If you usually take the beltway (circunvalación) specifically the area that connects La Uruca with Los Anonos, take into consideration that it will have regulated traffic as of this Tuesday, November 5 . The National Roadways Council (Conavi) will be working on this 2.9 kilometers of road starting at 10 p.m. on Tuesday and will carry on 24 hours a day until concluded which means there will be r...

Southwest Airlines inaugurated a new U.S.-Costa Rica route today to offer daily flights between San José's International airport (SJO) and the Fort Lauderdale International Airport (FLL) in Florida. The first flight for the new service left southern Florida at 11:30 a.m. today, Sunday, November 5, and arrived at the Juan Santamaría airport at 1:28 p.m. Southwest Airlines announced plans for ...

This Saturday, November 5 the San José court sentenced Costa Rican businessman Juan Carlos Bolaños, president of SINOCEM and six executives of public bank Banco de Costa Rica who were all detained yesterday in relation to the “Cementazo” corruption case, to three months of preventive prision detention at the San Sebastián prison in San José which inmates describe as "hell on earth". The resolut...

It is time to pay the marchamo again and if your car is not up to date with Riteve, the annual vehicle inspection, you won’t be able to get your marchamo, you still have time to get the inspection done of course, but take into consideration that as of November 10 prices will be adjusted. The Public Services Regulatory Agency (ARESEP) approved an adjustment of 35% in Riteve, after more than 12...

Four foreign tourists, whose identities have not been disclosed, decided to ignore the warning signs and security information and in their eagerness to seek adventure took one of the improvised trails that lead to the crater of the Arenal Volcano in La Fortuna, San Carlos. Apparently a small landslide caused the emergency and two of the tourists took the worse part, one of them had minor injuri...

A migration officer at the Juan Santamaría International Airport will be subjected to an investigation by her superiors after she allowed one of the suspects in the halloween robberies that took place last Tuesday, October 31, in Escazú, to exit the country. According to the General Direction of Migration and the digital system “Migración Visible” detected the alert in real time; however, for r...

Corporations that are currently considered “inactive” (which don’t have economic activity) but have assets registered such as houses and cars, must register as contributors of the Corporate Tax as it is established in the Law 9428 of Legal Entities. In order to comply with this obligation, the form “Declaración de Modificación de Datos” (Declaration of Data Modification) also known as form D-14...

The Costa Rican Public Services Regulatory Authority (Aresep) this week imposed the first sanction on an Uber driver for illegally providing transportation services. The penalty amounts to ¢2,017,000 (about US$3,500). Both the car owner and the driver are responsible for what is deemed the illegal provision of transportation, because, said the regulatory agency, Uber is not just a technology...

If you've been missing a trusted shoe source, you may be happy to know Keds has opened its doors at the Curridabat (eastern San José) Multiplaza shopping center. The new store has more than 200 shoe style distributed throughout the 50 square meter outlet. "The brand has gone through a renewal. It went from the classic silhouette, which it retains but now with a triple sole, more sporty designs...

“Jesus called in a loud voice, Lazarus, come out! The man who had been dead came out with his hands and feet bound in strips of linen, and his face wrapped in a headcloth.” John 11:43 This bible passage is where the Ley Lázaro (Lazarus Law) gets its name. Lazarus Law, officially Law 9485 Reform of Corporate Taxes, was published in the official paper La Gaceta on October 19 to modify an articl...

If you still don’t have the basics of the “Cementazo” corruption case in Costa Rica, we invite you to read our previous article “Understanding the Cementazo” to get you up to date on this scandal that has occupied the covers of all Costa Rican newspapers and sites since late June this year. For the past few weeks the commission investigating the case has continued with the interviews with all p...

Controversy never seems to end for the northern Costa Rican town of Crucitas. After a Canadian gold mining company, Infinito Gold, was denied access to the land to mine, the case continues to die. The company appealed the Costa Rican government's decision, but finally gave up on the case in 2015 and packed up their bags. However the after effects continue. Not only have over 300 Nicara...

The Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ) has identified five out of the nine man that robbed the Eurochronos jewelry and the Tiempo Global jewelry in Multiplaza Escazú and Plaza Colonial respectively this past October 31st and confirmed they are of Mexican origin. The group reportedly entered the country at the end of October and stayed in different hotels in the San José area, which they abando...

