It’s been far too long since the last installment of what was supposed to be a weekly column, and for that I apologize. As I type these words I’m en route to London to reunite with my athlete, Costa Rican marathoner Cesar Lizano, who will line up for the Olympic Marathon on August 12. It’s hard to believe that after seven months of preparation we’re almost done putting the finishing touches on...

The World Tourism Organization (UNTWO) predicts there will be 1 billion international tourist arrivals in 2012, growing to 1.6 billion by 2020. Imagine if each of the 4.3 million daily commuters on the New York City subway took an international flight. Now think of each of those people on flights spewing jet fuel emissions, guzzling canned soda from plastic airline cups and water from plast...

It was June 29, 2005, and I had just returned from a semester abroad in Italy. I had spent the past five months stuffing my body with the most salivating gastronomic indulgences and snapping photos of the most jaw-dropping architectural feats in Florence, Italy. To say I felt out of place back in my small Wisconsin town would be an understatement. Family and friends were interested in my li...

In February, I got an e-mail that I’d been hoping to receive for almost three months. It was from Estrategia Siglo XXI, a Costa Rican nonprofit organization that promotes science and technology, saying I’d earned a scholarship for United Space School in Houston. It made me extremely happy, and it began a long period of waiting for July 22. In November, I was invited to apply for one of two ...

At first glance, it may not sound too appealing. After all, if you're headed out for a partially relaxing escape to an exotic destination, why travel with your senior parents and your young adult children? I have to admit those were my first thoughts when presented with an opportunity to bring my kids along on a work-oriented trip to Costa Rica, which then evolved into a three generation fa...

Some people's greatest fear is to find themselves in the water with a shark. Others travel for days to put themselves in that situation. Such was the case for the 19 eager divers, including myself, who flew to Costa Rica from all over the globe in order to ride for 36 hours on a boat to the Cocos Islands, where hundreds of sharks school. Diving in Cocos was unlike anything I had done before, an...

Vacationing with no agenda -- for some travelers it's heaven, for others a week or more of unscheduled free time is like staring into an abyss. Planning for a vacation is usually part of the fun for me, but largely skipping the research and reviews on a recent trip to Costa Rica was surprisingly refreshing. Arriving without a bunch of expectations and a long list of things to see and do and ...

A shipping container filled with rubber duckies was lost at sea in 1992, and the bath toys are still washing ashore today. In 1992, a shipping crate containing 28,000 plastic bath toys was lost at sea when it fell overboard on its way from Hong Kong to the United States. No one at the time could have guessed that those same bath toys would still be floating the world's oceans 20 years later. ...

Focusing on the other end of the hotel lobby, Daniel Somarribas, five, leans forward in his wheelchair, stares at a fixed point and races off past guests as his stay in Malta nears its end. This little boy with a “burning flame” inside is a Costa Rican champion – and “a Maltese one too”, he proudly declares – having won the first children’s wheelchair race in Malta last Saturday. Daniel, an ...

Intro: This article can be found on the Blog of the British Embassy, we are republishing it because it has relevance to the readership of The Costa Rica Star. The authors name is Bruce Callow. In the past The Costa Rica Star published an article about the Tourism Police of Costa Rica going above and beyond. Since 2007 the British Embassy in San José has been supporting the Costa Rican Touri...

The South African Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Ms Tina Joemat-Pettersson recently led a delegation, including the Transvaal Agricultural Union, the African Farmers' Association of South Africa (AFASA), National African Farmers' Union of SA (NAFU) and AgriSA on a study trip of the small-scale farming initiatives run by Walmart in Costa Rica. The Minister attended as part of h...

Earlier this year, a surgical team from Memorial Sloan-Kettering participated in an example of international collaboration at its finest: an educational outreach mission to Costa Rica. They taught local surgeons various techniques for operating on the liver, pancreas, and bile ducts, for the benefit of Costa Rican patients with cancers of these organs. In return, the surgeons experienced what it m...

You can view more pictures related to this article on The Costa Rica Star Facebook page. Spider monkeys Chiquito and Lolita were orphaned when their mothers were hunted and killed for bush meat. Chiquito was four or five days old, hairless, and fit in the palm of his surrogate human mother’s hand. No one is sure how old Lolita was when her mother was killed. Fortunately, compassionate Costa Ric...

