Playas del Coco in Guanacaste The Gold Coast beaches of Guanacaste were jolted by an earthquake as residents and tourists were preparing to enjoy the weekend. According to a report by the Observatory of Seismology and Volcanology of Costa Rica (Spanish acronym: OVSICORI), the seismic movement was detected at a few minutes past 1:00 pm, with an epicenter 14 kilometers north of Playas del Coco a...

Source: Coast Guard Earlier this week, officers from the National Coast Guard Service of Costa Rica boarded a fishing vessel in the Bay of Quepos and found various shark carcasses that had been caught for the sole purpose of hacking off their fins. According to a press release by the Ministry of Public Security, the boarding took place when the suspected shark fin poachers least expected it: A...

Source: Fuerza Publica Escalating violence has marred an ongoing strike by dock workers in the Caribbean region of Costa Rica, and the latest reports from Fuerza Publica, the national police force, indicate that criminal instigators have fired AK-47s and semiautomatic pistols at officers from riot control units. Such was the report filed by Pablo Rojas of online news daily Costa Rica Hoy earli...

A well-behaved La Doce displays fan devotion Since the early afternoon of Thursday, October 23rd, the national police force of Costa Rica kept watch outside the Ricardo Saprissa Stadium in the suburbs of San Jose. Mounted police and special units of Fuerza Publica assembled hours before the match between the Deportivo Saprissa and the Sporting Kansas City, the latter of the United States Major...

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 ...

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica herewith extends a message of solidarity and condolences in the wake of the shooting perpetrated earlier today at the National War Memorial and Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada. This terror attack took place while Prime Minister Harper and many other government officials, as well as legislators and visitors, were present.   The Ministry als...

Self-guided tours in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve of Costa Rica are just one of the many activities that allow you to get really, really close to Nature. In this video by travel journalist Elizabeth Donatelli, she spots butterflies and a friendly white-nosed coati (or pizote) that comes right up to her. Afterwards, she boards Sky-Trek to get the true feeling of just how humid this amazing p...

Longline tuna haul. Source: Greenpeace. By means of an Executive Decree signed on Tuesday by President of Costa Rica Luis Guillermo Solis, parts of the Pacific Ocean are now off limits to commercial tuna fishing. The two main oceanic locations where tuna fishing is absolutely prohibited are the Isla del Coco (Cocos Island) National Park and the Seamount Conservation Area. The National Coast Gu...

Riding longboard skateboards in Costa Rica is nothing like surfing the Gold Coast beaches of Guanacaste. There are many more obstacles to negotiate on our dangerous roads, and skateboard wipeouts tend to be quite painful and will often result in weeks of road rash. Such matters do not seem to affect the Longboard Girls Costa Rica Crew, who actually enjoy hairpin turns that lead to downhill surpris...

At a boutique hotel in the picturesque beach town of Playa Carrillo, province of Guanacaste, a group of programmers are scratching their heads trying to figure out why none of the major surf report providers have Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), those programmatic gateways that provide access to data for third-party Web applications. The idea is to build a chat bot that can provide Web u...

One of the most celebrated football clubs of Costa Rica's First Division has once again cemented its reputation as a “Slayer of Mexican Clubs.” Liga Deportiva Alajuelense (LDA) is headed to the semifinal round of the CONCACAF Champions League, also known as CONCAChampions, after holding off Cruz Azul to a 1 – 1 draw at the Alejandro Morera Soto Stadium. Source: LDA The manudos played a nigh...

At the CONCACAF Women's Championship being decided in the United States, the National Women's Football Team of Costa Rica are shining very bright on their way to the 2015 FIFA World Cup in Canada. They are not only undefeated but also scoring at will, and they are looking strong going to the semifinals against their next rival, the national team of Trinidad and Tobago. Of special note in this rout...

Source: Flickr Just in time for Christmas, residents who live near La Sabana Metropolitan Park in the lovable city of San Jose will be able to enjoy a wide selection of arabica coffee beans from around the world, including one strain from Costa Rica, at the fifth Starbucks cafe to open in this country. According to market reporter Cristina Fallas Villalobos of business weekly El Financiero, th...

