You are invited to join us for the 2012 Costa Rica International Festival of Terror ("TerrorFest"), October 25th to 31st 2012 in Montezuma, Costa Rica. If you don't have Halloween plans, this could be your ticket, and a great way to meet new people and see the country. TerrorFest presents the best in short and feature horror, sci-fi, suspense, thriller, animation, horror-comedy, and more fr...

Marking the fifth annual Global Handwashing Day on October 15, and approaching the second anniversary of the first case of reported cholera in Haiti in 2010, Partners in Health, Veolia Environment Foundation, Zanmi Lasante, and Catholic Relief Services became the newest members of the Regional Coalition on Water and Sanitation for the Elimination of Cholera in the Island of Hispaniola. The ...

After the recent deaths of an estimated 300 green sea turtles at the Cayman Turtle Farm in the Cayman Islands, Sea Turtle Conservancy has joined the World Society for the Protection of Animals in their campaign to stop sea turtle farming (www.stopseaturtlefarm.org) at the last remaining facility to intensively farm and breed sea turtles for human consumption in the world. Sea Turtle Cons...

Humane Society International and Costa Rica’s Servicio Nacional de Salud Animal (SENASA) will hold a signing ceremony for a memorandum of understanding to collaborate in the improvement of companion and farm animal welfare on Monday, Oct. 22. An official SENASA and HSI training session on dog fighting issues will follow the ceremony. WHEN: Monday, Oct. 22 at 9:00 a.m. WHERE: Hotel C...

Are you looking for an amazing place to bring your special someone on a romantic date? You will be blown away by the beauty, layout, valley view, and Wine list at Vino Mundo in the mountains of Ciudad Colón, San Jose, Costa Rica. As you pull up the hill and see the sign on the left, it is very apparent you have arrived at a magical place. Huge iron gates and guards welcome you, as you d...

Historically, the best place to get fruits, vegetables, and other locally grown/made products near Escazu, has been at the Escazu Central farmers market, on the street just above the Catholic Church every Saturday morning. But if you want to try something new, we recommend Bodega Verde at Avenida Escazu every Saturday from 9am to 2pm. The food products are hand picked to be the absolute be...

Welcome to the Amistad Art Prize 2012 offered for the best art piece inspired by the “Plight of the World’s Rainforests”. -Supporting 3 different environmental projects -The artist makes 40% of the bid received for the piece in the auction -Social responsibility and exposure The Problem Deforestation in Costa Rica has a serious impact on the environment and directly or indirectly co...

Next year marks the 25th anniversary of the Chirripó Race. For the past 24 years madcap runners have been beating the clock in a 34 km marathon up and down the highest mountain in Costa Rica, and this past year a new record was set at 3 hours 5 minutes. For the anniversary run several of the prizes will be dazzling – especially if anyone can beat that 3 hour barrier! Registration for the ra...

In the past The Costa Rica Star has published about bodybuilding and the top gyms in Costa Rica. RAW Fitness Costa Rica is an outdoor fitness club providing a balance of cardio, strength and endurance training across various RAW exercises. So grab a hammer, tire, sand bag and let's go! Description We believe in exercising Outdoors - moving the body the way it was designed to move. Dyn...

University students in Costa Rica and Athens can learn about sustainability — while learning from the same professors. Beginning in the spring of 2013, the UGA Costa Rica study abroad campus has a new program option: the Sustainability in Action semester, which offers a new sustainability certificate awaiting approval and collaboration between professors in both Costa Rica and Athens. Th...

Costa Rica state-owned operator Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), via its Kolbi mobile unit, has launched a voice call service dubbed 'Kolbi Favoritos'. Service users can select a favorite on-net mobile number and make unlimited anytime calls to that number. The Kolbi Favoritos service is available for both prepay and postpaid customers and costs CRC 3,500 per month. Customers can...

In the past The Costa Rica Star has published about cage free egg choices in Costa Rica. Humane Society International encourages Costa Rica consumers to take steps to improve the treatment of egg-laying hens in conventional egg production. Costa Rica has approximately three million egg-laying hens, many confined in barren battery cages. In these small wire cages, each hen spends practica...

In conjunction with Mobile Payments Latin America (Dec 5-6, Miami), M for Mobile have released the latest most comprehensive White paper on Mobile Payments in Latin America. The White paper offers you expert insight into the most lucrative areas on mobile payments in Latin America in order to make sure your business plan is on trend and ahead of the game. Due to the rapid uptake and develop...

