Costa Rica’s multi-stage Mountain Bike Competition La Ruta de los Conquistadores, will kick off this November 1st; every year, La Ruta changes the course and the finish lines, this 2018 it will start at Crocs Hotel in Jaco, Puntarenas and it will come to an end on November 3rd at Playa Bonita, Limon. Considered one of the hardest athletic events in the world, La Ruta is celebrating this year it...

The district attorney’s office is investigating the acts of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Vice-President of the country, Epsy Campbell, in regards to “irregular” designations made over the past weeks. The situation came to light after media outlets released the information of Campbell’s decision to name people to positions with a certain closeness, relation or affinity to her. Camp...

The bridge over the San Lorenzo River which connects San Ramon to San Carlos in the Alajuela province collapsed because of the heavy rains that have affected this area in the past day, the bridge is closed for indefinite time. This is a common route for those traveling to La Fortuna in San Carlos, the Ministry of Public Works (MOPT) will be evaluating the damages on this bridge and other parts ...

Many people enjoy celebrating Halloween, it’s a fun day when both kids and adults get to wear costumes and exploit their creativity. This year as usual, shopping centers, hotels and bars join in and prepare different activities, here we leave you with a list of some options to enjoy with your family or with friends: Kids Activities: San Pedro Mall: Children are invited to trick or treat t...

A total of $3.5 million are being invested in the development of a gastronomy market that will also include a coworking area in the San Jose neighborhood known as La California. The project, under the name “Amor de Barrio” (Neighborhood Love) is expected to open doors by the end of this year and is a project of the owners of La Fabbrica Italian Restaurant. “Amor de Barrio” is one of several ...

A bill promoted by Congressman Carlos Ricardo Benavides from the National Liberation Party (PLN) would ensure that those who participated in strike which were declared illegal get the corresponding deduction of salaries received during the days on strike and would also facilitate the application of penalties in the case of illegal activities such as road blocks. Currently, the Labor Procedural ...

The Costa Rican Public Polce Force rescued two live sea turtles that were being transported inside a vehicle in the area of Moin in Limon. The discovery was made during the night patrols when at 2:20 a.m. of Wednesday the officers noticed a suspicious vehicle, which they ordered to stop, this is how they found two live sea turtles one on the back seat of the car and another on inside the trunk of...

The Ministry of Public Security informed us that on Wednesday October 24th they intercepted a boat in the area of Barco Quebrado in Nicoya, Guanacaste, carrying a significant number of packets of drugs. After careful inspection by the Drug Control Police they were able to confirm a total of 690 kilograms of cocaine with a street value of over 25 Million USD. Costa Rican authorities also confirm...

Photo Credit: Reuters/Jon Nazca Six tons of cocaine were hidden in a banana shipment that originated from Limon in Costa Rica, arrived to the port of Setubal in Portugal and was transported by truck to Malaga, Andalucia in the South of Spain. The drug was seized by Spanish police as well as 300,000 Euros, firearms and vehicles, in an operation that also concluded with the arrest of 16 peo...

According to data by the Costa Rican Chamber of Commerce, the labor strike that began on September 10 and is still ongoing today affecting the education sector, caused economic losses to 76% of the businesses in Costa Rica. “The Costa Rican Chamber of Commerce considered since the beginning that this strike was unnecessary and even when protesting is a right, promoting chaos and paralyzing esse...

Cahuita National Park in the Costa Rican Caribbean will become the first “inclusive beach” with a ramp that will facilitate access for the disabled population through the building of walkways on the sand made of recycled plastic bottle lids. The structures made of recyclable material will make Costa Rica the first country with accessible beaches in the Central American region, but most importa...

The Costa Rican Government assures that they will use any and all legal actions to compensate and recover the losses and damages caused by public employees that participated in the labor strike in those institutions in which the movement was declared illegal. The labor strike that began back on September 10 is maintained today mostly by the education sector. “We respect judicial decisions, but ...

The Costa Rican Drug Institute in Costa Rica (ICD) have detected the use of gold bars to launder money in the country. The gold bars are about the size of a cell phone but can hold an incredibly high value and according to ICD. They are sent first to the North of Central America, Mexico and of course, the United States where they are used to pay debts or sold to different companies. These go...

The Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency (CINDE) in collaboration with Georgia Tech will host a high dimensional and big data training that "will shape professional with basic knowledge in machine learning and programming to a more analytics-oriented profile" informed CINDE through a press release. The content includes functional data analysis methods, image data analysis, high-dimensional d...

