Earlier this week, members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences sat in their Sunset Screening Room and enjoyed the second screening of a movie directed by Laura Astorga, a filmmaker from Costa Rica. Making it to a second screening at the Academy is a big deal for a movie that hopes be nominated for the Foreign Language Film category of the 2015 Oscars, and there is a strong chance th...

Coca Cola fashion is slowly making its way into Costa Rica by means of select distributors. Not long ago, The Costa Rica Star reported on the opening of a second OPI Nail Bar in Costa Rica, specifically in Curridabat:   OPI is a fashion nail giant that is known for its innovative products, interesting polishes and attractive lacquers. Its Coca Cola collection of lacquers, for example, is ...

At the 2014 UN Global South-South Development Expo in Washington, DC, hundreds of participants from 174 government agencies and non-profit organizations gathered to discuss and evaluate 70 proposals to alleviate poverty. Among the programs highlighted at this expo was one proposed and managed by Costa Rica along with two partner nations. Part of the press release from the United Nations explains: ...

Do you know about the slow food movement? In Costa Rica, one of the major practitioners of this holistic activity is the Finca Luna Nueva (New Moon) Lodge, located in San Isidro of Peñas Blancas. As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star, Finca Luna Nueva Lodge is an organic and biodynamic farm involved in several activities that are essentially retooled from philosophies from long ago. &nb...

Failure to report income from business operations or from professional services rendered through self-employment activities in Costa Rica could result in up to $80K in penalties. Not all business owners or self-employed professionals are potentially affected by this fine; only those who acquired goods up to $5K in value or who rendered a professional service worth more than $100 throughout the tax...

The people of Catalonia, an autonomous region of Spain, have democratically spoken: They want out of the Kingdom of Spain, and they are supporting their leaders who are concocting a plan for independence to be achieved in the next two years. As 80 percent of more than two million Catalans turned to the polls to vote on an unofficial independence referendum, some residents of Guanacaste, the former...

The massive Santa Elena luxury resort and housing complex in Guanacaste is set to expand within its 1,000 hectares over the next 15 years with new hotels and gated communities. Such was the report filed by Cristina Fallas Villalobos of business weekly El Financiero earlier this week. Readers of The Costa Rica Star will remember that we reported on the Dreams Las Mareas beach resort earlier this...

Source: FEDEFUTBOL It was a difficult match for the Women's National Football Team of Costa Rica, fondly known as Las Ticas, who recently surprised fans with a strong performance at the 2014 CONCACAF Women's Championship and World Cup Qualifiers. Once again, Las Ticas met their counterparts from Mexico; alas, they did not taste victory this time as they fell by one goal to nothing. Costa Rica ...

Link Bubble is a mobile Web browser that lets users escape the tyranny of ridiculously slow load times and dropped wireless signals that are very common in Costa Rica, particularly among subscribers of the former telecommunications monopoly Kolbi/ICE. Users of smartphones and tablets powered by the Android mobile operating system, which is very popular in Costa Rica, have a lot of choice in ter...

On Thursday, November 25th, the Ambassador of Costa Rica to Nicaragua, Don Javier Sancho, officially inaugurated a library located in a public school serving the community of Ciudad Sandino. According to institutional communique 4099 of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the new library is about 15 minutes away from the populous capital city of Managua, and it holds many volumes of literature relate...

The Regulatory Authority on Public Services (Spanish acronym: ARESEP) has summarily rejected a fee increase request tendered by the Spanish firm in charge of the mandatory technical revision of motor vehicles in Costa Rica. The firm Riteve SyC had requested a 200 percent increase that would have rocketed the fee to 30,000 colones (about $60) for the mandatory inspection of a passenger car in Costa...

The future border crossing checkpoint at the Tablillas community of Los Chiles, in the northern region of the Alajuela province, will not be operational until April 2015. Nonetheless, this formality does not seem to stop illegal immigrants from taking advantage of the new bridge on the Nicaraguan side of the border to illegally cross into Costa Rica. According to a recent news article reported ...

The unexpected rains that fell on the Central Valley and parts of the Caribbean region of Costa Rica earlier today were a presage of the dry season that will officially begin this weekend. Such was the assessment of the National Meteorology Institute (Spanish initials: IMN), which is forecasting a very dry season that will exacerbate drought conditions in parts of Guanacaste and Puntarenas. &nb...

