Dr. Collado - Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs On April 12th, in the pretty Italian town of Casalecchio di Reno, province of Bologna, Ambassador Jaime Feinzaig Rosenstein was the guest of honor during the inauguration of the Giardini della Casa per la Pace alla Repubblica di Costa Rica (Park of Costa Rica at the House of Peace). Two historic events motivated the kind gesture: The brave sacr...

Humpback whale breaching in Costa Rica The Southern Pacific region of Costa Rica is known as one of the country's major magnets of ecotourism revenue. One of the big draws to the coastal region of the Osa Peninsula is the Parque Nacional Marino Ballena (Ballena Pelagic National Park), a unique spot on Earth that is known as an “aquatic labor and delivery chamber” for many cetaceans, including ...

Prime Minister Netanyahu The State of Israel can thus far claim a military victory in Operation Protective Edge, the 2014 offensive launched by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) against Hamas and the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine. Nonetheless, when it comes to Israel's public relations (PR), foreign affairs and social media efforts, Israel's recent blunders undermine the overwhelming force...

Personal banking at the large state-sponsored institutions in Costa Rica is not for the squeamish. There are many horror stories among expatriates about frozen funds, incorrect account information, blocked debit cards, lost term deposits, excessive red tape, etc. Most of the time, these problems can be avoided in the first place with the assistance of a bilingual account executive who really cares...

Approximate location of the accident. Sensible readers beware: The following story is a weepy. Shirley Torres Garita is a 13-year old girl who lost her legs in a terrible accident involving a truck driver whose blood alcohol level was detected at being over the legal limit. Despite this tragedy and the abject poverty she endures with her six siblings in Pococi, province of Limon, Shirley think...

Source: ICT Ever since the collapse of the financial markets in 2008 gave way to a period of economic crisis and recession in many developed countries, tourism industry analysts in Costa Rica have observed a sharp drop in the amount of money spent by foreign visitors. A couple of years ago, the same analysts noticed an uptick in the amount of money spend by Costa Ricans exploring their own cou...

Source: CONAMAJ Labor disputes and internal bickering between labor unions and immigration officials may complicate the legal status of visitors, perpetual tourists and other foreigners in Costa Rica. At the heart of the issue is an operations manual that aimed to reflect the national security policy of improvement undertaken by the administration of President Laura Chinchilla; alas, it looks ...

Shrimp Rice, Puntarenas Style Chef Doris Goldgewicht is one of the most arduous promoters of Costa Rica's traditional cuisine, which she feels has been neglected insofar as making it known beyond the national stage. This country has great potential to attract foodies and the special tourism segment of epicurean travelers in search of international delights; alas, Costa Rica is mostly known for...

Long lines at La Caja, but few foreigners A recent study by the National Institute of Statistics and Census (Spanish acronym: INEC) reveals that only six percent of all public health care treatments in Costa Rica are provided to foreign patients. This finding dispels the notion that immigrants are a burden on La Caja, Costa Rica's public health care system. In fact, immigrant workers are more ...

Source: Flickr Of the three coastal provinces of Costa Rica, Guanacaste has the highest number of beaches that proudly display the Blue Ecological Flag. According to online news site Primero en Noticias, 51 beaches in Guanacaste meet the strict environmental conditions needed to receive the blue flags awarded by the Ministry of the Environment and the National Board of Tourism (Spanish initial...

Now showing in Costa Rica Right before Costa Rica shut down for Holy Week and Easter Sunday, 158 important works of fine art were being transported in utmost secrecy and under sophisticated security through the streets of San Jose. A few unmarked trucks carried original works by European masters as well as pieces by Andy Warhol, Jean Michel Basquiat and more. This plethora of art will be exhib...

Source: Flickr CC Despite their hefty price tags and country-specific limitations, Apple iPhones have enjoyed considerable success in Costa Rica over the last few years. Android-powered mobile devices have been gradually eating away at the lion's share of the smartphone market enjoyed by Apple in Costa Rica, but that dominance is now being threatened by the explosive growth of Microsoft Window...

Source: FANAL Some of the most popular and emblematic liquors made in Costa Rica are not readily available in other countries. Cerveza Imperial and Ron Centenario are not a problem in this regard; in fact, they are often sold at cheaper prices overseas. However, when it comes to Guaro Cacique and other fine products made by the government-owned National Distillery, they are hard to find outsid...

Source: Wikimedia Commons The few, critically endangered hawksbill sea turtles that still arrive in Costa Rica during nesting season may stop coming here altogether due to climate change. In the 21st century, hawksbills have barely arrived on the beaches of the Pacific coast. On the Caribbean shores, the number of Eretmochelys imbricata nests at the Cahuita National Park has been dwindling ove...

