Source: Flickr Commons Security is a major concern for the million-plus international visitors who arrive in Costa Rica every year as well as for the hundreds of thousands of expatriates who have chosen this country as their new home. This being the case, tourists and expats will probably be surprised to learn that the 2013 Gallup Law and Order Index puts Nicaragua and Panama as the safest nat...

Au Pair in the Netherlands. Source: Wikimedia Commons As of July 15th of next year, parents in the Kingdom of the Netherlands who contract the services of foreign au pairs will not only be expected to pay for the cost of Dutch language classes; they will also be prohibited from scheduling their temporary live-in nannies for more than 20 hours per week. This government ruling has come under hea...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Later this year, Costa Rica’s Barrio Chino (Chinatown) will celebrate its second anniversary of having taken over the old Students’ Boulevard as a token of appreciation for the kind donation by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) of the majestic National Stadium in La Sabana Metropolitan Park. The pretty paifang (Chinese gate) that marks the entrance to Chinatown fro...

Ronaldinho with former Prtesident Lula. Wikimedia Commons. Football fans, public officials and politicians in Mexico reacted swiftly to brazen, racist comments made by a former Secretary of Social Development in the populous State of Querétaro. Carlos Manuel Treviño no longer has a political future after he posted a Facebook update calling Brazilian football star Ronaldinho a “simian.” The mor...

Source: Wikimedia Commons For many people in Costa Rica, celebrating Independence Day means enjoying parades, picnics and a few ice-cold bottles of Imperial with neighbors at the local bar. Notwithstanding, not all municipalities share the same patriotic standpoint, and some municipalities believe that there is no place for booze during Independence Day celebrations. As a result, some towns in...

Once again, the National Men's Football Team of Costa Rica (La Sele) is crowned champion of Central America. Read about this important victory here and learn about what's ahead for Costa Rica in terms of international tournaments. Below you will find a video summary of the match uploaded by popular sports media website EverardoHerrera.com   http://youtu.be/2LYObEKMkBA    ...

Image source: CONCACAF With a final score of 2-1 against Guatemala, the players National Men's Footbal Team of Costa Rica (affectionately known as La Sele) have once again proven that they are the best in Central America and one of the strongest teams in the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF).   The match took place at the Los Ange...

Source: Flickr Commons A German scientist from the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg believes that reaction to the latest Ebola epidemic in Liberia and Sierra Leone has come too late, and that these two nations could now face a severe public health emergency that may spread elsewhere in the western region of the Dark Continent. In a recent interview with the Spanish edi...

Source: Photobucket Over the last few years, beer culture has been gaining a substantial foothold in Costa Rica. Gone are the days of having to settle for bottles of Imperial, which remains a popular and pleasant experience nonetheless. Beer lovers in Costa Rica now have many options to choose from, and they come in bottles, cans or on tap. What is the best way to serve beer in Costa Rica? Thi...

Source: SWAmedia.com The low-cost airline is popular among budget travelers in the United States, and it will be a welcome addition to the various carriers that connect North America with Costa Rica. The announcement explains that the route will connect the Thurgood Marshall International Airport in the Washington-Baltimore region with the Juan Santamaria International Airport (SJO). Following...

Source: Minister Gamboa's Twitter Current support for the War on Drugs is, at best, tenuous and waning. Just a few days after the Global Commission on Drug Policy called for a widespread decriminalization of as many drugs as civil societies are able to permit and tolerate, the Commanding Officer of the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) rushed to Costa Rica to meet with top officials and urge ou...

  Source: iCafe Are you a coffee lover in Costa Rica? If your answer is yes, you may want to rush to La Sabana Metropolitan Park in the lovable city of San Jose before 1:00 pm today and enjoy the best coffee our dedicated farmers and roasters have to offer. September 12th is the day we celebrate National Coffee Day, and everyone is invited to enjoy our best beans and learn more about w...

Source: Chamber of Construction The first half of 2014 has not been very auspicious for construction firms in Costa Rica, at least compared to previous years. According to forecasts by the national Chamber of Construction, economic activity in this sector has been marred by a loss of 10 percent in terms of square meters built. A major issue has been the United States dollar strengthening to ap...

Statement from Carlos: The media in Costa Rica supports me a lot… and it was amazing; I couldn’t believe it how so people were voting… All the soccer players put me on Instagram. All the people on radio, TV… everybody and people in Latin America, Europe, Brazil, here, and in Hawaii… I got so many people, so many good vibes and they gave me a chance to compete here and I am so happy for that. ...

