Give me more, give me more; wait, not on the diesel?

And so it begins; Nissan is the latest victim of the new trend where everything with an ‘i’ stands for intelligently designed and uber cool. But their Nissan X-Trail ‘i’ line is quite confusing and not so smart. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always considered the Nissan X-Trail as a great car, I had one and loved the comfort, the ride and the amenities all around, but some things have me confused at the moment.

The Nissan X-Trail began its life as Nissan’s answer to the growing market of slightly upscale SUVs, such as the Rav-4 and the Vitara. The first generation was pretty spot on and made itself a reputation as a great option so when, in 2008, Nissan promised a new X-Trail, I was pretty excited.

Lo and behold, I’m confused and slightly disappointed. Let’s put out the facts and see if we can up with the answer to this most interesting conundrum.

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The current globalization trend is affecting many areas of business, particularly the legal profession. Law firms and solo attorneys used to follow a strict jurisdictional pattern, but in the last few years the practice of law has been increasingly crossing boundaries. A good example is the RITEVE v. MOPT case, which is currently being mediated in the United States by powerful legal teams. Legal practitioners are being called upon to look into international matters with greater frequency, and large corporations are demanding more from their legal teams in this regard.

The Global Legal Skills Conference is now on its seventh iteration, and it is coming to Costa Rica in March. From the 12^th to the 14^th, legal professionals from different parts of the world will converge upon the stately Gran Hotel Costa Rica across from the National Theater to participate in a series of meetings related to the globalization of their profession. The conference has traditionally been held in the United States, but in recent years organizers have decided to move it overseas for greater coverage and impact. This year will be the first time Costa Rica receives the honor of playing host, and the conference has already gotten its tagline: “The Pura Vida Conference”.

On the first day of the conference, three lectures will be held. Three special breaks for networking will be interspersed throughout the day. On Tuesday, March 13^th, attendees will board buses bound to the San Pedro campus of the University of Costa Rica in the afternoon to sit through a series of workshops, many of them focused on using Spanish in the legal profession. The last day of the conference will feature some morning meetings followed by a luncheon and the opportunity to explore the country during the afternoon and evening. Those who arrive to the conference from overseas will get special rates at the Gran Hotel, the downtown Holiday Inn and the Hotel Presidente.

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Costa Rica keeps playing the role of gracious and comely host to the international community, and to that extent we have some of the most interesting fair and conferences coming up. From May 22^nd to the 25^th, the Institute for Business and Finance Research will be holding a Global Conference on Business and Finance in San Jose. Presenters at the conference will read from works related to different fields of interest within the world of international business. Some topics will include accounting, finance, marketing, public administration, and more.

In the past, this conference has been held at the Ramada Plaza Herradura Hotel in San Jose, the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, the Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, and the Keahou Beach Resort in Hawaii. The proceedings of the conference are published in a variety of business and academic journals. Presenters can submit papers for peer review in English or Spanish. The call for papers is now, and the deadline for submission is March 15. For visitors who wish to stay at the same hotel as the conference, the deadline for reservations is April 19. There will also be a web simulcast for those who cannot attend in person.

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Car culture is becoming a widespread phenomenon in Costa Rica that shows no signs of abatement. Buying an automobile is expensive enough due to high import taxes; adding the price of fuel, maintenance, repairs, insurance, tolls, downtown traffic restrictions, and registration fees makes it seem prohibitive and out of reach for most Ticos. Still, the number of cars transiting in our poorly kept highways keeps growing, and buying a car has become a financial goal that is as popular as buying a home.

The high cost of purchasing and maintaining a vehicle in Costa Rica is the biggest incentive for Tico car shoppers to look into importing a car, particularly from the United States. At the peak of the Great Recession months ago, a quick scan of online classified website Craigslist would have returned several listings for cars being sold at incredibly cheap prices. To some people it seemed like a fire sale of used cars, but behind many of those listings there were stories of heartbreak and despair. Many financially distressed car owners turned to Craigslist to sell their most liquid asset in a hurry, usually to make a mortgage or rent payment, or to put food on the table.

