Image for illustration purposes (Jumping sting rays in Santa Elena, Guanacaste. Photo BY: Luciano Capelli) Copa de Arbol Beach and Rainforest Resort located in Drake Bay, Osa Península in the South Pacific of Costa Rica, posted the following video of a group of Devil Rays as they jump and “fly” out of the water in what is a beautiful and unique spectacle. It is not uncommon to see groups of ...

Evangelical candidate Fabricio Alvarado from the National Restoration Party continues to lead the election race in Costa Rica, according to the latest poll carried out by Opol Consultores. Opol Consultores worked with a sample of 3300 people in the Costa Rican territory and the survey was carried out between March 12 to the 16; the results in the voters intention show Fabricio Alvarado with a s...

Costa Rica’s Constitutional Chamber brings to a halt Fishing Institute’s (Incopesca) attempt of reactivating trawling permits. The Sala Cuarta or Consitutional Chamber, analyzed two constitutional appeals (recursos de amparo) and upheld the claims, declaring in this way null the Fishing Institute’s agreement to reissue shrimp trawling permits. “By majority we uphold the claim the appeal. We dec...

According to the Gender Observatory of the Judicial Power between 2007 and 2016 there were a total of 287 women murdered by men with which they had a romantic relationship; in 2017 there were a total of 26 femicides, and so far in 2018 there’s been 6 confirmed femicides, while 5 other cases remain in investigation and could make this number grow. “I express the solidarity of the Government with...

The National Tourism Chamber (Canatur) highlighted the importance for the country to respect the rights of the LGBTI population to prevent a decrease in the number of visitors to the country. Sary Valverde, president of Canatur, affirmed that this doesn’t just affect the interest of LGBTI tourists, which represent a 10% of the total number of foreigners visiting the country, to visit the countr...

Costa Rica is the “happiest” country in Latin America, according to the World Happiness Report 2018, which ranks 156 countries by their happiness levels, and 117 countries by the happiness of their immigrants, the report is elaborated by experts of the United Nations. “The main focus of this year’s report, in addition to its usual ranking of the levels and changes in happiness around the world,...

The Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT) of Costa Rica informed they will be closing the crossroad in front of the Fiesta Casino, near the Juan Santamaría Airport in Alajuela this Thursday at 8 a.m. This road connects the area known as INVU Las Cañas and the General Cañas highway on the way from Alajuela to San Jose. The access from INVU to the Airport will also be closed tempo...

Nepotism is basically the practice of those in power of favoring relatives or friends usually by offering them jobs or specific positions. President of Costa Rica, Luis Guillermo Solis signed this March 13 the Anti-Nepotism Law in the Legislative Assembly. This law modifies Article 49 of the Personnel Law of the Legislative Assembly -Law N.4556, by adding a paragraph that states that trust pers...

Costa Rica’s District Attorney Emilia Navas confirmed the detention this Wednesday, March 14 of five people in relation to the Cementazo corruption case, two employees of the company Sinocem and three managers of public bank Banco Popular. 11 raids were carried out by the police authorities in different areas of the country to gather evidence. “Since 6 a.m. this morning four houses were se...

Walter Espinoza, director of the Judicial Investigative Police (OIJ) explained that after conducting the necessary investigations regarding David Patey’s allegations that a police agent tried to sell him a confidential file, they were not able to determine who this person was. Espinoza explained that back in November 2017, he received a phone call on his cell phone from David Patey, who told hi...

The confirmation of an open investigation involving two U.S. businessmen, David Patey and Michael Lawrence Brannon Hutson also known as “Scott Brannon” was confirmed last week by the District Attorney Emilia Navas in an interview with Channel 7 Telenoticias. According to Navas, the investigation against both expats, who reside in Costa Rica since 2003 and 2004 respectively, was opened in 2015 a...

Costa Rica officially elected Emilia Navas Aparicio as the District Attorney for the next four years. Navas is the first woman to take this position in 43 years (the first District Attorney Costa Rica named was Francisco Echeverri in 1975). 53-year-old Navas had been working as the Ad-interim District Attorney since October of last year, when the Supreme Court suspended Jorge Chavarría. Navas ...

For the first time, Costa Rica has been chosen to host the largest cruise ship conference in the region, namely the Central America Cruise Summit, which will be held in the National Congress and Convention Center in 2019. The Florida Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA), the world's largest cruise ship organization, has taken advantage of this occurrence to promote Costa Rica as the host of this...

