Last night, Guanacaste police chased a car from Sámara along the northern Pacific coast of Costa Rica to the district of Nicoya, also in the province of Guanacaste after being alerted by tourists that their car was robbed. After the "intense" chase, police detained the car and arrested three male suspects in the robbery by the last names Morales, Zúñiga and Prieto. After receiving the alert,...

48 hours of continuous eruptive activity at Poás Volcano were marked this Saturday at 10:12 p.m. with a strong explosion that was captured by the cameras of the National Seismology Network, this explosion only lasted one minute and threw rocks at high temperatures in the areas close to the crater: This is the view from the thermal cameras located near the crater: The peak of activity...

One of the first questions that comes up when a foreigner is looking to buy a property in Costa Rica has to do with financing options. Let’s start by saying that buying real estate in Costa Rica can be considerably more affordable than purchasing a home in the United States, vacation homes are not an exception, a beautiful vacation home with a beach view in one of Costa Rica’s most popular area...

A technical failure in the communication systems at the Juan Santamaría Airport in Costa Rica, has forced the cancelation and suspension of several flights. The failure took place at 5 p.m. local time, when the communication between the control tower and the aircrafts was lost. Avianca, Volaris, Copa and two additional airlines have their scheduled flights in stand-by until the situation is ...

Poás Volcano had another eruption that reached an altitude of over 1 kilometer this Friday morning and could be easily seen from many spots of the metropolitan area. Since 11 p.m. on Thursday night the National University’s Volcanology and Seismology Research Institute (OVSICORI) reported an increase in the tremor which fluctuates in intensity; the majority of the events expel only water vapor ...

This week, Costa Rican public health officials are launching an “intense information and education campaign … with the goal of having Ticos incorporate in their daily diet more salads and fruits, water as a main drink, use weekly meal plans, and internalize the concept of a ‘healthy plate’,” said the Costa Rican Social Security Agency (CCSS). The most comprehensive data on obesity shows a 275 p...

Costa Rican Minister of Foreign Affairs Manuel A. González Sanz met today, April 20, 2017, with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, on the sidelines of the meeting of ministers of foreign affairs of the Central American Integration System (SICA) in Istanbul, Turkey. At the meeting, the Turkish chancellor offered his support for the reconstruction of damages caused by Hurricane Otto in Co...

Health officials point to a disturbing continuation of high teenage pregnancy rates, and ready access by children in Costa Rica to pornography, and are calling for stronger sexual education in the country’s schools. On any given day, around 35 teenagers give birth to a child in Costa Rica, according to public health data. And though the trend has seen some recent declines, the numbers are fa...

The Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) and Siemens Costa Rica S.A. yesterday signed a commercial agreement at the ICE head office in Sabana Norte, near downtown San José to define and delimit the terms for carrying out joint projects in different areas of the electricity sector. "The agreement seeks to foster synergies, build on each other's individual strengths and complementary services ...

Costa Rica is the only country in Central America that accumulates ten years of uninterrupted electrical service, while the other five countries in the region accumulate 13 total or partial blackouts in the last seven years, according to the Regional Operator Entity (EOR). ¨We estimate that just one total blackout of the National Electric System, that would require close to three hours to reest...

Laureate International Universities, through the Latin American University of Costa Rica, will invest more than US$40 million in infrastructure this year in the construction of a new campus in Heredia, and THINK, an innovative higher education center focused on online education and with a center at Terrazas Lindora. "In a globalized world, it is vitally important that universities seek to stren...

Another eruption was registered this Tuesday evening at 7:08 p.m. local time by Poás, Volcano in Costa Rica, the activity only lasted 5 minutes but during this time the volcano provided a light show spitting out incandescent rocks as you can see in the following video: The volcano continues to register frequent activity and it is cataloged as “highly unstable” by geologists and volcanologis...

$400 million will be the initial investment that Sun Latin America will make for the construction of Discovery Costa Rica, a theme park that will be developed in Liberia, Guanacaste. The construction is scheduled to begin in 2018 and during this stage it could generate close to 2000 jobs, the park is expected to begin operations in 2020. The President of Costa Rica Luis Guillermo Solís along wi...

The Second Judicial Circuit’s Criminal Court has set a September date for the trial of four doctors from Costa Rica’s public health system and a man of Greek origin for allegedly contacting poor people to illegally extract their organs, reported national Costa Rican media today. The Public Security Ministry, who made the accusation against the Costa Rican Social Security Agency (CCSS) doctors a...

