Source: Wikimedia Commons Employees and shoppers at Cooperativa Dethan, a fish and seafood retail shop in Cieneguita, in the Caribbean province of Limon, lived a very scary moment on Friday, September 22nd. A routine retail transaction was suddenly interrupted when a hand grenade landed on the floor of the shop and rolled to a stop, sending shoppers and employees screaming and running to find ...

Source: US Navy About a month ago, the Ministry of Public Safety in Costa Rica issued a press release that indicated no more cocaine would be sent to Miami, at least for the time being. That statement, however, did not apparently extend to other major cities in the State of Florida, such as Jacksonville. Nearly a ton of cocaine seized by the United States Navy and Coast Guard from a fishing...

Drake Bay. Source: Flickr CC The treacherous underwater currents of Drake Bay claimed the life of a Canadian man who was reportedly part of a film crew working for the international cable network NatGeo in Costa Rica. The photographer has been identified as Peter Brumer. According to daily tabloid newspaper Diario Extra, the late photographer disappeared around 4:00 p.m. on Friday. The unde...

Source: DeviantArt CC Pablo Vargas is a member of the Scumm Bar community in Costa Rica, which is a corner of the Web for serious fans of video games. Mr. Vargas is also a fine writer and contributor to the influential 89 Decibeles musical and cultural online community. What follows is a summary of his review of Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V), a long-awaited and controversial video game that has m...

Shark fin market, Taiwan. Source: Wikimedia Commons Five fishing vessels (FVs) that were once used by alleged shark fin poachers in Costa Rica continue to receive fuel subsidies from the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Institute (Spanish acronym: INCOPESCA), a government agency under the purview of the Ministry of the Environment. Such was the report compiled by Alvaro Sanchez of online ...

Source: Zoo Ave Facebook UPDATE: This article is pending confirmation from Zoo Ave biologists on the snake, which may be a lora venenosa, a venomous (and pretty) pit viper endemic to Costa Rica and Panama. The Bothriechis lateralis is not as dangerous as the Bothrops asper; still, Don Johnny's story is commendable. An amazing display of utmost respect for wildlife recently took place in Cos...

More English-language writers are choosing Costa Rica as the background for their fictional literary works. A recent novel by Alexander Banyan, a Florida-based author who has also sailed around the Caribbean, is about a man who saves a Costa Rican woman from a ship's captain, a privateer working in human trafficking. He falls in love and returns to Costa Rica with her. They steal money from the pr...

Saprissa fans. Source: Facebook The most heated football rivalry in Costa Rica produced eight goals and caused a fan to suffer a heart attack at the stadium. Known as El Clasico, the most recent iteration of the match between Deportivo Saprissa and Liga Deportiva Alajuelense was the most exciting in history. The match ended with a spectacular tie of 4 – 4 and reports of a man struck by a heart...

Source: Zoo Ave Facebook Officials from the Zoo Ave Wildlife Rescue Center of Costa Rica recently communicated the sad passing of Simona, a female adult sloth that suffered five severe electrical discharges that charred most of her bristly coat and forced veterinarians to amputate most of her limbs. Simona was about to be fitted with a special prosthesis; alas, she could not withstand her exte...

Source: Wikimedia Commons An amazing video posted by online news daily CRHoy.com shows a car thief walk up to a Nissan D21 pick-up (or hard-body) truck, discreetly manipulate the lock on the driver's side door to gain entry, jump behind the wheel, hotwire the vehicle, and speed off in just 20 seconds. The incident occurred in the neighborhood of San Juan de Tibas, in the northern suburbs of...

Students at the National Police Academy in Costa Rica got an unexpected practical lesson on September 18th thanks to the hard work of the Directorate of Police Intelligence (Spanish acronym: DIPOL) and members of the Operational Support Group (GAO). A band of thieves who specialized in armed robbery of pulperias (small-town convenience stores) and residential properties were surprised and arrested...

September is a special month for children in Costa Rica, and the celebrations continue on Thursday 26th and Friday 27th as the National Symphonic Orchestra, directed by special guest conductor Emannuel Olivieri, will perform classical arrangements of music from video games. The concerts will start at 10:00 a.m. in the Melico Salazar Theater in downtown San Jose. Classical music purists and snob...

A man and his robot: Professor Geovanny Martinez Castillo. Source: UCR In the near future, robots exploring other planets could find their way around thanks to the work of scientists from Costa Rica. According to a press release by the University of Costa Rica (UCR), researchers at the Image Processing and Computer Vision Research Laboratory (IPCV-LAB) recently got their hands on a new toy tha...

