A recent study by national newspaper La Nacion estimates that Costa Rica has more than 3,000 homes and living spaces available to foreign visitors looking for rental options. These properties are often listed on sites such as Airbnb, HomeAway and VRBO, and many longer-term rental opportunities do not factor in the cost of utilities such as water and electricity. This opens doors for nefarious home...

Training for the EXPHORE barista challenge The 2014 Expo Hoteles y Restaurantes (EXPHORE) is scheduled to take place at the Pedregal Events Center in San Antonio de Belen, province of Heredia, from Tuesday, May 6th to Thursday, May 8th. EXPHORE is the most prominent trade show for the hospitality and gastronomy industry sectors in Costa Rica, and this year it will feature special competitions ...

PLN presidential candidate Johnny Araya Presidential candidate Johnny Araya recently announced a detailed plan to tackle poverty in Costa Rica. The details amount to a bare-bones “three squares and a cot” plan, which aims to deploy practical welfare measures such as giving poor families cash for groceries and a generous subsidy to help them achieve their dreams of homeownership. Sounds like a ...

Oceanographer Sylvia Earle One of the most recognized names in oceanography and marine life conservation is coming to Costa Rica as part of Mission Blue, a significant expedition that serves as an ocean community's effort to elevate public awareness about critical ocean issues and inspiring support for organizations, projects and scientific expeditions that make a positive difference for the o...

Jaco Beach amphitheater under construction, photo by Tim Callahan Over the last few weeks, residents of Jaco Beach have seen construction crews busy at work behind the Johannes Dankers Municipal Recreational Park. They are building a large outdoor structure that was supposed to be part of a development package to host the FIFA Under-17 Women's World Cup, which is still taking place in Costa Ric...

Lamborghini Veneno, source: Wikimedia Commons At the 2013 Geneva Motor Show, Italian luxury and sports car manufacturer Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A introduced the Lamborghini Veneno, an ultra-limited edition of its Aventador line. Priced at more than 3 million euros, the Veneno is the most expensive retail car available at this time, and news about its release has garnered significant interest...

2013 was a great year for tropical Nu-Disco/Dance-Pop band Patterns from San Jose. Their infectious single Sunny Days (video above) received major radio airplay in Costa Rica and around the world, thanks in great part to the song's colorful and surreal video, which saw its debut on the popular website Noisey, part of the Vice online network. Here's a closer look at the masterful production of ...

Street view of the Paradizio condo development in Playas del Coco, Guanacaste, Costa Rica For sales and general inquiries about Paradizio Condos please visit the official website: www.ParadizioCostaRica.com Condominium developers in Costa Rica are rushing to meet the growing demand for a luxurious exurban lifestyle filled with amenities and convenience. Such are the intentions of Oxbow Commu...

Photo from the Union of Jewish Congregations of Latin America and the CaribbeanShalom aleichem. Zach C. Cohen is a student at the American University in Washington, D.C. In 2013, he found himself in San Jose during the solemn Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), so he attended service at the Congregation B’nei Israel near La Sabana, a very nice place where you are warmly greeted with bruchim ha-baim! M...

Playas del Coco Tope horse parade, Saturday January 25th, 2014Horses, riders and beasts of burden will parade down the streets of Playas del Coco, province of Guanacaste, this Saturday afternoon. “Topes” are festive events in Costa Rica that signal the beginning of even more joyous and fun-filled family activities such as carnival rides, live music, dancing, delicious food, beer, and more. Fo...

File photo, Embassy of Japan Mamoru Shinohara, Ambassador of Japan to Costa Rica, has been quite busy lately. As reported by the Costa Rica Star in November, the government of Japan is working on a special clean energy project in Guanacaste. More recently, Ambassador Shinohara presented the keys of 45 vehicles to be used by rangers, firefighters and scientific researchers at our National Parks...

Artist rendition of El Cadejo in Costa RIcaAs you read this, a young woman in Costa Rica is staring at her smartphone in horror. She is frozen with fear and dreads the moment someone will come up from behind and tap her on the shoulder, a horrifying child covered in sores and who has dead eyes that secrete a festering combination of pus and blood. This ghastly boy skulks around Guanacaste looking...

Source: Flickr CC Equestrian parades in Costa Rica are longstanding holiday traditions that date back several decades; they are known as “topes,” and they are loved by just about everyone who enjoys the sight of magnificently trained horses that elegantly gait and gallop in the expert reins of their riders. After each tope, however, there is an unpleasant task at hand. What happens to all that...