— The Tortuguero elementary school needs your help! Sustainable tourism agencies in Costa Rica have teamed up to support an elementary school serving 200 students in the far northeast corner of Costa Rica. In the lush, canal-filled town of Tortuguero, the school suffers from serious deterioration of its roof and structure mainly from sea water corrosion. ARA Tours, an innovative, multilingu...

Costa Rica hasn’t invested in its prison system since 1999, not for a lack of prisoners though. Overcrowding in Costa Rica’s prisons, among other problems experienced by prisoners, have garnered negative attention for the country in human rights reports in recent years. The Minister of Justice and Peace Cecilia Sánchez said last week that a new approach is being taken to the penitentiary system...

“Discovery Costa Rica”, a $1 billion eco-tourism park will open in late 2020 near Liberia, Guanacaste, the cost of the project will be covered by Sun Latin America, and Discovery Communications Inc. will license its name to it in an effort to capitalize on followers from its Latin American channels which include Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. The park will include Discovery-branded hotels...

The Poás Volcano in Alajuela, Costa Rica continued with high activity this Sunday, small phreatic eruptions are reported every hour, but the biggest eruptions took place at 1:46 p.m. and a larger one at 1:55 p.m. local time. The second eruption was visible from different points of the metropolitan area, extending one thousand meters in altitude. The blast once again expelled rocks of large s...

The beaches at the Osa Península in the province of Puntarenas Costa Rica are not as popular among vacationists as the beaches in Guanacaste, part of this has to do with the distance, the Osa Península is a long drive from San José, and these region is usually promoted more as an ecotourism destination since the Corovado National Park is located here. If you haven’t visited the Osa Penísula you...

Ortega de Balsón is a small town in Santa Cruz de Guanacaste, it is famous in Costa Rica because they have a tradition that has been celebrated every year on Good Friday ( Easter) for at least 200 years called “la lagarteada”; this phrase cannot be properly translated, but the activity consists on a group of people jumping into a croc infested river  capturing a live crocodile, preferably the larg...

Nicole Birkner Alier is just 17 years old, but she makes it a point to live her life to the fullest and give her best effort in everything she takes on. Birkner attends Lincoln High-School where she is preparing to graduate from the International Baccalaureate program, she send her application to several Universities in the United States hoping to receive a positive response from at least one o...

Another eruption by Poás Volcano was registered by the National University’s Volcanology and Seismology Research Institute (OVSICORI) at 8:10 this morning, it extended for 10 minutes, information on the altitude reached by the column of gas is still unknown due to the visibility conditions at the site right now. The two blasts the Poás had yesterday, which reached 3 kilometers in altitude, have...

A wildfire that started at 9 p.m. of Friday, April 14 has affected a large area of the mountain known as “Cerro Pelado” (Pelado Peak) in Tilarán, Guanacaste; the burn bodies of two adult men were found in a hillside, authorities will have to confirm if their death obeys to the fire or if they lost their lives under different circumstances. The windy conditions of this area and the dryness of th...

As we celebrate the Holy Week, we invite you to visit some of Costa Rica’s most beautiful churches, being for the most part a catholic country, you are sure to find a church in every community, but some are certainly worth visiting even if you are not a religious person, as their architecture makes them stand out. Basílica Nuestra Señora de Los Angeles: This is Costa Rica’s most popular chur...

Nearly half a million dollars will go into the first stage of post-Hurricane-Otto environmental clean-up, announced the Costa Rican President’s office this week. Work began this week in the Upala region. The C253 million job of cleaning and channeling the Zapote River as it wends in and around the communities of Yolillal, San Isidro, San Judas, El Carmen and Upala center, is overseen by the Min...

The Boston Globe detailed a report released yesterday on alleged cases of sexual abuse and assault on Choate Rosemary Hall students by former educators at the New England private boarding school over the past more than four decades. One of the cases detailed includes jaw-dropping allegations by a former female student whose story was confirmed by eyewitnesses about how her former Choate Spanish...

Work on the Calderón Guardia Hospital’s new East Tower will begin in mid-April and will last approximately three years, said officials from the CCSS, the Costa Rica Social Security Agency. The new infrastructure, measuring approximately 21,000 square meters and costing an estimated US$83 million, of which US$18 million will be for equipment, will bolster the country's public health care system....

