By Wendy Anders Jaguar, image by Wikipedia. Tomorrow the British Broadcasting Corporation will show the first episode of a new documentary, “The Dark: Nature’s Nighttime World,” highlighting Costa Rica’s diverse nocturnal wildlife. Scheduled for 4:15 p.m. (which would be 10:15 a.m. in Costa Rica) on BBC Two, the "Central America Jungle" episode brings viewers up close to Costa Rica's rar...

By Wendy Anders Photo for illustrative purposes. Gay men prepare for pornography photo shoot, courtesy of Wikipedia. "Government bodies should function equally for all, not only for women," said Miguel Moctezuma Longoria, Ph.D., professor of development studies at the Autonomous University of Zacatecas (UAZ), reported NTR Zacatecas, a digital paper in north-central Mexico. Speaking on In...

The highest cloud tops, corresponding to the most vigorous convection, are shown in the dark red and pink colors. To be designated a tropical cyclone, deep convection must persist near a closed circulation of low pressure at the surface. Satellite image from the Weather Channel last night. By Wendy Anders Costa Rica is taking the brunt of a late-season tropical low-pressure system that fore...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica's balance of trade, 1995-2016; Central Bank data. In the first nine months of this year, Costa Rica's trade deficit fell to USD 3.86 billion from USD 4.11 billion in the same period last year, as exports grew 7.4 percent to USD 7.43 billion while imports increased 2.4 percent to USD 11.29 billion. Costa Rica's trade deficit decreased by 9.3 percent in September...

By Wendy Anders Golfo Dulce and Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica Hilton announced last week the signing of the Botánika Osa Peninsula to Curio - A Collection by Hilton. Botánika Osa Peninsula - Curio is slated to open in 2018 and the project developer is the San José, Costa Rica-based Sinergo Development Group. The resort will be on the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica, an unspoiled tropical rain...

By Wendy Anders Officials of the Guanacaste Conservation Area published a statement on their website this week saying they had not been consulted on a proposed mega-port that would serve as the Pacific end of the proposed dry canal project that is once again gaining momentum in Costa Rica. Park officials said the proposed project as presented by the CANSEC company to the National Concessions...

By Wendy Anders Source: Fuerza Publica Pacific ridley turtles, know in Spanish as the tortuga lora (parrot turtle) due to their green color, have a new hatchery in Jacó thanks to the efforts of the Coast Guard and local government, reported the Ministry of Public Security. High tides this week along Costa Rica’s Pacific coast destroyed the existing infrastructure, where patrols to ensure...

By Wendy Anders Egidio Robles Gamboa, was awarded the Quality of Life Improvement Award for promoting community social action. The Costa Rican Ombudsman’s Office recognized the success achieved by an initiative aimed at improving the economic, social and cultural conditions of indigenous Bribri and Cabécar women in Talamanca, Limón. The Association of Indigenous Women of Talamanca (ACOMU...

By Wendy Anders A family in Escazú forced into the street by a taxi parked on a sidewalk, photo published by the Accidentes en Costa Rica Facebook group. This Monday, a draft "Framework for Safe and Sustainable Mobility of People" was presented to the Costa Rican Legislative Assembly by Legislator Marcela Guerrero, as reported in elperiodicocr.com, a digital Spanish news source. The prop...

By Wendy Anders The Costa Rican Chamber of Private Businesses (UCCAEP, in Spanish) announced yesterday they filed a case on Monday in the constitutional court denouncing what they describe as disproportional privileges granted to employees of the state-owned oil refinery, Recope. Earlier this year, Recope announced they were curtailing some long standing employee benefits, but UCCAEP members...

By Wendy Anders Hurricane Matthew Surface pressures are slowly falling over the southwestern Caribbean Sea, and a broad low pressure system is expected to form in this area during the next day or two. According to the National Hurricane Center in Miami, environmental conditions are forecast to be conducive for the slow development of this disturbance. This could lead to the formation ...

By Wendy Anders African migrants in Costa Rica; OAS The Government of Costa Rica yesterday resumed deportations of Haitian citizens who are in the country without legal documents, reported the Spanish news service EFE. The deportations had been suspended a month and a half ago due to the emergency situation in Haiti in the aftermath of Hurricane Mathew, said government officials. A gr...

By Wendy Anders Hydroelectric plant in Costa Rica, photo for illustrative purposes. Costa Rica’s Cote Hydroelectric Plant near Arenal Volcano is the only plant in Costa Rica approved for carbon emission reduction sales through the World Bank’s Prototype Carbon Fund. Run by the National Power and Light Company (CNFL), the 6.8 MW Cote Hydroelectric Plant (CHP) offsets an estimated 9,500 to...