New policies in Central America are connecting small-scale renewable energy users to the grid—but not in the direction you might expect. Net metering policies allow owners of small-scale distributed renewable energy systems to feed power produced by their installations back into the grid. Under net metering, utility customers who own such systems can install a bi-directional meter that records ...

Note to readers, this is an opinion piece submitted to The Costa Rica Star by Dave Playfair, sharing some of his experiences with real estate and community developers in Costa Rica. Costa Rica is a land of undeniable natural beauty where the vast majority of its citizens exude the type of kindness and humility reserved for only the most pious of persons. Calm and reserved (except when driving o...

When my family and I were looking at rentals before our move to Costa Rica, we really had only one solid requirement: Our home had to be within quick driving distance of the hospital in San Jose where my wife was going have our baby. But we didn’t want to be in San Jose—it’s awfully crowded and you should see rush hour. Grecia was the perfect choice, and we found a three-bedroom house about ...

It would be hard to overstate just how amazingly LGBT-friendly the US State Department has been under the leadership of Hillary Clinton even as she prepares to depart later this year. I first took note of the changes at hand in January of 2011 when the U.S. Ambassador to Honduras took the highly unusual step to publicly put pressure on the Honduran government to investigate an increasing nu...

Before we moved to Costa Rica, we watched the crap out of HHI, despite the fact that most every episode showed a couple with too much money and too little imagination bobbleheading their way around three houses making inane comments ("Yammer, yammer, yammer, vaulted ceilings!" Or "Drivel, drivel, flush, flush... granite countertops!") -- and always choosing the house with the American-style fridge...

Costa Rica, among Latin America’s oldest and best-established democracies, is facing an unusual crisis of confidence on the part of the population in the country’s politicians and institutions. This goes beyond unhappiness with the administration of President Laura Chinchilla (among the least popular leaders in the Americas, according to polls); it is also targeted at the gridlocked legislative a...

Yesterday there were seven races scheduled and they assembled on white-marked squares in front of the starting line. Engines growled, drivers and their mechanics checked last minute adjustments to the helmet cameras, the rear view mini-cams for the tires and surprisingly, steering wheels as we’ve come to know them, are gone. In place are hand-held ‘Game-Boy” like control panels with LED panels and...

Costa Rica’s economy will expand faster than forecasted this year, outpacing inflation for the first time in “recent memory,” Nomura Securities International said in a report. Gross domestic product in Central America’s second-biggest economy will climb 5.5 percent this year, up from an earlier forecast of 4 percent, Boris Segura, a Latin America analyst for Nomura, wrote today. Inflation shoul...

Along Tortuguero’s dark and sandy beach, hundreds of people will gather to send off Costa Rica’s green sea turtle competing in the 5th annual Tour de Turtles Migration Marathon. On July 14-15, Sea Turtle Conservancy staff will attach a satellite-transmitter on a green turtle as a part of mock marathon that tracks sea turtle migratory movements online. Named ‘Shelldon’ by her sponsor, Holbrook T...

I have an excuse for not attending the current meeting of the International Whaling Commission. Germany is not allowing me to leave their wonderful nation because Costa Rica wants me extradited for the horrendous “crime” of saving sharks a decade ago. I don’t think I will be missing much other than the satisfaction of terrifying the Japanese delegates who tend to grow frightfully pale when they...

Photo by Rolf Sommer. The beach of Nosara is known for its surf but also for the yoga spirit of many retreats that are available.If you purchase a product or service in a shop in Samara or Nosara and decide to use a credit or debit card as payment, you could be in trouble because there are still businesses that only accept cash. The merchant’s expression might change when the customer asks “Do...

While many of us set long-term goals in regards to our health and fitness, there are things you can do right now to boost your health each day. To improve your wellbeing and start feeling better, check out these 10 healthy changes to make to your day. Plan to be healthy Like most things worth having, a healthy lifestyle sadly won’t fall into your lap without any effort. To make healthy lifes...

Sleeping on the left side of the bed can make you happy? It sure can, and there are plenty more surprising mood enhancers where that came from. Here are 10 somewhat strange things that can make you happier: Surprising happiness booster 1: Getting older Suddenly we’ve perked up at the thought of getting older. Experts suggest that the further we advance into our mature years, the happier we ...

Recently, Julia VanTieghem – New York-based coordinator for the Rainforest Alliance’s major gifts’ team – had an opportunity to travel with colleagues to Costa Rica to see firsthand the benefits of the Rainforest Alliance’s work on farms, forests and hotels. She writes… Our home base for the week was a hotel that has worked with the Rainforest Alliance to put good environmental and social prac...

