Do you know about the slow food movement? In Costa Rica, one of the major practitioners of this holistic activity is the Finca Luna Nueva (New Moon) Lodge, located in San Isidro of Peñas Blancas. As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star, Finca Luna Nueva Lodge is an organic and biodynamic farm involved in several activities that are essentially retooled from philosophies from long ago. &nb...

The unexpected rains that fell on the Central Valley and parts of the Caribbean region of Costa Rica earlier today were a presage of the dry season that will officially begin this weekend. Such was the assessment of the National Meteorology Institute (Spanish initials: IMN), which is forecasting a very dry season that will exacerbate drought conditions in parts of Guanacaste and Puntarenas. &nb...

Although Costa Rica has the lowest regional mortality rate for vector-borne diseases such as dengue and malaria, the fact remains that children from low-income families are the most affected by mosquito bites. As recently reported by The Costa Rica Star: The most dangerous organism in Costa Rica is not even a vertebrate, but it kills approximately three quarters of a million humans each year. ...

In an era of Meatless Mondays and economic vegetarianism, more people in Costa Rica and around the world are thinking about reducing their meat consumption for several reasons. The health benefits are undeniable, but they have to be managed through the adoption of a reasonable nutritional plan, which means that suddenly cutting off all animal byproducts without proper guidance could create dietary...

Red Cross rescuers and paramedics from the Fire Department in La Aurora, province of Heredia, responded to an emergency call involving a baby who was viciously attacked by an American Staffordshire terrier. According to reporter Lady Rojas of online news daily Costa Rica Hoy, the infant was rushed to the Saint Vincent Paul Hospital, which is operated by La Caja, the national public health service....

Source: MSP In a single day, three medical evacuation flights carried out by members of the Air Surveillance Service (Spanish initials: SVA) of Costa Rica saved the lives of an elderly man, a pregnant woman and a little girl. Two of the rescue flights involved fixed-wing aircraft, and the other was carried out by a helicopter. The first emergency flight took place in Alto Telire, a remote i...

News about Britanny Maynard, the 29-yeard old California woman who took her own life by means of assisted suicide this weekend, are spreading around the world and prompting debate about euthanasia and the right to die with dignity. In Costa Rica, the Constitutional Chamber (known as Sala Cuarta) has recognized the human right to receive medical treatment to alleviate pain and suffering; however eu...

There used to be a dengue season in Costa Rica, and it used to coincide with the green (rainy) season. That is no longer the case; climate change and a mutational process has caused the Aedes aegypti mosquito species to thrive year-round and spread beyond the tropics. Dengue fever prevention is now a constant job for La Caja, Costa Rica's public health system, and the latest campaign focuses on th...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Since 2012, the cryogenic chambers of the Forensic Pathology section of the Judicial Branch in Costa Rica have served as the final resting place of 37 deceased individuals whose bodies have never been claimed. Many of the dearly departed were citizens of the United States, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Italy, Bulgaria, and ten other nations; however, a few Costa Rican citiz...

The upscale and vibrant Municipality of Escazú is home to some of the most affluent and luxurious residential communities in the Greater San Jose Metropolitan Area (Spanish acronym: GAM). Unfortunately, Escazú is also home to a significant number of overweight residents. With nearly 20 percent of the population of Escazú significantly overweight or morbidly obese, municipal, educational and health...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Dr. Monica Guardo, an expert in communicable diseases at the Pan American Health Organization, is currently in Costa Rica for the purpose of training groups of physicians and nurses on the proper treatment of patients infected by the Ebola virus. According to health reporter Lady Rojas of online news daily CRHoy.com, Dr. Guardo shared her personal experience trying to...

Source: MSP CR Twitter The following press release is being published exactly as it appeared on Defense.gov, an online information portal serving the United States Department of Defense. The article quotes Marine Corps General John F. Kelly, Commander of the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), and his thoughts on the Ebola virus passing through Costa Rica on its way to the U.S. General Kelly ...

Source: Wikimedia Commons One day after health officials from the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) confirmed that a kind physician and volunteer for Doctors Without Borders has been diagnosed with an Ebola virus infection, the New York Times published a story on the patient's fiancee, a liberal and kind-hearted woman whose efforts to help those in need have brought her to Costa ...

