Max is a one-year old pit bull terrier that was rescued from a vicious dog fighting ring in Costa Rica, and he is currently the most talked-about canine in the country. On Thursday, October 10th, Max was rescued along with two other dogs from a construction site in Pavas, in the western suburbs of the capital city of San Jose. Unscrupulous men abused these two pit bull terriers and a mutt as they ...

A young man by the name of Vicente Loyola (Vince Loyola for short) from Victoria BC Canada is on a tour of Central America, visiting Costa Rica this week, volunteering at schools to help kids learn English using a fun new method of teaching. This new method consists of using puppets and funny music to act out songs that aid in the help of learning English. Vicente Loyola has donated over 85...

The problem of arsenic in the aqueducts of Guanacaste and the northern zone of our country should be resolved no later than the month of May 2014. This was said by Dr. Luis Carlos Vargas, director of the water laboratory of the Costa Rican Institute of Water and Sewers (AyA). In October, the Comptroller General of the Republic authorized AyA to conduct bidding to directly contract the desig...

Source: Pacific Plaza More than a year after a mostly modest and unassuming inauguration in Costa Rica, the CIMA Hospital in Guanacaste is one of the few medical centers hiring in a region that is experiencing a dilemma with regard to unemployment. The current job vacancies at this fine hospital are for professionals in the fields of microbiology and direct patient care assistance, and they ar...

Three medical doctors of the Hospital Calderón Guardia and a pizza maker, in San José, were detained by police, suspected of human organ trafficking. Authorities say their investigation led to the four suspects, who are alleged to have paid victims between 3 and 10 million colones (US$6.000 to US$20.000 dollars). Two of the doctors are urologists, identified by their last names Anunzia Mauro...

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (Oct. 10, 2013) — On World Egg Day, Humane Society International highlights the growing popularity of cage-free eggs in Costa Rica. Cage-free eggs, known as huevos de pastoreo in Costa Rica, are eggs from chickens who are not confined to cages. The cage-free trend, which has been growing in Europe and the United States for a number of years, is in stark contrast to the in...

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 ...

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...

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...

Source: Wikimedia Commons For more than four years, Sergeant gave his precious blood to his fellow canine species in Costa Rica. Until recently, the mixed breed male dog was a common sight at the Canine Blood Bank, which was organized by Veterinaria Machado in Heredia. Every four months, Sergeant would donate 450 ml of blood, but the dog’s age prompted veterinarians to retire him. Sergeant,...

The Costa Rica Star previously published on the amount of Marijuana grown and consumed in Costa Rica versus the rest of the world. You don’t need dirt to grow a garden of organic vegetables and herbs. Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without soil, using mineral nutrient solutions in water as fertilizer. The agricultural practice offers economic benefits, healthier food, no pesti...

The Costa Rica Star recently reported on how Papaya seeds can defend your body against dengue fever contraction. This time of year, at fruit stands on the streets or in the supermarkets you are likely to find the spiky red Rambutan fruit, also known as mamon chino. This fruit has been employed in traditional medicine in Malaysia and Indonesia for hundreds of years as a treatment for various ail...

Christian Marin-Muller, molecular biologist and business manager with a PhD in molecular virology, is the 33 year old Costa Rican that has what few scientists achieve in life: a patent for a vaccine. From his laboratory at Baylor College of Medecine in Texas, Marín paved the way for a vaccine against pancreatic cancer. The vaccine is not preventive, rather it is a therapeutic vaccine that is...

The nation's child welfare agency PANI has filed formal charges with prosecutors for two photos that appeared on Facebook of the parents profiles. In the first case, the video shows a baby drinking liquid from a beer bottle. In the second, posted this week, the image on another Facebook profile shows a child of apparently two or three years old holding a revolver in one hand while making what a...

Most Costa Ricans consider themselves good neighbors, while keeping a distance as a policy, are the results of a poll by Unimer for La Nacion. In a survey of 1,200 people across the country interviewed between June 4 and 13 of this year, 65% of the respondents said to not have a bad relationship with their neighbors. The warmth between neighbors is more prominent among those over 50 years of...

