Recent cover of US Forbes edition Two of the biggest global names in financial news media have recently expanded to Costa Rica and the rest of the Central American Isthmus. Bloomberg TV has teamed up with El Financiero of Mexico to launch a multimedia platform that will broadcast in Spanish, and Forbes announced the debut of a print magazine dedicated to Central American financial news. Acc...

Screen grab from YouTube An organization of motorcycle riders and street racing enthusiasts are petitioning the government for what they think is their right to burn rubber on the public roadways of Costa Rica. President Laura Chinchilla was flabbergasted at the idea and posted a scathing Facebook update calling the riders a bunch of snotty-nosed kids. Over the last few days, leaders of the...

Source: Twitter Pictures of a ghostly white blue marlin caught and released by anglers getting ready for the the third stage of  Los Suenos Triple Crown Tournament in Costa Rica have achieved viral status and caused quite a bit of commotion after being published by numerous websites. There is no question as to the achromatic aspect and rarity of the fine specimen; however, the International Ga...

Source: Wikimedia Commons The frantic search for Malaysia Airlines passenger flight MH370, which never reached its Beijing destination after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, has turned into a hijacking investigation as Prime Minister Najib Razak stated that the Boeing 777-200ER may have been deliberately diverted off course. Hopes of finding the aircraft remain strong; alas, aviation history in C...

Badge of the Green Army Someone seems to have gotten their Irelands mixed up at the Costa Rican Football Federation (Spanish acronym: FEDEFUTBOL) earlier this week. In announcing an upcoming friendly match for the National Men's Football Team of Costa Rica, the FEDEFUTBOL website displayed the crest of the Irish Football Association, a regulatory sporting body of Northern Ireland, while making...

Minister Garita At a recent meeting of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Costa Rica's Minister of Justice and Peace presented a formal request to join the working group dedicated to monitoring and analyzing international business transactions for the purpose of guarding against corruption and bribery of public officials, a group that has been operational since ...

Source: RainSaucer As the high tourist season approaches its apex in Costa Rica, water shortages in Guanacaste are becoming more frequent. Waking up to hear the dismal gurgling sound of a faucet running dry is something that many residents of Guanacaste are currently dealing with. The situation should improve once the green (rainy) season begins, which would be a perfect time to explore rainwa...

A replica of La Negrita. Source: Flickr A replica of the holiest religious effigy in Costa Rica will be enthroned at the Pontifical Parrish of Saint Anna in the Vatican on April 26th. Affectionately known as “La Negrita” and formally called “Our Lady of the Angels,” the Patriot Saint and Guardian of Costa Rica is part of a beloved Roman Catholic tradition that involves veneration and an annual...

Macau, a former Portuguese colony that now operates as an autonomous region of China, is one of the most profitable gambling spots of the world. With a labor force that is less than 350,000 strong, Macau produced a GDP of $43 billion in 2011. In recent years, Macau has become ground zero for smuggling money out of China through a merchant debit card system that may soon become operational in Costa...

Source: Ronald McDonald House Costa Rica. The Costa Rican chapter of the Ronald McDonald House Charities is proud to announce the 14th edition of its classic Charitable Golf Tournament. This event has become the main fund raiser to cover the costs of operating and maintaining the Ronald McDonald House in Costa Rica, which opened in 2012. The stroke-play, 18-hole tournament will take place a...

Caterpillar B15 Smartphone, Tough as S#&@! People love Guanacaste for dozens of reasons, and one of the reasons most often mentioned by adventuresome tourists and expats is the wide range of outdoor activities that can be enjoyed in the province. Surfing, horseback riding, diving, hiking, stand-up paddle (SUP) boarding, mountain bike riding, kite boarding... the list goes on. Guanacaste...

Hoteliers in Guanacaste and other tourist hotspots in Costa Rica have been doing brisk business and are enjoying the high season thus far in 2014, but their counterparts in San Jose are not. According to recent surveys conducted by the Costa Rica Chamber of Hotels and the National Board of Tourism (Spanish initials: ICT), hotels in the capital city have seen a 15 percent drop in occupancy comp...

A man suspected of stabbing his former employer to death after a disagreement is now in custody after he turned himself in at a police station in Carrillo, province of Guanacaste. The suspect, a fruit and vegetable peddler whose last name is Scott, was reportedly extremely angry after his demands for severance pay and aguinaldo (the mandatory holiday bonus in Costa Rica) fell on deaf ears. Mari...