Dr. Alejandro Ayon Lacayo, Director of the Centro Internacional de Medicina (CIMA), was detained at the Juan Santamaria International Airport (SJO) in Alajuela earlier this morning. According to a report by Lady Rojas of online news daily Costa Rica Hoy, Dr. Ayon was taken into custody by Airport Police officers from Air Surveillance, a special unit of Fuerza Publica, Costa Rica's national police ...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Following reports of two individuals being medically screened for the purpose of ruling out an Ebola virus infection, the Director of La Caja, Costa Rica's public health service, has been issuing updates on her agency's implementation of protocols recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) to prevent infections and outbreaks of this dangerous disease. As re...

Officials from La Caja, Costa Rica's public health system, announced that the second suspected case of Ebola virus infection in the country has been cleared by epidemiologists at Tomas Casas Hospital in Ciudad Cortes of the Osa canton, province of Puntarenas. According to a report filed by health journalist Lady Rojas of online news daily CRHoy.com, the patient in question was evaluated by phys...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Amidst a growing smuggling trade in cigarettes, the Law 9028 on Tobacco Control and Its Harmful Effects on Health has also impacted the once-thriving tobacco industry in Costa Rica. According to a recent press release by market research firm Euromonitor International, tobacco industry executives in Costa Rica has responded with pricing and marketing strategies within ...

A controversial multi-level marketing (MLM) system based in Canada recently announced the inauguration of a new chapter in Costa Rica. The name of this MLM system is Organo Gold, and its main feature is instant coffee. The Facebook Timeline of Organo Gold Costa Rica posted a message on October 4th that stated:   Today we make history as thousands of people in Costa Rica who have believed ...

  Source: Wikimedia Commons A gentleman from Ghana was taken to the Calderón Guardia Hospital in the capital city of San Jose on Saturday afternoon for the purpose of ruling out infection by the Ebola virus. According to a report filed by Karla Barquero of online news daily CRHoy.com, the man was approached by officers from the Fuerza Publica (the national police force of Costa Rica) d...

  Diplomats andresearchers in Hamburg. The Ambassador of Costa Rica to the Federal Republic of Germany, Jose Joaquin Chaverri, recently visited the prestigious Technical University of Hamburg, an institution of research and higher learning that is considered a global leader in the fields of technology, environmental science, and nanotechnology. This university teaches more than 6,500 s...

Shortly after the first case of Ebola was diagnosed in the United States, national health authorities in Costa Rica reported that the country is now on alert for this potentially deadly virus.   Source: Wikimedia Commons As reported by health sciences journalist Lady Rojas of online news daily CRHoy, Director of Health Surveillance Mary Ethel Trejos said that the world is now experi...

An adult male whose identity has not been revealed was attacked this morning by a caiman at the National Technical University (Spanish initials: UTN) in Atenas, canton of Grecia, province of Alajuela.   As reported by Pablo Rojas of online news daily CRHoy.com, the Red Cross municipal detachment in Atenas responded to the dangerous wildlife/human encounter around 10:00 am on Wednesday. ...

A few months ago, The Costa Rica Star published an article that described an unusual situation: Last year, a 40-year old man found himself naked in a lush rainforest of Costa Rica. He was looking for something to eat when he disrupted the habitat of a large terciopelo (fer-de-lance) snake, which he proceeded to kill with a stick. The killing of the reptile, which you can watch here, was filmed by...

Source: Flickr Life's a beach in Costa Rica; unfortunately, so is death sometimes. The number of tourists who come to enjoy Costa Rica continues to grow each year; alas, the number of those whose beach vacations turn fatal is also on the rise. Since 2009, researchers from the National University of Costa Rica (Spanish initials: UNA) have been working on a comprehensive risk assessment study to...

Source: Wikimedia Commons For many people in Costa Rica, celebrating Independence Day means enjoying parades, picnics and a few ice-cold bottles of Imperial with neighbors at the local bar. Notwithstanding, not all municipalities share the same patriotic standpoint, and some municipalities believe that there is no place for booze during Independence Day celebrations. As a result, some towns in...

Source: Flickr Commons A German scientist from the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg believes that reaction to the latest Ebola epidemic in Liberia and Sierra Leone has come too late, and that these two nations could now face a severe public health emergency that may spread elsewhere in the western region of the Dark Continent. In a recent interview with the Spanish edi...

Source: Photobucket Over the last few years, beer culture has been gaining a substantial foothold in Costa Rica. Gone are the days of having to settle for bottles of Imperial, which remains a popular and pleasant experience nonetheless. Beer lovers in Costa Rica now have many options to choose from, and they come in bottles, cans or on tap. What is the best way to serve beer in Costa Rica? Thi...

