By Wendy Anders If you’re planning to bring more than $10,000 in cash or securities into Costa Rica on your next trip, be sure to declare it on your customs form, said Costa Rican customs officials yesterday. This oversight by a 70-year-old U.S. man, who was heading to the beach in Costa Rica, cost him US$19,900, said the Finance Ministry’s Customs Department. The man, who entered the Dan...

By Wendy Anders The reintroduction of a bill that would allow ocean trawling has environmental groups in Costa Rica up in arms at the government’s support for such practices. “Trawling is the most destructive fishing technique, and there are no studies anywhere in the world that demonstrate its sustainability,” said a coaltion of 15 environmental groups, who noted that the draft of law 19,83...

By Wendy Anders Over two-thirds of the 176 countries and territories in this year’s Corruption Perceptions Index fall below the midpoint of a scale spanning 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean), said Transparency International (TI) upon the release of the non-profit’s 2016 report. No country reached above 90. The global average score is a paltry 43, indicating endemic corruption in a co...

By Wendy Anders Tigo (Millicom) is preparing to enter the Costa Rican mobile market by bidding for spectrum in the country’s forthcoming tender, reported Costa Rica's business daily El Financiero, citing the company’s director of corporate affairs Norman Chaves. The operator, which provides cable and TV services under the Tigo Star brand in Costa Rica, expressed an interest in the tender for...

By Wendy Anders Nearly 10 years after the passage of Costa Rica’s domestic violence criminalization law, women face rising rates of violence, and epidemic levels of court case dismissals and lack of legal reporting. The judicial branch’s gender commission, which monitors progress on the issue of violence against women, reports that over 76 percent of domestic violence cases are rejected by c...

By Wendy Anders The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will donate $10 million (more than ₡5.5 billion colones) for the repair and restoration of aqueducts in communities destroyed by the passage of Hurricane Otto, said the Costa Rican government. This was one of the main tangible outcomes of a recent official Costa Rican delegation, the country’s first, to the Middle East. In addition to this vi...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica’s National Liberation Party Legislator, Ronny Monge, has introduced a measure with the support of 20 of his colleagues to end the use of fuel-consuming vehicles in Costa Rica, said a report on Costa Rica’s Teletica news station. “If we didn’t have to depend on petroleum imports, we would save millions. Also as a country that has sold itself to the world as a destin...

By Wendy Anders In the wake of the murder of five youth in Liberia, capital of Costa Rica’s northern Guanacaste province, early last Thursday morning, police have developed a sketch of the man they believe to be the suspected killer. Police received helpful information from an informal taxi driver who transported a man Thursday morning who he described as, “very nervous and appeared to be fl...

The Costa Rican Electricity Institute is installing artificial reefs in the province of Guanacaste as part of a project that began in 2016 with the purpose of contributing with the protection of marine ecosystems. With the help of a team of scuba divers, 52 artificial reefs were installed in Hermosa Beach for the benefit of marine life. During the next six months, the ICE with the assistance ...

By Wendy Anders Amelia Valverde was recognized this week as the 2016 Female Coach of the Year by the Confederation of North, Central American, and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) for her work with the Costa Rica national team. Valverde was named head coach of the Costa Rica women's national soccer team on January 12, 2015, said the Costa Rican Soccer Federation, Fedefut. She rep...

Costa Rican president, Luis Guillermo Solís, during his visit this month to Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah announced his country will establish an embassy and commercial office in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In an interview with EFE during his first tour of an Arab state, he said that the opening of both initiatives has already been approved with the goal of "broadening and consolidating bila...

By Wendy Anders Five university students were found stabbed to death this morning, and another was still alive but with deep wounds in her neck, in the middle class neighborhood of La Victoria, Liberia in the northern Costa Rican province of Guanacaste. The students apparently were renting a 3-bedroom apartment located behind a house on the densely populated street, according to police. Howe...

By Wendy Anders Buying and building property in the Poás region near the international airport in Alajuela in Costa Rica’s Central Valley, just got a little bone thrown in with a recent court decision. The Costa Rican Supreme Court (known in Spanish as the Sala IV) condemned the Municipality of Poás de Alajuela for approving multiple urban projects that put the county’s aquifers at risk, rep...

