This is a big year for Costa Rica’s one and only Isla del Coco, Cocos Island National Park, as it received this week the “Blue Park” award for its condition as Global Ocean Refuge in the Gold category of the Marine Conservation Institute which promotes Marine Protected Areas that comply with certain standards of management and effectiveness. Cocos Island was nominated as a candidate back in Jul...

SKYWAY Costa Rica annouced its new flights to Bocas del Toro, Panama. "A short 45-minute flight from San Jose Costa Rica, Panama’s popular destination offers white sand beaches, clear water and a fun party atmosphere. It is a great add-on to a vacation to Costa Rica or a stand-alone getaway", states the press release. Flights are available Thursday through Monday each week. Located on the north...

The Social Security Service (CCSS) announced it will be investing over $1.6 billion USD in infrastructure and equipment throughout the entire national territory during the 2019-2022 period. The information was released this Wednesday by President of Costa Rica Carlos Alvarado, the executive president of CCSS, doctor Roman Macaya and architect Gabriela Murillo, manager of infrastructure. During ...

The administration of President Carlos Alvarado lost another important piece with the resignation of the Minister of Treasury, Rocío Aguilar Aguilar announced her decision this Wednesday after being notified that the Comptroller General of the Republic had recommended to the President her suspension for 30 days due to her decision to pay the bills owed by the Central Government to its debtors a...

A boat carrying 1,410 kilograms of cocaine was intercepted in waters of the South Pacific of Costa Rica and three Colombian men were arrested. The Costa Rican Coast Guard service had the assistance of the Colombian National Army, the authorities caught up with the vessel 13 nautical miles from Boca Chica, in the Terraba-Sierpe Wetland area in Sierpe, Osa, Puntarenas, the boat was then transfer...

According to the latest National Homes Survey carried out by the National Institute of Census and Statistics ( Spanish acronym: INEC), 335,895 Costa Rican households live in poverty conditions in 2019, an increase of 7,047 homes in relation to 2018 when the total homes in poverty conditions reached 328,848. However, percentage wise the poverty indicator remained almost the same going from 21.1%...

Early Saturday morning, three American tourists and their Costa Rican van driver were killed in a head- on vehicular crash near La Cruz, Guanacaste. They were traveling in a minivan, when they were hit by a truck driven by a Salvadoran citizen, who remains unidentified. The three who were killed were a 46-year old couple by the last name of Niemiec, and their 50-year old fellow passenger whose las...

The area of Tortuguero in Limón is working on promoting the practice of Olympic rowing in Costa Rica with the idea of attracting more tourists interested in this sport while and forming athletes that can represent the country. Olympic rowing is not something new in the country, Costa Rica has participated with success in tournaments and it won silver medals in the Central American Games. Tortug...

The government of Costa Rica declared Surf as a sport of public interest, under Law 9737, due to the importance of this sport for the economy and the tourism sector. The ceremony was held this Friday in Playa Hermosa, Jacó, Puntarenas, this was a historic event in the country since this is the first sport to receive this distinction. The third Saturday of October was also declared National Su...

The U.S. Attorney’s office of Chicago has charged an American with conducting an illegal sports gambling operation based in Costa Rica, according to a 14-count indictment returned in U.S. District Court in Chicago, on October 11th. The accused was operating under the names Michael Frontier, Ira Goldberg, Brian Seagel, and Mathew Sullivan. He is also accused of hiding his personal gambling profits ...

Victor Morales, Minister of Presidency, presented two bills this week to Congress that complete the directive issued by the Executive Branch on the program to help people highly in dept. The bills have the purpose of helping thousands of workers that currently have large debts that affect the well-being of the families and at the same time contribute with the reactivation of the economy. “Prote...

Walmart entered the Costa Rican coffee market by selling high quality coffee under their own brand, Great Value, which is produced in alliance with a PYME (small and medium size company) provider which benefits over 25 producers of the areas of Tarrazú, Naranjo and Tres Ríos . Great Value coffee is being offered in different presentations, which includes gourmet dark and light roast, ground an...

Do you feel that your organization needs to be more innovative? Are you facing challenges that are not easily addressed through conventional problem-solving approaches? Are you finding that planning for the future, both personally and professionally, is more complex than before? If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, you may want to consider approaching your professional and personal...

