Source: Wikimedia Commons If you are used to taking your dog outside for a walk, and for the purpose of tending to certain bodily process, your failure to pick up excretory byproducts could lead to an exorbitant fine ranging from about $800 to nearly $2,400. Such is the gist of a legislative proposal tendered in Costa Rica by the opposition party Social Christian Union (Spanish initials: PUSC)...

Livox app developer and his family honored by the UN Sao Paulo, Mar 24 (EFE).- Inspired by his daughter afflicted with cerebral palsy, Brazilian inventor Carlos Edmar Pereira created the Livox app, which allows people with motor and audiovisual impairments to express emotions via a mobile device. Pereira told Efe that to improve communication with 7-year-old Clara he created an interface in...

Source: Waterfall Villas (PRWEB) March 23, 2015 - Waterfall Villas Wellness Retreat is located in the Baru Rainforest of Costa Rica's South Pacific region. If interested in a good travel deal this month, enjoy Waterfall Villas' Easter Week Special, including 7 nights at this spectacular resort. Join for adventure, romance, detox, yoga and waterfalls during the most significant and celebrated h...

Source: PriceSmart A batch of boxed instant meals sold at PriceSmart stores in Costa Rica may contain dangerous metal fragments. Such was the message recently communicated by the Risk Management division of PriceSmart in Costa Rica by means of an online document  (PDF) that has also been posted in the company's store locations in our country. The alert issued by PriceSmart to its members in...

Source: The Retreat Costa Rica The fastest-growing specialty segment of the tourism industry in Costa Rica focuses on combining luxury with sustainability and holistic wellness. Celebrity nutritionist Diana Stobo is one of the latest business persons who are venturing into this burgeoning segment. Here's the official press release on the retreat created by Ms. Stobo. ATENAS, Costa Rica, Mar...

Source: Wikimedia Commons A 42-year old woman from Norway who came to Costa Rica in search of a controversial addiction treatment suffered a fatal heart attack after ingesting ibogaine, a hallucinogenic substance derived from plants native to Western Africa. According to a news report filed by David Delgado of national newspaper La Nacion, the Norwegian woman passed away in 2014, but her cause...

Source: Rythmia MALIBU, Calif., March 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Scott Disick is checking into Rythmia Life Advancement Center (RLAC) in Costa Rica to take advantage of the center's highly regarded iboga treatment plan. Scott Disick is better known as the husband of Kourtney Kardashian; they have three children. Kourtney Kardashian and her family are both notable and notorious for their starr...

A tourist from Montreal who visits Costa Rica each year to enjoy surfing was unexpectedly attacked by a caiman (crocodile) while waiting for a set. The attack occurred last weekend in Tamarindo Beach, a coastal community that is home to many North American and European expats. According to a news report filed by Pablo Rojas of online news daily CRHoy.com, the Canadian surfer was sitting on his ...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Leo Varadkar, Ireland's Health Minister, introduced emergency legislation in the lower house of the Irish parliament yesterday evening, to negate the legal loophole created by a decision from Dublin's Court of Appeal that morning. Various hard drugs — including ketamine, ecstasy, and magic mushrooms — were rendered legal, following the law governing their prohibition ...

Source: Flickr Commons MUMBAI, March 11, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Cosmetic Surgery & Services Market Analysis 2015-2019 is the latest analysis on this vertically growing market. It is currently worth over $20 billion and is set to rise to over $27 billion by 2019. This comprehensive report is supported by 60 tables & figures over 275 pages and is presented as follows: Global mark...

U.S. oil company Occidental Petroleum, or Oxy, has agreed to compensate five Peruvian Amazon Indian communities for damage resulting from oil production activity. EFE/File Lima, Mar 5 (EFE).- U.S. oil company Occidental Petroleum, or Oxy, has agreed to compensate five Peruvian Amazon Indian communities for damage resulting from oil production activity. Leaders of the Achuar people from the ...

Rachel Brathen at the Envision Festival. Source: Instagram One of the highlights of the recent Envision Festival in the pristine southern Pacific coast of Costa Rica was Rachel Brathen and her yoga sessions. Ms. Brathen is also known as Yoga Girl, and her yoga workshops and retreats in Costa Rica are legendary. In fact, she is currently conducting a Costa Rica yoga retreat at Selva Armonia in ...

Rio de Janeiro's world-famous Copacabana and Ipanema are among the areas contaminated to the point that dermatologists recommend avoiding skin contact with the sands. EFE/File Rio de Janeiro, Mar 2 (EFE).- The sands on the beaches of this Brazilian tourist mecca are heavily polluted, mainly thanks to trash left behind by beachgoers, experts told Efe.   Rio de Janeiro's world-famous ...

