San Jose Costa Rica
By Laura Gutierrez of Immigration Help Costa Rica How to choose where to live in Costa Rica. So, you are contemplating a move to Costa Rica after being intrigued by the promise of its unique beauty and livability. Going back to 1500, Christopher Columbus gave it the name which translates into "Rich Coast." It had nothing to do with gold, despite that being a major preoccupation. Without drif...
Location: Costa Rica Press Release — Level 4: Do Not Travel The U.S. Embassy in San Jose and the U.S. State Department have coordinated with United Airlines to offer a commercial flight from Juan Santamaria Airport (SJO) in San Jose, Costa Rica to Houston, Texas (IAH) on Monday, April 20. The flight will depart SJO at 12:00 pm and arrive at IAH at 4:46 pm. This flight is open to public booking; y...
The Ministry of Health in Costa Rica confirmed this Friday, March 6, the first case of coronavirus Covid-19 in the country. The patient is a 49-year old American tourist who entered the country in March 1st without any symptoms. Apparently, it was her husband who was actually in contact with someone in New York infected with the virus, prior to them traveling to Costa Rica, and who at the time...
Spanish newspaper El Mundo published an article n which they listed San Jose, the capital city of Costa Rica as one of the 10 ugliest destinations in the world. Costa Rica continues to attract millions of tourists every year, but it is no secret that the capital city has little to do with the attractions the country has to offer, the beaches and the volcanoes as well as the rain forests take a...
Gary Krause was filming a video in front of the Plaza de la Democracia in San Jose, Costa Rica when he accidentally caught police chasing and catching a man. The video was being shot by Krause, a native of England who lives in the United States, for a religious show that airs in the United States, as he is giving a little information on the National Museum, in the background police appear chas...
Sunday, June 23 2019, Costa Rica will celebrate the tenth edition of the Pride Parade, a colorful event that celebrates the differences in sexual preferences and promotes tolerance and respect of the members of the LGBTI community. 24 floats, music, dance, shows, international guests, are just part of the event that will once again take the streets of San Jose, starting at Centro Colón in Paseo...
The Costa Rican Judiciary Investigative Police (OIJ) confiscated $3 million USD in cash and detained five people in an operation carried out this Tuesday, April 30 in a building located in China Town in downtown San José. The building had experienced a fire last April 11, with the Fire Department called to put out the blaze. The third floor was engulfed in smoke, people out on their balconies t...
The work of Costa Rican sculptor Jorge Jiménez Deredia will transform the city of San José in an open air museum, an exhibit including 27 of his pieces will be in display from February 20 through July 14, 2019. Some of the pieces are already displayed in different areas of downtown San José, but the exhibit will be officially inaugurated on February 20. Boulevards, open spaces and parks will ...
A high pressure system over the Caribbean ocean causes the acceleration of wind in the region. Due to the moderate intensity of this windy pattern, the National Emergency Committee (CNE) declared green alert for the Central Valley and the North Pacific. Strong wind gusts are expected in Guanacaste that could reach 80-100 km/h (50 – 62.2 mph) in the mountain range and 50-80 km/h (31-50 mph) in...
The Municipality of San José has decided to apply stronger action against businesses that do not respect the schedule established for garbage recollection. This Tuesday, February 5, the Municipality informed that members from the Environmental Services division closed the restaurant Carl’s Jr. located near the Central Park for 24 hours, because they did not respect the scheduled established to...
The end of the year activities in San José, concluded with unfortunate violent events. In the case of the traditional horse parade “tope”, a participant created the problem when he began beating on police officers with a whip. Apparently the man, of last names Pizarro Espinoza, was drunk and had been creating some problems during the activity, when he was left behind by the parade he was approa...
The already traditional Festival de la Luz or Festival of Light will take place this Satuday, December 15; for this reason the transit authorities and the Municipality have already started their work to set up all the infrastructure and will be closing some roads since the early hours of Saturday. The works to install the platforms and bleachers began the evening of this Wednesday in Paseo Colo...
The mayor of San José, Johnny Araya, announced the beginning of the holiday celebrations in the capital city of Costa Rica, the same will take place as of this Saturday, December 1. “In a year in which Costa Rica has faced different challenges and social conflicts, we have come to realize that these activities are an adequate scenario to recover optimism, hope, our smile and hopefully so we can...