Costa Rican prisons are often just temporary residences for criminals who are sentenced to extended jail time, but manage to get their sentences reduced and return to their lives of crime in short order. Many maintain their criminal activities while serving prison time, remaining the leaders of their gangs, and continuing whatever illegal activities they were involved in on the outside. Remaining ...

The coasts of Golfito in the South Pacific received “Crystal Symphony” the first cruise of the 2019-2020 season this past weekend with a total of 639 passengers and 590 crew members aboard. The Costa Rican Institute of Ports of the Pacific (INCOP) was in charge of the port operation and receiving the ship. The vessel arrived to the coasts of Golfito the morning of October 13th. Tourists were...

Gary Krause was filming a video in front of the Plaza de la Democracia in San Jose, Costa Rica when he accidentally caught  police chasing and catching a man. The video was being shot by Krause, a native of England who lives in the United States, for a religious show that airs in the United States, as he is giving a little information on the National Museum, in the background police appear chas...

Costa Rican Border Police officers from Guaycará, Golfito, Puntarenas arrested a man that was traveling as a passenger aboard a car towards San José and was carrying fake identification documents. Officers stopped the car which entered the country from Panama, requested the identifications and the man originally provided documents under the name “Michael Dominik John” from California, USA, “e...

The neighbors of Drake Bay finally have a bridge that connects them by ground to the Osa Peninsula, something they had been waiting for for years and that finally gives them more options to commercialize their products and promote tourism. “This is a ground route that will finally allow entry to Drake Bay during any month of the year, both to residents of neighboring communities as well as comm...

A very unusual road accident caused the death of two people the evening of Thursday October 10th in Garabito, Puntarenas. The Fire department reported the accident took place at approximately 7:53 p.m. in front of Nativa Resort on route 34 when a bus that was traveling from Jacó towards Orotina suddenly received the impact through the front windshield of two tractor trailer wheels which went st...

The bridge connecting Panama and Costa Rica known as the “Sixaola Binational Bridge” was supposed to be ready in May this year, this did not happen, but the bridge shows an advance of 56%. The move of border posts of each country was already completed, migration, customs, police and supervision of vegetables and animals commerce as well as the dismantling of the old train structure. The new ...

“What bloody business has the USA to do with the Costa Rican immigration policies on border crossings?” - Posted reaction to a recent article published in TCRS (The Costa Rica Star) The answer: Plenty. The Bigger Picture: The issue is not just about border runners seeking to stay under the radar as Perpetual Tourists, or those needing to keep their foreign driver's licenses valid. Those con...

Perez Zeledon (also known as San Isidro de El General) is the agricultural epicenter of the southern zone: coffee, pineapples, sugar cane, bananas, and every imaginable vegetable abounds in this fertile valley of El General. No one, however, associates Perez with art – until the emergence of Melissa Matamoros, owner, curator and director of the newest art gallery in Costa Rica, La Terraza del Arti...

Andrea Vargas made history once again by becoming Costa Rica’s first ever finalist at a World Championships and setting a national record of 12.64 achieving fifth place. Vargas was up against three Jamaican runners, two Americans, a Nigerian and a native of Holland in a competition that took place at the Khalifa Stadium in Qatar. The Costa Rican athlete broke three national records in two da...

The Ministry of Health in Costa Rica issued an alert due to the severity of the cases received this year of young children with Respiratory Syncytial Virus. Respiratory Syncytial Virus causes more serious health problems in children under 1 year of age, and up to two years of age. A child with a chronic health problem is especially at risk for serious illness. RSV affects small passages of t...

The US Embassy in San Jose has announced the upcoming Consular event – routine services for U.S. citizens in Tamarindo and Tilaran, Guanacaste. The Consular staff will be on hand to provide several services in Tamarindo and will be available to answer questions. To RSVP for passport renewals, notary services, and federal benefits inquiries, please indicate your preference by writing to ACSSa...

Costa Rica positions itself among the countries with higher survival rate for breast cancer according to the study “Cancer Facts & Figures 2018” of the American Cancer Society. The revision of the international results, considering the deaths due to breast cancer after five years of receiving diagnosis, reveal that the nations with higher survival rate are between 85% and 90%. Costa Rica...

In an operation carried out by Drug Control Police (PCD), the Ministry of Public Security and the USA Coast Guard authorities a vessel was detained carrying an important amount of cocaine. The US Coast Guard intercepted the boat named “Mahi Mahi” and with a crew of three people 130 nautical miles from Matapalo in the Osa peninsula in Puntarenas. The men arrested of last names Centeno Hernand...