  Source: Wikimedia Commons The city of Armenia in Colombia is located in the heart of one of the most fertile coffee-producing regions in the world. This is where the 25th International Conference on Coffee Science is currently taking place, and there are two topics that attendants are likely to discuss: The sequencing of the coffee genome, which was recently completed, and how this m...

  Source: Wikimedia Commons Outside of the Chinese-donated National Stadium in San Jose this Sunday, animal rights activists picketed and shouted slogans as spectators cheered on bull riders, bronco handlers and rodeo clowns. According to a report filed by Paula Ruiz of La Prensa Libre, the “American-style” (from the United States) rodeo took place without turmoil despite the clamor fr...

Source: Costa Rica Beer Factory A global movement that dates back to World War I is slowly being adopted in Costa Rica at just the right time. Meatless Monday is a 2003 initiative established by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; however, it dates back to a wartime policy enacted by the United States a hundred years ago. Considering that economic vegetarianism is a direct res...

They are traditional, delicious and chock-full of low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. We are talking about chicharrones (fried pork rinds), and in Costa Rica they are associated with Christmas, the end-of-year holidays, town fair celebrations, block parties, and virtually anytime friends gather at bars. It is estimated that each portion of chicharrones (one medium-sized pork rind) conta...

If you would like to become an organ donor and extend the gift of life with parts of your body that you no longer will need in the afterlife, you may now officially express your intention to La Caja (Costa Rica's public health system) over the Internet. As part of the “Atrévete a Donar” (Dare to Donate) campaign, more than 7,500 people in Costa Rica have registered as organ donors using La Caj...

Source: Bing commercial reuse The ongoing love affair between Ticos and junk food is becoming more steadfast each day. The fast food and casual dining sectors in Costa Rica have become extremely competitive over the last two years thanks to a flurry of brands eager to capture palates, bellies and wallets. According to the 2014 Costa Rica Consumer Profile recently published by business weekly E...

Source: Wikimedia Commons The most dangerous organism in Costa Rica is probably not the one you are thinking of. Although in the past few years there have been regional warnings issued to eco-tourists about potential dangers related to sharks, caimans and jaguars, attacks by these species are infrequent, and they are not even close to being the most lethal. The most dangerous organism in Costa...

Drug and alcohol abuse rehabilitation can be rewarding in Guanacaste The Pura Vida philosophy and the proclivity of Ticos to enjoy their lives by letting others enjoy theirs is often misconstrued as a hedonistic pursuit. Many tourists arrive in Costa Rica in search of what they define as a good time, which is often a euphemism for getting lost in the throes of liquor and controlled substances ...

Approximate location of the accident. Sensible readers beware: The following story is a weepy. Shirley Torres Garita is a 13-year old girl who lost her legs in a terrible accident involving a truck driver whose blood alcohol level was detected at being over the legal limit. Despite this tragedy and the abject poverty she endures with her six siblings in Pococi, province of Limon, Shirley think...

Long lines at La Caja, but few foreigners A recent study by the National Institute of Statistics and Census (Spanish acronym: INEC) reveals that only six percent of all public health care treatments in Costa Rica are provided to foreign patients. This finding dispels the notion that immigrants are a burden on La Caja, Costa Rica's public health care system. In fact, immigrant workers are more ...

Source: Getty Commons The BBQ grilling season in Costa Rica coincides with the holidays and the beginning of the busy tourist season. Although there has been a recent push towards greater diffusion of outdoor grilling culture in Costa Rica thanks to events sponsored by Weber and the promotion of higher-quality cuts, skyrocketing beef prices are prompting many families in Costa Rica to put away...

Source: Red Cross Costa Rica The days between Palm and Easter Sundays are often the busiest of the year for Red Cross rescue brigades in Costa Rica. That is when thousands of people will leave their homes and head to the mountains, the beaches and the countryside. To this end, the Red Cross has deployed 1,200 rescuers in strategic locations during Holy Week, and one particular emergency they w...

It was a hoax. A scary Internet hoax fueled by the flames of social media in Costa Rica prompted neighbors of Playas del Coco and other communities in Guanacaste to hide their children and ask a television network to investigate the ghastly rumors. What started as a warning to locals and expats to look out for kidnappers targeting children in order to harvest kidneys and other vital organs ...