Source: Southwest Airlines ORLANDO, FL--(Marketwired - April 07, 2015) - Southwest Vacations is offering travelers a savings of up to $150 off vacation packages to select beach destinations including St. Petersburg/Clearwater, Jamaica, and Aruba. Travelers who book a flight plus hotel vacation package to select beach destinations can save on their reservation when using the promotion code B...

Source: Wikimedia Commons By: Carol Pierson-Holding (3BL Media and CSRHub Press Release) - The California drought caused hydropower production to plummet by 46 percent. The silver lining? Solar power increased, making up for 83 percent of the hydropower decline. I’m a huge supporter of solar energy, which appears to be an inexhaustible and “free” source of energy. But an article in this wee...

Source: Blue Bottle Blue Bottle, a specialty coffee roaster located in California, recently announced a new special blend from Costa Rica. This new gourmet offering is called Costa Rica Tarrazú Divino Niño, and it comes from a finca in the hills of San Pablo de Leon Cortes, in the ultra-fertile coffee growing region of Tarrazú.   This is how Blue Bottle describes this new blend: ...

Night vision photograph of the Turrialba eruption. Source: OVSICORI Do you love the smell of sulfur in the morning? It smells like... geology. This morning, residents and tourists in various neighborhoods of the Greater San Jose Metropolitan Area (Spanish initials: GAM) in Costa Rica awoke to an acrid and pungent aroma, which is a common occurrence for the farming communities that lie on the s...

Wikimedia Commons Source: Unites States Embassy in San Jose, Costa Rica Please note that the US Embassy will be closed on Friday, April 10th 2015 in observance of Juan Santamaria Day ANNOUNCEMENT NUMBER: 2015-014 Open to: All Interested Candidates Position: Telephone Operator, FSN-5; FP-9* Opening Date: March 25, 2015 Closing Date: April 15, 2015 Work Hours: Full-time; 40 hour...

Source: Wikimedia Commons (US Department of Justice Press Release) - A U.S. citizen charged in connection with the operation of a series of fraudulent business opportunities was extradited from Costa Rica to the United States, the Justice Department announced today.   John White was charged in a Nov. 29, 2011, indictment in the Southern District of Florida with conspiracy to commit ...

San Jose, March 31, 2015 (CINDE). The services sector company, Akamai, plans to expand its operations in Costa Rica in the coming months due to the Costa Rican human talent and the quality of exported services. The company dedicated to improving the speed and safety with which people access Internet services, plans to increase its payroll by 60 new positions by 2016 and will expand its current off...

Source: RSN (UCR) Following two eruptions that expelled ash columns on Easter Sunday, officers from Fuerza Publica (the national police force of Costa Rica) were deployed to various sectors of the Turrialba Volcano National Park for the purpose of evacuating the area. According to a news report filed by Lady Rojas of online news daily Costa Rica Hoy, Fuerza Publica Commissar Juan Jose Andra...

Source: Facebook Author's Note: Regrettably, The Costa Rica Star did not know about the life of Matthew Kritzer, a gentleman from the United States, until it was too late. We first learned about his tragic demise from a report filed by the medical examiner. While conducting research for the news article, we came across Mr. Kritzer's digital footprint, which paints the picture of an amazing hum...

Source: Manatus Hotel PRLog - March 10, 2015 - TORTUGUERO, Costa Rica -- The Manatus Hotel, surrounded by the majestic flora and fauna of Tortuguero in the Costa Rican Caribbean, has prepared two special hotel offers for those visiting it during the months of May and June, 2015: 1. Special hotel offer for domestic tourists: The Costa Rican tourists who make their booking at Manatus Hotel...

Source: Vestas Vestas, a leading Danish manufacturer, seller, installer, and servicer of wind turbines, recently signed a firm and unconditional order with Fila de Mogote, a subsidiary of US-based Hunt Energy Horizons (Hunt Oil), for the 21 MW Mogote wind power plant in the province of Guanacaste, Costa Rica. According to a press release by Vestas, the company will supply and install seven ...

File photo According to field reports filed by the forensic section of the Office of Judicial Investigations (Spanish initials: OIJ), a 67-year old man from the United States passed away from massive trauma sustained after a tragic road traffic accident in Costa Rica. The crash reportedly took place in the Osa Peninsula, which is located in the southern Pacific region of Costa Rica. More sp...

