Kivu the lion had finally been moved to a new enclosure where he had enough space to move and hide from the curious looks of the zoo visitors. He was moved to Zoo Ave on December 5, 2016; just two months and 12 days later he passed away, he was 18 years of age. Costa Rica’s beloved lion died on Friday night due to health complications; in the last few weeks’ zoo authorities had confirmed he was...

The Quality of Life Index carried out by InterNations, the world’s largest expat network that provides information on destinations all around the globe places Costa Rica among the 21 countries that provide a better quality of life. The top five countries in the index are: Taiwan, Austria, Japan, Spain and Costa Rica. In the list of best 21 countries there are only two others from the Americ...

This Friday a group of fishermen found the dead body of an alligator close to the area where thousands of dead fish washed ashore just this past Wednesday. The reptile was found in the Moraga estuary, just 700 meters from the place where sardines were found in the Nicoya Gulf. According to a neighbor of Manzanillo, Puntarenas, finding alligators and crocodiles in the area is not uncommon bu...

If January’s lowered alcohol-related traffic deaths are a sign of things to come, then Costa Rica’s streets are getting a lot safer. Mario Calderón, director of Traffic Police, said his force was able to stop 228 drunk drivers last month through increased efforts. This may have led to a lowering by more than two-thirds the road deaths connected to drunk driving in January compared to December. ...

Thousands of dead fish, mostly sardines but also sea bass, are covering several small beaches in the Nicoya Gulf since Tuesday night. Executive president of the Costa Rica Fishing and Aquaculture Institute (Incopesca), Gustavo Meneses, confirmed to national media that the affected area is of around 2 kilometers (1.25 miles) along several small beaches and the Moraga estuary in Puntarenas The...

The National Commission of Risk Prevention and Emergency Attention (CNE) and the Technical Assessment Vulcanology Committee (CAT) insist that the security of the people visiting the areas close to the Turrialba volcano is a priority, and for this reason the current restrictions most remain in such way that visitors must stay within a 2 km radius (1.24 miles) and when necessary at a distance of 5 k...

The Acosta Orchid Association will hold its 14th Annual Orchid Show this weekend, and invites all orchid enthusiasts to attend the internationally juried competition. This show, one of the country’s largest orchid displays, is open to viewers from Friday, February 17 - Sunday, February 19 from 8:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. in the gymnasium of the Desamparados Olympic Village. The association meets r...

  By Wendy Anders The Costa Rican public health system offers smoking cessation clinics through 28 of its 29 hospitals, making the program available to much of the country’s population, said the CCSS (Costa Rican Social Security Agency). The Heredia Hospital was the most recent to offer the interdisciplinary program to aid in quitting smoking. They are offering an evening class sched...

By Wendy Anders A flurry of concern by Costa Ricans, who thought visa requirements to the U.S. might have been changed in the wake of recent federal rulings on the 45th president’s immigration ban, were laid to rest by the U.S. Embassy in San José, Costa Rica. Visa requirements for Costa Ricans wishing to enter the U.S. remain the same, and are spelled out in detail on the U.S. State Departm...

By Wendy Anders A 55-year-old Costa Rican man was described by local media as being in “stable condition” after being bitten by a crocodile several times in his left leg yesterday evening at Herradura beach near Jacó along Costa Rica’s Central Pacific coast. Firefighter rescuers were called from the local Garabito station to aid just before 6:00 p.m., said Costa Rica’s Channel 7 Teletica new...

By Wendy Anders Starting shortly after 2:00 a.m. today, scientists at the National University’s Volcanology and Seismology Research Institute (Ovsicori) noted the Turrialba Volano began a new round of “constant eruptive activity.” At around 3:05, at 4:15, and again around 6:00 early this morning, strong eruptions sent columns that rose 1,000 meters above the crater height, for a height of 4,...

By Wendy Anders Last week, a Costa Rican court delivered a historic sentence, and for the first time served criminal charges for the illegal practice of shark finning. The court sentenced a Taiwanese business owner to prison over a haul of illegally hacked-off shark fins destined for sale abroad, officials and environmentalists said last Thursday, Feb. 9. The verdict, handed down last...

By Wendy Anders The Minister of Communication Mauricio Herrera recently reported that Costa Rica returned 1,200 Cubans who were found in the country without legal documentation to Panama last year. He added that in January this year 120 additional undocumented Cubans were returned to Panama, and said he wished to make clear to all Cubans that Costa Rica was not open to receiving undocumented...