In a blog post by Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein, two announcements were made that were direct results of passenger feedback. First up was the request by Royal Caribbean fans for more Panama Canal cruises. Goldstein announced that Vision of the Seas was slated to originally offer Caribbean cruises will instead sail a set of Panama Canal cruises in the fall and spring. The new Panama ca...

Ever joked to a friend you'd skip town if the election didn't go your way? JetBlue launched a clever marketing campaign on Wednesday that aims to put frustrated voters in their place — on a plane right out of the country. Aptly dubbed Election Protection, the discount carrier's offering free roundtrip tickets to any of its 21 nonstop, international destinations including Aruba, Bahamas,...

Akamai Technologies, Inc., the leading cloud platform for helping enterprises provide secure, high-performing user experiences on any device, anywhere, today announced the opening of its Costa Rica services and support center. The new center is slated to create over 50 jobs through the end of 2014. Akamai's success across the globe has triggered significant demand for its cloud infrastructure ...

The latest production offered by Little Theatre Group of Costa Rica will open on Friday October 12th 2012 at 7:30pm. Looking for the Pony by Andrea Lepcio was first presented in a "Rolling World Premiere" Off-Broadway at Vital Theatre Company in New York City in 2009. Since then it has been performed across the United States always receiving excellent reviews. Described by reviewer Martin D...

M for Mobile is pleased to announce the 2nd annual Mobile Payments Latin America event is back, December 5-6, Miami. Latin America’s most exciting names and companies will gather to discuss and overcome the key issues the industry faces, case studies throughout the different regions, a special focus on Brazil and the latest most exciting initiatives in mobile payments industry in Latin Americ...

PersonalizedSpanish.com now offers the option to study from your home or office with on line dynamic lessons via Skype. This option is perfect if you cannot, or do not have time to travel to Costa Rica in order to attend an immersion program, or if you are one of our former students and want to continue improving your Spanish skills. Classes are one on one with a program personalized to...

Due to the popularity and success of its Costa Rica program, Sunwing is pleased to announce the launch of new flights to San Jose (SJO), in addition to its current flights to Liberia (LIR). Flights from Toronto will depart weekly on Fridays from December 21, 2012 to April 12, 2013. Sunwing will also be offering vacation packages, which include an excellent selection of hotels in some of Cos...

The IASC Humanitarian Early Warning Service (HEWSweb) is an inter-agency partnership project aimed at establishing a common platform for humanitarian early warnings and forecasts for natural hazards. The main objective of HEWSweb is to bring together and make accessible in a simple manner the most credible early warning information available at the global level from multiple specialized instit...

Mail Drop Costa Rica has offered its services, including a mailing address abroad, for 5 years and has serviced over 1200 businesses The five year anniversary for Mail Drop Costa Rica, a Top Office Company, is occurring in October of 2012. The company was founded in 2007, and is the first in Latin America to offer dedicate phone or fax number in a full service package. As part of the celebratio...

The popular RFD-TV show ‘Best of America by Horseback’ is coming to Costa Rica! Leaves and Lizards Arenal Volcano Cabin Retreat is hosting this “Costa Rica Jungle Pura Vida 8 Day/7 Night Trek” March 16 - 23, 2013.
 ‘Best of America by Horseback’ TV show, hosted by Tom Seay, features a different riding location each week. ‘Best of America By Horseback’ is an educational and informative se...

Global payment services processor The Western Union Company has expanded the availability of its cross-border mobile money transfer service in El Salvador, Central and South America. The payment service can be available in the region by subscribing to a mobile money service provided by Tigo, a subsidiary of the telecommunication group Millicom International Cellular. Western Union and Ti...

Committed to bringing the world bold and distinct flavors, Chili’s® Grill & Bar recently introduced Costa Rica residents to their first taste of the restaurant company’s Southwestern-inspired, classic American favorites and upbeat environment. Costa Rica, which was recently named the happiest country in the world by the New Economics Foundation’s Happy Planet Index (HPI), warmly embraced the A...

Following the exchange of notes of ratification, the Free Trade Agreement between the two nations will become effective on 19 October 2012. A press release from the Foreign Ministry of Nicaragua reads: An exchange of letters on the bilateral Nicaragua-Chile protocol, a Free Trade Agreement between Chile and Central America, was held this morning between the foreign minister, Samuel Santo...