Over the last couple of years, Costa Rica has been enjoying football prestige at the highest level. First we had the honor of hosting the 2014 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, an event that was praised by sports media outlets and FIFA officials for its level of organization. A few months later, the National Men's Football Team of Costa Rica (La Sele) delivered a surprising and electric performance at ...

Prosoft Nearshore employees in San Jose (PRLEAP.COM) April 2, 2015 - IT outsourcing and software development firm Prosoft Nearshore is emphasizing the importance of employee retention and satisfaction to distinguish itself in the software outsourcing market. With 6 successful years working as a Costa Rica software development firm, Prosoft Nearshore is widely recognized for providing expert so...

On April 4th, 1885, the international Red Cross and Red Crescent movement formally inaugurated operations in Costa Rica. On this Holy Saturday, Red Cross staff and volunteers in Costa Rica would certainly like to take a moment to celebrate their 130th anniversary of providing a most noble service in our country; alas, they are very busy rendering emergency medical service to residents and visitors...

Source: OVSICORI Various seismic events in Costa Rica scared churchgoers and tourists across the country, who were either preparing for the solemn Good Friday ceremonies or enjoying time off at crowded vacation spots. The first earthquake took place at 12:32, in the midst of lunchtime; it was recorded with a magnitude of 4.7 on the moment magnitude scale (MMS), and its epicenter was located...

Wikimedia Commons OTTAWA (Division of National Defence Press Release) - Her Majesty's Canadian Ship Whitehorse, in collaboration with the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy, assisted with the interception of more than 5200 kg of cocaine in international waters of the Eastern Pacific Ocean off the coast of Costa Rica as part of Operation CARIBBE in early March. Quick Facts The crew of a coasta...

Source: Wikimedia Commons PHILADELPHIA – Joseph and Anna Rose Vitelli, of Conshohocken, PA, were sentenced today for their roles in a Racketeering conspiracy involving the Mastronardo Bookmaking Organization. Joseph Vitelli, 71, was sentenced to five months in prison and three years of supervised release, with the first five months served on house arrest. His wife, Anna Rose, 67, was sentenced...

Source: FEDEFUTBOL The National Men's Beach Football Team of Costa Rica is currently under investigation by the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) after allegations of match rigging. Some of the allegations were brought up by Ramon Raya, who currently manages the Mexican National Beach Football Team. Mr. Raya has been quite emphatic in his...

Source: Ad Astra March 30, 2015 (NASA Press Release) - Building on the success of NASA’s partnerships with commercial industry to date, NASA has selected 12 Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) to advance concept studies and technology development projects in the areas of advanced propulsion, habitation and small satellites. Through these public-private partnershi...

Source: Flickr Commons Mexico City, Mar 31 (EFE).- Health officials closed three clinics and a hospital therapy center in Mexicali, the capital of the northwestern Mexican state of Baja California, in response to the death earlier this month of an Australian woman who underwent plastic surgery. The medical facilities in the Valley of Mexicali were shut down after inspections discovered viol...

Source: Salesnet Duluth, GA (PRWEB) March 31, 2015 - Salesnet, a customer relationship management (CRM) software company, reports business expansion leveraging new language customization capabilities and local resources. With a strategic partner now located in Costa Rica, Salesnet is expanding their full CRM software and services operations into additional international markets. This initia...

Source: Tulemar Resort Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica (PRWEB) March 31, 2015 - Tulemar Resort, in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica was once again awarded the Costa Rican Blue Flag Award in 2014 for its beautiful beach. The prestigious Blue Flag Award is awarded every year by the Blue Flag Program to the cleanest beaches throughout the Central American country. Communities have to show a true commitment ...

DoubleTree Hilton Costa Rica MCLEAN, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE) --DoubleTree by Hilton, the Hilton Worldwide upscale full-service hotel brand with more than 400 locations globally, recently announced its top performing properties of 2014. “We believe that the little things mean everything and add to the guest experience at DoubleTree by Hilton, and we’re proud to present our hotels and team membe...

Former President Chinchilla at IBM function New York, Mar 31 (EFE; additional reporting by The Costa Rica Star).- Technology giant IBM announced Tuesday that it will invest some $3 billion over the next four years to create a new unit dubbed the Internet of Things, or IoT, based on the interconnection of everyday objects with the Web. The company, as it explained in a communique, seeks to m...

Miami, Florida (PRWEB) March 31, 2015 - The destination wedding team at AskMeInc has revealed their top five destination wedding packages for 2015. The team rated the packages by the number of bookings and the rave reviews received from couples. Whether eloping or planning a grand celebration, AskMeInc offers irresistible destination wedding packages, starting as low as $1500, from resorts in the ...