Although Costa Rica is considered by many cash-strapped expats to be the most expensive country in Latin America, data compiled by popular online travel site TripAdvisor indicates that the lovable city of San Jose is a bargain for tourists. Even when compared to Managua, the populous capital city of Nicaragua, San Jose still comes up cheaper. How did TripAdvisor arrive to this peculiar conclusion?...

The coastal community of Playa Ostional, located in the Guanacaste province, is home to one of the most magical beaches in the Gold Coast of Costa Rica. There is something about the sand on this beach that is attracting more and more sea turtles to massively arrive during nesting season. Although climate change is affecting sea turtle arrivals in other parts of Costa Rica, this is clearly not the ...

Fuerza Pública officers assigned to bicycle patrol in Costa Rica’s capital city are able to quickly respond to calls that require them to negotiate urban obstacles such as narrow streets, pedestrian areas, alleyways, and traffic jams. When it comes to dealing with suspects, these officers operate in pairs and are trained to swiftly dismount and initiate a short pursuit on foot before executing tak...

In this video by U.S. journalist and videographer Elizabeth Donatelli, she visits the vast Chirripó National Forest of Costa Rica and somehow manages to hike up a cloud forest reserve in her sandals. Then she turns into real estate agent and tries to sell you the amazing Cloudbridge Nature Reserve. For $899,000, it is a bargain; however, absent landowners need not apply: A contractual ownership cl...

Although electronic signatures in Costa Rica have enjoyed legislative approval since 2005 by virtue of Law 8454, implementation and widespread adoption has been slow. Electronic signatures are one tool to reduce paper use, promote paperless practices and cut through stifling bureaucracy, but the development of compliant solutions has been mostly reserved to the private sector, until now. Thanks to...

Days before wildlife organizations around the world celebrated International Sloth Day, the Sloth Institute Costa Rica (SICR) reported on the rescue of a pregnant female sloth that fell from a tree and eventually required a surgical intervention to help her deliver an adorable baby. Here is the story as written by SICR Manager and primate conservationist Sam Trull, who has been interviewed by BBC ...

One of the most celebrated Hollywood films of last year has a curious connection to Costa Rica, Florida, Wall Street, and an outlandish financial scam. The film is The Wolf of Wall Street, a biopic directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort. The connection is Ira Lee Sorkin, a renowned attorney who once represented Mr. Belfort and later Bernard Madoff. Mr. Sorkin ...

Source: Wikimedia Commons New York, NY (PRWEB) October 16, 2014 - The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation provided $2 million to Oceans 5, an international funders’ collaborative dedicated to stopping overfishing and establishing marine reserves in the world’s five oceans. The funds will support projects creating large protected areas in the Pacific Islands and the Arctic, while also improving fis...

Punta Loros, a planned luxury resort and development property that spans 800 acres in the Central Pacific coastline of Costa Rica, recently tendered its environmental impact study to the Technical and Environmental Secretariat (Spanish acronym: SETENA). The study is an important part of the compliance process required to make this ambitious project a reality. According to a news report by Spani...

On Day Three of her Costa Rica real estate adventure, Boston accountant Kristine Gorman gets even closer to fulfilling her dream of retiring in our country. On Days One and Two of her trip to Guanacaste, Kris and her family stayed in Playa Flamingo and were very close to making a formal offer on a home on a condo in Tamarindo Beach. To learn more about Kris and her expat mission, read our previous...

Source: Wikimedia Commons During a recent press conference on matters of national security, the Director of Intelligence and Security, Mariano Figueres Olsen, told reporters that his agency has detected the presence of members of terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Costa Rica. Director Figueres was quite vague about all other details about the purporte...

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...

Nasty drug cartel members, dirty cops and even terrorists who specialize in manufacturing deadly explosives stand in the way of The Specialist, a retired United States Special Forces operator and former federal agent who is on a daring life-or-death rescue mission to extract a corrupt banker from the hands of kidnappers in Costa Rica.   The Specialist: The Costa Rica Job is a thriller a...

Once again, Las Ticas have made their country proud with a 2 -1 victory against their Jamaican counterparts in Illinois. Shirley Cruz once again proved why she is one of the best professional female strikers in the world, and Raquel Rodriguez put the final and swift kick to advance our national team to the CONCACAF semifinals on the road to the 2015 FIFA World Cup in Canada. A word of caution: Our...

