It takes just a quick online search to find information and reports about the destruction of this important Costa Rican ecosystem, some dating back to 2011, and we are confident there was plenty of data available and alerting of the situation prior to this, yet in 2017 instead of seeing progress there are still reports of illegal human activity that keeps destroying this important wetland. Let’...

The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017 carried out by the World Economic Forum revealed the list of best ranked countries in the world. The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index measures “the set of factors and policies that enable the sustainable development of the travel and tourism sector, which in turn, contributes to the development and competitiveness of a country”, states...

The Costa Rican nonprofit group, Asociación Mar a Mar (The Sea to Sea Association), is developing a unique outdoor experience that will allow hikers to traverse the country from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast in two weeks. The trail is called El Camino de Costa Rica. “Our aim is to have every hiker in the world want to walk El Camino de Costa Rica, or part of it, at least once in their lifet...

Meet Edna, the smart assistant for Facebook messenger created by a Costa Rican company, Edna is a smart virtual assistant based on artificial intelligence, “like a hybrid between a robot and human being”, and created by Costa Rican company Throne Tech. The system will be available starting May for use in Facebook Messenger, but its creators are already considering making it available for Whatsa...

Costa Rican and Nicaraguan business leaders met yesterday to hammer out a cooperation agreement to further trade between the two countries, said the Costa Rican Private Sector Business Union (UCCAEP, its initials in Spanish) Members of Nicaragua’s Superior Private Business Council (COSEP, its initials in Spanish) traveled to San José for the 1-day session aimed at strengthening relations and co...

Police in Montes de Oca, otherwise known as San Pedro, the eastern San José district where the main University of Costa Rica campus is situated, responded to a call yesterday morning after witnesses saw a group of young men acting strangely outside of Venue Bar. The Public Security Ministry reported that police officers assisted 15 youth who were apparently under the influence of a strong drug....

April 3, 2017: San Jose, Costa Rica: Costa Rica is one step closer to developing a world-class container transshipment terminal on the Caribbean coast, near the current shipping and cruise port of Limon. The port will have the capacity to accommodate the largest container ships currently in operation or on order, including those that are too large to pass through the expanded Panama Canal. The ...

The Costa Rica tourism sector has a new set of tools to gather, process and provide data, statistics and information regarding the behavior of the market. The Costa Rican Tourism Board (ICT) informed that as of this Thursday, April 6, they are making available through their webpage (www.ICT.go.cr), valuable information such as statistical analysis, financial analysis, surveys, figures of the t...

Owning a vacation home has many advantages, it is a place you can escape to from your work routine and have a place to go any time you need to, it gives you all the privacy you like and want; you can travel with friends and family and have guests over, even bring your pets; you have everything you want and everything you need handy and the way you like it, so it is all about convenience and contro...

The Payless footwear chain store announced this week it has filed for bankruptcy in the United States and Canada, and plans to close some 400 stores. No Costa Rican stores will be affected by the financial difficulties. The Kansas-based firm, which has accumulated debts in excess of US$1 billion, said it had filed papers in a court in St. Louis, Missouri, and had also pleaded before the cour...

A heat wave is scorching a good portion of Central America, raising temperatures above 40 C (104 F) in some areas and spurring authorities to issue warnings of even higher readings. In Costa Rica, people are complaining about the heat on the social networks, despite the fact that high temperatures are normal at this time of year and the current temperatures are similar to in other years. In ...

The United Nations System and the Government of Costa Rica signed a new Development Assistance Framework for Costa Rica 2018- 2022 (UNDAF) on Friday, March 31. The document defines the cooperation and support pledged by the UN to the country over the next five years in a program named "Nobody Left Behind", said Danilo Mora Díaz, communications officer for the UN System. The activity was atte...

An ambitious proposal presented yesterday to Costa Rican transportation officials envisions a subway with three lines crossing the province of San José from east to west and from north to south, said the Federated College of Engineers and Architects (CFIA). The entity's pre-feasibility study was handed over to the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT); it would cost an estimated US...

This article originally appeared in Earth Island Journal . The retail giant is sourcing its Suli brand tuna from Mexican fishing fleets that harass and kill marine mammals, says nonprofit. Investigations by the nonprofit International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP) have revealed that Walmart Costa Rica stores are selling Walmart's brand of canned tuna that has been caught using fishing methods tha...

