File photo from Casa Presidencial As part of her farewell activities before transferring leadership of Costa Rica to the winner of the upcoming runoff election, President Laura Chinchilla is busy making sure that Guanacaste is no longer known by its previous label of “the forgotten province.” On a return visit to Guanacaste, President Chinchilla recently inaugurated a remodeled vocational high...

At a time when the water crisis in Guanacaste has escalated into interventions by law enforcement officers, neighborhood vigils and scrutiny by politicians, a small coastal community is enjoying the benefit of two new water wells complete with their corresponding pumps, distribution pipes and a storage tank. What is surprising about these two new water sources is they were unusually donated by a r...

Former Crest of Liberia Mia Football Club A mystery surrounds the discovery of the lifeless body of Julio Cesar Sotela Canales, a Guanacaste native known as an athlete, entrepreneur and former owner of the Liberia Mia football team. The late Mr. Sotela was found on the banks of the Colorado River, apparently the victim of a brutal beating that has shocked football fans in Guanacaste and across...

Crater Dome at Poas Volcano. Source: RSN Volcano tourists rejoice: The Central American portion of the Ring of Fire is currently on fire, and volcanoes in Costa Rica and Nicaragua are showing off their natural beauty and power with sulfur emissions, red-hot glowing walls, phreatic (ground water eruptions), and even seismic events from deep within. The colossi in question are the Poas and Turri...

Residents of Guanacaste, start your engines. The loud roar you hear is the sound of Costa Rica's future racetrack at Finca La Ponderosa in Bagaces, about 24 kilometers away from the Daniel Oduber International Airport in Liberia (LIR). According to a recent news article by Ariel Chaves Gonzalez of Diario Extra, racing could begin later this year. It has been a few months since Costa Rica's days...

Leaders and residents of Guanacaste’s coastal areas, Photo by Daniel PerazaLeaders and residents of Guanacaste’s coastal areas will take to the streets on Monday, February 24 to pressure congressmen to approve the Coastal Community Territories bill (TECOCOS – Ley de Territorios Costeros Comunitarios). A protest march has been scheduled for Monday on the Interamerican North highway, in the area...

Part of Santa Elena Preserve Luxury beach resorts, marinas, theme parks, and hotels: This is Guanacaste in the 21st century. It was not too long ago when this region of Costa Rica was known as the “forgotten province.” These days, however, luxury resort developers and assorted capitalists are looking at Guanacaste with hungry eyes. A new $125 million project recently announced that it will ...

Municipal Office in Nicoya Costa Rica, Photo by Adam DietrichThose interested in the effort to create a new Municipal District Council (MDC) that includes Nosara and Samara are now able to realize their goal, due to the approval of the Municipal District Council Autonomy Law on Tuesday, February 11th. The law, which regulates the creation, organization and functions of the MDCs, declares them ...

Playa Guiones in Guanacaste is often considered to have the most consistent surf conditions in Costa Rica; however, that was not the case last week as the 2014 Olympus National Circuit rolled into town. Conditions were sloppy and less than ideal for a high-caliber surfing tournament, particularly for Caribbean power surfers such as Gilbert Brown. Notwithstanding, Brown's experience prevailed in de...

In late December, the Costa Rica Golf Federation held a special event at the Cariari Country Club. More than 30 golf instructors received special training to achieve the standards of the United States Kids' Golf Certified Instructor Seminar. The ultimate goal of this training is to grow the sport at the junior level in Costa Rica and eventually become an official destination of the U.S. Kids' Golf...

Guanacaste is the province with the most water difficulties in Costa Rica, and the beach community of Playa Potrero is currently one of the most affected. As recently reported by the Costa Rica Star, police officers took the local water utility office in Playa Potrero by force in accordance to a court order, an act that scared neighbors of this once peaceful beach town. Politicians have been quick...

The Puntarenas Carnival is one of the most prominent beach celebrations in Costa Rica, and this year it will feature an international gathering of motorcycle aficionados, one of the largest conventions of iron horse riders in Latin America. This event will follow the successful live music presentation by Inner Circle, the legendary Jamaican reggae band known for their hit songs “Bad Boys” and “Swe...

When a devastating earthquake hit Haiti in July 2010, within 30 frightening seconds, 220,000 were left dead. In the wake of this tragedy, nearly one million children were orphaned or abandoned. To simply sit back and only contemplate the atrocity of this situation was not an option for Nosara resident Kristin O’Connell. She felt the need to act. After volunteering as a midwife in Haiti in 2010,...

