A 59-year-old Israeli man, Lita Jake, was deported from Costa Rica Monday, October 23, 2017 due to his alleged ties with the criminal structure led by the murdered Lebanese, Elías Akl. Akl was assassinated May 15 in Escazú, Costa Rica at the front entrance to a private school in Guachipelín. Police have continued to investigate those connected with Akl, and have made other arrests since his ...

The artisan or craft beer business continues to grow and strengthen in Costa Rica; recently, several artisan breweries participated in the international competition “Copa Cervezas de America” (America Beers Cup) that took place in Santiago de Chile and had the participation of many Latin American brewers. Copa Cervezas de América was born in 2011 and is now one of the most important beer compe...

The Consular Section at U.S. Embassy San Jose announced a Consular Outreach event in Tamarindo that will take place next Thursday, November 2. The notice sent today states: "Embassy staff will be available to accept adult passport renewals, perform notarial services, and take your inquiries on federal benefits and voting. ACS Chief Ben Peracchio and representatives of the Consulate staff will...

According to a study titled “GENTICO” carried out by UNIMER (a market research company) and kölbi, and which specifically analyzed the population between the ages of 12 and 35 years which represent more than half of the population, a 17% of these group of people in the country currently don’t work or study. This analysis is part of a bigger report which was done in 2016, titled “GENTICO: The ...

Commercial centers in an around San José, Costa Rica have a full agenda lined up with free events for kids and families to celebrate Halloween in a safe, comfortable environment. On Friday, October 27, from 2 - 6 p.m., Lincoln Plaza in Moravia, east of downtown San José, offers an afternoon of fun with inflatables, cotton candy, treats and face-painting, with a trick-or-treating session from 3 ...

Foodie alert! If you though ceviche was all about seafood, you'll be surprised at this festival in Jacó which will offer a wide range of dishes and flavors to suit all tastes and preferences. Fifteen of the hottest restaurants in the Jacó area are readying their best ceviche receives for this Friday, October 27 when the Central Pacific Ceviche Festival takes place at the Océano Boutique Hotel &...

The casual clothing and accessory store, American Eagle Outfitters, opened its second locale in Costa Rica this week, said the company. The new location in the fifth stage of the Multiplaza Escazú shopping center, off Highway 27 in Escazú, opened Friday, October 20. The store's first locale opened in 2016 at Lincoln Plaza in Moravia, a district in eastern San José. The Escazú opening high...

Costa Rican border police agents detained a suspected human trafficker, in Spanish what's known as a "coyote," with six Ecuadorians in the mountains near the Panama border yesterday. The area of southern Puntarenas province where the man was leading the six undocumented migrants  is called ​​Guaycará de Golfito. The Costa Rican man, Agüero, knew of a route over the border that circumvented p...

At 4 a.m. yesterday morning, hundreds of Costa Rican police busted into homes in northern Costa Rica, capturing 28 alleged drug dealers, said Walter Espinoza, director of the Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ). The narco group, perhaps the largest in northern Costa Rica, has been under investigation for the past year-and-a-half and is considered one of the largest police raids in recent years....

From October 24 to November 11, the XVIII International Festival of Baroque Music is being held, and all concerts are free. The activity is organized by the Santa Ana Municipal School of Integrated Arts (EMAI). The majority of the concerts will be held at the downtown Santa Ana musical school and at the Catholic church in Santa Ana. Free concerts will also be given at the Monteverde Institut...

Monteverde, Costa Rica suffered heavily from the intense rains dumped by Tropical Storm Nate earlier this month. The area was completely cut off from the rest of the country for days after the storm, with landslides blocking all access roads. The Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve was closed for a week following the storm. Photos and drone footage show the immense landslides on the region's ste...

According to the company's latest sustainability report, Bridgestone reduced its carbon dioxide emissions in its operations in the region by 15 percent last year. The company aims to become carbon neutral, and is making strides towards the goal. In Costa Rica, the company's 1,042 employees produce 10,395 tires per day at the Bridgesteon plant in Belén, west of San José. The company's seco...

The third quarterly business survey, "Pulso Empresarial," published by the Costa Rican Union of Chambers and Associations of the Private Business Sector (UCCAEP), found that opening a business in Costa Rica through the formal routes is becoming more difficult for entrepreneurs. When asked, "How difficult is it to start a new business in Costa Rica?", 75 percent of those consulted said that it w...