The Coalition for Development Initiatives (Cinde) identified these 10 emerging cities as having the greatest potential in Costa Rica to start attracting new types of investment and increase economic opportunities; they are San Carlos, Liberia, Carrillo, Orotina, Puntarenas, Perez Zeledón, Limón, Pococí, Siquirres, and Turrialba These cities are located in counties which have “a significant degr...

This year's road fatalities among motorcyclists are showing a worrying increase over previous years, with an average of 15 motorcyclists having lost their lives on the roads every month so far this year, said the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT). From January 1 - March 31, 2017, 54 of the 126 road deaths, or 43 percent, were among motorcyclists, said the MOPT. Note that only t...

In recent months, the Public Security Ministry has destroyed 450 arms which were decommissioned by state agencies who are decreasing their use of armed guards, said Roberto Méndez, head of the private security bureau within the ministry, in a phone interview As the ministry takes steps to comply with international arms control mechanisms, they are also looking for ways in encourage alternative ...

Mission Blue just sailed out to the Costa Rica Thermal Dome Hope Spot with their partners at MarViva! Marviva is well-respected regional, non-governmental organization focusing on the conservation and sustainable use of marine and coastal resources, including the expansion of marine protected areas. In the Costa Rica Thermal Dome, MarViva and Mission Blue share the goal of raising awareness among...

Costa Rica continues its trend of achieving near total renewable energy production with a first quarter record of 99.06 percent, said the National Energy Control Center (CENCE) Hydroelectric makes up the bulk of energy production, which makes the renewables grid vulnerable at certain dry times of the year. State Electrical Institute (ICE) officials said that with summer climaxing in April in...

In the early morning house of  Saturday, April 1, a couple signed into a hotel in downtown San José. Only one of them left alive. Some people in the hotel noted that the man left the hotel about a half an hour after the couple had gone up to the room, but the woman failed to come out of the room for many hours. Hotel staff were alerted to the suspicious scenario. Hotel staff entered the room...

The first primary for Costa Rica's upcoming presidential elections was held by the center-right National Liberation (PLN) party yesterday. Political aficionados have been on tenterhooks as the results for the "verdiblancos" (the green and whites, as they are nicknamed) have slowly rolled in. Party members were pleased with the turnout, but many were not happy about what seemed to be an anomaly ...

Faithful to its mission to assist those who require help at sea, the Costa Rican Coast Guard on Friday came to the aid of an American sailboat with mechanical problems in Panamanian waters near the Costa Rican border, reported the Public Security Ministry today. Officers stationed at the Golfito Coast Guard station who were patrolling with the  SNG 82-3 patrol boat, the Juan Rafael Mora, travel...

The University of Costa Rica (UCR) climbed 30 spots in the “QS World University Rankings” for the 2016-2017 period. The QS World University Rankings provides an index of the world’s leading higher education institutions, based on six performance indicators: Academic reputation, Employer reputation, Student-to-faculty ratio, Citations per faculty, International faculty ratio and international st...

The National Administration of the Education, Nutrition, and Child Comprehensive Care Centers (CEN-CINAI) invested almost $900 thousand dollars to provide nutrition and child development services to children under 13 years of age, pregnant women and women in nursing period that are in extreme poverty. The CEN-CINAI system was able to surpass the goal of providing attention to 4000 new families...

Preliminary data from the 2016 census show a decreasing birth rate and increasing mortality, said the Costa Rican Census and Statistics Institute (INEC) today. In 2016 there were 1,815 fewer births in Costa Rica than in 2015. In relative values, a birth rate of 14.31 per thousand inhabitants was observed in 2016, while in 2015 the rate was 14.86. Mothers from Costa Rica and Nicaragua account...

Last year, Costa Rican police detained an Ecuadorian boat 100 kms off the coast of Golfito in Costa Rica's southern Pacific. The boat was found to be manned by two Ecuadorian and one Colombian in addition to over a half ton of cocaine. Costa Rican Coast Guard official were alerted to the suspicious boat by Colombian officials. The three were sentenced this month by the Golfito Criminal Court...

The National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC) reported that so far this 2017 there have been 25 forest fires in Protected Wildlife Areas. The most affected area has been the Central Pacific Region, where five fires affected 144 hectares. In general Guanacaste is the province that presents more forest fires during the summer time which extends through the middle of May. According t...