Just a short drive from San Jose, in Ciudad Colón you will be surprised to find a unique place which opened doors recently and is still an unfinished project, the Anfiteatro de Villa (Villa Amphitheater), offers a cultural space, with impressive views, a delicious restaurant, a natural amphitheater and underground tunnels that you can discover from the hand of knowledgeable guides. The place us...
A total of $3.5 million are being invested in the development of a gastronomy market that will also include a coworking area in the San Jose neighborhood known as La California. The project, under the name “Amor de Barrio” (Neighborhood Love) is expected to open doors by the end of this year and is a project of the owners of La Fabbrica Italian Restaurant. “Amor de Barrio” is one of several ...
Microsoft is the first company that has confirmed it will be relocating its Costa Rica facilities to the “technological city” in San Jose, project that is being promoted by the Municipality of San Jose. Microsoft will be unifying its sales, operations and customer service business units and will install in a 21-floor tower that is being built in La Sabana, where the Universal store used to be....
Johnny Araya, mayor of the San Jose Municipality negotiated and reached an agreement with striking workers and these will immediately return to their jobs. According to the document signed by the Mayor and representatives of the National Union of Workers (UNT) strikers will return to their work in order to reestablish the services offered by the Municipality and in exchange they will have permi...
The 15th edition of the Ross Foundation Walk and Run Against Cancer in Costa Rica will take place Sunday, October 7 starting at 8 a.m. at Paseo Colon, San Jose. Like every year, this initiative expects to gather the attention of thousands of people, raising awareness on breast cancer and other forms of this illness that affect many Costa Ricans every year. The 2km walk is completely free an...
A group of students from different public universities were participating in a protest near the Outlet Mall in San Pedro. Apparently some of them were blocking the road and creating problems for drivers, the police intervened at which point the group threw rocks at them and took off running, in response, the police began a chase, and according to a journalist of Semanario Universidad, the officers...
The labor unions’ protest today in San Jose was very close to getting out of control, when a group of demonstrators took part in riots in front of the Legislative Assembly. The group tried removed the security barriers that were placed in the southeast of the Legislative Assembly building with the purpose of entering by force, in the process they also attacked two police officers with pepper sp...
As promised by members of the different labor unions, thousands of people from all areas of the country took La Sabana, Paseo Colon and other streets in San Jose starting at 9 a.m., the movement will extend today for as long as the weather permits. Since early hours this Wednesday, September 12, buses helped transport protesters from far away regions and they gathered at La Sabana, from this me...
The company SGSV presented its proposal of a smart bike rental system for Costa Rica in the last Smart City Congress that was organized by the Costa Rican Electricity Institute; the system, that currently operates in more than 35 cities in the world, would take advantage of the existing bike lanes that exist in different parts of the country and would facilitate urban mobility by connecting with b...
Costa Rica’s Minister of Public Security, Michael Soto, confirmed the detention of a total 44 people, 38 Costa Ricans and 6 Nicaraguans, many of them with criminal records, during the protests in San Jose, this Saturday, August 18. A group of Costa Ricans organized the event to protest against the presence of Nicaraguans in La Merced Park and other areas of San Jose, the protest was organized ...
The Costa Rica Public Police Force (Fuerza Pública) had to intervene in riots this Saturday afternoon in the center of San Jose, more specifically in the La Merced Park and surrounding areas, after what began as a pacific protest ended up in acts of violence. A group of Costa Ricans organized the event to protest against the presence of Nicaraguans in La Merced Park and other areas of San Jose....
*Image for illustration purposes only La Merced Park (Parque La Merced) in downtown San Jose, Costa Rica has been known for many years as a place of gathering of Nicaraguans in the country; in the past few weeks, the number of Nicaraguans in this park has increased considerably, as have the number of street vendors in the center of San Jose, according to the Municipal Police; reports were rece...
After 14 months users of the route that connects San Antonio de Belen, Heredia with Lindora, Santa Ana, San Jose, have one less traffic jam to worry about on this route as the bridge over the Virilla River was inaugurated today. The bridge went from having two lanes to four, and it’s the first step in the expansion of this route, commonly known as the “Radial Santa Ana -Belen” and through which...
*News in development* At approximately 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 24th a tragic accident occurred on Route 27 (San Jose-Santa Ana) in Alto de las Palomas close to the Villareal residential community. Preliminary reports indicate that two people lost their lives and two others were transferred to the hospital in critical condition. Three cars were apparently involved in the accident, one of ...