Spiritual guru Teal Swan, founder of “The Principle of Authenticity”, author and speaker will be offering workshops in Costa Rica July 7 through July 14 during the retreat “The Curveball”. 33-year-old Swan who was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, has raised plenty of controversy, she considers herself revolutionary (like Martin Luther King and Gandhi)and according to Dailymail.co.uk “She believes ...

A 5.0 magnitude earthquake shook Costa Rica this Monday, March 12 at 3:42 p.m. According to the National Seismology Network the epicenter was localized 18 kilometers East of Jaco in Garabito, Puntarenas. The movement was reported as strong in the areas of Jaco, Parrita and Quepos, as well as in most parts of the Central Valley. No damages have been reported....

According to data by the Central American Institute For Fiscal Studies, in 2018 the Costa Rica State Administration will cost a 21.6% of the GNP, the highest in the Central American region. Ten years ago, in 2008, the country reported its last surplus of $52 million but by the end of 2018 the country will be short $3.5 billion. The situation of the country has deteriorated throughout the yea...

Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency (CINDE) developed the digital platform www.JobLink.cr where currently 45 companies are offering 3800 jobs mostly in the services area and the majority of which require bilingual personnel (Spanish/English or Portuguese in most cases). The companies are mainly foreign investment companies; those interested can register through the site and take a languag...

Former siamese twin Ezequiel Nuñez was able to leave the Intensive Care Unit at the National Children’s Hospital in Costa Rica and was moved to an isolated room where he is able to be with his parents 24/7. Unfortunately, his brother Samuel still remains in the ICU since he continues to depend on a ventilator. “Ezequiel is not in an isolation room that has been made available for him to make hi...

Personnel of the National System of Areas of Conservation (SINAC) found two silky sharks and 30 fish tangled in an illegal fishing device 5 nautical miles from Isla del Coco. The device, known as fishing aggregating device (FAD), is used to aggregate fish and captures them in large quantities; it is believed it had been in areas close to the Isla del Coco National Park for months. “This typ...

The tourist who got lost yesterday at the Arenal Volcano National Park was rescued by Costa Rican rescue teams in the early hours of this Sunday. According to the Red Cross of La Fortuna, San Carlos, after receiving the alert on Saturday night they coordinated the search and rescue operation for Sunday at 5 a.m.; however, a group of park rangers and tourism guides that are familiar with the are...

Sadly this is not the first time this happens and likely it won’t be the last, a tourist got lost at the Arenal Volcano National Park in Costa Rica, the alert was received by the authorities at around 6:37 p.m. on Saturday, March 10. The tourist was able to communicate with his mobile phone and apparently got lost in the woods close to the trail known as “Coladas”. According to the initial...

Costa Rica stood out in its category and took the recognition as Best Exhibitor for the Americas and the Caribbean at the ITB Travel Trade Show in Berlin. “The stand represents the first impression of the country and for many people it is the only approach they have had with the country and even with America; for this reason we transformed our presence in international fairs, for our culture an...

11 Tourists were robbed while they were rafting in the area of Dos Montañas, in the Pacuare River at around 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 10. Apparently the group stopped to have a snack when 3 men with their faces covered threatened the tourists with firearms and took all their valuables including cell phones, cameras, cash and passports. “Rafting companies usually make a stop in this area t...

During an interview in Channel’s 7’ Telenoticias, Emilia Navas, Ad interim district attorney, confirmed that the Public Ministry has had an open investigation since 2015 regarding U.S. businessmen David Patey and Michael Lawrence Brannon Hutson also known as "Scott Brannon". Patey a native of Utah, is well known in Costa Rica, as the president of one of the biggest soccer teams in the country, ...

Swiss airline Edelweiss will begin operating a third flight from Zurich to San Jose, the announcement was made by the Costa Rica Minister of Tourism, Mauricio Ventura, from the ITB Travel Trade Show in Berlin where the country is participating. “Less than a year ago we announced the beginning of operations in the country of this prestigious airline, member of Lufthansa Group, today we feel ver...

NatGeo posted today a beautiful video (included below) of a baby sloth that was rescued in Costa Rica. The story behind this: The baby two-toed sloth was rescued in the area of Osa Peninsula, where an expat from Ohio, USA, Dirk Morgan, owner of Morgan’s Jungle Lodge, learned from guests about the sloth holding on to a rock and crying for help in the area known as Punta Tigre, they immediate...