Costa Rican Immigration Police (Policia Profesional de Migracion) reported the death of an American by the last name of Hall, on Saturday, allegedly by suicide, while in custody for being out of status with his documents to legally be in Costa Rica. Hall was found deceased in his cell early Saturday morning, in the immigration prison located in Los Lagos de Heredia. He had been picked up in Jaco t...

The Minister of Labor, Steven Nuñez, resigned this Friday Sept 27th after the traffic officer that escorted him to Limon died in a car accident in the early hours of that same day. Nuñez apparently requested the escort last minute since he was running behind to attend a meeting in the province of Limon, since traffic is regulated in a segment of Route 32, the Minister made the request for a tra...

A significant number of ex-pats have lived in Costa Rica for many years. But for various reasons, they have put off getting their residency. Others have just arrived or will be very soon. For some, here is the big, save-a-buck question: Can I apply for Costa Rica Residency on my own? The short answer is yes. But likely not a very good idea. It is similar to filling out your tax returns. Most...

Sloths. We love them in Costa Rica. They are the spokes-animals for many tourist campaigns, and their adorable faces adorn t-shirts, mugs, change purses, and other souvenir/tourist objects visitors to Costa Rica take home with them after their vacations. Now, they have been made famous by two biologists from University of Wisconsin: Jonathan N. Pauli and M. Zachariah Peery, whose study of sloths h...

Since 2015 Costa Rica has surpassed 98% of clean energy generation, according to data from the National Center of Energy Control (CENCE); this will not be the exception for 2019 despite the dry conditions that have affected the region; so far, this percentage reaches 98.4%. This achievement involves the participation of 100 plants of the national electric park operated by the Costa Rican Electr...

During the United Nations Secretary General's Climate Summit, President of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado Quesada, called for the formation of a High Ambition Coalition of nations to push for a Deal for Nature that will protect 30% of the planet by 2030. The goal will be to finalize the deal at the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Kunming, China in 202...

Ocean Park Hotels announced the upcoming launch of its luxury eco-tourism accommodation IGLOO Beach Lodge that is scheduled in December. "An exclusive beach front property in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica, IGLOO Beach Lodge is the first ever destination for the company. With the opening of this property, Ocean Park Hotels will also unveil a groundbreaking eco-friendly design concept that has neve...

The National Seismologic Network (RSN) and the Observatory of Volcanic and Seismic Activity in Costa Rica (OVSICORI) confirmed a new eruption of the Poas Volcano with a column that reached 3000 meters above the crater and 5,708 meters above sea level (18722.24 ft). The activity began at 8:59 p.m. and carried on for 25 minutes, it was captured by the thermal cameras located at the National Park....

The National Roads Authority (CONAVI) is planning the closure of La Amistad Bridge over the Tempisque river which connects the Guanacaste counties of Cañas and Nicoya. The closure obeys to the need to do maintenance and repair works and will require the closure of the structure for at least two months and an investment of over one million dollars. Helmut Wenzel, original designer of the stru...

The heavy rainfall from this past Saturday caused a drain to collapse and destroyed the road in front of the Tambor Beach Hotel. The National Emergency Commission (CNE) reported the important damages on this road that communicates the city of Paquera with Cóbano in Puntarenas, this is just one of the over 40 events that required the attention of the CNE this weekend. The Ministry of Public W...

Costa Rica's boarder control police spotted a vessel that ran aground in the area of Punta Burica in the Southern Zone of the country, five people were arrested in relation to this case, the boat was loaded with one ton and nine kilograms of cocaine. Boarder control police received the assistance of the Drug Control Police, Air Surveillance, Public Police Force and National Coast Guard Service....

Costa Rica has received a 2019 Champions of the Earth award, the UN’s highest environmental honor, for its role in the protection of nature and its commitment to ambitious policies to combat climate change. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) recognized Costa Rica in the policy leadership category. Costa Rica has drafted a detailed plan to decarbonize its economy by 2050, in line...

The National Customs Service and the Ozone Office of the Ministry of Environment and Energy of Costa Rica, received an international award for their joint work in the prevention of illegal traffic of substances that depletes the ozone layer; the announcement was made this week in view of the celebration of the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, September 16, date in which t...