By Wendy Anders A Costa Rican traffic police officer. A group of 15 Costa Rican traffic police took matters into their own hands and have outfitted themselves with helmet-mounted videocameras. For most of them, this blew 1/2 their month’s paycheck. It was worth it though, said officials who spoke with La Nación, Costa Rica’s main Spanish daily paper. The videos of their patrols can help ...

By Wendy Anders Boaters, swimmers and other ocean-goers be forewarned: High tides and high waves are predicted for the next few days in both the Pacific and Caribbean of Costa Rica. The University of Costa Rica’s Oceanography Department says the juncture of tonight’s full moon together with the approaching autumnal equinox will generate the second highest tides of the year this week. The ...

By Wendy Anders Nicoya beach, Guanacaste. Flickr Commons Ontario, Canada's University of Windsor has a new dean of science who studies beaches around the world, and their deceptively strong rip tides. Whether it’s dangerous rip tides or currents in Costa Rica or beaches along the Great Lakes, Houser encounters the same problem. Swimmers don’t know how to spot a rip current. When your ...

Foreign man shot dead in his Mazda by unidentified motorcyclists while driving near La Sabana park at noon today, photo AMPrensa.com. By Wendy Anders — Story in progress — A man who is believed to be of Ukranian descent named Spridonov and about 60 years old was declared dead today at about 12:30 p.m. near the on-ramp to Route 27, south of the La Sabana Stadium, reported AMPrensa.com, a ...

By Wendy Anders File photo Costa Rica’s Ombudsman’s office considers the proposal presented by the telecommunications superintendency, Sutel, to eliminate set prices for postpaid mobile telephone services is unjustified. The proposed changes will not guarantee that charges for current Internet speed are maintained, and open the possibility that consumers will be charged on a per-download...

By Wendy Anders Park guards measure one of the dead sharks to learn more about the animals. Photo by Geiner Golfín, park ranger. Cocos Island’s protected biodiverse waters were the scene of a marine tragedy Tuesday. Rangers who patrol the island and, most importantly, the 12 nautical miles surrounding Cocos, were distraught to find 14 sharks caught on an illegally placed 5 mile longline ...

By Wendy Anders Indigenous peoples have disadvantages vis-a-vis governments and companies in consultations on projects that affect their communities, reported TeleSur TV this week. The United Nation Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Victoria Tauli, on Wednesday recommended the Mexican government regulate and supervise the activities of mining companies that affect unprote...

The Costa Rican police dismantled a gang of drug traffickers with links in Mexico and Guatemala, a spokesman for the Ministry of Public Security (MSP) said yesterday. ARCHIVE/FILE: Some 1,700 tons of cocaine is expected to pass through Costa Rican territory in 2016. (Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Public Security) "At the moment there have been 14 detained, after making 24 raids, and it ...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica's global ranking on press freedom since 2002, courtesy of Gobierno.cr. In its 2016 global report of 180 countries, Reporters Without Borders ranked Costa Rica 6th highest for freedom of information, topping the Americas. This is the highest ranking Costa Rica has received for the free practice of journalism since 2002, reported the Costa Rican government’s pres...

By Wendy Anders Shipwreck last week off Brasilito beach in Guanacaste. Instituto de Oceanología, Playa Potrero. Last week’s capsize of the shrimping boat called the “Azoriano” right off the coast of the northern town of Brasilito, Guanacaste has been cleaned up, reported Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT) officials this week. While the wreck had initially generated fears of fu...

By Wendy Anders Alleged 'greenwashing' by Infinito Gold, file photo. Just when you think it's over … Crucitas returns. On November 17-18, Canada’s Inifinito Gold company will face Broad Front Legislator Edgardo Araya in San José’s Second Judicial Criminal. The company is pressing charges for Araya’s alleged defamation of Infinito Gold during previous legal battles in which the company...

By Wendy Anders Gardasil, the controversial human papilloma virus vaccine that was tested in Costa Rica. F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG’s Central America and Caribbean subsidiary (Roche CAC) reported US$116 million in exports from January to October 2015, reported El Financiero (EF), Costa Rica’s business daily. As part of this growth, the company invested US$5.5 million last year in its distri...

By Wendy Anders You just never know what's going to happen next in Costa Rica. A zumba class in Plaza Los Colegios, Moravia, from Facebook. Yesterday morning, it turns out a young Brahman bull was wandering around the densely populated northern San José district of Moravia, reported Costa Rica's Channel 7 Teletica. After some men managed to get a noose around his neck, and tried to le...

