It has been a good year for the Fantazztico Circus of Perez Zeledon in Costa Rica. This unique traveling circus is a project from the Vida Nueva (New Life) association, a non-profit that seeks to empower social enrichment projects for the benefit of young people, adolescent single mothers and victims of domestic abuse. The Fantazztico Circus began the year with new buildings in Baidambu de Daniel...

Earlier today, the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon made the following comment in a press release ahead of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) that will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 20 to 22 June: “Sustainable development is an idea whose time has come. It is the future we want.” At the Rio+20 summit, world leaders will be paying close attention t...

Sight of Emptiness is a melodic metal band from Costa Rica that recently wrapped up recording of their third album, which has yet to be titled. The album was recorded at SoloHits Recording Studios in San Jose, and Swedish Producer Thomas "Plec" Johansson traveled to Costa Rica to work with the band for about three weeks. Mr. Johansson has previously worked with other renowned metal acts like Scar...

According to a recent article by Marisol Arias Murillo of the Voice of Nosara in Guanacaste, researchers from the University of Costa Rica (UCR) and a local electric utility in Nicoya are doing their best to alleviate the ghastly electrocutions of arboreal species in the region. The two entities will look at the current electric grid and determine the efforts that will be required to prevent elect...

A United States federal district court in Miami recently sentenced a Miami-based supplier of organic fruit and vegetable products for tricking clients into believing that their food products came from Costa Rica. The company in question operated under the name Pure Nature Organics, and in 2007 it sold broccoli and green beans labeled as produce grown in Costa Rica. In reality, the produce came fro...

The Ministry of Science and Technology (MICIT in Spanish) recently announced the tenth anniversary of the Accreditation Entity in Costa Rica (ECA), an independent public agency created in 2002 by Law number 8279, the National System for Quality Assurance. ECA was enacted for the purpose of granting certifications and accreditation credentials to the products, services and processes created and em...

The exhibition of the "Photographic Record of Artwork" by Juan Carlos Ferarios Chacon will see its debut tonight at the visual art gallery of the French Alliance in Costa Rica. The exhibit consists of ten different works of art created using a variety of techniques, including acrylic paints and charcoals. According to the artist, the theme of the exhibit deals with the deterioration of society ...

In the world's driest desert, a summit of leaders of various Latin American nations -including Costa Rica- met yesterday to sign a new trade agreement that could bring the region closer to the Asia Pacific shipping and commerce lanes. The Atacama Desert and the port city of Antofagasta in Chile welcomed representatives from Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama, and Peru. This is the fourth summ...

Smartphone users in Costa Rica far outpace tablet users, and until now the wireless carriers have been shy about providing valuable offers of interest and benefit for owners of iPads and their counterpart Android-powered devices. Movistar is taking the lead in with two new wireless data plans specifically designed for the fledgling tablet segment in Costa Rica. The two wireless data plans are c...

Two Colombian men suspected of trafficking in illegal substances are now in custody after they offered a bribe of 5 million colones (about $10,000) to Fuerza Publica officers in Costa Rica. The incident took place last night in the northern suburbs of Tibas, in the capital city of San Jose. Officers on patrol noticed a suspicious vehicle parked in the darkness of a cemetery. The Fuerza Publ...

The Costa Rica Star has recently published information about receiving your permanent residency in Costa Rica to avoid border runs, wasting time, and money. Gossip and tabloid media outlets are once again churning up the sticky rumor bowl with regard to Florida resident Casey Anthony and her rumored plans to come to Costa Rica to leave her sordid plans behind once her term of probation conclude...

Costa Rica might be a haven for outsourcing and nearshoring, but some of our country's labor laws could make the most staunch and cunning capitalists have second thoughts about setting up operations here. Still, collective bargaining, unions, employee associations, vacation, sick days, minimum wages, maternity leave, and other rights afforded to workers in Costa Rica are conditions that companies ...

The burgeoning digital animation and software development industry sector in Costa Rica has produced a new mobile video game, and this time it is based on an animated television series also created in our country. The game features Ivick Von Salza, an animated child lumberjack who is the star of the eponymous TV show. According to an article by journalist Monserrath Vargas of national newspaper ...

Doctors and nurses assigned to two public health clinics in the Northern Zone of Costa Rica were busy cleaning and painting instead of looking after patients after cockroaches and mice were reported in their facilities. The clinics were closed on two separate Fridays: May 25th and June 1st. According to digital newspaper El Pais, patients were extremely aggravated by the closures. One patient com...

