Alvaro Saborío. Source: Twitter Major League Soccer (MLS) in the United States is a professional football league that is growing very quickly. Many First Division players from Costa Rica are attracted to the MLS for its commitment to constantly develop, its style and pace of play, and its lucrative wages. A total of eight Ticos are currently playing in the MLS, and talented striker Alvaro Sabo...

Auto Mercado, an upscale supermarket chain in Costa Rica, has opened its 17th grocery store. The new Auto Mercado is located one mile west of the Catholic church of San Francisco, a once bucolic municipality in Heredia that has been transformed into a sprawling suburb of the lovable city of San Jose.     As reported by Cristina Fallas Villalobos of business weekly El Financi...

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. ...

The most emblematic and traditional dish of Costa Rica humbly consists of rice, beans, a few tasty vegetables, and spices. Gallo pinto is nutritious, delicious and easy to make; however, proper preparation is key. In a video recently shared by YouTube channel The Hot Dish, a beautiful and talented actress from Southern California uses the tried and true method of warming up the beans prior to addi...

The foreign direct investment (FDI) bonanza that Costa Rica has enjoyed for most of the 21st century has been in free fall lately. Intel and Bank of America are just two of the major global firms that have left Costa Rica for greener (meaning: cheaper) pastures. The rapid loss of FDI is something that has President Luis Guillermo Solis very concerned, and he has been on a personal mission to at...

The housing market in Costa Rica has been picking up steam in 2014, particularly in the Central Valley and the sprawling Greater San Jose Metropolitan Area (Spanish initials: GAM). The real estate sector, both commercial and residential, enjoyed strong performance in the bottom half of 2013, and the rising middle class seems to be in a hurry to own a piece of the GAM. This urgency is leaving the d...

French Mirage fighter jet In a recent institutional communication issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the government of Costa Rica reiterated its most emphatic condemnation of everything that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) stands for. This reaffirmation of repudiation was made in the wake of the killing of French citizen Hervé Gourdel in Algeria by a splinter cell that has p...

Source: Ministry of Public Security Officers assigned to the Canas cantonal detachment of Fuerza Publica, the national police force of Costa Rica, rushed to the scene of a reported aircraft that crashed in Guanacaste on Sunday afternoon. Initial reports and pictures of the aviation accident were posted by Minister of Public Safety Celso Gamboa Sanchez on his Twitter feed. Further reporting by ...

As the iPhone 6 arrived in a few stores and online marketplaces in Costa Rica in late September, shoppers were worried about whether their beloved smartphone would bend as shown in this surprising video uploaded by Unbox Therapy. Retailers in Costa Rica are now considering the strategy that they should follow when the time comes to offer the iPhone Plus 6 to the public.   http://youtu.b...

  Source: Twitter The iPhone 6 has arrived in Costa Rica ahead of schedule, but both shoppers and shopkeepers are wary about “Bendgate” and the “Dali Edition” of the iPhone 6 Plus, the latest and largest version of the revolutionary smartphone that was historically introduced by the late Steve Jobs back in 2007.   According to a recent news story by Alejandro Mendez of natio...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Warning signs along the Tarcoles River near the Central Pacific coast of Costa Rica will soon advice residents and tourists about the presence of potentially dangerous caimans.   The warning signs specifically prohibit feeding the reptiles, which many people see as an act of good faith, but is in fact a danger to humans. In a recent interview with Radio Col...

Part of the San Juan River Strong warnings by scientists, a sobering maritime navigation analysis and the sudden death of a Chinese engineer are among the latest news coming from the controversial and quixotic Nicaragua Canal project, which appears to moving away from the San Juan River and Costa Rica's northern border. However, some analysts believe that the move may be temporary. The Nica...

Although real estate prices in Costa Rica are among the highest in Latin America, the Chamber of Construction does not seem to believe that speculation is affecting property values in the housing market. In a recent interview with journalist Diego Bosque of national news daily La Nacion, Chamber President Guillermo Carazo explained that current profits earned by large residential projects are not ...