Source: Cruz Roja Costarricense A five-year old boy from the United States tragically lost his life while on a family vacation in Costa Rica. According to a news report filed by Patricia Durán of daily tabloid Diario Extra, the unfortunate incident occurred in a rural hotel located about 13 kilometers away from the town of Buena Vista, in the Liberia canton of Guanacaste. The news report ex...

Public domain photo By Elvira Palomo. Washington, Feb 24 (EFE).- Genetically modified apples that do not brown will be available in U.S. grocery stores by 2015 with the expectation that waste will be curtailed and sales will expand, despite criticism of altered foods by some groups. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said that, after rigorous scientific reviews, it determined that the va...

Bing Commons In Costa Rica, a few drug rehabilitation centers offer a controversial treatment that consists of taking certain amounts of Ibogaine, a substance extracted from a few plants that are native to Western Africa. Ibogaine is extracted from these flowering shrubs, and the result is a substance with psychoactive and psychedelic properties. Research on the therapeutic potential of Ibogai...

Source: Recovery Ranch One of the most important aspects of recovery from substance abuse is being able to once again provide meaningful contributions to society. Here is a very good example of such an action taking place in Costa Rica, specifically in the Nicoya region of the Guanacaste province. The Costa Rica Star thanks Recovery Ranch for this inspiring press release and for their excellen...

CIMA Hospital in San Jose is often visited by medical tourists Baltimore, MD (PRWEB) February 12, 2015 - Living in a sunny, low-cost, laidback destination overseas doesn't mean foregoing good healthcare. In many countries outside the U.S., the healthcare is excellent and affordable. Malaysia received the top score in the healthcare category of International Living’s just- released Annual Gl...

Wikimedia Commons For a term of 12 months, an upscale resort in the dry province of Guanacaste will provide some neighboring communities with desperately needed water. The resort in question is the Reserva Conchal, which has ceded rights to a local utility so that water can be extracted from the Nimboyores aquifer located beneath the surface of this private property. An agreement between Re...

Source: PSU The following press release was originally published by News Services department of Plymouth State University in New Hampshire.  PLYMOUTH, N.H. – A dozen Plymouth State University student nurses spent the first 10 days of the new year in Costa Rica, home of some of the world’s most pristine rain forests and beaches. But these students weren’t on vacation; in fact, they were hard...

Source: Fuerza Publica Fuerza Publica officers assigned to the National Border Police of Costa Rica spent an entire night walking across beaches, rivers and the thick jungle of Burica, near the southern border with Panama, to rescue an indigenous child of the Ngöbe Bugle (or guaymí) ethnicity. The child was suffering from an acute and dangerous infection due to a wound that he had sustained da...

Every year, lonely hearts around the world dread the prospect of spending Valentine's Day without a special someone to spend it with. Such is the case in Costa Rica and any other country where Valentine's Day is observed as a holiday that celebrates romantic love. This being the 21st century and an exciting period within the Information Age, lonely hearts in Costa Rica who are in a hurry to find a...

Wikimedia Commons Of all the venomous snakes in Costa Rica, the fearsome gargantilla (Micrurus mipartitus) is often regarded as one of the deadliest. The powerful venom of these snakes can not only cause instant tissue necrosis but also excruciating pain, epilepsy, shock, and death. What is it that makes this reptilian venom so potent? According to a recent study in Proceedings of the Natio...

An alleged fraudster from the United States has reportedly spent the last nine months in the prestigious CIMA Hospital near San Jose, where he is supposed to be in the custody of officers from Fuerza Pública, the national police force of Costa Rica. The suspect was remanded to a correctional center by a criminal court back in May of 2014. Cyrus Anoushirvan Sepher, a 51-year old male with Irania...

Many foreign visitors who stay in Costa Rica long enough to enjoy the locally produced and bottled Coca-Cola are bound to think that the popular carbonated drink tastes better here than it does in their countries of origin. These are mostly visitors who come from Canada, the United States, Europe, and generally outside of Latin America and the Caribbean. Is there really a difference between Coca-C...

Playa Brasilito A woman vacationing in Playa Brasilito, one of Costa Rica's Gold Coast beaches located in the province of Guanacaste, lost her life in the surf this weekend. According to a report published by daily tabloid Diario Extra, the woman was an Italian tourist named Patricia Taburiny, who was 64 years of age. Unlike other, recent reports of tourist drownings in Costa Rica, heavy surf ...

Wikimedia Commons A survey recently commissioned across Central America and Mexico by Saba, a brand of health and personal care products, indicates that 90 percent of women in Costa Rica are very mindful of their nether regions. This much can be ascertained by the following statistics gleaned from the survey study: 90 percent of women in Costa Rica (Ticas) between the ages of 14 and 65 eit...