Sun Fund Americas, Solar Energy Park in Guanacaste, Costa RicaBefore the Guanacaste Country Club becomes the most luxurious resort, theme park and residential community in Central America, an innovative solar energy project will be developed to meet future electricity needs. The Sun Costa Rica initiative will also become a blueprint for large-scale solar energy projects in eleven Latin American n...

Jorge Luis Pinto. Source: FEDEFUTBOL As World Cup fever sweeps the world, residents and tourists in Guanacaste recently learned about plans to bring a friendly football match to Liberia. Such are the intentions of Eduardo Li, who presides over the Costa Rican Football Federation (Spanish acronym: FEDEFUTBOL). For this match, the National Football Team could play against their counterparts from...

tripadvisorcostarica.com Costa Rica is one of the most queried destinations on popular and respected travel review website TripAdvisor. In fact, La Fortuna in San Carlos is one of TripAdvisor's top ten 2013 Travelers' Choice Awards for Destinations on the Rise, and Guanacaste is a favorite discussion topic among travel reviewers therein. For this reason, a TripAdvisor website dedicated to Cost...

InterNations connects global minds and expats togetherInterNations, an online social network for expatriates around the world, is pleased to announce the first offline get-together of 2014 for members and guests in San Jose, Costa Rica. The community gathering is scheduled for Tuesday, January 28th from 6:30 pm onwards at the Hard Rock Café Costa Rica (Wyndham Herradura Hotel). According to In...

Liberia Guanacaste, located on the Northwest Pacific coast of Costa RicaNearly three million people either live, work, study, or do business in Costa Rica's Greater Metropolitan Area (Spanish initials: GAM), which extends from the capital city of San Jose out to 34 cantons and 164 districts. This creates an overcrowded Central Valley, where more than half of the country's human, economic and poli...

Timeshare Scams in GuanacasteThe timeshare and fractional ownership market is a lucrative subsector of the real estate economy; unfortunately, it is also very vulnerable to scammers, swindlers and flimflam artists. Costa Rica is not impervious to real estate deception, and the province of Guanacaste seems to be a focus of recent timeshare shams and charades. At the controversial consumer compl...

This Sora Mountain estate overlooks the Pacific Ocean in Panama. As the cost of living in Costa Rica continues its steady and relentless climb, the real estate market is responding in sync. In 2012, the Inter-American Development Bank labeled San Jose as the city with the most expensive real estate in Latin America, and luxury housing construction in Guanacaste shows no signs of slowing down. ...

The Orosi Earthquake Cluster Residents and tourists in the Cobano coastal community of Puntarenas were recently enjoying a pleasant, sunny afternoon when they were suddenly shaken by a strong earthquake that was felt across Costa Rica. It was hardly the first seismic event of 2014, but it was a strong enough reminder about what might be in store for this year. The epicenter of the January 1...

Source: Ballena Beer Fest Facebook As the microbrewery and craft beer scene in Costa Rica expands to the country’s coastal areas, new festivals and special events are being planned. The next major craft beer event will take place in the Osa Peninsula in February, and organizers are excited to showcase a range of fine brews and malt beverages. The First Annual Costa Ballena Beer Festival wil...

Sagamat Home. Source: BANHVI It was a modest, yet emotional, ceremony in Santa Cruz, province of Guanacaste. At the Sagamat II residential complex, President Laura Chinchilla welcomed 21 families to their brand-new homes. Until this past Friday, many of these families were squatters or homeless. Today, they are homeowners in Costa Rica thanks to a government initiative that managed to benefit ...

President Laura Chinchilla recently gave her signature of approval to a project that will expand the reach and coverage of the Southern Crop Irrigation Canal in the province of Guanacaste. The expansion will add 33.4 kilometers to the canal for a total coverage of 35,000 hectares of farmland. This is certainly good news for farmers in the driest region of Costa Rica, where climate change is reduci...

Avon Ladies in Costa Rica may have been unwittingly recruited to conduct a smear campaign against a presidential candidate. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (Spanish initials: TSE), one of the most venerable democratic institutions in Costa Rica, recently issued an order against Avon for allegedly distributing propaganda pamphlets urging makeup shoppers to “Say No To Communism.” According to jour...

Industry analysts are forecasting more than $8 billion in revenues from the combined telecommunications sectors in Costa Rica from 2014 to 2019, and mobile communications are expected to be the main driver of this economic growth. With a rising middle class and a booming mobile market in Costa Rica, business owners should be paying attention to these trends. The forecast above was mentioned by ...

Construction workers on the build site of Croc's Casino Resort in Jaco Beach Jaco, Costa Rica – Croc's Casino Resort, the first Las Vegas-style luxury hotel, condominium and casino undergoing development in Costa Rica, recently took account of its immediate and potential future benefits to the local community of Jaco in the canton of Garabito and beyond. To this effect, developer Rory Hascall...