Esteban Alvarado training with Keylor Navas The alternative lineup proposed by Paulo Cesar Wanchope for the National Men's Football Team of Costa Rica, better known to fans as “La Sele,” proved to be a disaster. La Sele faced the National Team of Panama at the Rommel Fernandez Stadium for the second friendly match of 2015, and coach Wanchope quickly found out that young players such as Lemar H...

The Arenal volcano in 2006. Wikimedia Commons (EUREKALERT) An international research team, led by a Virginia Tech geoscientist, has revealed information about how continents were generated on Earth more than 2.5 billion years ago -- and how those processes have continued within the last 70 million years to profoundly affect the planet's life and climate. Published online today in Nature Geo...

Source: Hyatt CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hyatt Place, the perfect place for today’s traveler combining style, innovation and 24/7 convenience, today announces the results of its online survey, which uncovered that six in 10 adults that travel admit to having particular travel quirks. The survey, which polled more than 1,000 adult travelers, was conducted with ORC International. “Whatever our...

Intensity map by RSN (UCR) UPDATE: The 11:05 earthquake, magnitude 4.2 with an epicenter north of San Ramon in the province of Alajuela, is not part of the Cinchona cluster. It is important to keep in mind that Costa Rica is a seismic country. Three strong earthquakes followed by more than 70 aftershocks rudely awakened residents of a seismic region of Costa Rica on the final day of March. ...

After drawing a goalless home match against Paraguay, the National Men's Football Team of Costa Rica, affectionately known to fans as La Sele, is now in Panama for another international friendly match. Manager Paulo Wanchope decided to allow World Cup-caliber players to grace the pitch of the Chinese-donated National Stadium against Paraguay: against the National Football Team of Panama, however, ...

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)...

The magnificent Turrialba in April 2012. Source: RSN A nighttime period of gaseous exhalation followed two minor ash eruptions from the Turrialba volcano, which is currently the most active colossus of Costa Rica. The first of the two eruptions, which took place over the weekend, was registered at 2:45 pm on a Saturday afternoon. That volcanic event mostly consisted of fine ash being expelled,...

San Sebastian, San Jose, Costa Rica A terrible road traffic accident near the busy roundabout of San Sebastian, located in the outskirts of Costa Rica's capital city, claimed the lives of two young men this past weekend. Jair Blokland, a 22-year old South American expat from Suriname and Jonathan Vargas, a 21-year old native of Costa Rica, were killed almost instantly after their vehicle struc...

Photograph from a Santa Cruz brothel in the 1960s Most of the research conducted on the topic of prostitution in Costa Rica tends to be concentrated in the Greater San Jose Metropolitan Area (Spanish acronym: GAM) and on the phenomenon of sexual tourism, which has been on the increase over the last few years. Almost invariably, academic researchers who study prostitution in Costa Rica focus...

Credit: Sean MacEntee, Flickr Commons The real cost of borrowing money with credit cards in Costa Rica runs about 40 to 50 percent for the majority of cardholders. Despite the seemingly usurious interest rates, the use of credit cards in our country, which is besieged by rising inflation and looming unemployment, has grown about 7.3 percent since last year. According to a news report filed ...

Three out of ten municipal councils in Costa Rica have resolved that they will not allow the sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages in the most solemn days leading up to Easter. As of Palm Sunday, only a handful of municipalities had not yet issued a decision on whether they should apply “dry laws” in their communities, and the total number of cantons and districts that will go dry this Thursd...

Source: Pixabay Commons Last week, agents from the Office of Judicial Investigations (Spanish initials: OIJ) in San Jose conducted a nighttime raid on a cabaret that allegedly provided more than just erotic dancing. According to a press release by the OIJ, the establishment also served as a den of prostitution, and a couple reportedly derived proceeds from each sexual transaction that transpir...

Source: Pixabay Commons One of the most talked-about headlines coming from Costa Rica in recent days is an announcement from the Ministry of the Environment and the national electricity monopoly ICE. The announcement explains that electricity generation thus far this year has been realized without resorting to fossil fuels, which means it mostly came from hydroelectric plants and wind turbi...

Wikimedia Commons Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica (PRWEB) March 27, 2015 - Tulemar Resort, located in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica, is excited to welcome the semi-final round of the National Beach Volleyball Championships to nearby Manuel Antonio beach from March 28th to the 29th. Clubs from all around the Central American country will be traveling to represent their towns and compete for a spot in t...