A question in USA Today's popular "Ask the Captain" commercial aviation column deals with Costa Rica's busiest airport, our beloved Juan Santamaria International Airport (SJO) in Alajuela. The question is about the angle of the SJO runway. The reader noticed that the passenger terminal, which runs parallel to the runway, is on a rising incline from gate 1 all the way past gate 20. This means that ...

Author's Note: Costa Rica is a signatory in the Panama Declaration of 1995 -the "dolphin-safe treaty." The declaration and its updates can be reviewed at the European Union's Treaties Office Database , where it can be found as the Agreement on the International Dolphin Conservation Program (AIDCP). According to an online petition started by Shawn Larkin on change.org: "Dolphin superpods and mu...

As of 10:20 pm (04:20 Greenwich Mean Time) on Sunday, June 3rd, the Observatory of Volcanology and Seismology (OVSICORI in Spanish) of the National University in Costa Rica had reported the following seismic readings: 02:52 – Magnitude 2.6 Richter at a depth of 12 kilometers, epicenter located 36 kilometers southwest of Estero Garita in Aguirre, province of Puntarenas. 05:55 – Magnitude 3.6 ...

A couple of weekends ago, the men and women of the Coast Guard service of Costa Rica celebrated their 12th anniversary with a series of events in the coastal communities they are sworn to protect. Once the festivities were completed, the members of our Coast Guard got back to work and apprehended three suspects who were caught smuggling leatherback turtle eggs. In Costa Rica, the Coast Guar...

Paul Watson and Julian Assange are two controversial activists who currently share a few things in common. They are both in Europe awaiting extradition proceedings related to criminal charges, they have captured news media headlines, they have managed to stir up polarizing opinions with regard to the significance of their work, and they have also called attention to the possibility of political mo...

Can you spot the mispeled word in this sentence? There is an error of contest in this sentence. And a typpo in this one. The answers are: misspelled, context and typo. If you correctly guessed all of them, you might be able to safely turn off the auto-correct feature on your computer or smartphone. The rest of us are in desperate need of spellcheck and auto-correct, and according to a recent ar...

The governments of Costa Rica and Colombia met earlier this week in Bogota to ratify their commitment to protect marine resources, particularly with regard to their collaboration in the battle against shark finning, according to an official communication by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Central American nation of Honduras also ratified her commitment to shark protection by celebrating the f...

FIFA officials are looking into reports of match-fixing after three players from Guatemala were suspended by their football federation. According to a note from the Associated Press published by ESPN, there are four matches suspected of having been tainted, and one of them was played against Costa Rica in the National Stadium in San Jose last week. The most recent exhibition game between the Na...

It was five years ago that former President and Nobel Peace Laureate Oscar Arias Sanchez officially announced that Costa Rica was breaking diplomatic relations with Taiwan and initiating talks with the People's Republic of China (PRC). Many Ticos received the announcement with a certain level of guarded apprehension in 2007, and now Costa Rica is the only country in the Central American isthmus th...

Storm clouds over Costa Rica a few days ago produced a little over 0.11 percent of the average daily global lighting strikes in just two hours. The impressive thunderstorm that soaked great portions of the Central Valley on Wednesday evening delivered 2,000 lightning strikes, frying household appliances and electronics and striking fear in the hearts of dogs that affected by canine astraphobia ...

A friendly match between the National Football Teams of Costa Rica and Guatemala at the Mateo Flores stadium last night ended with a meager victory for the host nation and a disappointment for the fans. The game was dull from beginning to end, with the exception of a header by Guatemalan striker Carlos Ruiz at the 25 minute mark. The game started with a poor performance by Costa Rica, which...

Fuerza Publica officers assigned to Operation Save our Gar in the Chorotega Region of Costa Rica have been busy confiscating fish and rescuing turtles from the nefarious hands of poachers. They are even getting lessons in marine ecosystems as they were surprised to find odd-looking fish that should be swimming in the Amazon river in South America, not in Costa Rica. It all transpired earlie...

A letter from Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, went out to his followers and supporters earlier this week and summed up his current status: "I remain a prisoner in Germany in a case that has become highly unusual, controversial and international. On May 13th, 2012, I was arrested at Frankfurt airport in Germany because in October 2011, Costa Rica issued an order f...

