The human-animal relationship is ancient, and dogs primarily have provided man with countless and invaluable physical and psychological benefits; however, far from paying them back in the same way, they have been treated as consumer goods, which often become - most of the time – a bother, that under circumstances such as lack of economic capacity, changes of residence, onset of allergies, a compul...

The second-most-common catch on Costa Rica’s longline fisheries in the last decade was not a commercial fish species. It was olive ridley sea turtles. These lines also caught more green turtles than most species of fish. These findings and more, reported in a new study in the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, indicate that the Costa Rican longline fishery represents a major th...

The Integrated Solid Waste Management Program of Nicoya’s Municipal Department of Environmental Management (Departamento de Gestión Ambiental) has achieved the reuse of 350 metric tons since May 2011, when the Materials Recovery Center was opened, which required an investment of $140,000 total (₡70 million) including infrastructure, equipment and vehicles. The selective collection of materials ...

The 159 earthquakes registered in Costa Rica this past September did not leave any casualties or material damage but unleashed "seismic energy" equivalent to the "explosion of one million tons of dynamite," reported the National Seismological Network (RSN – Red Sismológica Nacional). The average daily number of tremors in the past month was 5.2, but Costa Ricans reported feeling only 14 earthqu...

Singer-songwriter and pro-surfer Donavon Frankenreiter is returning to Nosara in November after a two year absence and will be performing a concert Nov. 8 at the Tropicana. Frankenreiter will be in the local waters as part of the “Surf With a Pro” program sponsored by Billabong at the affiliated Safari Surf School. He and his musical partner Matt Grundy will offer an acoustic show featuring som...

I love traveling in off-season. High season travelers and summer vacationers are gone. Back to school and back to work, which means better travel opportunities for me and you. Off-season is when crowds disappear and prices drop, as hotels, tour operators and airlines look to attract travelers with deep discounts. Granted, it’s not the low season for nothing. In Costa Rica, it is rainy season...

The ongoing supermarket and shopping plaza wars in Costa Rica are expanding to Playas del Coco in the Guanacaste province. This beach town, which has experienced incredible commercial growth in the last few years, is already awaiting development of a luxury marina for the yachting and sports fishing crowd, but that's not all. Coming soon to Playas del Coco: New shopping centers, supermarkets, bank...

Ann Maxine Patton, the U.S. woman who was accused of killing her wealthy husband, John Felix Bender while he slept in their sprawling estate in Baru, Perez Zeledon, will face a retrial of the case after a court dropped the charges against the woman in January. In the original trial, Patton was accused of shooting her husband in the head, and charged with first-degree murder. Patton, however, cl...

Source: Flickr CC Online poker rooms, Internet casinos and sportsbooks in Costa Rica are part of an industry that began in the late 20th century and saw its heyday circa 2006. This multimillion dollar industry lives partially in the shadows for various reasons; the most important being the constant pressure applied by law enforcement and prosecutors from the United States. After more than a de...

Source: CocoArtsCenter.com An artist and real estate developer from Seattle has teamed up with a renowned architect to create the future mecca of arts and culture in the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. Coco Arts Center is the name of this future art gallery and cultural exhibition facility, which will be located 100 meters east of Iguanas, on the northern sector of the town. This ambitious projec...

Source: Fuerza Publica Fuerza Publica, the national police force of Costa Rica, is stepping up its vigilance in Guanacaste. Increased foot patrols, strategic operations and good community relations have resulted in the arrest of several suspects allegedly involved in drug dealing, poaching, robbery, and smuggling. Population growth and enhanced foreign investment in Guanacaste call for increas...

Santa Teresa is one of those iconic Costa Rica tourism spots. Paradise found for so many international and Costa Rican tourists who “discovered” Santa Teresa’s pristine beaches, world-class surf breaks and lushly forested coastline. Yet as more and more travelers flock to experience these beautiful treasures, the isolation bubble stretches to the max, bringing with it the growing pains of any popu...

Can a movie produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and starring Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake change the landscape of online gambling in Costa Rica? If it is up to the American Gaming Association (AGA), a powerful industry and lobby group in the United States, Runner Runner could be the worst thing to happen to online poker in Costa Rica since Black Friday. The Costa Rica Star has been following the...