Source: Getty Commons The BBQ grilling season in Costa Rica coincides with the holidays and the beginning of the busy tourist season. Although there has been a recent push towards greater diffusion of outdoor grilling culture in Costa Rica thanks to events sponsored by Weber and the promotion of higher-quality cuts, skyrocketing beef prices are prompting many families in Costa Rica to put away...

Testing the Advanced Lesco platform Students from the School of Business of the University of Costa Rica (UCR) have developed an Internet application specially designed to improve the lives of the hearing-impaired community. The Advanced Lesco project is an online platform that allows users to contact a sign language interpreter who can assist them in real-time via web and telephone conference...

Source: Wikimedia Commons In Santa Cruz, province of Guanacaste, residents of the small town of Ortega will spend a significant portion of Good Friday pursuing a member of the Alligatoridae family of species. To this end, members of the community got together on Palm Sunday to start construction of a large artificial pond where they will keep the cayman for several hours before taking it back ...

The Republic of Costa Rica is divided into 81 cantons administered by municipal councils. Over the last few years, 74 of these municipalities have passed ordinances prohibiting the cultivation of transgenic crops and other genetically modified organisms (GMOs). That 90 percent of Costa Rica's territory is transgenic-free is a point of pride for anti-GMO activists; however, some legislators don't t...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Swimmers and surfers beware: Several whitetip reef sharks, Triaenodon obesus, have been sighted, photographed and filmed over the last few days in both Playa Langosta and Playa Avellanas, both part of Costa Rica's Gold Coast in the province of Guanacaste. Although sharks are known to swim in the “Barco Hundido” (Shipwreck Alley) underwater spot between Langosta and Av...

Source: Flickr CC Is it more expensive to live in Costa Rica than in Mexico, Peru or Venezuela? A recent report by national TV network Teletica interviewed three well-traveled expats who are certainly not feeling the Pura Vida when it comes to their personal finances, and their stories confirm the ongoing trend of skyrocketing prices in consumer goods and services. A cursory look into the situ...

Ghaleb Nasar Al Bihani Ghaleb Nasar Al Bihani was a religious student in Afghanistan when he was introduced to jihad (the holy struggle of Muslims against infidels that is often hijacked by imbecilic extremists for terror and violence). These days, he practices yoga and Spanish as he dreams of one living in Costa Rica, Spain or Uruguay. First, however, he must somehow obtain a release from the...

No longer made in Costa Rica April 2014 was not a good month for the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector in Costa Rica. Two big companies, Bank of America and Intel, shut down a major chunk of their operations in the Central Valley and about 2,000 workers received the dreaded pink slips. Earlier in April, Illinois call center CustomerSpeak suddenly sent 500 employees home. This exodus is...

Source: Red Cross Costa Rica The days between Palm and Easter Sundays are often the busiest of the year for Red Cross rescue brigades in Costa Rica. That is when thousands of people will leave their homes and head to the mountains, the beaches and the countryside. To this end, the Red Cross has deployed 1,200 rescuers in strategic locations during Holy Week, and one particular emergency they w...

Seized beasts. Source: Fuerza Publica Three cows stuffed inside a passenger vehicle, two cases of Old Milwaukee and one of Milwaukee's Best are among the unusual items that police officers assigned to guard the land borders of Costa Rica have confiscated in recent days. These attempted smuggled goods join a long list of peculiar items destined for the versatile and burgeoning black market in C...

Still the champ: Tiquito Vasquez The first undercard fight of the long-awaited and multimillion dollar rematch between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley featured veteran boxer Bryan “Tiquito” Vasquez of Costa Rica, who did not disappoint in his defense of the interim super welterweight title of the World Boxing Association. Tiquito won against Mexican fighter Jose Felix Jr by unanimous decisi...

Source: MSP Flickr Officers of the National Coast Guard Service in Costa Rica literally gave the shirts off their backs to stop sinking of evidence by four Colombian men charged with cocaine smuggling. According to a press release by the Ministry of Public Security (Spanish initials: MSP), the suspects tried to scuttle a 42 foot powerboat with 100 kilos of cocaine by removing special drain plu...

Source: CNFL Twitter Relentless wind speeds reaching 90 kilometers per hour in the populous Central Valley of Costa Rica and the surrounding mountain ranges kept Red Cross workers, paramedics and public utilities crews on their toes this week. Two delivery trucks in the municipality of Santa Ana were nearly crushed by uprooted trees, people were injured by flying debris and several communities...