A $1 billion mega port proposed for the Caribbean coast near the Panama Canal would put Costa Rica on the global logistics map and help meet rising demand for maritime shipping capacity, project organizer AMEGA said. The facility, which would be built in Limon province, is a private project being developed by AMEGA, an international consortium. The consortium has already received the go-ahea...

A wildfire in the area between Turrubares and Puriscal consumed some 900 hectares of scrub-land and started to affect secondary forest as confirmed by the Costa Rica Fire Department. More than 40 firemen from different stations have been trying to control the fire which began yesterday in the area of Bolson, Turrubares, the situation worsen because of the strong winds of around 80 kilometers p...

The Central America Circus and Social Art Encounter a program part of the Cirque du Monde, a social responsibility program of Cirque Du Soleil will be taking place in Costa Rica February 16th through the 19th. Two experts from the famous Cirque Du Soleil, Mariano López from Canada and Tomasso Negri from Italy, will train seven Costa Rican instructors and eight Central Americans in the arts of “...

-- With over 2.9 million visitors in 2016, tourism in Costa Rica grew 10 percent over 2015. By Wendy Anders The Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT, its Spanish acronym) just released its data on last year’s tourist arrivals to the Central American country, and things are looking good. Costa Rica registered nearly 270 thousand more visitors in 2016 than in 2015, for a notable 10 percent in...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica’s northern border region with Nicaragua just got a little harder for human traffickers, and a little safer for its potential and current victims. The Rahab Foundation, a Costa Rica non-profit founded in 1997 and dedicated to stopping human trafficking and the human sex trade, set up shop last week in the border town of La Cruz, Guanacaste in northwestern Costa Rica...

By Wendy Anders February is summer in Costa Rica, and the month of free concerts. It’s when the National Symphony Orchestra (OSN), a top notch and versatile group, hits the road for public concerts around the country before launching their official classical music season at the National Theater. This year, they join with the classy mellow rock group Suite Doble, Costa Rican pop singer Carlos...

By Wendy Anders Did you know that at least 28 percent of human trafficking involves children? And the U.S. Department of State estimates that more than a million children are exploited each year in the global commercial sex trade. An update on an international effort in Costa Rica to diminish this tragic form of modern slavery was recently provided by the Quebec-based International Bureau...

By Wendy Anders Accenture PLC is one of over 40 companies that will seek to fill 2,700 positions at Costa Rica’s biggest multilingual fair this month. But they are the only employer in the lot that offers a day for employers to work accompanied by their pets. These days, global competition is not just about employees taking stock of their language and other skills - companies too are strivin...

Hardly a day passes in Costa Rica without a road fatality. Bicyclists are taking up the banner for road safety in the wake of recent tragic accidents. Yesterday, downtown San José’s streets were flooded with helmeted cyclists who pedaled from La Sabana Park to Curridabat via downtown to demand respect for their safety on the country’s streets. The turnout almost doubled the organizers’ expec...

In response to a constitutional appeal (Recurso de Amparo) filed by the Costa Rican Conservation Federation and the Workers Union of the Ministry of Environment, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) ordered Costa Rican authorities to elaborate a plan to get rid of the invaders of the Corcovado National Park, who through logging, the extraction of gold, and hunting are causing ...

Scam group charges up to $5,000 to Costa Ricans not to divulge sexual videos on Facebook. How it works: A network that is operating from the Ivory Coast sends a friend request to a male from a very attractive female with a fake profile. The “Tico” receiving the friend request thinks he is the luckiest man on earth since a sexy women wants to be his “friend” and accepts the request, giving acce...

The Costa Rica Electricity Institute (ICE) has said that the Geothermal project Las Pailas II, currently under development and expected to be ready by 2019, will be the most modern geothermal plant in Central America and the Caribbean . “It is the first geothermal plant in the region that will have a cooling tower made of reinforced fiber glass, all its wells will be drilled with directional te...

By Wendy Anders Police found enough clues to arrest a man suspected of stabbing five students to death in mid-January in their apartment on a quiet residential street in Liberia, capital of Costa Rica’s northern Guanacaste province, said Wálter Espinoza, director of the judicial investigative police agency (OIJ). A careful review of evidence in and around the crime scene led police to invest...

By Wendy Anders Even in a crowded San José, Costa Rica shanty, a police patrol can become an unexpected wildlife adventure. Yesterday afternoon, public safety officials found themselves rescuing a colorful keel-billed toucan from the southern Costa Rican district of Alajuelita, reported police, who said the event is the result of a bolstered wildlife protection initiative by police. Last ...