With growing demand for organic produce in the United States, Texas-based Pasco Foods is stepping up to fill the niche market. The company, which began packing private label French-Fried onions and Crispy-Fried Onions for U.S. retailers, wholesale clubs and industrial customers in 1999, has since expanded to supply pineapple and hearts of palm imports from Costa Rica to U.S. consumers, accordin...

Costa Rica’s state-owned Banco Nacional has taken steps to encourage employees to bicycle to work, reported the entity this week. The initiative, launched this year at the bank’s downtown main and La Uruca offices, includes a bike parking area, dressing rooms with showers, and lockers, said Carlos Abarca Rivera, deputy general manager of operations. This year 10 - 15 employees have been cycl...

After the recent increase in activity of the Poás Volcano, and the eruption that took place yesterday evening (Wednesday) ,the Ministry of Environment and the National System of Conservation Areas in coordination with the National Emergency Commission (CNE) announced that the National Park will remain closed as a preventive measure and to allow the evaluation of the situation at the volcano by the...

This Wednesday, April 12th at approximately 6:30 p.m. the National University’s Volcanology and Seismology Research Institute (OVSICORI) registered an eruption at the Poás Volcano. Due to the lack of visibility in the area the OVSICORI cannot confirm the altitude reached by the column, but the activity extended for close to 40 minutes. Neighbors of the area of Bajos del Toro to the north east ...

The Pulitzer Prize is a recognition given by the University of Columbia in New York, for achievements in newspaper, magazine and online journalism, literature and musical composition. This year the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists received this prize for their work in the Panama Papers in the category Explanatory Reporting. This investigation exposed the hidden structure us...

 - Researchers and teachers throughout the country are developing a tool to prevent, detect and eradicate racist practices in Costa Rica's classrooms. An initiative called "Racial-Discrimination-Free Educational Centers," is under development with workshops being held in the country's different provinces with over 200 teachers to gather input on the cirruclum and discuss its importance. The ef...

Eleven year old Daniel León suffers from Diamond-Blackfan Anemia (DBA), a rare disorder of the bone marrow in which it fails to produce enough red blood cells and usually apparent during the first year of life. Daniel was diagnosed with this condition when he was 1 year and nine months old. Only four other children have this disease in Costa Rica right now, and only 35 per year occur in the United...

The fall in economic activity is attributed to negative growth in agriculture, forestry and fisheries, the manufacturing industry, and financial and insurance activities. In February, economic activity in Costa Rica increased 3.9 percent, almost 2 points below last February's growth of 5.4 percent, according to the monthly index of economic activity (IMAE, Incide Mensual de Actividad Económica) c...

Costa Rica's National Coast Guard seized over one ton of cocaine being transported on a small-scale fishing boat in the country's Pacific, said police sources Monday. The operation was carried out on Monday when the Coast Guard intercepted the boat and detained its four crewmen 144 kilometers off the coast of Quepos, Puntarenas province, in Costa Rica's central Pacific. After inspecting the ...

With over 41 million international arrivals in 2015 and an average growth of 5 percent, Latin America’s travel and tourism industry has incredible potential to help generate growth, create jobs and enable regional development, said a recent report by the World Economic Forum. Costa Rica ranked fourth in the forum's 2017 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report. Researchers said wh...

- The United Nations considers Costa Rica an exemplary sustainable tourism destination. The General Assembly of the United Nations declared 2017 as the “International Year of Sustainable Tourism Development,” and elected the President of Costa Rica, Luis Guillermo Solis, as special ambassador for the activity. Taleb Rifai, secretary general of the World Tourism Organization, said the recogni...

The Ministry of Public Security confirmed that 11 a.m. Saturday, while monitoring highways around Ciudad Colón, a town west of San José, officers found a large bag of synthetic drugs abandoned along the road, said Juan José Andrade, director of the national police force. They assume that whoever had been transporting the synthetic marijuana, called K2, threw it out to avoid being detected by po...

A large group of tourists had to be evacuated today from the Poás Volcano as a precaution due to the increase in the gases emanating from the same. According to the park rangers the evacuation took place at 1 p.m. as a preventive security measure due to strong emanation of gases. Some of the tourists complained about eye and throat irritation caused by the smell. The volcano has been present...