Four years had gone by with no registered cases of rabies affecting humans in Costa Rica. Unfortunately today the Ministry of Health confirmed the case of a 43-year-old biologist who became infected by the virus and is in very delicate condition at the San Juan de Dios Hospital in San Jose. Apparently, the man was bit by a bat on his left arm when he visited a cave during a family trip in the a...

An investigation that began in January 2017 carried out by the Drug Control Police (PCD) of the Ministry of Public Security allowed the capture of members of a criminal structure that was dedicated to the transportation of drugs in large quantities from Costa Rica to Central America and Mexico. The criminal group would also move large amounts of money product of the operation. PCD searched a to...

As The Costa Rica Star announced back in June, the largest floating library, Logos Hope from OM Ships International will arrive at Puntarenas, Costa Rica this Friday, October 26 and will be stationed in the country through November 11, 2018. The ship travels around the word with the objective of bringing people close to culture, entertainment and education. The floating library offers over 5...

As of this coming Friday, the Moin Container Terminal in Limón will be ready to receive commercial boats as its first berth is ready to operate. The Moín megaport, is built over a 40 hectare artificial island,it will be equipped with six port cranes which are unique in the country and will allow Costa Rica to provide for the first time services to Post-Panamex vessels with capacity for 8,500 +...

Fourteen friends arrived in Costa Rica on October 18 with the idea of celebrating one of their friends bachelor party , tragedy met them in Costa Rica and only 10 of them will be returning to Miami alive, each of them lost four of their friends in the rafting accident that took place Saturday, October 20 on the Naranjo River in Quepos when three of their rafts capsized. Anthony Castro, one of ...

Costa Rica barista Remy Molina won first place in the international contest "Coffee Masters New York", which took place October 12-14 in this US city. A beverage including cognac, coffee liquor, cocoa, vodka, orange juice, among others by the name of “First Impression”, earned the Costa Rican the first place in the competition. The prize included a check for $5,000.00 and $15,000.00 worth of...

The Minister of Tourism of Costa Rica, Maria Amalia Revelo, called on all tour operators to respect the recommendations of the National Emergency Commission (CNE) and take all necessary measures to ensure the security of foreign and national tourists, her statement came after the tragic rafting accident that took place on Saturday, October 20 and where five people died, four American tourists and ...

The Costa Rica Surf Federation released the news on how 8 year-old surfer Ricardo Ferri Lara, was able to rescue a 6 year-old girl who was dragged out by the current in Playa Cocles in the South Caribbean of Costa Rica. Apparently the 6-year-old French girl was enjoying the beach with her family, her parents and two sisters, but in a quick moment the girl was dragged by the current towards the ...

Ernesto Sierra, Jorge Caso, Sergio Lorenzo and Andrés Denis are the four US tourists that died on Saturday, October 20, when their rafts capsized in the Naranjo River in Quepos, Costa Rica, the victims were between the ages of 25 and 35. The fifth victim whose body was found past 9 p.m. was a Costa Rican tour guide identified as Kevin Thompson Reid, 45 years of age. Apparently, Sierra, Caso...

The number of victims of the rafting accident at the Naranjo River in Quepos, Costa Rica went from four to five as the body of the fifth victim, one of the tour guides, was found by the rescue team past 9 p.m. this Saturday evening. According to authorities the fifth victim was one of the tour guides, while the other four victims whose bodies were recovered earlier, were all foreign tourists th...

During the Organization of American States (OAS) Assembly that took place on Friday, Costa Rica’s delegate Rita Hernández condemned in her speech the actions of Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega in violently repressing the protests against his government, actions that have left over 350 deaths according the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (CIDH). The statements of Hernández bothere...

Three rafts capsized in the Naranjo River in Naranjito de Quepos, Costa Rica at around 3:20 p.m this Saturday, October 20 causing the death of four foreign tourists ( now known to be American), one more is still missing, confirmed the Ministry of Public Security during a press conference held at 7 p.m. According to Luis Guzman from the Costa Rican Red Cross, thirteen other tourists were rescued...

UPDATED: January 12th 2019 William Sean Creighton, a 43-year old American known as one of the three most important sportsbook operators in Costa Rica, disappeared on September 24th at about 10:00PM, as he was leaving work. His wife, a Tica, reported him missing the following day, and the Costa Rican police began investigating the case as a possible kidnapping for ransom. The OIJ, however, repor...