Although the situation has improved a bit in the United States, some great deals can be found, particularly when compared to local listings. For example, a current listing on Craigslist in Orlando, Florida features a four-door 1994 Toyota Corolla selling for $1,100. A similar listing in Alajuela goes for 1,450,000 colones, approximately $2,800. For a motivated buyer looking for used cars in Costa Rica, the Craigslist listing may seem very enticing. After all, how much more can shipping and import taxes add to the final cost? In many cases, a lot.

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Here’s the lowdown on one of the simplest, and best, cars you can find in the Costa Rican market: the Daihatsu Terios Bego.

Finding a car that can cope with the Costa Rican driving conditions is a pretty interesting challenge for those of us with fuel flowing through our brains. Should we go practical or ditch practicality (and money) for a great driving car? Potholes, traffic jams and fuel prices on the rise are a constant reminder that the choice we make could have a profound effect on our wallet.

So, why the Bego? Let’s look at it for a second. It’s no bigger than a king sized bed, it’s got a small 1.5 liter engine and resembles an oversized hatchback more than an SUV. The suspension is rock hard; you can actually feel every single bump on the road, a cool sensation when you are in a racecar in La Guacima (also where Festival Imperial is being hosted this year) and not in driving down the twisting rocky roads on your way to Malpais. Wind noise, even with the windows up and full A/C, is pretty loud and you’ll be lucky to push it past ninety on the highway. I’m a tall man, 6’4” and I’ve banged my head on the pillar a couple of times. All of this sounds terrible, doesn’t it?

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Costa Rica is becoming an even greener country than it already is; sometimes at an ecological cost for some countries, and often to the gain of a few savvy investors.

In the hills of Santa Ana, overlooking the city of Escazu and its ritzy suburbs, construction crews from the National Power and Electricity Company (CNFL in Spanish) have begun work on the future Planta Eólica Valle Central (the Wind Power Farm of the Central Valley). When completed, this project is expected to produce 15.3 megawatts of energy among 17 wind-power generators that will bring electricity to almost 6,000 families.

The Wind Power Farm of the Central Valley is just one of the projects that government-sponsored companies like CNFL, ICE and others are rushing to complete in order to achieve Costa Rica’s goal of becoming a carbon-neutral nation by 2021. In the area of creating electricity from renewable sources, public utilities are looking at new hydroelectricity projects in Pirris, wind-power farms in Los Santos that will power communities in El Guarco and Desamparados, as well as geothermic plants in Garabito, Moin and Pailas.

The Precious Rare Earth

Each wind turbine and electricity generator installed for the purpose of producing clean energy in Costa Rica will have at least one thing in common: hundreds of pounds of rare earth, a precious mineral that is made into alloys for the manufacturing of components used in everything from lasers to magnets, and from electrodes to the screen displaying the article you are currently reading.

Wind turbines and heavy-duty generators can easily contain hundreds of kilograms of rare earth alloys, more than likely extracted via massive open-pit mining operations in China, a country that currently produces 95 percent or more of the world’s rare earth minerals. This fact puts China, a country that is currently enjoying close ties with Costa Rica, in an enviable position in terms of geopolitical power -perhaps at a great environmental cost.

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Well this is the definition of a feel good story. A man who works and lives in Northern Canada, bought a lottery ticket for the Lotto Max, and ended up walking away with a cool $16,666,666.00. Now that is sweet, good for him. The best part is that he plans on spending his time and winnings in Costa Rica! Which is a good thing for the economy and for worldwide publicity, for the beautiful country that we all call home. Steve Murphy lives in the North of BC in a small town of 500 people called Atlin, so he will undoubtedly love the warm tropical weather that we have here in Costa Rica.