You don’t need a well-manicured grass pitch. You don’t even need all 22 players, or fancy uniforms … or even shoes, for that matter. All you need is a ball and people willing to play. The most popular sport in the world – football (known as soccer in the USA) – can be played anywhere by anyone. That’s the simple beauty of a sport that traverses borders, has brought bitter enemies together, even...

Source: Wikimedia Commons It's official: Feeding a family in Costa Rica has become an uphill economical challenge; and the incline is bound to get steeper. According to the Statistics and Census Institute (Spanish acronym: INEC), consumers in the most expensive Central American nation were hit with sticker shock in September as they visited supermarkets and pulperias. Similar to the Big Mac...

Travelers who are looking for a tropical destination on their next vacation might want to consider a cruise. There are so many benefits to cruising. You get to visit multiple countries, islands or points of interest all on the same trip without hassling with transportation, border crossings or logistics. On a cruise, you unpack once and your floating hotel takes you from place to place. Dining,...

Church in Downtown Grecia A wave of crime that has been sweeping through the northwestern rural areas of the province of Alajuela seems to be spreading to other cantons to the south. As previously reported by Radio Santa Clara and the Costa Rica Star, robberies and break-ins have multiplied in recent months, but criminals are now turning violent and targeting expats from the United States livi...

The next time your daughter in Costa Rica looks at you with sad puppy eyes and tells you she wants a puppy, you might have to tell her: “Sorry, honey. We don't have a license for that.” A bi-partisan legislative proposal recently introduced in the National Assembly of Costa Rica will require a household permit or certificate for those who want to care for companion animals. According to nationa...

Source: FAO Hunger and malnutrition have thankfully never been a catastrophic issue in Costa Rica, a country where food is plentiful, and where social conscience motivates individuals to look out for those who are less fortunate and make sure they do not go hungry. Although hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean has effectively decreased by 3.8 percent in the last two decades, there is stil...

Source: MSP Agents from the Drug Control Police (Spanish initials: PCD) in Costa Rica recently seized approximately 308 kilograms of powder cocaine hydrochloride aboard a cargo ship that arrived from Colombia. Just hours after the PCD made the bust, the Ministry of Public Safety (MSP) posted 16 detailed photographs and a video of the operation, right down to the moment the drugs are flown to t...

If online social networking was the electoral platform of Costa Rica, the shoo-in presidential candidate would certainly be Jose Maria Villalta Florez-Estrada of the Frente Amplio (Broad Front) political party. No other candidate has been able to gain such a significant market share in terms of social media, not even former Mayor of San Jose Johnny Araya, the leading candidate to succeed President...

Source: FIFA The national football teams of Honduras and Mexico are anxiously waiting their turn to play their counterparts from Costa Rica. Although La Sele is comfortably looking forward to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, which is now less than a year away, at least three other teams from the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) are lookin...

A powerful and destructive synthetic opioid made popular by Russian street chemists has apparently reached the United States. Krokodil is the name of a scary mixture of codeine, gasoline, paint solvents, and household cleaners that aims to approximate the effects of desomorphine. Once designer drugs become popular in the U.S., they tend to reach Costa Rica in just a few months, but we hope Krokodi...

A political impasse at the United States Congress has caused the federal government to shut down its non-essential services, but the Embassy in San Jose, Costa Rica remains open for business. According to a communiqué by the Embassy, Social Security payments will continue and assistance in applying for federal benefits is still available. Social Security and Medicare cards will not be issued du...

Source: Wikimedia Commons For more than a week, news media outlets in Costa Rica and around the world have been publishing articles with eye-grabbing headlines that allude to the worldwide popularity of bananas (Musa acuminata et al) as being responsible for the demise of the Caiman crocodilus in our Caribbean coast. Clever headlines such as “Yellow Peril,” “Crocs Going Bananas,” “Love For Ban...

Source: Wikimedia Commons With two powerful slogans and a patriotic call, a small militia group in Costa Rica shut down its online presence and put an end to a short-lived existence that came under heavy criticism and a strong warning by the Ministry of Public Safety (Spanish initials: MSP). The Patrulla 1856 (Patrol 1856) was apparently an informal militia group that was attempting to take up...

As more tourists from all over the world discover Costa Rica, they are likely to seek products closely associated with our country. Capturing this market is one of the objectives behind the marketing and branding strategy of Costa Rica's government agency in charge of tourism affairs, ICT. To this end, a handful of firms are finding success on the world's most popular online retailer. As it sta...