SAN JOSE – Beginning in Barrio Amon and at the Cine Magaly in Barrio La California today, the French Alliance in Costa Rica will present the ninth edition of its traditional European Film Festival. This year the French Alliance will screen ten feature films and one documentary; all productions have been carefully selected by the different embassies of the European Union member nations in Costa Ric...

Stepping into an AMPM or a Fresh Market store in Costa Rica is an experience similar to the 7-Eleven convenience stores in the United States or the Circle K or Mac's stores in Canada. Ticos are increasingly warming up to these stores, which are slowly displacing the traditional pulperias that can still be found in working-class suburban neighborhoods and rural communities. According to a recent...

SAN JOSE – Wireless carriers Claro and Movistar will introduce the long-awaited Lumia line of Nokia smartphones powered by the Microsoft Windows Phone Operating System on June 1st. According to Pablo Fonseca, who covers technology topics for national newspaper La Nacion, the two new wireless providers issued press releases on Thursday afternoon announcing their intentions of offering the Nokia...

The Associated Ecological Communities of La Ceiba and Friends of the Earth in Costa Rica (COECOCEIBA in Spanish) is a non-profit organization that since 1999 has been dedicated to different environmental protection campaigns. Members of COECOCEIBA are farmers, environmentalists and academics. COECOCEIBA recently published an opinion regarding Volkswagen's new Think Blue campaign, which has receive...

As more details are turning up in relation to the horrific attack that a homeless man suffered in Miami at the hands and teeth of an ethnic Haitian man turned cannibal who was shot to death by police, many people are pointing to drug-induced psychosis as the possible motive behind the gruesome and unprovoked assault. Given the ethnicity of the attacker and the community where the events unf...

In the wake of rumors about American gossip target Casey Anthony's plans to move to Costa Rica and the interest of reality television producers in our country, it is always refreshing to learn cool stories about expatriates who come to our country with notable, rather than notorious, backgrounds and whose lifestyles here add value to our communities. In Los Angeles Sur, a small rural community ...

Sala Cuarta (Constitutional Hall) has issued an order to the Costa Rica Fishing Institute (INCOPESCA in Spanish) and the Secretary of Environmental Affairs (SETENA) to provide, within three working days, an explanation for the lack of environmental impact studies on the practice of shrimp trawling. The order was issued by the Court after a plea for relief was filed by Frente por Nuestros Ma...

The Minister of Public Safety Mario Zamora Cordero recently confirmed that Costa Rica is currently in diplomatic talks with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to formalize an offer made by the Asian nation to donate a National Police Academy. The offer by the Chinese leadership was revealed by Minister Zamora during a recent Committee of Revenue Affairs Meeting, where he was called upon to gi...

Thanks to an initiative by the National Printing Office, public school students in Costa Rica will soon be able to access all their mandatory reading assignments online. The project named "Editorial Digital" was presented to the government weeks ago, and according to Jarmon Noguera Gonzalez of La Prensa Libre, the initiative also aims to foster good reading habits among citizens of Costa Rica. ...

Last week, viewers of American cable television network Bravo experienced the ultimate in joyful dismay during an episode of the The Real Housewives of Orange County, which is now in its 7th season. The cast of "real-life" affluent Southern California housewives was invited to a vacation in Costa Rica, and one of the women wondered if that meant they were taking a trip to Mexico. To be fair...

At any given time in Costa Rica, call center agents working in nondescript buildings located in communities like Rio Segundo and La Sabana take down bets placed by callers who may wager on a number of sporting events like games, matches, races, etc. These are Costa Rica's sportsbooks, an industry that is heavily reliant on advanced computer algorithms to help them manage their operations, and whic...

An amazing celestial event will take place on June 5th, and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MICIT in Spanish) will hold a workshop on May 31st for the public to learn more about this rare phenomenon, which is expected to capture the attention of astronomers, scientists, stargazers, and many others in Costa Rica and around the world. The unique event consists of the rare transit of the p...

CARTAGO – Costa Rica Craft Beer Brewing Company, a microbrewery dedicated to limited production of known craft beers like Libertas Tropical Golden Ale and Segua Red Ale is proud to announce that a new Belgian Ale will soon be ready for tasting and enjoyment. The difference between this new beer and the company's previous seasonal offerings is in the special brewer's yeast imported directly from Be...