An estimated $1 billion development located between Bagaces and Liberia in the northern Guanacaste province is underway. The mega project is expected to take 20 years to complete. The Ponderosa Country Club and Ponderosa City project will include 400 houses, as well as a kindergarten, private school, exercise areas, playgrounds, an equestrian area, and swimming pools, said project developers. ...

Four foreigners had the scare of their lives when they crashed into a bus and overturned this Wednesday evening near the Backyard in Hermosa Beach, Puntarenas. Firefighters had to use special equipment to free two of the expats who were trapped inside the car. Fortunately, only one of them, a woman, had to be transferred to the local clinic for further medical evaluation. The causes of the a...

Changes to the migratory process when entering or leaving Costa Rica aim to increase the security controls and speed up the transit of travelers through the terminal, according to the Costa Rican General Directorate of Migration and Foreigners, the new system and process have been in place for a month. The director of Migration affirmed that since the new system was implemented they have regist...

Doing Business 2018: Reforming to Create Jobs is a World Bank Group report which measures the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. “Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 190 economies—from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe—and over time. Doing Business measures regulation...

Prisma Business Center in the western San José suburb of Escazú is home to the first kickboxing gym in Costa Rica thanks to 9Round's decision to set up here. The U.S. franchise offers a patented system of nine training stations created by a professional fighter. The system includes boxing and kickboxing circuits interspersed with functional, interval and cardiovascular training, according to th...

Cocoa cultivated in Costa Rica, especially in the northern Upala region bordering with Nicaragua, continues to be one of the best in the world. "There are four aspects that help to obtain a superior quality of chocolate. Among them, the correct genetics - and in Costa Rica there are excellent varieties - and also the post-harvest process, roasting, and conching. We have made notable progress in p...

This Halloween, clients of the upscale Multiplaza Escazú shopping center had the scare of a lifetime - but not from goblins or ghosts. Clients reported running for cover as shots rang out on the first floor of the glitzy shopping center as robbers assaulted Eurochronos around 2 p.m., according to police reports. This same store was robbed last April. It is estimated that the robbers made off...

Monday at the Jacó Walk shopping center, the first recharging center for electric vehicles was inaugurated in Costa Rica's Pacific region. Jacó Beach, a town about an hour and a half from San José the Central Pacific coast, is expected to receive increased development in the next few years. The town is now out and ahead of the pack on green energy with this joint program of the Costa Rican and ...

Good news for people with handicap license plates in Costa Rica. The Costa Rican Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT), through its Directorate General of Traffic Engineering (DGIT), is now granting permits to people with disabilities so they can use their vehicle any day of the week in the downtown San José sector which has restricted access. The Costa Rican National Council of the ...

In a video recently uploaded to Facebook, cult leader, Eligio “Nature Boy” Bishop, who has garnered a following of over 42,000 people on Facebook, claims his group of mostly black followers were racially discriminated against by Spirit Airlines who refused to deport the five U.S. citizens last Thursday, October 26, due to their body odor. According to Bishop, things got really real for the cult...

Subway Costa Rica and the non-profit housing initiative, TECHO, have joined to aid children living in extreme poverty in Guararí de Heredia. Subway Costa Rica teamed up with TECHO on an initiative called: “Para vos, para alguien más, y los que más lo necesitan,” "For you, for someone else, and those who need it most." The company will donate US$20,000 to TECHO for the construction of a new m...

Costa Rica traffic police, firefighters and paramedics are currently in Santo Domingo de Heredia, where two trains crashed for reasons still unknown. At this point authorities report a total of close to 60 people injured, 4 of them in delicate condition and fortunately no fatalities. Hector Chávez director of the Costa Rica Firefighters explained that one train was heading south while the o...

Whether you like it or not Jacó Beach, on Costa Rica's Central Pacific coast, is destined to become much bigger. More condos, more homes, more Croc’s casinos, more restaurants, more churches, more shopping, more night clubs and more people spending money: In Jacó the next 10 years will see more development than in the past 37 years combined. There’s much unoccupied, flat, development-prime l...

KLM launches its new direct service between San José, Costa Rica and Amsterdam, Holland on Halloween on its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, an eco-friendly craft. The service will operate Tuesdays and Fridays as of October 31, and then additionally on Sundays starting at the end of January 2018, announced the airline. The new craft consumes 20 percent ​​less fuel that the airline's other jets, gene...