On the International Women’s Day the walls of Catholic churches in San Jose, Costa Rica (La Merced, LA Soledad and Nuestra Señora de Barrio Luján) were vandalized with gender related messages and graffities done with spray paint during the evening hours. “Take your rosaries out of my ovaries” ; “Sexual Education Now”; “Sexist and Macho Church”, “My body is mine, I decide”, were just some of the...

Domestic airline Nature Air was forced to fire 31 employees yesterday, according to the organization this decision obeyed to the “delay in the restructuring and approval of necessary loans to continue the company’s operation”. Nature Air received authorization from the National Directorate of Civil Aviation to resume their operations the first week of February, lifting a suspension that affect...

Powers of Attorney are a very important tool in Costa Rica and are used daily by individuals and corporations to take care of business, perform contracts and obtain various permits and authorizations from any public institution. However, Powers of Attorney can be also be a main cause of fraud. Some cases surrounding stealing by means of a Power of Attorney are hard to fight since judges tend to co...

Starting October 28, 2018, the Air France-KLM group will operate one daily flight between Costa Rica and Europe during the European 2018-2019 winter season. This is the third time that Air France is increasing its offerings since November 2, 2016, when it opened the Paris-San José route with 2 flights per week. It initially increased to 3 flights per week for the current 2017-2018 winter season...

The Costa Rica Tourism Board (ICT) confirmed that the country saw the arrival of an additional 100 cruise ships during the 2016-2017 season in comparison to the 2014-2015 period, an increase which supports a successful strategy that began two years ago aimed to revive this industry in the country. Representatives of ICT are taking part of the Seatrade Cruise Global Fair, the largest cruise ship...

The town of Ortega de Balson in Santa Cruz, Guanacaste had to give up a tradition that they’ve had for at least 200 years, “la lagarteada”. La Lagarteada consists on a group of people jumping into a croc infested river capturing a live crocodile, preferably the largest in the area, (which locals refer to as lagarto/alligator), and taking it to the local plaza where the animal is exhibited for a...

Lately controversy has surrounded Costa Rica’s presidential candidate Fabricio Alvarado from the National Restoration Party, the statements made by some of this team members regarding the fact that they prefer not to include or hire LGBTI people as part of their government if he is elected president, and the cancellation of his participation in several debates have been just two of the situations ...

The Turrialba Volcano in Cartago, Costa Rica had for the past weeks presented a diminished seismic activity and also a decreased degassification; however, the volcano raised its voice again this March 7th when it entered an strombolian eruption phase (relatively mild blasts). The phase which began at 00:00 hours included the emission of gases, ashes and incandescent fragments of fresh lava whic...

Costa Rica will launch on April 2 its first satellite to the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S.A. This initiative known as Irazu Project (Space Technology for the Monitoring of Climate Change), is the result of the work of the Central American Association of Aeronautics and Space )CAAE for its Spanish acronym) and the Costa Rica Technology Institute (ITCR) with the s...

On March 16 at the Cariari Golf Club the Asociación Pro-Hospital Nacional de Niños – Parque de Diversiones(Association Pro-National Children´s Hospital-Amusement Park) is organizing the XIV Golf Tournament to raise funds to buy medical equipment for the benefit of the patients of the intensive care unit and burned unit of the Hospital. The Association hopes to raise enough money to buy a calori...

Image Credit: Semanario Universidad The second round of the presidential elections in Costa Rica will take place April 1st and with less than a month to go the latest poll has the two candidates going head to head with a very slight advantage for Carlos Alvarado. The survey carried out by the Center for Political Studies and Investigation of the University of Costa Rica (CIEP-UCR) has Carlos...

Two-year old Costa Rican former Siamese twins Ezequiel and Samuel Nuñez show mild progress ten days after the complex procedure to separate them that took place at the National Children’s Hospital in Costa Rica. The twins remain in the intensive care unit where they are constantly monitored, delicate but stable, Ezequiel is already breathing on his own without the need of a mechanical respirato...

President Trump announced this week the new tariffs on aluminum and steel that will affect countries such as Costa Rica. A couple of weeks back, Commerce Department had released three recommendations relating steel and aluminum imports, yet this suggestions were not taken into consideration by President Trump and he provided his own alternatives. The final decision on the exact percentage that ...

March 3 was proclaimed by the United Nations as UN World Wildlife Day to celebrate and raise awareness of the world’s wild animals and plants; in commemoration of this day, Animal Rescue Zooave in Costa Rica, symbolically destroyed 200 animal cages. The activity took place at the Zooave in La Garita, Alajuela, many of the cages were accumulated by the animal rescue center over a certain period ...