Source: Carloz Munoz Facebook UPDATE: Carlos Muñoz surprised everyone on the beach at Trestles with an amazing performance (WATCH!) during his heat against Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina, who happens to be the current World Championship Tour champ. In just seconds, attacked a long right that stoked the crowd and earned him a quick seven points to pull a huge upset and win the heat. Costa Rica...

Source: Apple Technology giant Apple is looking beyond its iPod, iPhone and iPad legacy. After the sad passing of co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs, the bar was set at an extremely high level for current CEO Tim Cook. At a recent special event organized by Apple for tech news media, Mr. Cook unveiled an ambitious project that seeks to conquer the burgeoning wearable computing market: The Ap...

Just one of the many firms reducing their presence in Costa Rica Economists and public officials who oversee business and industry in Costa Rica are extremely worried about the ongoing exodus of foreign firms that are moving their operations to other countries. This bleeding of capital has been taking place over the last few years, and it became exacerbated in recent days with the announcement...

Source: Revista Paquidermo Creative Commons The widespread development of high-rise condominium towers and gated communities in Costa Rica is creating new trends. We are seeing an influx of Mediterranean-style residential architecture and amenities such as playgrounds, picnic areas and car-washing spaces. We are also seeing kitschy and highfalutin naming schemes that evoke certain aspirations ...

San Vicente de Paul Hospital in Heredia A young man in Costa Rica who suffered from a malignant tumor in his spinal cord is recovering after a successful surgical procedure that involved the implantation of a penile prosthesis. The surgery was performed at the Saint Vincent of Paul Hospital, a public health facility that serves the community of Heredia. This was the first time a penile implant...

Source: Bing commercial use Sexy escorts from Costa Rica and Chile are at the center of a financial scandal exposed by Honduran news outlets such as El Heraldo and reported in nearby El Salvador by La Pagina. It all started when a beautiful and well-known model from Honduras was alleged to have swindled her country's Social Security coffers in excess of $435,000. The September 2nd headline in ...

Frozen in Time: A damaged wall clock at the station marks the time of the explosion. Source: TVN The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Costa Rica has extended a message of condolence and solidarity to the Republic of Chile in light of the terror attacks that rocked the majestic capital city of Santiago on September 8th. The Ministry's communique number 3096 was issued just hours after press repor...

  Source: Wikimedia Commons The city of Armenia in Colombia is located in the heart of one of the most fertile coffee-producing regions in the world. This is where the 25th International Conference on Coffee Science is currently taking place, and there are two topics that attendants are likely to discuss: The sequencing of the coffee genome, which was recently completed, and how this m...

Source: MSP Costa Rica This past Saturday, poachers plying their loathsome trade in the Caribbean region of Costa Rica were about to butcher an adult female Chelonia mydas (green sea turtle) when officers from the National Coast Guard Service and the local Fuerza Publica detachment stepped in to prevent what would have been a violent demise for the aquatic reptile.   According to a ...

Source: Google Images CC A single arrest for suspicion of drinking and driving in Costa Rica may involve hours of work and take Transit Police officers off the highways and roads they are supposed to patrol. Such is the assessment presented by Hulda Miranda in a recent investigative report published in La Nacion. Ms. Miranda described the plight of the Transit Police officers as an uphill batt...

  Source: Wikimedia Commons Outside of the Chinese-donated National Stadium in San Jose this Sunday, animal rights activists picketed and shouted slogans as spectators cheered on bull riders, bronco handlers and rodeo clowns. According to a report filed by Paula Ruiz of La Prensa Libre, the “American-style” (from the United States) rodeo took place without turmoil despite the clamor fr...

Getting one of these just got cheaper. On September 3rd, 2014, the Embassy of the United States in San Jose, Costa Rica, published an announcement related to the fees charged by the Consular Section for various services related to travel, immigration and citizenship. Not all fee changes represent an increase; for example, the filing fee for employment-based visas has gone down by $60.   Of spe...

Source: Costa Rica Beer Factory A global movement that dates back to World War I is slowly being adopted in Costa Rica at just the right time. Meatless Monday is a 2003 initiative established by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; however, it dates back to a wartime policy enacted by the United States a hundred years ago. Considering that economic vegetarianism is a direct res...