Being that I am Canadian, I feel great for this guy, who most likely spent his life working hard to support his family, in some of the coldest weather on the planet. It couldn’t have happen to a better more deserving person, he is even going to donate some of his winnings to the local community and recreation groups in Atlin. Which will provide many families with the money they need to put their kids in hockey, which as you know, is a Canadian past time, almost as popular as Maple Syrup.

The below is taken from the original article on 24 Hours Vancouver, which is a free commuter newspaper in Vancouver available at all of the Skytrain stations that at one point was owned by Billionaire business mogul, Jim Pattison, of the Pattison Group.

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The name of our country says it all: Rich. When Christopher Columbus arrived here during one of his last voyages centuries ago, it is believed that he bestowed our land the name of Costa Rica because he thought he had found a place where riches would spring forth magically. He confirmed his beliefs towards the end of 1502 when he arrived in Panama and was greeted by natives who showed him gold and the stretch of land that divided the world’s oceans. Columbus was primarily an explorer and navigator, but during his voyages of discovery he became hip to the fact that his sponsors, the Spanish Crown, were all in it for the money. After being accused of tyranny and atrocious rule in the New World, Columbus was arrested and sent back to Spain for imprisonment. Upon release, it was clear that the voyages had changed Columbus drastically from explorer to businessman, as he was no longer interested in receiving a pension from the Crown; he rather wanted a cut, and he demanded 10 percent of the profits generated by the New World.

The business history of Costa Rica is similar to that in other Latin American countries, with the exception of short-lived dictatorships that were not able to fleece the country as much as other despotic oligarchies, to wit: Batista, Castro, Pinochet, et al. Agriculture has been a major producer of wealth and power for several Tico families, and opportunity-seeking foreigners have a long history of “striking it rich” in Costa Rica. Wealth and political clout, like in many other nations, have gone hand-in-hand.

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It was the warm, flower-scented breeze drifting across Tamarindo that hooked me. I was in Costa Rica for less than twenty-four hours but had already fallen head over heels with the country. That was over four years ago. I knew then I had to find a way to make this place my home.

When I wrote Happier Than A Billionaire: Quitting My Job, Moving to Costa Rica, & Living the Zero Hour Work Week, I wanted to share with others my experience of quitting the rat race to finding a happier lifestyle. It’s never easy picking up and moving to a country where you don’t know the language, but I knew the hectic life I was living was not working. There was a time I wondered if I was going to spend the rest of my life stuck in the office, a destiny infinitely scarier than the idea of moving to Central America.

There is something truly unique about Costa Rica that many people find irresistible. I can be at the top of a volcano one morning and at the beach by the afternoon. I can live in the mountains and enjoy temperatures in the mid 70’s°F, or settle in a hot beach town and learn to surf or paddleboard. I want to experience it all, and there is still so much more to accomplish.

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SAN JOSE – The acquisition of HSBC retail banking operations in Costa Rica earlier this week was reported in several news media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal and La Nacion. The latter newspaper approached the corporate offices of HSBC on January 23rd regarding the impending sale, which at that time the bank chose to label as a rumor that would later be confirmed by Efrain Forero Fonseca, president of Banco Davivienda, the Colombian financial entity that acquired HSBC here and in El Salvador and Honduras as well. Banco Davivienda is known for its marked interest in residential mortgage lending, something that makes it a good fit for Costa Rica and its nascent real estate bubble.

The HSBC Costa Rica attainment by Banco Davivienda marks the second time in recent years that a Colombian financial entity makes inroads in the lucrative banking industry in Costa Rica. Not long ago, the prominent BAC San Jose and Credomatic operations were purchased by a Colombian financial consortium.

A possible reason why HSBC declined to confirm the acquisition rumor to La Nacion may be related to a Yahoo! News and Reuters article published on the same day the transaction was formally announced in Costa Rica. According to that article, the United States Senate announced the investigation of HSBC Holdings PLC, which is the parent of the HSBC brand worldwide, for alleged money laundering irregularities. Over the last few years, HSBC has been trying to position itself as a truly international bank, an effort that has brought great convenience to account holders, but it has also come under scrutiny by the United States.

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