Local cable companies on Monday announced that they have to pull the US television channel, NBC, off the air in Costa Rica. The cancellation is effective today, Oct 1. The order came from the NBC television network, telling Tigo, CableTica, CableVision, Claro TV and Telecable, they must stop broadcasting the NBC signal. At Tigo (formerly Amnet), ABC was moved down the dial to NBC’s position ...

The Costa Rica Star previously published about Gallo Pinto Day in Costa Rica. “¡Uy! ¡Ese es más tico que el Gallo Pinto!” (“He’s more Tico than Gallo Pinto!”) is an expression Ticos use when referring to someone inextricably Costa Rican, and sure enough, the Gallo Pinto is so engrained in our culture and tradition that it can be found on every person’s breakfast plate throughout our country. ...

Heading out on a school trip to Costa Rica? What you bring with you, from your attitude to the items in your suitcase, is one of the most important aspects of Costa Rica Student Tours. But to really make the most of your trip, go beyond a standard packing list, and check out our recommendations for the 10 things you must pack for your Costa Rican expedition! 1. Questions! There is a whole W...

The Costa Rica Star has previously reported extensively on digital currency system Bitcoin. The growing use of digital currency like Bitcoin is worrying Costa Rican authorities, warning that organized crime can make use of it to move millions of dollars without controls. Digital currency, not to be confused with virtual currency, among its various names, is electronic money that acts as alte...

Starting today, Tuesday October 1, at 10:00 am, and until noon on Saturday November 2, the US Diversity Visa lottery program will be running, awarding 50,000 permanent resident visas to persons from countries with low immigration rates to the United States, of which Costa Rica is one. Applicants must visit the website www.dvlottery.state.gov to complete the process electronically and in person....

Costa Rican president Laura Chinchilla and Liberia’s president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf met on Monday, in the first official meeting between the countries since the 1970s, to discuss future relations between the two nations, as well as international work on women’s rights, the environment and peace. This visit marks the revival of diplomatic relations between Costa Rica and Liberia, which were est...

While the Interlinea or intersectoral buses are readying to roll, with the aim to ease the traffic chaos in San José, be ready for worse times as taxi drivers opposed to the new service ready to take to the streets in protest. The Unión de Taxistas Costarricenses (Costa Rican Taxi Drivers Union) objects to the interliena bus operation which is scheduled for next week, with routes between Escazu...

The Costa Rica Star recently reported that Johnny Araya is leading the polls in the 2014 presidential election. The presidential candidate of the National Liberation Party (PLN – Partido Liberación Nacional), Johnny Araya Monge, was on tour in Guanacaste, in Liberia on Friday, September 27th and Nicoya on Saturday the 28th. A meeting was held at 10:00 AM at Hotel el Regalo in the city of Nic...

In Santa Barbara of Santa Cruz, one small organization is having a big impact in the debate surrounding genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Sol de Vida, a non-profit organization, was founded in 1989 to promote the use of solar ovens and since then has become a driving force behind the battle to keep the canton and the province free of transgenic crops. During its first years, their focus wa...

The Costa Rica Star recently reported on how President Laura Chinchilla stated in an interview with Spanish news daily El Pais, that there is no censorship or corruption in the government of Costa Rica. The Development Association of Nosara (ADIN – Asociación de Desarrollo Integral de Nosara), may declare Laura Chinchilla, President of the Republic, as non grata (undesirable person), for having...

The Costa Rica Star recently published an article about a UFO sighting in the skies of Costa Rica, recorded on iphone video footage. Whether you are in Costa Rica on vacation, relocated permanently, or just find yourself here for work or meetings, these top 10 best iPhone apps will help you through your experience. Some of them are utilities, others are strictly for entertainment when the power...

Facebook is the most popular online social network in Costa Rica. It is extensively used for various purposes, particularly for checking up on romantic partners. This activity that is quickly catching on among couples of all ages. According to a survey performed by polling firm Unimer and commissioned by Grupo Nacion, 16 percent of Facebook users in Costa Rica use the social network as a tool for ...

A new law passed by legislators at the National Assembly of Costa Rica will reduce the nation's contribution to the electoral process by about 20 billion colones, approximately $40,000,000 at today's currency exchange rate. This legislative action was proposed by the Citizens' Action Party (Spanish initials: PAC) and received significant support from Costa Rica's powerhouse political parties. B...