Driving in Costa Rica can be quite stressful and intimidating, especially if you have never driven in a foreign country, a big city, or over pothole ridden roads that sometimes wash away in rainstorms. Every country is unique in its obstacles and peculiar driving rules, so I’ve put together a list of tips for driving in Costa Rica based on over a year’s experience of driving daily in the Central V...

OTTAWA — The federal government has announced a $1.5-million contribution toward a global effort to combat transnational organized crime related to illicit drug trafficking in the Americas. The new Regional Intelligence Gathering and Criminal Analysis project, implemented by INTERPOL, is aimed at enhancing the capacity of local and regional law enforcement officers in Central America, Mexico an...

In Costa Rica, you’ll find plenty of expat hangouts throughout the country. It’s usually a restaurant, café, or bar, often owned by an expat, that acts as a gathering place and meeting spot for clubs and groups. Saturday morning coffee and breakfast might be the big time… or Friday night dinner, it really depends on the place. It’s a great way to meet people in your adopted hometown. And becaus...

A research team led by a plant scientist at the University of California at Davis claims that they have solved the mystery behind bland tasting tomatoes. Their findings were detailed in the June 29 issue of the journal Science. When shoppers look for tomatoes at the grocery store, they are often trying to spot the best looking tomato. While a picture perfect tomato may be pleasing to the eye, i...

OTTAWA — Two-thirds of Canadians think the law should be changed so that people caught with small amounts of marijuana no longer face criminal penalties or fines, a new poll has found. The nationwide survey for Postmedia News and Global TV, which examined the state of Canadian values, revealed that the public is distinctly offside with the Harper government on the issue. Earlier this spring,...

Clarito M. Barron, director of the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) said that while the US has given the Philippine government “an inkling” about granting local bananas access to its market, feasibility remains a sticking point. “Of course we would want this, but look at what happened to our mangoes,” said Mr. Barron. In 2001, the Philippines was granted the authority to export mangoes produce...

The search for a missing Orange County woman has taken a deadly turn in Panama and officials there are investigating her disappearance as a homicide. On June 30th, family and friends gathered on the beach in Dana Point — one of Yvonne Baldelli’s favorite places. Rachel Kim, reporting for CBS2 and KCAL9, was at the candlelight vigil held in Baldelli’s honor. “At this time, take a moment to...

Tell a woman she can’t do something and she just might surprise you. Such was the case with Becky McDonough, a 2005 Brainerd High School graduate, who made her impossible dream of driving a monster truck possible. McDonough was an average teen, spending her spare time fishing and camping with friends until fate changed her course in the form of a monster truck show ticket. “Some of my fri...

I generally do not write op-ed articles, but yesterday Costa Rica has lost a fine man who more than any other, has changed the face of professional law enforcement in Costa Rica. His name is Jorge Rojas Vargas, pictured right, and while I have never met him personally, (or professionally thank God), I would consider it a high honor if someday I might make his acquaintance and shake his hand. He is...

MONTEVERDE — I have always had a peculiar way of relaxing: This time, I would hurl myself into the arms of God, entrusting life and limb to a 150-foot rope as I swung like Tarzan in the forests of Central America. I had come to Costa Rica hoping for a respite from the breakneck pace of covering national politics, including the presidential campaign, for The Globe’s Washington bureau. And here I...

Our goal is to create a thriving Work Bike Industry in Central America, to encourage job placement and create opportunities, while utilizing our Designs as a sustainable resource that can generate a livable wage for hundreds of new jobs that will be created under this program. The mission of La Asociación CREAR is to provide supplemental educational, recreational, and career opportunities for c...

I’d never traveled with a celebrity before. When we arrived at the airport in Costa Rica, it was a madhouse. People kept coming up to take pictures with my companion. Customs officials rushed us through the line after a cursory check of our documents. Baggage handlers competed to grab our luggage. It got to be a bit much when a police officer stalked over determinedly as we waited outside fo...

*Important note: this is an opinion article written in the Blog section* The voice of the vast majority of ocean users is heard and they are not catch and release billfishers. Fishers should always have access to most of the worlds oceans, not just for sport but to eat! But the world does need some places in the ocean to be free of nets and lines. Catching and releasing endangered billfish...