Costa Rica’s public health system continues to strengthen care for mothers and newborns. Last year, the 65,281 babies were born at Costa Rica’s public hospitals, reported the CCSS (the Costa Rican Social Security Agency, which runs the public health system). Of these, 588 were twins, and nine were triplets. The hospitals have recently introduced screening procedures ("tamizaje" in Spanish) tha...

A petition challenging restrictions on Internet usage approved by Sutel was brought before the Costa Rican Constitutional Court by the National Ombudsman’s Office (Defensoría de los Habitantes) earlier this month. The court has asked for further clarifications before reaching a decision as to whether to suspend or uphold the new policy, called "uso justo" or "just use", approved by the telecomm...

Costa Rica’s Ministry of Environment (MINAE) and the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC) formally filed the legal complaint for the confiscation of sharks that was done in March 20 by the park rangers of the Isla del Coco National Park to the ship Jose Pablo II, plates PW-4893 which was found fishing in protected areas. During the inspection, authorities seized 58 dead sharks located ...

— Costa Rica’s exports grew 1.4 percent in 2016. The Statistics and Census Institute (INEC) reported this week on Costa Rica’s economic activity. Data from 2016 show an annual growth in exports of about 1.4 percent over 2015; rising from US$9.4 to US$9.5 billion. The country’s “non-traditional” exports, like medical devices and technology-related exports, are second only to fresh pineapple ...

By late yesterday afternoon, Costa Rica’s Drug Control Police (known as the PCD, in Spanish) had finished counting the cash hidden in a truck attempting to enter into Costa Rica over the northern Peñas Blancas border with Nicaragua. A whopping US$310,380 was found stacked in 12 neatly wrapped packages, and meticulously placed under the front passenger’s seat in part of the air conditioning syst...

The U.S. State Department’s annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report came out this month. In the Money Laundering and Financial Crimes section, the report's second volume, Costa Rica is noted as being a favorable base for, "transnational criminal organizations to commit financial crimes due to its location and limited enforcement capability.” The report acknowledges that despite t...

The Internet Service Provider Speed ​​Index (ISP) recently released data on which Internet providers offer the best performance when using the Netflix series and movies platform. Five companies in Costa Rica were evaluated for their speed using prime time bit rates reported by users. The best Netflix performance was with Telecable users, who had an average of 2.95 Megabit per second (Mbps) s...

This week the legislature approved in a second and final debate a cooperation agreement between the Republic of Costa Rica and Palestine that supports technical, economic, scientific and cultural cooperation activities, as reported in various Costa Rican media. The original agreement was signed in 2013, but faced some legal hurdles in the legislature. One vocal detractor, National Liberation...

The Costa Rican Judiciary sent out a message yesterday mourning the death of another woman at the hands of her partner. The Observatory on Gender Violence Against Women and Access to Justice is a relatively new judicial agency dedicated to tracking violence against women, making legal and court services available to women who are victims of violence, and to observing the judiciary’s response to...

Costa Rican Alvarez & Marin Corporation had confirmed the acquiring of the franchise Chuck E. Cheese’s some years back, a restaurant and entertainment center for children between the ages of 2-12, now the firm has confirmed that the first location is scheduled to open in October this year in Plaza Bratsi, Heredia. A total of three sites will open between 2017 and 2019 in the metropolitan ar...

A landmark conciliation agreement was reached this week in the community of Las Brisas, Upala in northern Costa Rica, said Edgar Araya, Broad Front Party (Frente Amplio) Legislator. A dialogue was held in the Community Hall of Las Brisas, Upala with local residents and representatives of the Las Brisas Agricultural Company to discuss the situation. "After many years of struggle, resistance a...

Monday, the Costa Rican Red Cross sent out a rescue team to locate six members of an 11-member hiking group who apparently became lost during a trek in the southern central mountains of Costa Rica. The group, made up of Mexicans, Canadians, French, as well as a German and a Costa Rica traveler, set out Sunday at 5:00 a.m. on a hike in an area called "Las Torres de Savegre" near San Gerardo de D...

Costa Rica’s iconic dairy brand, Dos Pinos, just announced a new "helado" with a unique Costa Rican twist: Guayabita ice cream. But, don’t get too excited, the product still needs a month or so before it hits the shelves, said Dos Pinos. Since the company’s acquisition late last year of the Costa Rican candy company, Gallito, consumers have wondered what the buy-out might have in store as fa...