43-year-old Sean W. Creighton was last seen on September 24 and was reported missing a day later, affirmed William Espinoza, Chief of the Judiciary Investigative Police (OIJ) in Costa Rica earlier this week. Espinoza was careful in not providing many details regarding the disappearance of the US Expat, who holds the Costa Rican nationality and is well known in the sportsbook industry as the own...

The Global Competitiveness Report 2018 of the World Economic Forum is a study of the global economy. This year the Report was done with new methodology intended to offer insights into economies’ readiness for the future, social capital, endowment of disruptive businesses and debt concern, among other indicators to fully capture the dynamics of the global economy in the Fourth Industrial Revolution...

Costa Rica was the site of the Bird Challenge 2018, and activity that took place between October 4 and October 12 as part of the “Ruta de Aves” (Bird Route) organized by the Costa Rican Tourism Board (ICT). “Costa Rica stands out in the world being the home of over 900 species of birds in a territory of just 51,100 square kilometers, the country has more species of birds than the United Stat...

This Wednesday, October 17, 2018, Canada made history with the “Cannabis Act” which legalizes recreational marijuana, in doing so Canada became the second country in the world, only after Uruguay (2013), to allow the use of cannabis for recreational purposes. In the United States, consumption of recreational marijuana is legal in 8 states, but it is still illegal at a Federal level. In Costa Ri...

American credit rating agency Moody’s announced it has "placed the Government of Costa Rica's BA2 long-term issuer ratings and the Ba2 senior unsecured bond ratings on review for downgrade. Back in 2017, Moody’s had already downgraded Costa Rica’s government bond rating from BA1 to BA2, maintaining the negative outlook of the rating and pointing as the key driver behind the downgrade “the conti...

According to the National Household Survey carried out by the National Institute of Census and Statistics (INEC), poverty in Costa Rica has gone up by 1.1% in comparison to 2017. "We are now seeing the consequences of not making decisions, poverty grows, unemployment grows, there's deceleration of the economy and a raise in the interest rates. This is why the approval of the fiscal plan is cru...

Police authorities of the Ministry of Public Security and the United States Coast Guard Service intercepted this past October 15 a vessel loaded with 444 kilograms of cocaine in waters of the Costa Rican South Pacific. This was possible thanks to the joint patrol operations between the United States and Costa Rican Governments. The boat was intercepted 100 nautical miles southwest of Mata Pa...

The Monster Jam event is confirmed for December 14 and December 16 at Costa Rica’s National Stadium. It’s been four years since the Monster Jam show came to Costa Rica, this time they will have three presentations, the first one on Friday, December 14 at 8 p.m., the other two on Sunday, December 16 one at noon and the last one at 5 p.m. Tickets are already available for American Express card...

Skyway Costa Rica began its operations in the country today, offering domestic flights for locals and visitors as well as flights to Bocas del Toro in Panama. "Costa Rica has much to offer and the tourism industry is growing very rapidly bringing more and more people to this beautiful and diverse country. In order to experience all there is to do, flying from San Jose to various destinations i...

Today, the Rincón de la Vieja Volcano in Guanacaste registered an eruption after several months of relative calm. The column reached close to 1000 meters above the crater, some 2916 meters above sea level (9564.48 ft), it was a short eruption that lasted close to 2 minutes. According to OVSICORI, no reports have been received of ash fall in the nearby communities, however, they recommend pre...

This Tuesday, October 16, 2018, Costa Rica’s Judiciary Branch voted and opposed the fiscal reform as long as it contains expense containment measures that affect the Judiciary Branch. The Court took five hours to discuss the situation, and concluded they will oppose the fiscal plan as long as some points they consider “affect” their operation are not eliminated, these include dispositions conta...

Back on September 25, judge Ileana Castillo Porras had ruled the strike "illegal" for employees of the Santa Ana Municipality; the labor union presented the corresponding appeal and today Judges José Adrián Calderón, Juan Carlos Segura and Manuel Rodríguez gave their resolution leaving firm the decision of illegality for these workers, however, the Municipality will not be able to collect the sala...

Edgar Mora, Minister of Education (MEP), affirmed that a total 556 employees of the Ministry of Public Education that were supposedly on strike protesting the fiscal plan, took advantage of the situation and traveled out of the country on vacation. According to Mora, all of these employees are identified, and MEP has confirmed they register migratory movements between September 9 and October 8 ...