The first space satellite developed in Costa Rica is a 10 cubic centimeter aluminum affair that weighs one kilogram. The milestone achievement was designed using the CubeSat picosatellites model - very small, lightweight and low-cost devices. The satellite will carry a computer, a communication system and a power system. It will also have solar panels and a secondary computer. When it arr...

A recent ranking of road infrastructure in Latin America lists Costa Rica as second to last, followed by Paraguay and Haiti who are tied for last place with similarly dismal rankings.   The information came to light in the most recent 2017-2018 competitiveness report issued by the World Economic Forum and focused on the quality of roads. The ranking is based partially on the percepti...

  A ruling earlier this year by an appeals court in San José, Costa Rica ruled that random searches of vehicles without good reason by police oversteps their powers and infringes on people's rights. The Costa Rican Public Security Ministry regularly sets up check-points near airports, ports, borders and on main highways to search at random vehicles passing by and in this way dissuade an...

Up-to-date information on tides and ocean conditions for surfers and beachgoers is available at the Costa Rica Surf website. The top surf beaches in Costa Rica include Pavones, Dominical and Manuel Antonio in the southern Pacific region, Mal Pais, Nosara-Guiones, Playa Hermosa and Tamarindo in the northern Guanacaste Pacific region, and Puerto Viejo on the Costa Rican Caribbean coast. Driving di...

Heavy rains last night and early this morning, Monday, October 23, caused flooding in the low-lying Upala region of northern Costa Rica, said Costa Rican National Emergency Commission (CNE) officials. The swollen rivers caused at least 15 people to be evacuated from the San José de Upala neighborhood. According to Leonel Jiménez, the region's Fire Department director, a temporary shelter was...

Costa Rica's National University's veterinary hospital took some 300 dogs and cats into their care that were orphaned after Tropical Storm Nate's rains Oct. 5-6 that left hundreds of houses inhabitable in different parts of the country. Many of these animals that were rescued by the country's National Animal Health Services (SENASA) needed to be treated for wounds. Currently 18 of these ani...

A Guatemalan woman is under investigation in Costa Rica for allegedly forcing another Guatemalan woman to work 17 hours a day without pay, and also without food during her workday or any days off, according to reports from the Costa Rica Judicial Investigative Police (OIJ). The woman, with the last names Martínez López, was arrested Thursday morning October 12 in La Fortuna de San Carlos, Alaju...

The heavy rains that the country has experienced this year have brought back the lake of the Irazú Volcano which had dried out several years back. The lake brings back one of the main attractions of this National Park, it is formed in the interior of the active crater and its emerald green color has in the past been featured in many postcards and photographs. The small lake at the Diego de l...

This might be a good time to plan some travel on Southwest, with low fares on dates from now and into 2018. These low fares have been announced between Houston and Costa Rica on Southwest, $144 one-way from Houston-San José, and $173 one-way from San José-Houston. Other low fares are available in and out of Liberia, Costa Rica in the northern Guanacaste province, announced the airline. Pu...

The Rincón de la Vieja Volcano in Guanacaste Costa Rica presented new activity this Sunday at 6:40 a.m. with an eruption column that reached 1000 meters over the crater, 2,916 meters above sea level (9,564.48 ft.) as informed by the National University’s Volcanology and Seismology Research Institute (OVSICORI). This activity at the Rincón de la Vieja is normal, the last one of importance was re...

The San José Half Marathon that took place this Sunday morning was struck by tragedy as one of the participants was ran over and killed by a reckless driver that disregarded the safety measures. The 35-year-old runner identified as David Yañez Pacheco from Venezuela, was ran over near the Zapote church close to 6:15 a.m., the organization of the event posted the information on their Facebook pa...

The Costa Rican Meteorological Institute (IMN) is constantly monitoring a possible low pressure system that is forming in Panama and that could affect Costa Rica. “The most recent meteorological analysis show that this upcoming week there is a strong possibility of a low pressure system forming in the southwest of the Caribbean Sea (North of Panama), that would increase considerably the amount...

Once again officers of the National Coast Guard Service in Costa Rica found cocaine packets floating in the ocean. The Ministry of Public Security explained that a total of 24 packages were found this Friday, October 20, about 200 kilometers southwest of Golfito in the South Pacific when the officers were patrolling the area. Just this past October 6th the Coast Guard came across 44 cocaine p...