Source: Fuerza Publica A man in a trio of illegal hunters in Costa Rica took aim at members of Fuerza Publica (Costa Rica's national police force) in La Cruz, province of Guanacaste, causing a standoff that culminated in the arrest of two and the escape of one. The officers, however, could not rescue two wild rabbits that the hunters had already killed, gutted and skinned. The incident occu...

Source: Nature Air Facebook A weighty matter transpired at the Tamarindo Airport on August 19th. Luis Fernando Sanchez, a portly man who tips the scales at 136 kilograms (about 300 lbs) was charged twice the normal airfare on Nature Air, Costa Rica's first carbon-neutral airline. The incident left Mr. Sanchez with a heavy heart, and thus he chose to go public with his story. Mr. Sanchez tol...

Source: Wikimedia Commons The proliferation of corporate parks and free trade zones, coupled with an expectation of increased productivity and upward mobility, are causing people in Costa Rica to yearn for simpler times not long ago. According to a 2013 survey by polling firm Unimer for national newspaper La Nacion, the infamous Tico Times is disappearing and giving way to stress and dissatisf...

Source: Cosechas CR Coming to a fridge near you: Delicious frozen smoothies made from a careful combination of kiwi fruit, watermelon and red grapes mixed in water; or maybe orange, peach and mango mixed with vanilla ice cream or yogurt. Sound familiar? They are beverages designed by the Cosechas chain of Costa Rica. After an explosive growth phase experienced between 2008 and 2012 in Costa...

In Costa Rica, the hammerhead sharks of the Sphyrnidae family are not yet terribly endangered, but conservationists and public officials are proactively moving towards a protective stance. According to online news media site CRHoy.com, steps towards comprehensive conservation of hammerhead sharks are being implemented. Mision Tiburon (Shark Mission), a non-profit organization in Costa Rica that...

Stylish Outfit By Stradivarius In recent months, three new stores in Costa Rica have opened their doors to the stylish and tragically hip. Express, Forever 21 and Stradivarius are among the new shopping options for trendy Ticas and fashion-conscious expats wanting to look their best with the latest in clothing and accessories. Although all three stores offer clothes and accessories for both...

Source: Flickr CC When traveling to a foreign country, how much attention do you pay to travel advisories issued by your government? For example, if you follow the news releases published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Costa Rica, you would know that travel to Syria at this time is absolutely not recommended. Costa Rica does not publish travel warnings per se, although officials from...

A Wave Pool in an unrelated Wet and Wild Park Over the last few decades, surfing has been a major attraction for visitors arriving in Costa Rica. The strong sets at Jaco Beach in the Central Pacific and Salsa Brava in the Southern Caribbean will test the skill of board riders, and the clean, smooth conditions often seen at Witch's Rock and other breaks in Guanacaste make Costa Rica a prime sur...

Source: Zoo Ave Officials from the Zoo Ave Wildlife Rescue Center in Costa Rica are hopeful that a rare Puma yagouaroundi that was struck on a highway by a vehicle will fully recover. According to daily tabloid La Teja, the small wild cat was found in Pilas de Canjel, in the Lepanto community of the province of Puntarenas. This town is located on the shores of the Gulf of Nicoya, near the s...

Source: OVSICOR As the Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica reawakens from a two-year slumber, digital photographers are rushing to capture stunning pictures of the spectacular steam column, vapor trails and overall beauty of the prettiest colossus in our country. Most of these photographs, however, are not being taken with expensive digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR) equipment; instead, they ar...

Source: Wikimedia Commons From May 1932 to February 1933, Beatriz Zamora Lopez de Jimenez Oreamuno graced Costa Rica as an elegant First Lady, fluent in the English and French languages and very attuned to cultural, political and historical matters that she learned as an autodidact. She had a sordid past, however, one that the crude Central American aristocracy of the time constantly chastised...

Source: Wikimedia Commons The cold-blooded murder of an Asian man in Downtown San Jose is renewing fears that Chinese Triads and other Asian organized crime groups might be increasing their presence in Costa Rica. According to a press release by the Judicial Investigation Organization (Spanish initials: OIJ), agents on duty responded to an incident in a coin-operated gambling machine establ...

Source: Wikimedia Commons A group of inmates in the maximum security cell block of La Reforma , Costa Rica's largest correctional institution, enjoy the company of cats that they take in as companion animals and eventually use as drug couriers, messengers and even as bargaining chips in conflicts among criminal groups. These cats travel freely through the prison and often carry marijuana, c...