Although the Jurassic World trailer was supposed to be unleashed on Thanksgiving, it appears that Universal Pictures jumped the gun (or the shark, if you watch the trailer below closely) and released an exciting theatrical trailer two days before planned. This new film, which is scheduled to be the mega summer blockbuster of 2015, is faithful to the fictional Jurassic Park universe created by the ...

Quick-service restaurants (QSR) make up one of the most active and potentially lucrative business sectors in Costa Rica. As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star, Tico consumers have an ongoing love affair with fast food, particularly when some level of novelty is involved. Enter Cosi, a United States-based restaurant chain specializing in the fast-casual dining segment. This company has gott...

At the Regional Museum in San Ramon, province of Alajuela, twenty works of art from the 20th and 21st centuries await visitors, who do not have the benefit of knowing either the title or authorship of the works. Visitors to this museum, which is located in a thriving agricultural region of Costa Rica, must investigate the background of the untitled works of art and make their own determination as ...

Mr. DeNiro and Ms. Hightower. Source: Wikimedia Commons When it comes to celebrity endorsement, the world knows all too well about perfumes, colognes, clothing, and alcoholic beverages. It is no surprise that large catalog of celebrity-branded products would one day extend to coffee, and that day is now. From actors Leonardo DiCaprio to Hugh Jackman and from Bob Marley's son to legendary Aeros...

This past August, a Web application developer that works closely with Google visited Costa Rica and met with our Minister of Education to discuss the potential of a special project to reduce dropout rates and truancy in public schools. The idea would be to teach students how to perform certain tasks online through the use of Google Apps; these tasks would entail communicating with peers around the...

When it comes to mobile communications and paid television markets, Costa Rica is poised to grow and foster a solid landscape for business competition. Such is the determination of a new report being offered by Research and Markets. This new report is titled Costa Rica: Pending LTE Auction Will Help Balance Mobile Operators' Spectrum Holdings, Boosting Competition, and it was produced by Pyramid R...

Young robotics engineers from Costa Rica have done their country proud at the 11th World Robot Olympiad (WRO) currently underway in Sochi, Russia. According to an official press release from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Telecommunications, engineers representing our country in the College Category advanced to the final stage and received a special award for their robotic creation. La...

With the holidays right around the corner, people are scrambling to get thoughtful, high quality gifts for their loved ones and associates. Fine coffee from Costa Rica is shaping up to be a hot present under the holiday tree this year; a couple of months ago we reported on gourmet coffee from Tarrazu offered as an executive gift by J. Martinez & Company, this time we bring you this press relea...

President Luis Guillermo Solis and members of his Cabinet will be present at the march to observe the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. To this end, the Presidential Council meeting that usually takes place each Tuesday morning has been rescheduled to take place after lunch. President Solis has gone on record to state that the people of Costa Rica shou...

Source: Fuerza Publica One of the most forgettable films of the 1980s is Weekend at Bernie’s, a dark comedy involving a convoluted plot whereby two insurance analysts attempt to conceal the death of their boss by parading his dead body around in slapstick situations, including passing him off as a live passenger in a vehicle. A similar situation was encountered by members of Fuerza Publica, Co...

University of Costa Rica Campus The United States Department of State, in conjunction with the Institute of International Education, recently issued a report on the number of international students who either travel abroad to enroll in higher education programs, or who arrive from other countries to study in the U.S. Both figures have increased, and it is interesting to note that Costa Rica is...

The former Second Division of the professional football system in Costa Rica is now known as the “Liga de Ascenso,” a league that loosely serves two purposes: It is a minor, developmental league for “farm teams” such as the powerhouse Liga Deportiva Alajuelense (LDA) and Deportivo Saprissa; moreover, this league is also a platform for hopeful football clubs to advance to the potentially lucrative ...

Earlier this week, the Caribbean Port of Limon was the temporary home of Patrouillevaartuig Zr. Ms. Holland (P840), a magnificent patrol boat in the service of the Coast Guard of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. This vessel's visit to Costa Rica was carried out in support of the ratification of a treaty that creates a Joint Patrol Agreement between our country, the Netherlands, and other nations th...

With the holiday season around the corner, real estate analysts in Costa Rica are busy preparing their forecasts for 2015. The housing market in Costa Rica has changed considerably in the last two years, and one of the most noticeable factors is the reduced participation of foreign buyers during the green (rainy) season of 2014. This does not mean that real estate agents in Costa Rica have not bee...