Source: Flickr CC The recent grand opening of the Park and Museum of the Stone Spheres and the extensive recovery and curation work of the Guayabo National Monument are the two most significant events that represent the current boom in archeological and anthropological research in Costa Rica. One of the highlights of the administration of President Laura Chinchilla has been her insistence t...

Source: Flickr CC Residents of Costa Rica know that the dry season brings a scarcity of rain and an abundance of birdsong. This is when the lovely yiguirro (Turdus grayii or clay-colored American robin) mates and breeds, which means that males will melodically sing from before sunrise until after sundown. The yiguirro is just one of dozens of songbirds that make Costa Rica their permanent or m...

Source: Pinterest Since 2003, the International Institute of Wildlife Management and Conservation (Spanish acronym: ICOMVIS) has been installing infrared cameras in various national parks in Costa Rica for the purpose of monitoring the nocturnal behavior of species. It all started at the Corcovado National Park, and the project has recently extended to Barbilla, Santa Rosa and Tortuguero. The ...

Source: Intel Although Wall Street responded positively to Intel's recent announcement of its decision to close its chip manufacturing, encapsulation and testing plant in Costa Rica, observers and some analysts who have been following the company's trailing performance in the highly competitive mobile arena are beginning to wonder if the writing is on the wall for the chip maker. Shares of ...

When it comes to investing in Costa Rica, foreigners are usually at a disadvantage: They are often targeted by dubious investment schemes involving real estate, precious metals, agricultural commodities, wagers, and other high-risk and downright shady proposals. What makes this situation even more deplorable is that those who perpetrate investment scams against expats are often their compatriots. ...

It was a hoax. A scary Internet hoax fueled by the flames of social media in Costa Rica prompted neighbors of Playas del Coco and other communities in Guanacaste to hide their children and ask a television network to investigate the ghastly rumors. What started as a warning to locals and expats to look out for kidnappers targeting children in order to harvest kidneys and other vital organs ...

Coming soon to Costa Rica Добро пожаловать! The preceding Russian expression, which is often pseudo-phonetically written as dobro pozhalovat, means “Welcome!” When properly spoken, it sounds warm and inviting, and it is an expression that the tourism industry of Costa Rica should be practicing now. According to Marvin Barquero of national newspaper La Nacion, Russian passport holders will soon...

Source: Flickr CC Since late February, wireless carriers in Costa Rica have been rolling out new plans and schemes to capture the lucrative mobile voice and data segment. The three major wireless providers, Claro, Kolbi and Movistar are deploying different strategies to entice customers to shell out more money for faster broadband service; however, response thus far has been underwhelming. ...

Source: Wikimedia Commons The National Men's Football Teams of Costa Rica and Mexico have chosen their respective training facilities ahead of the FIFA 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Although both teams will be hosted by Santos FC, Mexico chose the magnificent Rei Pele (Pele the King) training center, which features a state-of-the-art gym and two modern pitches. Costa Rica, on the other hand, will ...

Source: Flickr CC Over the last few years, law enforcement agencies in Costa Rica have noticed a sharp increase in the number of women who become involved in drug trafficking. The Drug Control Police (Spanish initials: PCD) reported the arrest of two women found to be in possession of cocaine hydrochloride and byproducts. Both women were detained at ports of entry and exit; for this reason, PC...

One of the species affected by seine fishing. The Costa Rican Fishing Federation (Spanish initials: FECOP) has launched an online petition addressed to President Laura Chinchilla asking her to issue a particular Executive Decree before she steps down as Head of State: To prohibit seine-haul fishing of tuna within the first 100 nautical miles of both the Pacific and Caribbean coasts. FECOP is a...

The Westin in Playa Conchal welcomes frum travelers. Shalom aleichem. Daniel Retter is a New York attorney, religious scholar and author of HaMafteach, a Talmud Bavli Indexed Reference Guide. Mr. Retter recently found himself in the capital city of Costa Rica, the lovable San Jose, whereupon he prayed at the shuls of Chabad Lubavitch in Escazu and the Zionist Israeli Center of Costa Rica in Pa...

Source: Flickr In March 2013, daily tabloid La Teja featured a story about a farmer in Talamanca and the giant yuca (cassava, Manihot esculenta) he unearthed from his backyard. This tuber, which originated from a single stem transplant that grew into a sizable shrub, yielded 17 yucas weighing 09 kilograms. The keys to this massive harvest were: Patience and the ultra-fertile soil of Costa Rica...