Source: CONCACAF Goalkeeper Patrick Pemberton and striker Johan Venegas were the heroes of Sunday's match between the National Men's Football Teams of Costa Rica and Panama. These two Afro-Costa Rican players hail from the Caribbean province of Limon, and their outstanding performances at the Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas kept hopes alive for La Sele in the Tigo Central American Cup (UNCAF). ...

Source: Bing Creative Commons The Internet marketing realm was recently shaken up by what analysts are calling an email faux pas by burgeoning social network Pinterest. Millions of messages congratulating Pinterest members on their upcoming weddings were accidentally sent to women who are not actually planning to get married. The reaction on Twitter was swift.   According to the Was...

Fuerza Publica, the national police force of Costa Rica, recently reported the arrest of two suspected smugglers on the border with Panama. The men were driving separate cars, but they appeared to be working together in an effort to illicitly introduce 240 bottles and cans of beer to Costa Rica. Of special note within the nefarious cargo: Seven cases of Milwaukee's Best Premium, proudly manufa...

Source: Bing commercial reuse With more than 70,000 visitors attending the 15th International Book Fair in San Jose, organizers and exhibitors were certainly pleased to see that reading is still capturing the interest of many people in Costa Rica. For the second year in a row, the International Book Fair expanded its presence beyond the Antigua Aduana (Old Customs Building), and held activitie...

  Source: Ocearch Beamer was a blue shark that used to enjoy swimming in the chilly waters off Montauk, New York. Last year, Beamer began swimming south towards the Caribbean and made it to the eastern Antilles by Christmas. The shark then made a straight swim towards Puerto Limon in Costa Rica; alas, Beamer ended up hooked on  the lines of a commercial fishing boat somewhere between P...

They are traditional, delicious and chock-full of low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. We are talking about chicharrones (fried pork rinds), and in Costa Rica they are associated with Christmas, the end-of-year holidays, town fair celebrations, block parties, and virtually anytime friends gather at bars. It is estimated that each portion of chicharrones (one medium-sized pork rind) conta...

  Source: Wikimedia Commons If you have traveled through Paseo Colon and its surrounding neighborhoods in San Jose over the last few years,it can be safely assumed that you've seen the proliferation of condominium towers. Along with gated communities and planned developments, high-rise residential solutions are essentially the future of housing in Costa Rica. Like them or not, demand a...

Source: ASOTU Costa Rica One of the most family-friendly and fun-filled festivals in Costa Rica is happening again in just a few days. The 6th Whales and Dolphins Festival in Ballena Bay will star this Friday, September 5th. Although whale watching season in Costa Rica runs from July until October, the peak month for migration is September. Some of the activities that visitors to the Osa Penin...

Source: Bing Creative Commons The administration of President Daniel Ortega has granted oil exploration and drilling permits to a couple of European firms. According to a report by Radio Columbia in Costa Rica, Nicaragua's official news media outlet 19 Digital made the announcement during a meeting between Francisco Lopez, president of state-owned energy giant Petronic and representatives from...

Source: Bing Creative Commons From December 19th to January 2014, United Airlines will increase the number of non-stop flights to the Juan Santamaria International Airport (SJO) from the following departure locations: George Bush International Airport in Houston and Newark Liberty International in New Jersey. United Airlines plans to assign Boeing 737-800 aircraft to these additional flights; ...

Source: MSP Facebook The illegal importation of goods into Costa Rica has been keeping law enforcement agencies on their toes over the last few years. Drug trafficking is but a tiny portion of the vast and flourishing smuggling realm in Costa Rica, which has grown to include over-the-counter and prescription medications, designer clothing, premium liquor, handcrafts, herbal remedies, cows, and...

Source: Bing Creative Commons Despite efforts by the Central Bank to keep inflation at bay, the consumer price index (CPI) in Costa Rica reached its highest level in six years during August. According to a report by Marcos Gonzalez of La Prensa Libre, the current CPI stood at 5.44 percent last month, up from 5.09 percent in July. Furthermore, this is the second month the CPI escapes the contai...

Dear Readers: It has been more than two years since The Costa Rica Star published The Costa Rica Dome and Phytoplankton Treasures, an article that highlighted the importance of the Thermal Convection Dome off our Pacific Coast. Of all the natural wonders of our country, it is crucial that we understand the organisms that the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) calls ...