By Wendy Anders Amid the lush forests and remote beaches of Corcovado National Park, southern Costa Rica’s biodiversity hotspot, Costa Rican police often find themselves on the front line of the illicit drug trade between South and North America. Early yesterday morning, Costa Rican police patrolling the stunning southern Pacific coast located eleven rectangular packages wrapped in a sack-li...

By Wendy Anders Starting Saturday, February 4 at 10:00 a.m., car enthusiasts can check out hundreds of antique and other “exotic” cars on exhibit at the Puntarenas tourist boulevard on Costa Rica’s Central Pacific coast. "It will be one of the biggest events in Latin America. We will have modified cars, motorcycles, ATVs and more,” said Johnny Quesada event organizer. Lasting until Sunday...

By Wendy Anders At dawn on Saturday, judicial investigative police (OIJ) from Aguirre and Parrita in Puntarenas province began investigations into the death of a Panamanian man shot dead near entrance to Portalón, Quepos in Costa Rica’s Central Pacific region. The 37-year old Bartley received several gunshot injuries in different parts of his body while driving around 1:00 a.m. from Quepos, ...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rican Transportation and Public Works Ministry is preparing for a big push on the expansion of the Virilla Bridge which connects San José with Cariari, Belén, Alajuela, the international SJO airport, and other westward points. Work to expand it from its current rough 4 lanes to an impressive, solid and wider 6-lane expanse is going to involve some further closures in up...

By Wendy Anders Beyond the direct and indirect economic benefits derived from tourism, Costa Rica’s Tourism Institute (ICT, in Spanish) wanted to start measuring the industry’s broader impacts on local communities. In a first study, done last year, they interviewed residents in 10 such towns, and now have a baseline for monitoring progress. "We wanted to measure social progress in these t...

By Wendy Anders The Costa Rican Social Security Agency (CCSS, in Spanish) announced Thursday immediate measures intended to bolster the country’s largest old age, disability and life insurance fund (IVM, in Spanish) to ensure its viability in the long term, said the CCSS press office. The agency’s board of directors approved five short-term measures this week to bolster the state pension fun...

Costa Ricans rank in the fourth position when it comes to English proficiency in Latin America with a score of 51.35 according to Education First. This index ranks the level of English in different scales from “Very High”, “High”, “Average”, “Low and “Very Low” and provides information with regards to the direct relation between English proficiency and a variety of economic and social indicator...

By Wendy Anders   Recent data from the Costa Rican Tourist Board (ICT, in Spanish) shows a full 27 percent of the country's workforce perceiving income or wealth from their connection, either direct or indirect, with the tourism industry. A new alliance between public safety institutions and the tourism sector promises to add an extra level of protection for visitors, said judicial i...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rican police made their second discovery this week of undocumented Cuban migrants in the country, this time in a boat in the southern Costa Rican border region. The Costa Rican border police intercepted a motor boat and detained the boat’s captain, a 53-year-old Costa Rican man from Puntarenas province named López, after discovering five Cubans aboard without entry stam...

An ad published in social media invited those interested in participating in a casting to take part of a porn film. The casting was supposed to take place in a five-star hotel in Escazu, but interested parties had to pay $200.00 to be considered. “Candidates must be over 21 years-old, have good personal hygiene, be willing participants and present recent blood tests”, read the ad. Victor La...

By Wendy Anders Business owners expressed concern at an announcement late today by the Costa Rican Transportation and Public Works Ministry (MOPT) that the main artery connecting San José with points westward including the main international airport in Alajuela would be closed for six weeks starting Saturday, January 21, 2017 in the direction of Alajuela-San José. The bridge, known as "La Pl...

By Wendy Anders Winds of up to 100 kph (over 60 mph) in Costa Rica’s northern region have forced the closure of two national parks today, Tuesday, Jan. 10 and tomorrow, Wednesday, Jan. 11, reported the country’s Teletica Channel 7 news station today. The Santa Rosa National Park (Parque Nacional Santa Rosa) and Rincón de la Vieja National Park are the two parks being slammed by heavy winds t...

By Wendy Anders A Danish citizen was arrested in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica last week on suspicion of committing massive fraud in the country, said police in a press statement. The Lebanese-born Dane, who goes by the name of YK (last name of Khater) is suspected of conning a woman in Quepos, Puntarenas in Costa Rica's Central Pacific region out of 10 million colones (over US$18,000), according...