Municipal Center of Carrillo. The Mayor of Carrillo and other municipal officials in this canton of Guanacaste are well-traveled public servants. According to a report published in recent days by online news site Primero en Noticias, official records show that Argentina, China, Mexico, Spain, and the United States are the destinations where Carrillo officials have or will travel to in 2014. Th...

When the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of the United States was mentioned for the first time, analysts of the medical tourism industry wondered how “Obamacare” would impact the business of health travel. Now that enrollment in federal health insurance has been in effect for a few months, continuous growth of medical tourism in Costa Rica is expected due to three factors: Affordability...

Central Bank of Costa RicaUPDATE: please click here for more information about Coopenae in Costa Rica. Thank you to Asdrubal Zamora Corrales for the additional insights and information. Last week, the banking interest rate in Costa Rica dropped to its lowest level since July 2008. The “tasa basica pasiva” is set by the Central Bank of Costa Rica and it is a closely-followed economic indicator ...

Costa Rica U-17 team and coach. The biggest football event ever organized in Costa Rica will not be broadcast in its entirety by local television stations. TV networks Repretel and Teletica have announced that they will only show a few of the football matches of the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, which will be held at stadiums in Alajuela, Liberia and San Jose. Teletica will carry some of the...

Source: Fuerza Publica During a recent visit to the city of Liberia, President Laura Chinchilla did not mince any words when she sharply responded to comments made by a labor union leader and a legislator who are not happy with the investment of more than $750,000 in patrol cars, motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) to augment law enforcement operations in the formerly “forgotten provin...

If you own or otherwise manage a website or computer network in Costa Rica, you may want to ensure that your security systems and protocols are solid and up-to-date. Hacking and network security skills are in high demand in Costa Rica at this time, and many employers are asking job candidates that they bring factual proof of their exploits before they are hired, which means that they may target yo...

Source: Taco Bell US Yum Brands, the parent company of the popular fast-food chain Taco Bell, has recently been making headlines in both the United States and Costa Rica with the introduction of two new breakfast menu items. How does the curious breakfast Waffle Taco in the U.S. fare against the more traditional breakfast gallopinto burrito in Costa Rica? There is no question that Taco Bell...

Delicious Tacos on the menu at Hotel ChantelHotel Chantel, the ocean view boutique hotel with the best 360-degree panoramic view of Playas del Coco in Guanacaste, is happy to announce that its scenic rooftop restaurant is now open to the public. This comfortable restaurant was inaugurated for the convenience of hotel guests just in time for the 2013 holiday season; however, management had to smoot...

Source: FEDESURF Costa Rica. Geovanny Vega Espinoza from Guanacaste won his second consecutive title after dominating in the 4.5 and 9 kilometer stand-up paddle (SUP) board races in Tamarindo Beach. Some of the best SUP action in Costa Rica takes place during the SurfTech 2014 Stand-Up Paddle National Circuit, and the most exciting races typically take place in Guanacaste, which is on its way ...

Alvaro Saborio Hello haters. It's time to put down those frosty bottles of Haterade and sing a song that you should have learned back in October when the National Football Team of Costa Rica played the National Football Team of Mexico and won the final qualifier match before the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. In case you have forgotten, the lyrics below should be sung to the tune of the nurser...

Presidential candidate Luis Guillermo Solis of Costa Rica. Following the announcement by presidential candidate and former Mayor of San Jose Johnny Araya's decision to abandon his pre-runoff election political campaign in Costa Rica, his opponent offered a polite and commiserate statement equivalent to accepting a concession speech. It did not take long, however, for presidential candidate Lui...

Source: Hockey Canada As Canadian snowbirds and visitors in Costa Rica were following the performance of their compatriot athletes at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, their Finance and National Revenue Ministers announced that an intergovernmental agreement with the United States had been reached on the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) of 2010. What this means for U.S. taxpayers is...

Source: Wikimedia Commons The possibility of a live performance by the legendary Paul McCartney in Costa Rica has been an item of considerable hearsay since 2012. The rumor mill reverberated in late February following the interview with an executive of a Mexican concert promotion firm by a daily tabloid, which almost confirmed the future appearance of the famous musician in early May. Renat...

Mounted police officers guard a beach in Costa Rica. If you are concerned about violent crime in Costa Rica, you may want to consider moving to the agricultural cantons of Hojancha and Nandayure in Guanacaste. Likewise, you may want to stay away from the central canton of Limon in the Caribbean region and the urban districts of San Jose. This information can be gleaned from the 10th Statistica...