A Canadian tourist passed away today at the RIU Hotel in Guanacaste. The press office of the Organism of Judicial Investigation, confirmed the man was 42-year-old and of last name Shawn. Apparently the man was arguing with someone at the hotel and the argument escalated to the point that the hotel security had to intervene, the man was handcuffed and they sat him down on a chair at which point ...

Believe it or not the city of San José, Costa Rica is ranked as the “least stressful city” to live in Latin America, according to British company Zipjet and its 2017 Global Least & Most Stressful Cities Ranking. Zipjet develops technology which aims to reduce stress in people’s lives; they carried out a study to find out how the most stressful cities around the world can benefit from the exampl...

The U.S.-based franchise Buffalo Wild Wings (also known as B-Dubs) announced an interest in setting up shop in Costa Rican market in 2018, and hopes to find some local business partners to get things rolling. Over the past 35 years, B-Dubs has grown steadily and now has a presence in 50 U.S. states. The eatery and sports bar franchise also operates in Canada, Mexico, Panama, the Philippines, th...

Season 3 of T.V. Show “The Bachelor Canada” had some of its episodes filmed in Costa Rica. The season is just starting, at the end of Episode 1 and after saying dismissing five contestants, the bachelor and the remaining 15 bachelorettes set off to Costa Rica. According to information on the W Network site, the cast stayed in luxury vacation rental Casa Bali, located in the gated community o...

Six Nicaraguan women, including a minor, who were sexually exploited in a bar in Upala, Costa Rica, were rescued in mid-September by the Costa Rican Immigration Police in a sting operation in coordination with the public prosecutor's office and the General Directorate of Migration and Immigration (DGME). During the operation, five suspects were arrested at the Pino Bar in Santa Clara de Upala f...

A Costa Rican man with the last names Alvarado Leiva, an official at the Costa Rican National Registry (Registro Nacional), was arrested this morning on suspicion of hacking into a woman's WhatsApp account, monitoring her private communications, and sending her death threats, said the Costa Rican Judicial Investigative Police (OIJ). It appears that Alvarado Leiva is obsessed with the woman, who...

The number of Costa Rican girls that are battling obesity is growing at an alarming rate a situation that is affecting practically every country in the world, a condition that is now considered a pandemic. A report by the Center for Non-Communicable Diseases and the World Health Organization (WHO) which analyzed 2,416 studies carried out from 1975 through 2016 that measured weight and height of...

The Presidential Campaign in Costa Rica has started already and the Costa Rican Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) has everything ready for Ticos to be able to cast their vote even if they live abroad. In total, almost 31 thousand Ticos that live out of the country will be able to vote next February 4th; the majority of these voters are in the United States with a total of 20,000 voters; 120 are ...

The Costa Rican man who has been held in detention since his arrest in early February following the gruesome murder of five university students in January in the northern Costa Rican city of Liberia, capital of Guanacaste will attend a preliminary hearing Thursday, said the Public Security Ministry. The hearing, which was originally scheduled in Liberia for October 6, was postponed due to the n...

The Norwegian Fund for Developing Countries (Norfund) and Sunshine, a subsidiary of Losko, signed a strategic alliance that will facilitate financing of solar energy projects in Costa Rica and countries in Central America. Three solar success stories stand out in Costa Rica for having benefitted from this initiative. Norfund, founded in 1997 by the Norwegian government, has as its primary go...

Tropical Storm Nate's damages and effects are still being tabulated and addressed in Costa Rica. The storm's 24 hours of straight rain in most of the country has affected many parts of the economy, as well as forever changed people's lives who lost their homes, businesses, schools and even communities. Golfito's duty free zone in the southern Pacific region of Costa Rica is no exception. ...

The US Ambassador to Costa Rica, Sharon Day, introduced herself through a video published on Facebook, Day revealed she fell in love with the country during a family trip where she visited the country to enjoy its nature and biodiversity. Day was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas but lived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for the past 25 years. She has been part of the U.S. Republican party for ...

Representatives from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and Belize will analyze the regional anti-gang strategy jointly with specialists from the United States Federal Office of Investigation (FBI), Department of Police Los Angeles, Chicago and Fairfax; and the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. This is happening at the Central American Anti-Gang Conference, an important region...

The Chancellor of the Republic, Manuel A. González Sanz, formally inaugurated the Costa Rican Embassy in Australia during his working visit to the Asia Pacific island. In the activity, Minister González described the opening as a great step for Costa Rican diplomacy, and a key move towards its strategic objective of consolidating its presence in the vast Asia Pacific region. "This decision wil...