, CMA CGM S.A., the third largest container company in the world, alerted that a closure of a pier at the Moín dock in Limón on Costa Rica’s Atlantic coast has led to delays. The delays will translate into an emergency surcharge for ships docking at the Moín port as of December 1, and will apply until the pier is reopened, sai...

By Wendy Anders The Ministry of Finance (Hacienda) announced yesterday they would grant an exceptional one-time extension this year for tax filers in light of the complications many faced due to Hurricane Otto’s flooding in numerous parts of Costa Rica last week. Instead of November 30, the last day to file returns this year is Monday, December 5, giving filers an extra weekend to put togeth...

By Wendy Anders Spain is now Costa Rica’s entryway to Europe’s markets with the opening of new commercial headquarters inside the Costa Rican Embassy in Madrid, announced Procomer, Costa Rica’s foreign trade promotion agency, last week. Over the past five years, exports from Costa Rica to Spain have grown 120 percent, with 144 Costa Rican companies exporting 340 products to Spain last year, ...

By Wendy Anders Police distribute aid in Upala, photo Public Security Ministry. In response for calls for help from families affected by Hurricane Otto in Upala, Saturday night and Sunday, hundreds of public officials went door-to-door with food rations, reported the Public Security Ministry yesterday. Police officers, judicial police, migration police and fireman all joined together for...

By Wendy Anders A map of the emergency status of Costa Rica's regions as of late Saturday, source National Emergency Commission. A total of 22 communities in southern Costa Rica are virtually unreachable by road following the passage of Hurricane Otto, the head of operations of the National Emergency Commission (CNE), Walter Fonseca, reported yesterday. "These are eight communities in th...

By Wendy Anders A view of the ravages from a weekend fire in Leon XIII, Tibás, as posted on Facebook. At around midnight on Saturday, screams rang out in the Leon XII shanty town in San José’s densely populated district of Tibás as flames from an apparent arson act spread quickly through the makeshift abodes, reported police sources and local media. Despite a rapid emergency response, th...

By Wendy Anders Animals such as these dogs left behind during an evacuation in Bagaces often suffer and die during and after natural disasters. The country's National Animal Service (Senasa) announced extended hours at their Heredia headquarters to tend to livestock owners with concerns related to Hurricane Otto. Monday has been declared a national day of mourning  in Costa Rica for the dea...

By Wendy Anders A satellite image of Hurricane Otto as it made landfall yesterday mid-morning. After Hurricane Otto’s high winds and heavy rains lashed northern Costa Rica all day yesterday and most of last night, Costa Rica has all of its emergency personnel working at maximum capacity clearing roads, searching for possible disappeared persons, keeping shelters supplied, tallying of damage...

By Wendy Anders Ponderosa Animal Park, source Facebook. While all eyes were on the Atlantic coast of southern Central America as Hurricane Otto took shape and starting moving west, a giraffe was born in Liberia, Costa Rica in the northern province of Guanacaste, reported CRHoy.com, a Spanish digital news source. The Ponderosa Animal Park (formerly Africa Mia) welcomed baby Isabel Wednesd...

By Wendy Anders Emergency Commission staff load supplies for delivery to northern Costa Rica today. Costa Rican authorities extended the red alert (highest emergency alert) to the entire province of Guanacaste due to the change in course of Hurricane Otto that made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane at 10:35 a.m. today, reported the Costa Rican National Emergency Commission (CNE). Accord...

By Wendy Anders Update on Otto at 1:00 p.m. EST today from The Weather Channel. The Ministry of Public Education announced a nationwide cancellation of classes this afternoon as a preventive safety measure due to the expected arrival of tropical storm Otto this evening or early tomorrow in Costa Rica, announced Education Minister Sonia Marta Mora Escalante on the institution’s official Face...

By Wendy Anders Update on Otto at 1:00 p.m. EST today from The Weather Channel. A red alert for Costa Rica’s northern coast remains in effect due to the expected arrival of Otto late tonight, with residents having been evacuated, schools closed, and clinics in the surrounding region outfitted with additional emergency supplies and increased emergency staff, said the National Emergency Commi...

By Wendy Anders Wikimedia Commons In contrast to most European Union members who are tightening entry requirements for visitors, the United Kingdom just announced they are expanding their list of countries eligible for fast-track entry to include 12 Latin American countries, reported BBC Mundo. Rolando Drago, Chile’s Ambassador to the UK, was one of the main protagonists of the recent mo...

By Wendy Anders Residents of remote areas in the northern Costa Rican Caribbean are escorted to safe areas by plane in advance of Hurricane Otto. In a televised announcement today, Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solís ordered communities along Costa Rica’s northern Atlantic coast to leave their homes in advance of Hurricane Otto’s imminent arrival. Otto is expected to make landfall...

By Wendy Anders Mandro Linton (19) and Rubén Bolaños (29) were the two most recent divers to die harvesting sea cucumbers in Nicaragua; photo courtesy of La Prensa. Two recent deaths bring the total to seven sea cucumber divers who have died in Nicaragua’s North Caribbean sea since September of this year, reported Nicaragua’s daily La Prensa last week. Meanwhile, two deaths have been rec...

By Wendy Anders The 400 ms of illegal fishing nets seized in the Gulf of Nicoya this week by Coast Guard patrols, photo Public Security Ministry. Officials from the National Coast Guard Service seized illegal trawling nets that unidentified fishermen were using in the Gulf of Nicoya, said the Costa Rican Public Security Ministry in a press statement yesterday. The trawling nets were loca...