Their cute, lovable, masked furry faces seem to smile beatifically, and are fast reaching celebrity-status in Costa Rica. In a country full of exotic wildlife, sloths are one of the most well-known animals, and one of the most asked about by visiting tourists. A great way to see these extraordinary and fascinating animals up close is at the Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica. Located just south of L...

The immense plains, powerful volcanoes and dry, sunny climate of Guanacaste are becoming pivotal for Costa Rica’s production of renewable energy. The second largest province in the country is being tapped for its powerful resources of wind, solar and geothermal energy. Costa Rica currently produces 91% of its energy from renewable sources: 73% from hydroelectric power, 13% from geothermal plant...

There is a place, north of the Rincon de la Vieja Volcano in Guanacaste, where the dry brown rolling plains give way to tall, lush green forest. Suddenly you are in an enchanted paradise of gushing waterfalls, sky blue streams, warm thermal springs and bright orchids. This is a place where jaguars, pumas and tapirs roam free. Listen for the call of howler monkeys and the symphony of tropical birds...

In the heart of San Jose, Costa Rica, the National Theatre (Teatro Nacional) remains one of the capital city’s most popular tourist attractions. The ornate Neo-Classical theatre is considered the finest historic building in San Jose, and is known for its exquisite interior decorated with lavish furnishings and beautiful murals. One of the theatre’s main ceiling murals, in fact, was just na...

A little more than four years ago, Ticos preparing to go to the polls in early February noticed that the skies above the Central Valley were crisscrossed by contrails (condensation trails, those fluffy white lines that airplanes leave behind). Claudia Calvo, a resident of Curridabat in the eastern suburbs of San Jose used her mobile phone to capture video of the sky along with her observations abo...

Many foreigners visit Costa Rica specifically for the purpose of getting quality medical attention and medications at very affordable prices, and a few of these medical tourists become interested in returning for an extended visit. Now that the two major medical centers CIMA and Clinica Biblica have expanded to Guanacaste, some medical tourists are intrigued by the expat lifestyle. As foreign resi...

The hospitality and tourism industry of Costa Rica welcomes a diversity of tourists. From surfers to eco-tourists and from science researchers to language learners, Costa Rica loves them all –even sexual tourists, as long as they do not engage in garish behavior in public. There is, however, one special interest tourist group that Costa Rica should strive to attract for various reasons: Birdwatche...

Around the same time violent civil unrest situations in Thailand, Ukraine and Venezuela were unfolding and making uncomfortable headlines around the world, international groups dedicated to making peace an inalienable human right were meeting in Costa Rica in an effort to advance their efforts towards a declaration before the United Nations. The meeting took place in San Jose on February 11th, ...

Summer has arrived in force, and with the rise in temperature comes the temptation to try and escape the heat with air conditioning. However, there have always been theories that air conditioning causes sickness and promotes infection among people in closed spaces. In general, lack of maintenance is responsible for respiratory infections ranging from simple nasal colds to severe pneumonia, bron...

Photo by Wilbert VillalobosThe early morning of Tuesday, February 18 brought commotion to the coastal community of Playa Potrero in Santa Cruz, with the intervention of officials from the Public Force and the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers (AyA - Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados). The officials invaded the ASADA’s (water management committee) communal aqueduc...

Trash buildup and waste go uncollected in Playa Ocotal, Guanacaste, Costa RicaTrash and littering is still a major problem in Costa Rica, contradicting the self-proclaimed, ecological, diverse and clean reputation of the country. Tico littering mentality is combination of a number of factors, with short sightedness and laziness topping the list. Many in Costa Rica believe that someone else should...

Poster for The Suicide Shop If you missed the recent online French film festival or the visit by acclaimed director Patrice Leconte to Costa Rica, the Alianza Francesa (French Alliance) wants you to know two things: 1) c'est la vie! and 2) you still have three more chances to catch great films directed by Monsieur Leconte in February. The best part about this news is that these cinematic goodi...

“Dogs barking after midnight,” remembers David, “the dogs went crazy every time a humpback whale blew or there were whales breaching right at Rincon Bay”. Those are the memories of David Herra Miranda, who was born and raised in Golfo Dulce. Now, more than two decades later, he is a research associate with CEIC, Centro de Investigación de Cetáceos Costa Rica (Cetacean Research Center Costa Ric...

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s high-speed trimaran, the Brigitte Bardot has returned from its first successful patrol assisting the Guatemalan Department of Fisheries in its anti-poaching enforcement operations. Asked by Fisheries officials to help battle poaching in Guatemalan waters, Sea Shepherd is helping to lower the impact of illegal fishing of billfish by commercial fishermen. T...