Source: OVSICORI Last Sunday morning, neighbors of La Fortuna in the northwest region of the Alajuela province, woke up to an eruption of monetary anticipation. The Arenal Volcano, one of Costa Rica's most iconic tourist spots, finally came alive after two years of sheer inactivity with a spectacular steam column and lingering vapor plumes. Whereas many residents saw a typical reaction by t...

Source: Wikimedia Commons A late-August law enforcement interagency operation in Costa Rica deployed nearly one hundred officers who cracked down on illegal street racing at different points in the Greater San Jose Metropolitan Area (Spanish acronym: GAM). More than 1,000 vehicles and their drivers were intercepted at new gathering spots where illegal drag racers congregate. According to Ro...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Standing in line (or queuing up) for long periods of time is a staple of life in Costa Rica, but not everyone is willing to readily accept this social convention. Complaining about the inefficiency of services offered by Costa Rica's public and private sectors is a national pastime, which is actually better enjoyed at while standing in a long and serpentine line, but ...

Source: Flickr Creative Commons People in Costa Rica have equal access to education, but one gender has learned to take better advantage of this civil right. One of the goals behind Costa Rica's new country branding campaign is to showcase the high level of education of her people insofar as Latin America is concerned. Costa Rica has a significant edge when it comes to funding public educat...

Source: Twitter #laselecr A 1 – 1 tie between the National Football Teams of Jamaica and Costa Rica allowed the Ticos to secure a berth in the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, although the celebrations across the Central American country did not get started until one hour after the match ended at Independence Park in Kingston. A victory in Ohio by CONCACAF rivals United States against a lackl...

Author’s Note: The following analysis and opinion of the video produced by the “Essential Costa Rica” branding initiative has been adapted into English from the online blog of Luis Paulino Vargas Solis, which also appeared in online news publication Informa-Tico. Mr. Vargas is the internal director of the Investigative Center on Culture and Development of the National Distance Learning University....

Still from a Costa Rican short film entry. Luck has not run out for film lovers in Costa Rica. Hollywood celebrities such as Danny Glover were recently here at the Flowers of the Diaspora Film Festival in honor of Afro-Costa Rican Heritage Month, and the 2013 Costa Rica International Film Festival, Peace with Earth, is scheduled for October 11th to the 19th. Before then, however, shnit will go...

Source: Joel Campbell's Facebook Timeline Encouraged by the recent 3 – 1 revenge victory against the United States, Costa Rica is ready to face the Jamaican National Football Team and secure a berth in the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. Costa Rica does not have home field advantage this time around, and although some factors are coming together in favor of La Sele, a key player feels that Jama...

A new mobile application for business account holders and a system for easy domestic money transfers in Costa Rica are the latest offerings by Banco Nacional. BN Movil Empresarial is a mobile application for smartphones powered by the Android operating system, as well as Apple iPhone and iPad devices. This new service is an electronic platform especially designed for business account holders wh...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Workers in Costa Rica are feeling the pinch of globalization and inflation as their salaries stagnate and their consumption patterns increase. According to a recent radio feature aired by Radio Monumental, 93.5 FM, most people in Costa Rica believe that upward salary adjustments in the next 12 months will not be sufficient to support their lifestyle. As the 39th co...

File photo of CELAC with the late President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela With just 124,609 of her citizens residing abroad, Costa Rica has the lowest rate of emigration in Central America and one of the lowest of Latin America and the Caribbean. This is in sharp contrast to the overall Latin American immigration phenomenon around the world, which counts with 25 million people and makes up 13 perce...

Free Syrian Army forces fighting in urban terrain. Source: Flickr CC. Recent communications by Costa Rica's Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterate the country's allegiance to, and respect of, International Law and Human Rights with regard to the conflict in Syria. The diplomatic mission of  Costa Rica to the United Nations expressed the Central American nation's repudiation of the use of che...

Source: Flickr CC If there is something that foreign visitors and residents of Costa Rica quickly learn is that lining up (or queuing up) is a tradition. Costa Rica thrives on long lines and waiting times; this is how business is done and how errands are accomplished. It has been this way for quite some time and is unlikely to change any time soon; it is also highly inefficient, but there may ...

The Southern Caribbean Society of the School for the Arts (Spanish acronym: EDACS), the Municipality of Talamanca and the Chamber of Tourism and Commerce of the Southern Caribbean (Spanish acronym: CATCCAS) cordially invite you to ArteViva, a special festival that features art, music, gastronomy, film, sports, and a permanent program in arts for the people of Puerto Viejo in Talamanca, Costa Rica....