Reports of a shooting were received by police yesterday, Sunday, October 29, at 8:30 p.m. in a farming community outside of the tourist destination of La Fortuna - Arenal Volcano, Costa Rica. The incident involved the head of the Traffic Police unit for La Fortuna in the district of San Carlos, Alajuela in the north-central region of Costa Rica. Pedro Arce Araya (56) fatally shot his 19-year...

Walking through downtown San José between the hours of 3 - 10 p.m. is considered the most likely way to be the victim of an assault in Costa Rica, according to the most recent data from the Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ). San José's central area - comprised of the Hospital, Merced, Catedral and El Carmen districts - is where most of the country's assaults occur, according to Marco Carrión,...

Even McDonald's knows it pays to buy local. At least 60 farms in Cartago, Costa Rica supply the U.S. fast food chain's network of 55 restaurants with over 27 tons of vegetables each month. "As a global brand, we are proud to support national producers who represent more than 60 percent of the suppliers with whom we work in Costa Rica. Most of the products on our menu have vegetables, which gen...

A car accident registered at 4:18 a.m. this Sunday in the area of Las Juntas in Abangares, Guanacaste, claimed the lives of six people. According to preliminary information there were 7 passengers in a pick-up car with capacity for 5 people. The car crashed into a tree for reasons currently under investigation. Five of the victims died at the scene as a result of the crash, a sixth one died ...

It’s that time of the year again when the Costa Rican government starts charging for the 2018 marchamo for the more than 1.4 million cars registered in the country; the collection of this tax begins November 1st. The marchamo is basically the vehicle’s circulation permit, similar to the registration payment in the United States; this tax must be paid by December 31st for the 2018 period, otherw...

In Costa Rica, the Foundation Pro Palliative Care Unit looks after an average of 1,600 children both in and outpatients and has expenses that add up to close to 42 million colones (Approximately $74,000) a month that includes attention to at least 48 inpatients every month, payroll, medicine, food, conferences to provide support for the families, funeral expenses, among others. This Foundation...

According to the last National Homes Survey carried out by the Statistics and Census Institute, there’s been a reduction in the number of homes in extreme poverty and rural, urban and multidimensional poverty in comparison to the years 2015 and 2016. The survey was carried out with a sample of 10,712 homes in different areas of the country. The study shows that 8,341 Costa Rican homes are n...

One of Russia's wealthiest individuals had over $20,000 in cash seized yesterday afternoon, Thursday, October 26, 2017, at Costa Rica's main Juan Santamaría International Airport near San José when he was leaving for his home country after a vacation. Andrei Bokarev, 51, whose wealth is estimated by Forbes at $1.69 billion, had arrived in a private jet earlier in the week and participated in a ...

Costa Rican and global business and government leaders will meet next week to discuss investment opportunities in Guanacaste, Costa Rica's northern province known for its idyllic beaches and stunning national parks, including the now active Rincon de la Viejo Volcano. Toronto, Canada-based Colliers International, a global commercial real estate services giant will be hosting the event. This is ...

The National Center for Energy Control (CENCE, its initials in Spanish) will have state-of-the-art equipment and a new building by the end of 2017, when it inaugurates its new facilities, the most modern of its kind in Central America. Its operations - now in the Sabana North section of San José - will move to San Miguel de Santo Domingo de Heredia, a location strategically chosen by the Costa ...

Dennis Janik, a native of Canada that has lived for many years in Costa Rica is the recipient of the Carole Noon Award for Sanctuary Excellence, which is given annually by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS). The Carole Noon Award for Sanctuary Excellence is given annually to a sanctuary or individual who embodies and puts into practice the GFAS philosophy of vision, dedication ...

The Magaly Movie Theater in Costa Rica is now operating both its screening rooms with clean energy, thanks to the installation of solar panels that will eventually allow it run completely with solar energy and stop using electricity. This makes Costa Rica the third country in Latin America - after Brazil and Argentina - to adopt clean energy use in the movie theaters. The official announce...

Hopping from one Central American country to another has never been easier, with cheap flights on Volaris, Costa Rica's airline. And the company just announced that your first checked bag flies free on regional flights purchased between now and November 20. The promotion applies to travel undertaken between now and February 28, 2018, as long as tickets are purchased within the time-frame of ...