Two young men from Escazú were turned down by the family court in San José on their quest to have their gay marriage recognized legally. They have lived together for seven years. The court decided that the definition of marriage is the joining together of a man and a woman. The pair were disappointed because they were counting on the judges taking into consideration that the Young Persons’ Law ...

The Costa Rica Star has previously reported on outbreaks of Dengue Fever and H1N1 throughout Costa Rica. Researchers at the University of Kansas and their counterparts at the University of Costa Rica have launched an educational campaign aimed at reducing the spread of dengue fever, a mosquito-borne infection affecting more than 50 million people annually. “We’re working with our partner...

An angry driver shot another in the head Thursday afternoon after a slight collision in Calle Blancos, near the old Durman Esquivel plant. The murdered man was the personal bodyguard of the Ministro de la Presidencia communications minister, Carlos Roverssi. Alonso Romero, 45, was on his way to the Benavides home to “run an errand” and then return to Casa Presidencial to pick up his boss. ...

When German Alberto Jimenez Paniagua started delivering fruits and vegetables around Nosara seven years ago, he did so in a pickup truck. Then he upgraded to a small “camion” truck, and now he is driving around in an innovative bus, which allows him to expand his route to include Ostional and San Juanillo. Jimenez bought the bus on July 23rd from a man in Nicoya, and just two days later he had ...

Update: Jamie Panas, a PR Manager from Guinness World Records recently emailed The Costa Rica Star to correct some of the information within this article: "Fees are only incurred if an application needs to be expedited or an organization requests the onsite presence of an adjudicator to verify the record on the spot. Any organization or record hopeful may send their evidence in manually. There is ...

Source: Nature Air Facebook A weighty matter transpired at the Tamarindo Airport on August 19th. Luis Fernando Sanchez, a portly man who tips the scales at 136 kilograms (about 300 lbs) was charged twice the normal airfare on Nature Air, Costa Rica's first carbon-neutral airline. The incident left Mr. Sanchez with a heavy heart, and thus he chose to go public with his story. Mr. Sanchez tol...

Source: Wikimedia Commons The proliferation of corporate parks and free trade zones, coupled with an expectation of increased productivity and upward mobility, are causing people in Costa Rica to yearn for simpler times not long ago. According to a 2013 survey by polling firm Unimer for national newspaper La Nacion, the infamous Tico Times is disappearing and giving way to stress and dissatisf...

The Costa Rica Star previously published about a group of people trying to pass legislation for medical marijuana in Costa Rica and the amount of marijuana consumed around the republic. In a surprising turn in the presidential election campaign, both Jose Maria Villalta of the Wide Front party and Otto Guevara of the Libertarian Movement came out in support for medical marijuana legalization in...

If you go to any supermarket or fería (outdoor farmers market) in Costa Rica you will notice that organic produce is more expensive and not usually as attractive as regular produce. However the benefits of organically grown foods are many. Organic foods are much healthier and beneficial for the environment. They are grown without pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, antibiotics, growth hormones a...

Back in June of 2010 and also in September of 2011, The Voice of Guanacaste published two articles that described the situation of the EBAIS clinic in Nosara and also the lack of funds to fix those problems. The most critical issue was the growth in the population of Nosara and the surrounding areas, but having the same amount of doctors, supplies and space at the clinic to provide the needed serv...

Today is Día del Niño (Children's Day) here in Costa Rica and I had the chance to celebrate with the kids, parents and teacher from the Escuela de Playa Hermosa Guanacaste in Carrillo. The Playa Hermosa School is a small school with 25 students in grades 1 through 7. It's quite literally a "one room schoolhouse" run tightly and passionately by it's headmaster (maestro) and teacher, Mr. Javier Rosa...

A survey of youth conducted by the Young People's Council of the Ministry of Culture shows that young people generally agree on the need for sex education classes in high school but are deeply critical of the courses offered early this school year. The Education Ministry was tardy in implementing such a course, under Minister Leonardo Fournier, and against a push back by Evangelicals and other ...

Source: Wikimedia CommonsCaring for companion animals has always been an important aspect of life in Costa Rica, but over the last few years this activity has turned into a lucrative industry. This is part of the greater Latin American Pet Boom, which has been closely followed by the business world. For veterinarians in Costa Rica, the Pet Boom means increased profit opportunities. According t...