Liberia bullring under construction Costa Rica is feeling the growing pains of transitioning from a dignified rural economy to a developing nation under the rule of globalization. News reports from the municipality of Liberia, one of the most important cities of Guanacaste, indicate that a requirement from the National Institute of Insurance (Spanish initials: INS) could effectively prevent th...

Carlos Hiller hanging his artwork at the Liberia International Airport in Guanacaste Costa RicaFast, tenacious and colorful: these adjectives are subjective of course, but nonetheless describe the fundamental nature of these magnificent fish which have become icons of the sport and commercial fishing on Costa Rica's Pacific coast: sailfish, roosterfish and golden fish (Mahi-Mahi). The paintin...

Source: MEP In late January 2014, Ambassador Mamoru Shinohara was busy preparing for the Japanese Culture Month in Costa Rica, which started on February 6th and will continue through March 15th with many activities -including a cool anime film festival in San Ramon. Still, Ambassador Shinohara made time in his busy schedule to sign a funding commitment worth $104,600 to remodel the San Luis de ...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Guanacaste is the aquaponics capital of Costa Rica and perhaps of Central America. This agricultural discipline has been lauded for the way it integrates principles of sustainability. The most basic aquaponics systems involve raising aquatic animals and growing plants in a way that is symbiotic for all species, but the complexity of these systems can be increased for ...

Flappy Bird mobile screen. In the last week or so, just about everyone in Costa Rica who uses an Internet connection learned about the strange circumstances leading to the sudden rise and fall of the mobile application Flappy Bird. Video game blogger Herberth Castro of La Nacion weighed in on the Flappy Bird enigma with sharp commentary that suggests the strong possibility of a 21st century ma...

The new Peugeot 3008 Although executives at new vehicle dealerships in Costa Rica are not quite ready to expand their showrooms to Guanacaste, they are paying close attention to the number of car buyers from that region. The year 2013 was highly satisfactory in terms of new car sales in Costa Rica, and they expect 2014 to be even better. With slightly lower import taxes for new cars in Costa Ri...

Horse infected with equine anemiaSome Nosara horse owners are concerned about a possible outbreak of infectious equine anemia among animals in the area, due to the death of one horse that tested positive for the disease on February 8th. Carrie Anderson, a resident of Nosara, said that “Tornado” was the name of the horse that had the sickness, in addition to an ailment known as Laminitis that a...

Hotel guests enjoying a cocktail at Living Hotel NosaraThe Living Hotel is now a whole complex of services to cater to health-conscious guests. Located across from the Mini Super Delicias del Mundo, it is fully operational this high season with its own Living Café restaurant, full service spa, yoga classes, Nosaranet office center, bike rentals, surf lessons and airport transportation. Ricardo Mi...

One of the best music festivals in Costa Rica takes place in Playa Nosara, province of Guanacaste, each year. The Caricaco (Beach Crab) Music Festival has been taking place since 2009, and each iteration has been more exciting than the previous one. This year's Caricaco Music Festival will be no exception, and it will be held in Finca Austria, closer to Playa Guiones, in order to accommodate t...

Regardless of how you may feel about buying drinking water that has been taken from an everyday source and put into a plastic bottle, the fact is that bottled water is big business in Costa Rica. When the ongoing arsenic contamination brouhaha in Guanacaste reached a boiling point back in August, a group on unscrupulous businessmen began selling bottled water that was found to have the same arseni...

Source: Weber BBQ Fest The smell of marinated and grilled fine cuts of meat permeated the air this past weekend at the 2nd Annual Weber BBQ Fest in Costa Rica, which took place in the parking lot across from Nova, in the glitzy (and secretive) Avenida Escazu. This festive gathering of carnivores and culinary experts included more than just plates full of steak, ribs, sausage, chicken, fish, an...

Lloret de Mar beach, Costa Brava, Spain Until recently, Costa Rica was considered the best option for North Americans considering retirement or a permanent change of scenery. To this effect, regions such as Guanacaste now boast the highest concentration of expats in Costa Rica. Rampant inflation and a relentless increase in the cost of living is making some expats explore their potential optio...

Semanario Universidad, the weekly news publication produced by the University of Costa Rica, saw its website brought down by distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks in late January. Hackers overwhelmed the online magazine's web servers with up to four million requests and server calls per minute. The attacks, which ostensibly originated from Russia, followed the publication of a political sur...