The expansion of the bridge over the Virilla River which connects Belen in Heredia, with Lindora in Santa Ana will finally conclude early August, confirmed President Carlos Alvarado and the Minister of Public Works and Transportation, Rodolfo Mendez Mata, during an inspection done this Wednesday. This bridge is being expanded from two to four lanes and it’s the first step in the expansion of th...
It was initially scheduled to re-open in December 2017 and then in May, but finally this July 10 the historic Gran Hotel Costa Rica in the center of San Jose, opened its doors now as a Curio Collection by Hilton. The hotel closed in June of 2016 to begin a complete renovation. Famously known as the hotel where John F. Kennedy stayed during his visit to the country in 1963, the Gran Hotel Cos...
The fourth Art City Tour of the year is scheduled for this Wednesday, July 11, “Vacaciones en Chepe” (Vacation in San Jose) invites locals and foreigners to get acquainted with some of the capital city’s wonders. This is the 52nd tour of this program that first started in 2010 and has allowed over 80 thousand people to discover some of the jewels that San Jose has to offer and that often go un...
The Housing Promotion Foundation (Fuprovi) presented this July 3 the report “Situation of housing sector and urban development in Costa Rica in 2017”, which offers information regarding housing projects, construction, the conditions of the houses in the country, housing opportunities, quality of life in different neighborhoods and communities, etc. This report also brought to light the limited...
The Ministry of Public Works and Transportation and Banco de Costa Rica (BCR) which operates the escrow Route 1, announced that the first works for the route between La Sabana (San Jose) and San Ramon (Alajuela) will begin in the second semester of 2019. The announcement was made in a press conference at the Presidential House with the participation of President Carlos Alvarado, the Minister of...
Street vendors are found everywhere in Costa Rica, and they will offer many different products, ranging from food to clothes and cell phone accessories. According to a recent study by the Demoscopia for the Illicit Commerce Observatory of the Costa Rica Chamber of Commerce, there are over 5000 street vendors in the center of the capital city of San Jose alone; it is estimated that they could ...
The financial services firm, Encore Capital Group, will become the first multinational company to open its operations very close to what will be San Jose’s Technological City, as part of the Special Zone for Economic Growth, promoted by San Jose’s Municipality. It will relocate its operations to Yaohan’s old building, by next November. Encore is part of the Municipality’s initiative to promote ...
Once again, the bridge over the Virilla River on the road that connects Lindora, Santa Ana with San Antonio de Belen, Heredia will be closed at night time starting this Sunday May 20th through Thursday, May 24 from 10 p.m. through 5 a.m. This time, the closure is for the installation of the central part of the new bridge; in order to do this cranes will be working on both the existing bridge as...
Salt takes a whole new meaning for Salt Traders Costa Rica, a small company located in Santa Ana and which started out as an entrepreneurship in the University of Costa Rica by Russell Davis and Adrian Arroyo. “For some time now my fascination for salt and cooking was growing, and I presented my class with the idea of creating the first Costa Rican brand specialized in sea salt”, explained Arro...
The presidential inauguration ceremony in Costa Rica will take place on Tuesday, May 8; public employees have the day off and therefore public service offices will be closed for the day with the exception of emergency services; the event will also bring some road closures. The ceremony in which president elect Carlos Alvarado will be sworn in for a four-year term of office, will take place at t...
“Chepe se Tatúa” is the name of a tattoo marathon campaign, organized by the Costa Rican Technology Institute and the project “Chepe se Baña”, which provides homeless people of San José with the opportunity to take a shower and have access to a bathroom in a bus adapted for this purpose. The marathon hopes to raise funds to modify a bus into a mobile barber shop. Those interested in getting ...
Efforts have been carried out by the San Jose Municipality as well as non for profit organizations and tourism agencies to promote tourism to the capital city of San Jose, Costa Rica; however, these efforts are faced with a big challenge, the lack of proper infrastructure in San Jose. From simple things like the lack of street signs and tourist information centers, to sidewalks in bad condition...
The National Arts and Crafts Market or Artisan’s Market in downtown San Jose has been for decades a popular stop for nationals and foreigners looking for high-quality, affordable souvenirs along with Costa Rican handcrafted products. This Market used to be located in a very old building on Calle 13 (Street 13) in San Jose, which was finally demolished this past Saturday by the San Jose Municipa...