Costa Rica is blessed with various kinds of hummingbirds; some are more colorful than others, but they are all adorable and fascinating. We even have one hummingbird species that prefers climbing to hovering when it comes to feeding on the sweet nectar of colorful tropical flowers, but there is nothing like watching hovering hummingbirds in Costa Rica. Aeronautical engineers and scientists have...

A physician evaluating the condition of Evgeny Otto, an imprisoned Russian man in Costa Rica who started a hunger strike in mid-October, explained that the inmate was at a point of no return with regard to his health. As reported by online news daily CRHoy.com a few days ago, Mr. Otto was resolute on consuming nothing but water as he pushed for a resolution to his Kafkaesque status in Costa Rica. ...

Hainan. Source: ISA Thanks to the great performance of Costa Rica's National Surfing Team at the recent World Surfing Games in Peru, our professional surfers have another shot at high-level international competition. According to an official press release by the Surfing Federation of Costa Rica (Spanish acronym: FEDESURF), our Tico pro surfers are now in Hainan, the smallest and southernmost pro...

Source: Sergio Escárcega Rodríguez for Fishbase A giant female Pacific black snook (Centropomus) caught in Costa Rica earlier this year was recently certified as a world record by the International Game Fish Association (IFGA). The lucky angler is Ward Michaels, a fishing guide from Central Florida who has been putting together fishing trips to our country for his United States clients for a c...

Source: Asociacion Nacional de Guardavidas de Costa Rica Thanks to the inexhaustible efforts of the National Association of Lifeguards in Costa Rica, more aquatic lifesavers are being trained and posted on our numerous beaches. On September 15th, the Association was formally accepted into the International Life Saving Federation; this announcement prompted them to complete training of a new gr...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Dozens of environmental activist organizations in Managua met on Saturday and lodged a strong peremptory request to the government and to the Chinese company HKND Group to postpone their plans to begin construction of the quixotic and highly controversial Nicaragua Canal project. As published by online news daily El Pais and reported by Spanish news agency EFE, the...

Although Costa Rica has the lowest regional mortality rate for vector-borne diseases such as dengue and malaria, the fact remains that children from low-income families are the most affected by mosquito bites. As recently reported by The Costa Rica Star: The most dangerous organism in Costa Rica is not even a vertebrate, but it kills approximately three quarters of a million humans each year. ...

Although World Teacher's Day was celebrated on Sunday, October 5th this year, Costa Rica chooses to observe this important, yet often ignored, holiday on November 22nd. This year, the holiday fell on a Saturday, when most public schools do not operate, so the Ministry of Education (Spanish initials: MEP) decided to celebrate Teacher's Day with a paid holiday break on Friday. Costa Rica is hardl...

A “grey hat” website hosted in Russia is making a strong statement about a security flaw that is often “exploited” due to a very common user error. This site has been widely reported by several news media outlets in the last few days, including online news daily Costa Rica Hoy, which published screenshots of surveillance video at a known shopping center in Ezcazu, a factory in Paquera, and a secti...

Source: Cogsi, DeviantArt The recent performance of the National Men's Football Team of Costa Rica at international friendly matches and during the 2014 Central American Cup in the United States have ratified the fact that our country's spirited performance at the FIFA World Cup in Brazil was no “Cinderella run.” Costa Rica is currently ranked by FIFA as number 15 in the world, and that's just...

In an era of Meatless Mondays and economic vegetarianism, more people in Costa Rica and around the world are thinking about reducing their meat consumption for several reasons. The health benefits are undeniable, but they have to be managed through the adoption of a reasonable nutritional plan, which means that suddenly cutting off all animal byproducts without proper guidance could create dietary...

Red Cross rescuers and paramedics from the Fire Department in La Aurora, province of Heredia, responded to an emergency call involving a baby who was viciously attacked by an American Staffordshire terrier. According to reporter Lady Rojas of online news daily Costa Rica Hoy, the infant was rushed to the Saint Vincent Paul Hospital, which is operated by La Caja, the national public health service....

More than two years have passed since The Costa Rica Star published an article about two controversial figures whose respective lifeworks have impacted Costa Rica and the rest of the world. The extradition requests we discussed in the article A Tale of two Extraditions: Paul Watson to Costa Rica and Julian Assange to Sweden are still in effect to this very day. In late October, journalists from...