Guaria morada in the wild. Source: INBIO. In March of last year, police officers patrolling the Upala sector in the northern region of Costa Rica made a botanical arrest. A man was caught with 112 members of the Orchidaceae family that he was furtively trying to smuggle. The suspect attempted to confound the Fuerza Publica (Costa Rica's national police) officers with flowery speech; alas, he w...

Regional dish in Costa Rica. “Eat Well, Travel Better.” Such is the motto of the World Food Travel Association (WFTA), an organization that is considered the leading authority on food tourism. For more than 10 years, the WFTA has organized numerous food tourism trade conferences in various parts of the world, including Canada, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, South America, and many others. C...

Scene from DrumFest 2013 DrumFest Costa Rica is an international event organized by the Sanders Music Academy that has become an important cultural and musical gathering in Latin America. DrumFest 2014 will be the fourth iteration of this important event, which is dedicated to a very special guest: Renowned jazz drummer John Bernard Riley. John Riley is one of the foremost drum and percussi...

Longline tuna haul. Source: Greenpeace. The recent Executive decree signed by President Laura Chinchilla approving new restrictions on commercial longline fishing operations is a positive, yet not altogether effective, step towards stopping the overfishing and depletion of marine resources of Costa Rica. Such was the statement pronounced by the Costa Rica Fishing Federation (Spanish acronym: F...

A petition by Costa Rica before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to determine clear maritime boundaries on the issue of international borders with Nicaragua goes beyond the intentions of President Daniel Ortega to build a transoceanic canal. It is the possibility of oceanic exploration for sources of oil and methane by Nicaragua that has Costa Rica worried. A recent article by Pablo Roj...

A previous issue of Diario Extra newspaper in Costa Rica Diario Extra, a sensationalist tabloid in Costa Rica that is known for its bold headlines, over-the-top crime reporting and photos spreads of scantily-clad and seductive Ticas, was recently condemned by the Colegio of Periodistas (Board of Journalism) after the daily published ghastly photos of a motor vehicle accident on Route 32 connec...

Among the numerous reasons medical tourism in Costa Rica has grown significantly over the last few years, quality of care stands out as being among the most important. In the 21st century, a handful of nations have consistently ranked among the top countries for health care in terms of quality and affordability, and Costa Rica is the most attractive destination for North American medical travelers...

Teletica, the media network that broadcasts nationwide as well as abroad via Internet data streams, recently confirmed rumors related to its expansion in the near future. By 2015, the TV network that includes channel 7, XperTV, CableTica, the new Teletica Deportes channel (TD+), and TuYo Movil, will have a new studio in Costa Rica. This expansion may also hint at a future focus on reality TV p...

Original Doge meme. In the quirky world of memes and assorted tomfoolery that dominates Internet life and culture in the 21st century, Costa Rica stands out as a very active nation both in terms of generation and propagation. There is, however, one particular meme that Costa Rica has mostly failed to adapt despite having reverberated on a global scale and even launched a virtual currency. We a...

Bribri woman artisan in Costa Rica During any given week at university campuses around the world, the thorny topics of feminism, gender roles and female empowerment are perennially discussed and dissected by students and faculty. Lecturers, researchers, activists, and observers are all part of a sociopolitical microcosm dedicated to controversy. In the Talamanca Region of Costa Rica, however, ...

The mangroves near the proposed airport. Over the next few years, the sublime and mysterious stone spheres at the Palmar Sur park indigenous park in Costa Rica will witness the construction of the Brunca Region International Airport, Costa Rica's latest effort in expanding its lucrative tourism industry. While many residents and landowners rejoiced at the news, others groaned about what they d...

Will and Jaden Smith, looking dejected. A significant portion of After Earth, a sci-fi summer blockbuster starring father-son Hollywood royalty Will and Jaden Smith, was filmed on the skirts of the Arenal Volcano and the surrounding cloud forest in La Fortuna. Although After Earth is hardly the only blockbuster filmed in Costa Rica, there is a strong chance that it may become the first one  to...

An incredible display of going way past the "extra mile" for a customer by a Minnesota clothier has created plenty of Internet buzz right in the middle of the busy season for weddings as well as prenuptial parties in Costa Rica. As reported by Jim Adams of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Wayzata clothier Judd Frost: “put his 32-year-old daughter on a southbound plane with the $500, tan gaberd...