Horseback Riding in Guanacaste Costa Rica as part of an Agrotourism experienceOwners and operators of hospitality and recreational businesses in Costa Rica are keeping a close eye on the growth of rural tourism across Costa Rica, also known as Agrotourism. In recent years, the Central Valley and adjacent rural areas have dominated this specialty tourism segment while Guanacaste has mostly catered...

Olive Ridley Sea Turtle The Ostional Wildlife Refuge, located in Guanacaste, is the only place in Costa Rica (and perhaps in the world) where sea turtle eggs can be legally harvested by the community. This is authorized by Public Law 7064 of 1987, specifically article 55, which establishes a collection quota and allows the sale of eggs laid by Lepidochelys olivacea. Although this law creates a...

Piper auritum (root beer plant) in Guanacaste As medical tourism continues to grow in certain regions of Costa Rica such as Guanacaste and the Central Valley, many visitors are beginning to take an interest in herbal medicine and holistic treatments. Medical tourism in Costa Rica is mostly focused on conventional medicine and surgical procedures, but more patients are seeking yoga and herbal r...

Peace be with you. The next time you go to Mass at the Mercedes Sur Catholic Church in Heredia, you may notice that instead of the Holy Bible and other books used to prepare for the Eucharist, there is a single tablet computer propped up at reading angle facing the priest. That would be Father Jose Manuel Diaz, a tech-savvy man of the cloth in Costa Rica. According to an article by Ricardo Sile...

Source: Pinterest Playa Tamarindo is one of the most visited beach communities in Costa Rica, and it is easy to see why. This is a beach that seemingly has it all: Great year-round weather, excellent surfing conditions, lots of nature, plenty of amenities for foreigners, a vibrant nightlife scene, etc. What Tamarindo is missing, however, are public restrooms. According to a recent article w...

Laura Chinchilla posing with recipient of mortgage debt forgiveness in GuanacasteIn a surprise visit by President Laura Chinchilla to communities in the Carrillo and Liberia cantons of Guanacaste, more than $288,000 of mortgage debt was forgiven for 60 low-income families. President Chinchilla had previously announced that Guanacaste was going to be her first stop in Costa Rica after the holiday ...

Source: Flickr CC After decades of languishing in relative obscurity, the province of Guanacaste has become one of the most important regions of Costa Rica. Until the late 20th century, it was known as the “forgotten province.” These days, however, Guanacaste is known for being home to Costa Rica's Gold Coast and for being a land of promise. Why is it called Guanacaste? This province is nam...

Located in the northern Caribbean region of Costa Rica, the Tortuguero National Park is home to one of the most docile, timid and elusive aquatic mammals. Trichechus manatus, also known as Antillean sea cows or manatees, once sought refuge exclusively in the canals of Tortuguero, but decades of protection have encouraged them to swim north to Barra del Colorado and even all the way south to Puerto...

Screen grab from Our Name is Costa Rica Disillusionment by young voters in Costa Rica may shift the political tide in the coming presidential and legislative elections. The voter demographic from 18 to 29 years old has the power to sway who will be elected to lead Costa Rica at the Executive Branch level. Young voters can also decide the majority rule at the national Legislative Assembly; as e...

Source: soulshelpingsoles.org Going shoeless in Costa Rica used to be a childhood rite of passage in rural areas. Children would spend a lot of time barefoot, especially out in the country. By the time they joined the first grade of elementary school, they would also start wearing shoes. In Guanacaste, however, not all families are able to purchase shoes for their young children. Public sch...

Many expatriates who visit household kitchens in Costa Rica are often surprised by the number of items that Ticos do not refrigerate. Bunches of onions colorfully hang from rafters, tomatoes and avocados are stored in baskets, fruits are placed on plates or in bowls, green onions are grown in glasses of water, and eggs never seem to be refrigerated. Do these items need to go in the fridge as soon ...

In the province of Guanacaste, the expatriate and seasonal population is growing faster than anywhere else in Costa Rica. Thousands of foreigners from the United States, Canada, Europe, and other regions of the world have chosen Guanacaste as their home away from home, and they are increasingly turning to social media to share their experiences and stay up-to-date on matters pertaining to their ne...

Triathletes in Costa Rica are cordially invited to register for the first date of the 2014 TRIA Cup, which this year will take place at some of the most beautiful beaches in the province of Guanacaste. There are two available categories for triathletes to register in: Sport and Olympic. Playa Carrillo will be the site of the first Tria Cup event in late January. The Sport (also known as “Sprint...