In many places around the world, this remedy has been used to treat countless maladies, from digestive problems to allergies to skin issues, while at the same time improving conditions in diabetes and Alzheimer’s, increasing energy and boosting metabolism. It’s not a miracle cure, nor a pharmaceutical breakthrough. Rather, it is simple coconut oil. Coconut oil’s popularity in the Western wo...

What do a tomato, blueberry, onion and dark chocolate have in common? No, it’s not some weird recipe. They are “superfoods,” so-called by doctors and nutrition and health experts for their amazing beneficial properties that can help you keep the right weight, fight off heart disease and cancer, live longer, and even put you in a better mood. You don't need specific foods for specific ailment...

Washington, D.C., 6 September 2013 (PAHO/WHO) — Motorcycle deaths in the Americas more than tripled during the last two decades, according to a study by the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) published in the International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion. The study, Trends in fatal motorcycle injuries in the Americas, 1998-2010, shows that motor...

The members of the Human Rights Commission of the Legislative Assembly rejected a motion to start an investigation into the increase in cases of kidney failure in Guanacaste. The motion was made by the fraction of the Citizen Action Party (PAC) but did not have the support of the National Liberation legislators. The motion was intended to investigate the causes responsible for the increase i...

Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula is considered one of the world’s most beautiful places — a 120-kilometre sliver of land where tropical rainforest meets the Pacific Ocean. Now it has another claim to fame: its residents, despite living in poverty, seem to be aging more slowly than wealthier people elsewhere. Costa Ricans in general are known to enjoy particularly long lives. Costa Rican men have a...

On Tuesday evening, September 3, local fishermen in Nosara found thousands of dead fish and shrimp in the Nosara River, and the suspected cause is agrochemicals. Juan Carlos Cordero, chief of the Tourist Police delegation in Guiones, reported that the size of the dead fish, mostly bass, snook and gualajes, are around 15 inches and most were found in the river mouth. One of the first to see t...

The Costa Rica Star has published extensively on Dengue Fever in Costa Rica, read past articles. The Minister of Health, Daisy Corrales, announced that the number of dengue cases began to decline. She presented a chart showing a decrease in the curve of incidence going into the 34th week of the year, i.e mid-August. According to government data, the number of cases peaked in week 29. Since t...

Fourteen dogs were confiscated during a raid of a dog fighting kennel operation on Saturday, August 24. Law-enforcement authorities suspect that four of the dogs are from bloodlines imported from criminal dog fighting enterprises in the United States, according to Inside Costa Rica. Costa Rica’s Animal Health Service, known as SENASA, and Costa Rican law-enforcement authorities, with support fr...

If you would like to view dozens of photos from this McKee Project campaign please visit their Facebook page. Playa Zancudo, Costa Rica – September 2, 2013 – In keeping with the philosophy of the Zancudo Lodge in giving back to local communities, this past week, the McKee Project - a NGO non-profit teaching organization providing spay and neuter surgery training to Latin American veterinari...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Two recent articles in online news daily Costa Rica Hoy (CRHoy) call attention to the rising trend of Ecstasy use in Costa Rica. Ecstasy is a common English slang name for amphetamine-based street drugs typically manufactured in pill form. In Costa Rica, these drugs are referred to as “extasis,” “cristal,” or even molly, which is a trendy slang term for them in North ...

What started with an email turned into the dismantling of an international organ-trafficking ring. American surgeon Francis L. Delmonico, the chairman of the World Transplant Society, emailed Jorge Cortés, the director of Hospital Clínica Bíblica – one of the three private centers authorized to perform transplants in San José – in November 2012 that an Israeli had undergone an illegal kidney tr...

Since Thursday, August 21, the authorities of the Ministry of Health are spraying every house in the Canton of Nicoya, which so far this year is the canton most affected nationwide by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which transmits dengue. In addition, the municipalities of Nicoya, Hojancha and Nandayure, as well as the Red Cross, the Ministry of Education and the private company Gollo are collecti...