By Wendy Anders An alliance between the CNFL electric company and BMW has allowed Costa Rica to offer recharging stations for electric cars in the county. Two such privately stations already exist, one in Escazú and another in Pinares (Curridabat). The third, which will offer public access, was just inaugurated in La Uruca near downtown San José, reported the CNFL this week. The BMWi Proj...

National Geographic published a 48 second video that highlights Costa Rica’s best attributes. The post was published in the channel’s facebook page,and it was captioned "The Greenest and Happiest country in the world". The video already has over 2 million views and thousands of comments. It is not the first time that the famous channel features the beautiful nature of this country. ...

By Wendy Anders A global alliance of civil society organizations and trade unions is calling on Fyffes to establish and implement a global, company-wide policy to ensure the respect of workers’ rights throughout its supply chains, including the freedom of workers to join independent trade unions, and for Fyffes to recognise and engage in collective bargaining with unions. "Fyffes is the numb...

By Wendy Anders In an interview on January 16 by Costa Rica’s Spanish daily Diario Extra, Martin Arias Araya, director of the Costa Rican Coast Guard Service, expressed concern over a lack of water navigation laws in the country that he said makes Costa Rica the only country in the Americas to lack such regulations. Arias Araya has led the Coast Guard since 2007, and has a total of 33 years ...

By Wendy Anders The Costa Rican government announced this month plans to build a tourist reception area for travelers arriving on cruise ships at the southern Pacific port of Golfito on the Golfo Dulce, or Sweet Bay. The building project will begin February 1 and should be completed June 15, 2017, said government officials. The 40 million colón dockside investment (over US$73,000) will in...

—ICE, the state electric company, has a comprehensive environmental protection program which offsets carbon emissions while at the same time aiding their energy production. By Wendy Anders The Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE, in Spanish) is using satellite imagery to identify priority areas for reforestation, said Rodolfo Quirós, ICE’s forest management coordinator. Over the past d...

By Wendy Anders The National Meteorological Institute (IMN, in Spanish) said gusts of up to 85 kmh (more than 50 mph) would be affecting several areas of the country including San José this week. Mountainous areas are likely to experience the brunt of the gales, said scientists, who said that Monday’s highest winds were registered in Escazú, Ciudad Colón, and mountainous areas of the norther...

Despite a ban on the export of fins from the endangered hammerhead shark in effect in Costa Rican since March 2015, a large shipment has been readied for export to Asia, said Randall Arauz, spokesperson for the international marine conservation organization, Fins Attached. Smalley Development S.A. has been working to fill an order for 690 kilos of hammerhead shark fins, the international trade ...

By Wendy Anders An estimated 123,000 people throughout the country benefited from Costa Rica’s National Bank (Banco Nacional de Costa Rica, BNCR) growing social responsibility program in 2016, said the financial entity last week. The bank’s vision of a sustainable management model includes outreach throughout the country to provide volunteers in poor communities, holding financial education ...

The repair of damages in wildlife protected areas will be of over 4.5 million USD The Ministry of Energy and Environment, estimates that repairing the damages caused by hurricane Otto will have a cost of close to ¢2,437 million colones (almost 4.5 million USD). The intervention will focus in the Conservation Area of Tortuguero, North Arenal Huetar, Arenal Tempisque, Guanacaste and Osa. The i...

By Wendy Anders Just as residents of the San José metropolitan region were starting to get used to life without fresh ashfall, the Turrialba Volcano in Cartago rumbled back to life this morning at about 8:15, reported the National University's Volcanology and Seismology Research Institute (Ovsicori-UNA). Luckily this eruption, coming after about a two-week lull in ash emissions, is not as bi...

By Wendy Anders Private-sector construction in Costa Rica grew in the fourth quarter of 2016 at a year-on-year rate of 10.6 percent, showing a rebound in activity after showing negative rates of growth since the final quarter of 2015 (with the exception of the first quarter of 2016), said Costa Rica’s Central Bank this week. The amount of construction in the fourth quarter of 2016 was 1,163,...

Costa Rica has raised the minimum age for marriage to 18 under a law that experts hope will prevent teen pregnancy and girls dropping out of school, but enforcement could be a challenge among indigenous communities where child marriage is prevalent. Under the new law, which came into effect this month, children age 15 and above are no longer allowed to get married with their parent's permission...