By Wendy Anders Viogaz bio-digester in the Barra Honda National Park in Nicoya, Costa Rica. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)’s ‘Technology Review’, awarded Joaquín Víquez, manager of the Heredia, Costa Rica-based Viogaz company its young innovators in Central America award. The contest, which is held in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank, recognized six o...

By Wendy Anders Glen Gaulton from University of Pennsylvania's School of Medicine gives a talk. The University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine signed an academic cooperation agreement with Costa Rica’s Ministry of Health last week to lend their expertise to collaborative research projects, reported the Health Ministry. Areas of interest include oncology, neurological diseases...

By Wendy Anders Jacó's seaside boulevard is suspended in mid-construction. Visitors to the bustling Central Pacific tourist hotspot of Jacó will be able to walk partially along the beach on the planned municipal seaside boulevard. The boulevard was halted in mid-construction in February after the country’s environmental secretariat was granted a court injunction against the project. T...

By Wendy Anders Photo for illustrative purposes. U.S. police in New Jersey deported a Costa Rican man who fled the country in 2003 presumably to escape after allegedly raping his daughter, reported El Diario Extra, a Costa Rican newspaper. According to local Costa Rica news, Jose Alberto Orozco Ramirez, 48, was accused of raping his under age daughter who then became pregnant. New Jer...

By Wendy Anders RAW outdoor fitness in Costa Rica. One way to increase your wellbeing is through physical activity. “People the world over say what is most important to them is to be happy,” said British environmentalist Nic Marks, creator of the Happy Planet Index, in a TED talk on his work. If so, then our current methods for measuring success and progress have it all wrong, he continu...

By Wendy Anders Rincon de la Vieja national park in Guanacaste has been eyed for its geothermal energy potential. A proposal to open Costa Rica’s national parks to geothermal energy projects was dashed last week by the Legislative Assembly’s environmental commission. After Libertarian Party legislators, Otto Guevara and Natalia Diaz, introduced the bill (number 19,339) in 2014, the initi...

By Wendy Anders Alejandra Mora is the head of the Costa Rican Women's Institute, dedicated to advancing and supporting women's status and involvement in society. Women’s participation in Costa Rica’s private sector is disproportionately low in regards to their educational level, reported the country’s business daily El Financiero recently. While 66 percent of Costa Rican university gradu...

By Wendy Anders OIJ police, photo for illustrative purposes. Yesterday morning, Costa Rican police carried out 13 simultaneous raids throughout the country after a 9-month investigation on a gang dedicated to stealing the content of containers arriving and leaving the country's ports. Among those arrested in connection with the group’s criminal activities are two police officials from Ma...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solís views local seafood products on display at a 'buy local' CNP event. To strengthen local livestock producers and fisheries, the majority of which are micro, small, and medium-sized businesses, the Costa Rican government has asked all public institutions to purchase Costa Rican-raised products. Minister of Agriculture Luis Felipe A...

By Wendy Anders Children in Costa Rica, photo for illustrative purposes. The Costa Rican Supreme Court recently ruled that jail is a reasonable consequence for those who fail to pay child support in Costa Rica due to the “exceptional nature of the obligation,” reported CRHoy.com. Magistrates said the 6-month jail term for those who lapse in their payments is reasonable, and upheld the m...

By Wendy Anders Crate & Barrel furniture. By mid-2017, shoppers in Costa Rica will have a new furniture and home decor option when Crate & Barrel, the popular U.S. store, opens at Avenida Escazú. The company is known for their contemporary designs and affordable prices. Monica Fonseca, manager of the Costa Rican locale, said the franchise is investing US$4 million in this firs...

By Wendy Anders Late last night, a Costa Rican non-profit environmental group reported an emergency off Brasilito beach in the country’s northern Guanacaste region on the Pacific coast. The Costa Rican Institute of Oceanology (Instituto de Oceanología) based in Playa Potrero said in a press statement published on their Facebook site that the shrimp boat, the Azoriano, allegedly collided agai...

By Wendy Anders A recent night-time eruption. On October 29, 2014, just before midnight, the Turrialba Volcano blasted an eruption that sent nearby residents fleeing from their homes, as reported by the National University’s Volcanology and Seismology Research Institute (Ovsicori-UNA). No one was hurt in this renewal of the volcano’s active phase, luckily. Now, after two straight year...

By Wendy Anders Over $180,000 in cash a Honduran man tried to smuggle into Costa Rica in a jalapeño-filled truck. This weekend at Costa Rica’s northern Peñas Blancas border with Nicaragua, anti-drug police seized some serious cash hidden in a jalapeño-filled truck arriving from Honduras, reported the Public Security Ministry press office. All told, a Honduran man had US$182,680 in bills ...