The Honourable Denis Lebel, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, today announced the designation of Air Transat to operate scheduled international air services between Canada and El Salvador, providing more flight options for travellers. "The designation of Air Transat to serve El Salvador will contribute to the growth and competitiveness of the Canadian airline industry a...

From erotic body painting, through topless ziplining, through naked horseback riding, the program is seeking out those that want an adventurous vacation experience in the friendliest place on earth. These are special weeks made available to open-minded adults only at two locations in Costa Rica. Each week is themed to coincide with the new for 2012 onsite Social Directors, the renowned enterta...

Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, announced the opening of its new operations center in San Jose, Costa Rica. The center houses employees in the business’s Finance Operations organization, who will support Thomson Reuters accounts receivable and other customer transaction-related activities. The Thomson Reuters Costa Rica op...

Guatemala, which suffers one of the highest murder rates in Central America, has given Arnold & Porter a $575,000 four-month pact to promote tourism and investment by pursuing its legal, media and public policy objectives in Washington. According to the pact that runs through Dec. 31, the agreement is “justified by the need to attract foreign investment and tourism through improvement in Wa...

English-speaking people have not always had a positive impact in Nicaragua. In fact, until recently it has been all negative. In the 1600’s, Sir Henry Morgan was given a Letter of Marque by the British Government. This meant that the British thought the Spanish were not good people and Morgan could steal anything he wanted from them. He chose to sack Granada and take all their gold. Ha...

Costa Rica-based melodic metal band SIGHT OF EMPTINESS has finished recording its as-yet-untitled third album, to be released later this year. The CD was recorded at SoloHits Studios in San José, Costa Rica with Swedish producer Thomas "Plec" Johansson (SCAR SYMMETRY, WATAIN, ESKIMO CALLBOY, SOLUTION .45, MISERATION), who traveled all the way to Costa Rica to work with the band closely for abo...

The Governments of the United States and Brazil today formalized a partnership with the Government of Honduras to increase agriculture production, decrease undernutrition, and promote renewable energy in Honduras, one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. “By leveraging the joint expertise of the United States and Brazil we have an opportunity to help Hondurans rise out of pov...

A must have for shoppers who visit Multiplaza Malls in Costa Rica. This App allows shoppers to be in-the-know about the latest sales and events at both Multiplaza Escazu and Multiplaza Del Este in San Jose, Costa Rica. With over 440 stores, this app makes it easy to keep track of your favorite stores, sales offers and discover what's new. Besides store and mall events, find a place ...

Marriott International (NYSE:MAR) announced today plans to open a new 200-room Courtyard by Marriott Hotel in Santiago in the fourth quarter of 2014, under an agreement with Falabella Group, the largest retailer in South America, with operations in Chile, Argentina, Peru and Colombia. Situated immediately adjacent to the existing 280-room Santiago Marriott in the Las Condes business distric...

Hacienda Matapalo was once marketed as being the best-selling Costa Rica real estate with over $65 million in presales -- ten months later the tone has changed substantially. Amongst the myriad of reports now surfacing on the recently foreclosed project, investors remain skeptical that they will ever seen their money again. AG Abogados is a legal firm that specializes in intellectual pro...

The Costa Rica Star previously reported on the Albinos of Kuna Panama. Megan Leavitt, 29, is a self-described nomad. “I’ve been traveling for the last 12 years,” she said. Her travels have taken her from Glenburn, where she grew up; to Santa Cruz and the University of California where she earned a degree, on full scholarship, in Latin American and Latino studies; to Haiti; Mexico; Centra...

Book your All Inclusive Vacation at Volcano Brewing Company during the next two months, and we’ll throw in your 3rd All-Inclusive Night Free! Yup, all you want to drink, eat, play, and stay for FREE on night 3! Are we nuts? Maybe a little… but it’s low season, and we throw out the rulebook. Take advantage of the offseason and let’s have some fun! NFL Football and Microbrewed Beer F...

Representing the largest majority of islands available for sale, Private Islands Online (PIO) is the only international real estate web site dedicated exclusively to island properties. Established in 1999, this fully searchable and interactive web site unites and categorizes the otherwise fragmented and disparate island marketplace. With over 4 million annual site visitors and 50,000 sub...

A group of volunteers in St. Cloud is making a deep impact on the health of people in developing countries – and they could use a hand. The MESSAGE Program was started 12 years ago by Karin Reichensperger, who after traveling to Guatemala, saw a need for things like medical, emergency and fire equipment. Over time, the organization gained donated warehouse and office spaces to expand the...