Online video is by no means a new trend in real estate marketing, but its potential has not been completely embraced by international real estate agents until recently. Reality television shows about real estate investing flourished during the American housing bonanza and somehow survived the bursting of the housing bubble, but there has been an even sharper increase of YouTube clips that focus on...

It has been more than a year since The Costa Rica Star reported on the gruesome murder of a woman in Guanacaste who died at the hands of her jilted lover. The killer confessed to the homicide by posting messages on WhatsApp, an instant messaging platform with social networking features that has become as popular as Facebook in Costa Rica. Media reports of that ghastly incident raised popularity an...

Residents of Costa Rica might not be able to access the Internet on their desktop or mobile devices starting this Friday at 22:00 CST UTC/GMT -6 hours until 06:00 on Sunday. According to an announcement posted on the website of the Superintendency of Telecommunications (Spanish acronym: SUTEL), there may be a sharp decrease in broadband speeds, but intermittent service and complete outages may als...

Source: Heineken The capital city of Costa Rica is now on a level similar to New York, Shanghai, Berlin, Amsterdam, London, and Rio de Janeiro, at least according to the emblematic Dutch beer Heineken. From now until late October, beer lovers and collectors of neat promotional items can pick up a special edition bottle of Heineken emblazoned with San José under the current big red star logo. T...

  A young writer from the United States recently found herself besieged in Peñas Blancas, the border crossing point between Nicaragua and Costa Rica, as her lack of a travel document nearly prompted an anxiety attack. Emilia Azar, a senior at Elon University in North Carolina traveled to our country with a few noble intentions, one of them being learning to surf; alas, her joyful sojourn h...

  Source: Sea Shepherd The history of Paul Watson and Costa Rica began a new chapter this month, but this time there are no INTERPOL notices or outstanding arrest warrants making the news. As people in Costa Rica were celebrating Independence Day on September 15th, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society published a press release announcing Operation Pacuare, an effort to protect the sea...

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...

Clients of Banco Nacional, Costa Rica's largest bank in terms of deposits and account holders, were targeted this weekend by an email phishing attack that was detected by members of the financial institution's online security team after some of their customers reported suspicious activity.   The official announcement was posted on bnmascerca.com, which is Banco Nacional's online portal ...

  Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs The new ambassadors of India, Shamma Jain; the Vatican, Nuncio Antonio Arcari; Turkey, Ali Findik; Armenia, Grigor Hovhannissian; and Germany, Ingo Winkelmann, recently presented their diplomatic credentials to President Luis Guillermo Solís Rivera of Costa Rica.   The President received the diplomats in the Golden Hall of the Casa Amari...

Source: J. Martinez & Co Gourmet coffee is one of the most refined and appropriate gifts for business executives. Connoisseurs of java in the United States know that coffee from Costa Rica is considered to be among the most tasteful and sensibly priced in the world. If you are looking for alternatives to Cafe Britt and Starbucks, you will be pleased to learn that J. Martinez & Company ...

  Source: Fuerza Publica Police officers assigned to an extended security detail in the Caribbean province of Limon over the weekend arrested one of their own after a spectacular car chase that left three patrol cars damaged. Witnesses of the incident, which took place in Guápiles, explained that the events unfolded in a way reminiscent of a film directed by Michael Bay.   I...

  The Whales and Dolphins Festival was a great success this year, and cetacean sightings in the Southern Pacific coast of Costa Rica will continue through October. As you can see from this video recently uploaded by kind blogger Capi, the season has thus far provided plenty of whale spotting opportunities.   http://youtu.be/ybm6VAZsCaI    ...

  Source: Flickr Commons One of the most derided provisions of taxation in the United States is the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which is a topic that The Costa Rica Star has previously discussed more than once. This overreaching law, which has not yet entered a period of strict enforcement, has already led to the renunciation of U.S. citizenship by expats around the wor...