The Manuel Antonio National Park is one of Costa Rica’s best-known coastal attractions. As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star, a visit to Manuel Antonio entails an enjoyable 2.5 hour drive from San Jose on well-paved roads:; upon arrival you will find gorgeous beaches, plenty of nature, security, and:   A ton of wildlife, including monkeys, raccoons, sloths, crabs, iguanas, and ev...

Source: Flickr Kristine Gorman is a tax accountant from the New England region who is planning on becoming an expatriate in Costa Rica. She is 41 years young and is looking to one day retire here with her significant other and their 2-year old child. She was recently in Playa Flamingo, looking at properties in one of the Gold Coast beaches of Guanacaste. She has been kind enough to share her e...

When it comes to public transportation, Cartago, the former capital city of Costa Rica, is the most ecologically conscious section of the Greater San Jose Metropolitan Area (Spanish initials: GAM). Thanks to the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Cartago is now a pioneer in the use of bicycles as a smart public transportation option. This past October 15th, the fourth phase of the Bicipubl...

Seized Beasts. Source; Fuerza Publica Until recently, drug trafficking and money laundering were the predominant issues keeping customs and police agents busy on the two land borders of Costa Rica. Those two illicit activities have been quickly supplanted with smuggling of goods that supply a thriving black market in our country. From fruit juice to cigarettes and from electronics to groceries...

Ever since the incisive and controversial documentary Blackfish premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013, marine mammal park operator SeaWorld has been engaged in a careful public relations campaign that goes beyond the company’s longstanding tradition of rescuing, rehabilitating and releasing wildlife. SeaWorld is not about to give up its business model of keeping marine mammals such as ki...

This press release from Michael Dixon’s relatives is being published by The Costa Rica Star in solidarity with the Dixon family and Reporters Without Borders. He was last seen in Tamarindo Beach, province of Guanacaste. Should you have any information that will lead searchers closer to finding Mr. Dixon, please contact: David Dixon +44.7920.792 204 [email protected]   ...

In Kansas City last night, the Costa Rica National Women’s Football Team, fondly known as Las Ticas, proved that they are ready to bring back as much glory as their male counterparts by getting one step closer to the 2015 FIFA World Cup in Canada. The following video and press release courtesy of CONCACAF: http://youtu.be/VN_V_5ChZRw KANSAS CITY, Kansas -- Costa Rica scored an early goal and...

Sergio and Giancarlo Pucci are brothers who share two passions: flying and photography. Over the last few years, they have flown dozens of hours with the intention of coming up with an aerial photographic record that proves what passengers of domestic airlines such as Nature Air already know: Costa Rica looks very pretty from the ground, but from the air she looks amazing.   Togethe...

Even though statistics and public opinion surveys indicate that the administration of former President Laura Chinchilla was able to make good on the campaign promise of a safer Costa Rica, uncomfortable news reports about crimes against persons and property are prompting both Ticos and expats in Guanacaste and other affluent parts of the country to weigh their options with regard to firearms. G...

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...

One of the most famous properties in Costa Rica is once again up for sale. Hacienda Dorada is located in Playa Barrigona, one of the vaunted Gold Coast beaches of the province of Guanacaste, and it is owned by Hollywood star Mel Gibson. A cursory search of news reports published by The Costa Rica Star in the last three years indicates that this is not the first time Mr. Gibson is looking for buyer...

A vacation in Costa Rica is probably the easiest and most pleasant task for anyone to undertake, but it is easy to understand how some people may feel uncertain if they are traveling abroad for the first time. This video by Elizabeth Donatelli will dispel all fears, jitters and apprehensions anyone may have about coming to Costa Rica. Elizabeth has been writing, presenting, and producing video ...

President Solis Even before former presidential candidate Johnny Araya surprised the political sphere in Costa Rica by dropping out of the race that elected President Luis Guillermo Solis in a landslide runoff victory, analysts sensed uncertainty among the ranks of the powerful National Liberation Party (Spanish initials: PLN). Such observations are now being confirmed by a report by Gianluca ...