Wikimedia Commons A smoky and hazy issue seems to be unfolding between the Ministry of Public Health (Spanish initials: MSP) and the Chamber of Hotels in Costa Rica. Chamber members are fuming because they consider that the MSP is misinterpreting the Anti-Tobacco Control Law #9028, which has been a source of discontent with regard to its interpretation, implementation and enforcement over the ...

Source: El Sabanero New York, NY (PRWEB) January 21, 2015 - Drishti Yoga Teacher Training today announced that Kurt Reichenberger, owner of El Sabanero Eco Lodge near Tamarindo, Costa Rica has built a brand new yoga shala for their upcoming yoga teacher training in March 2015. For the second year in a row Drishti Yoga Teacher Training announces their Yoga Teacher Training in Costa Rica will...

Twin ultrasound. Source: Wikimedia Commons Earlier this year, a couple from Tabarcia, a semi-rural and suburban community in the province of San Jose, arrived in the San Juan de Dios Metropolitan Hospital with high hopes of experiencing the delivery of twin baby girls. This expectation was based on five ultrasound imaging procedures, which showed Ms. Leidy Ureña was pregnant with two girls. Ms...

Partial Endocrine System February 02, 2015 12:21 PM - JACKSONVILLE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) will convene the first-ever, Pan-American Scientific Symposium: Clinical Endocrinology in Latin America on February 26-28 in San Jose, Costa Rica. “It’s a transcultural opportunity for us to share and adapt our AACE guidelines and educationa...

Playa Hermosa Guanacaste This past Monday, a retired woman from Montreal and her two-year old grandniece tragically drowned in Playa Santa Teresa, located on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. According to the Toronto Sun, Andree Hamel rushed into the surf to save little Jasmine, who was born in Costa Rica; alas, both were caught in the strong undertow produced by dangerous rip current condition...

Source; Wikiemdia Commons A troubling increase in heroin use and addiction is currently sweeping parts of the United States, and public health officials in that country are once again clashing with law enforcement and legislators as to how they should manage this “substance abuse epidemic” this time around. The cold turkey remedy is hardly an optimal approach to kicking heroin and opiate habit...

An anti-GMO activist in San Francisco. Source: Wikimedia Commons In Costa Rica, the fight against genetically modified organisms (GMOs) deemed to be dangerous for the soil and thereby the ecosystem has been resolute and systematic. Over the last three years, The Costa Rica Star has been reporting on the fight against the use of potentially harmful transgenics in agriculture, particularly th...

Source: News.co.,cr archives Tour operators, travel agencies and hospitality businesses are used to seeing trends develop on an annual basis. Whereas in the late 20th century there was high demand for backpacking through Europe and budget travel in general, two of the major trends developing in 2015 include luxury travel and active vacations. Costa Rica is well-prepared to cater to luxury and ...

Source: Flickr Commons (Newswire.net -- January 13, 2015) Santa Fe, NM – According to Dr. Hedy Kober, a neuroscientist at Yale University, meditation improves the brain and psychological functioning on a variety of levels. Kober, who says she began practicing meditation to cope with the stresses of ending a relationship, discovered that meditation helped her handle stress and other unpleasant ...

Wikimedia Commons When enrolling a foreign student in the educational system of Costa Rica, parents should take into consideration that bullying and aggression between classmates seems to be on the rise in our country. To this end, officials from the Ministry of Public Education (Spanish initials: MEP) advise parents shopping for schools that they should inquire about how the institution handl...

Source: Blue Osa The Active Times, a major online source of information about active, adventurous and healthy vacations, recently announced its Top Ten List of Health and Wellness Vacations for 2015, and Costa Rica made the list. The Active Times based its Top Ten picks on the following criteria:   For some, "getting away" not only means venturing to a quiet, calm and secluded retreat...

A surprising, last-minute resolution by the Committee on Traditional Celebrations of the Santa Cruz canton to move the National Folklore Festival is being blamed on politics and the Chikungunya virus. According to Guanacaste news website Primero en Noticias, the hasty resolution consists of moving the fair from Plaza Lopez, also known as Los Mangos, to the fairgrounds, and the reason given by the ...

Source: Wikimedia Commons In a matter of just a few hours, three elderly persons in Costa Rica were crudely abandoned in the capital city of San Jose on December 18th. A report by Lady Rojas of online news daily CRHoy.com indicates that an elderly and disoriented gentleman arrived at the Caribbean bus terminal with nothing more than a handwritten missive bearing the following sinister message:...