  The crackdown on drug-related offenses in Costa Rica intensified in Guanacaste from January to August of 2014. According to official statistics published by the Ministry of Public Security (Spanish initials: MSP), 233 foreigners have been arrested thus far this year for violations of the Law on Controlled Substances. The majority of those arrested are Nicaraguan and Colombian immigrants,...

Have you ever used Twitter to plan your trip to Costa Rica? If you haven't, you may be missing out on special offers, travel giveaways and crucial information that could make your sojourn more enjoyable. Thanks to digital marketing initiatives managed by the government's Board of Tourism (Spanish initials: ICT), our country has a very solid presence on Twitter. For example, a quick Twitter search ...

Just a few days after Costa Rica celebrated National Coffee Day, Banco Nacional and various organizations dedicated to advancing the interests of this valuable commodity are holding a special fair and expo at the Antigua Aduana (Old Customs Building) in San Jose until 6:00 pm on Sunday, September 21st. Doors open at 9:00 in the morning, and 100 small businesses dedicated to cultivation, roasting, ...

A home in La Guacima Despite a growing interest in high-rise condominium towers and apartments among home buyers in Costa Rica, detached single-family residences are still preferred by 66 percent of house hunters. Such was one of the main findings of a research survey conducted by consulting firm Gutierrez and Gallardo and reported by Juan Pablo Arias of business weekly El Financiero.  ...

Source: Red Cross Strong rains and storm surge caused more than 30 major landslides in Costa Rica earlier this week. Red Cross rescue units and first responders from Fuerza Publica, the national police force, sprung to action to safely evacuate and render aid to more than 2,000 people in affected communities. The majority of those rescued have been motorists driving on Route 32, the main highw...

  Source: Wikimedia Commons Independence may have been averted in Scotland, but the polling results of the historic referendum to separate the country from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland are inspiring and motivating secession movements around the world. From Flanders to Texas and from Okinawa to the Basque Country, people who support their region's independenc...

Source: Wikimedia Commons A surfer in Playa Avellanas, province of Guanacaste, tragically passed away yesterday despite cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) efforts that lasted more than 30 minutes. National newspaper La Nacion identified the dearly departed as Francis Gianvalbo of the United States, who had reportedly begun to enjoy his retirement in Costa Rica only three months ago. The re...

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: Fuerza Publica The canton of Garabito in Puntarenas is home to some of the most eco-friendly police officers in Costa Rica. Two years ago, members of Fuerza Pública (Costa Rica's national police force) who patrol the Jaco Beach and Playa Hermosa communities decided to open their own nesting sanctuary for olive ridley sea turtles. This initiative was prompted by the need to pr...

  Source: Gekkotel The next ecotourism lodge in Costa Rica could be financed through a method that involves funds pledged by many people whose return-on-investment (ROI) expectations are minimal. Gecko Tail Holdings is a tour and hotel operator based in San Jose and Toronto that is launching a crowdfunding campaign to help raise money for a down payment on a new hotel.   Tho...

Source: Kalambu Hot Springs The Kalambu Hot Springs Water Park opened its doors and recreational facilities to the public during a rainy afternoon this Saturday. The inauguration of this aquatic-themed park comes at a time when both domestic and international tourism in Costa Rica are at all-time high levels and increasing significantly. This new water park is located in La Fortuna of the San ...

Source: Wikimedia Commons The upscale Guachipelín district in Escazú is home to the most exorbitant real estate markets in the Central Valley of Costa Rica. The rule of thumb in this neighborhood seems to be: The closer you are to the Multiplaza shopping mall, the more expensive the land will be. It is here that we find Calle Matapalo, a narrow neighborhood of just six homes and a pulpería (co...

  Source: Wikimedia Commons Specialized housekeeping and nanny services, on-call chefs who cook on demand at the residences of their clients, limousine transport, and personalized security are some of the luxury services that are going through a burgeoning phase and could see a brighter future in Costa Rica. To a certain extent, these services could be offered by expats who have not on...