By Wendy Anders Police in southern Costa Rica Sunday discovered six undocumented Cubans traveling huddled in between gas cylinders in the back of a flat-bed delivery truck. Migrants from Cuba, Haiti, and other countries continue to risk over-land travel to reach the U.S., said the Costa Rican government earlier this month. From April 2016 until January 2017, the government said 18,000 mig...

By Wendy Anders Late Friday morning, police on motorcycles in rural southern Costa Rica responding to a 9-1-1 call arrived at the scene of a gruesome domestic violence shooting. In the small verdant indigenous village of Alto Conte, Progreso, some 53 kilometers from Golfito in Costa Rica’s Panama border area, Giancarlo Martín Abarca, a Costa Rican man, arrived at his 18-year-old lover’s pare...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica’s protected areas and national parks received over 77,000 local and international visitors between December 23, 2016 and January 1, 2017, according to the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC). Some visitors had plans apart from enjoying nature. Sinac officials detained and filed police reports on 34 people for causing environmental damage by pillaging fore...

One again Costa Rica is included in the top ten of the world’s best places to retire in 2017 by International Living. International Living stated: “For just over a quarter of a century, International Living has ranked rated and named the best retirement destinations in the world. Each year we’ve redefined and improved the process, bringing new categories and considerations into play, gathering ...

By Wendy Anders In San José, Costa Rica alone, the judicial investigative police agency (OIJ) investigate at least 70 and 80 house break-ins per month, said the police in a statement last week. Although previous years’ figures have been higher than in 2016, after studying their data, police said that house break-ins increase during Costa Rica’s summer months (December-April) when local resid...

By Wendy Anders A constant eruption of ash from Costa Rica's Turrialba Volcano, located east of the San José greater metropolitan area, has emergency officials closely monitoring the colossus. Yesterday, the Central Valley, home to the country's capital San José, was placed on green alert, the lowest level alert, due to the steady ash falling in densely populated areas near the volcano, said...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solís signed a new law designed to fight tax fraud on December 19, 2016 that will affect owners who rent properties for less than a month at a time, said tax officials this week. Officials reminded owners of various residences, cabins and other lodgings offered on sites such as AirBnB for short-term rental that they are required to pay Cos...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica’s Turrialba Volcano erupted at 5:50 a.m. today, Wednesday, January 4, sending a large plume of ash and gas westward as strong gusts of wind race out of the east across the country. Dozens of flights from mid-morning onward have been cancelled or delayed, but only on certain airlines, and the capital’s Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO) is open and function...

By Wendy Anders Park guards at the highly visited Manuel Antonio National Park in the country's Central Pacific region are up in arms at having to take over charging entry fees, saying their work monitoring the park, especially during high season will be effected by the new duties. "We are very concerned about this issue that now, in addition to looking after the park, we have to charge tick...

By Wendy Anders Local residents of Quepos, the small port town bordering Manuel Antonio National Park on Costa Rica’s central Pacific coast, greeting some New Year’s Day would-be robbers with a brutal surprise. They intervened when they attempted to rob a foreign tourist; and didn’t stop till his car was smashed and police came to haul him off, reported CRHoy.com citing local tourist police ...

By Wendy Anders During 2016, the seismographic network of the Volcanology and Seismology Research Institute at the Costa Rican National University (Ovsicori-UNA) recorded about 10 thousand earthquakes worldwide. In Costa Rica, just over 5,500 events were identified, of which 162 were reported as being felt by the population, said a report by Esteban J. Chaves, Floribeth Vega and Marino Prott...

By Wendy Anders Downtown San José is a city which CNN recently described as having a bustling nightlife, and where “sex is for sale on nearly every corner.” And some of those selling sex are working as slaves. Mariliana Morales, founder of a non-profit that rescues women in sexual slavery on San José’s streets, said in an interview with CNN she was “called by God to help the women.” As Di...

The province of San Jose, holds first place in the number of counties declared free of discrimination. Eleven of twenty total counties are part of this declaration which is the first step of the local governments to implement measures that do not allow the gender or sexual orientation discrimination. “Implementing measures to ensure there is no discrimination, monitoring this measures and de...

By Wendy Anders In January expansion work is slated to begin at the Daniel Oduber International Airport in Liberia, said the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) this week. The terminal’s upgrade will cost an estimated US$10.3 million and will be ready in November. The new facilities are expected to give the airport sufficient capacity to handle the rise in passengers over the next 5 years...