Can the capital city of Costa Rica be transformed into an approximation of a New York city neighborhood? More specifically, can the metropolitan park of La Sabana mirror parts of the swanky Central Park district of Manhattan. According to an article in Diario Extra, which cites El Nuevo Herald from Miami and the Spanish EFE news agency as sources, a future presidential candidate in Costa Rica thin...

Source: Ministry of Public Safety Earlier this week, officers from the National Coast Guard Service in Costa Rica boarded a fishing vessel off the Pacific coast and arrested three individuals suspected of shark fin poaching. According to an official press release issued by Sergio Lopez Murillo of the Ministry of Public Safety, 58 shark fins were confiscated and will serve as evidence against the...

As Costa Rica increasingly grows into a highly visited destination, the need for innovation in emergency medical services becomes more pressing. Air ambulance services have been around since World War I, but sophisticated and readily accessible aeromedical services have only recently become available in Costa Rica. Over the last three years, Nature Air -a domestic airline that is probably best kn...

Costa Rica will have more than two months to rest, train and formulate a winning strategy before facing off against one of the CONCACAF powerhouse teams, Mexico. Jorge Luis Pinto, current coach of the National Football Team of Costa Rica, spoke to the leading sports daily Al Dia upon his return from Guyana, where his team scored a solid 4-0 victory over the Golden Jaguars. Mr. Pinto assured sport...

Siri, the smart personal assistant that made a splash debut last year along with the iPhone 4S now talks Spanish. Is Siri ready for Costa Rica? Will she (it's a female voice) be able to understand Tico commands and the unique idioms and nuances attached to the Spanish language in Costa Rica. Don Alonso Castro is a Tico iPhone expert whose love affair with Apple iDevices started with an iPod Nano ...

Eleven bright young scientists from Costa Rica were honored with a ceremony yesterday for their participation and achievements at the 2012 International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), an event organized by Intel. The ISEF event took place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania back in May, and it attracted 1,500 young scientists, engineers and inventors from all over the world. The Costa Rica Star repo...

SAN JOSE – Crimes related to cattle theft are becoming more frequent in Costa Rica, according to official reports issued by agricultural and law enforcement agencies. The most common crimes involve brazen cattle thieves who operate under cover of darkness in rural Costa Rica, although other crimes such as fraud in the cattle trade and even field mutilations have been reported by ranchers. Rustling...

SAN JOSE – They are born into royalty, from a queen fed and cared for by hundreds of loyal subjects in Costa Rica. The queen then flies away in search of suitable princes that will allow her continue her lineage. After this nuptial flight, the queen will lay up to 200 eggs for years to come, and she will instruct her subjects to extend her vast underground realm, complete with fungus farms that pr...

SAN JOSE - Universidad de las Ventas (Sales University) is the first academic institute dedicated to training the sales forces of businesses in Costa Rica. Do you have telephone sales personnel and account executives in Costa Rica? Do they know how to execute upon a solid script that will pique the interest of prospects and clients? Do they know how to present your product or services in an inter...

The French Alliance in Costa Rica presents "Bon ArtPetit: A Dining Table", a unique cultural and artistic project that is currently in its fifth iteration. "Intervention at the dining table" would be the most appropriate phrase to describe the concept of Bon ArtPetit. The dining table is an important place in our lives, for therein it is where we converge on to sit down, share, meet, and communic...

The Improsa Investment and Fund Management Company is happy to announce the recommencement of construction of the third and final stage of the Multipark project, which belongs to the Improsa Real Estate Development Fund of Costa Rica. The project is part of the first real estate development fund of its kind in Costa Rica, and it consists of a corporate park and office center located in Guachipelín...

The Pura Vida Ride second annual standup paddle challenge will take place in Playa Danta, Costa Rica on June 23rd, 2012. This event will benefit the "Guardians of Peace" at the local La Paz Community School. According to Pura Vida Ride Adventure Tours, the distance race will unfold over 9.4 kilometers, starting at Playa Danta and racing around Isla Plata, located off Flamingo Point, and back to Pl...

The Cayuga Sustainable Hospitality company, a hotel and tour operator with resort properties located in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, is offering special promotions for families traveling with children within the ages of 12 and below, according to the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail. Six of Cayuga Sustainable Hospitality's resort properties are included in this Preferred Family Promotion, which ...

The General Direction of Immigration in Costa Rica announced last week that people who need passports or residency identification cards in Braille will be able to obtain them, according to an article by Jarmon Noguera Gonzalez on La Prensa Libre. Kathya Rodriguez, Director of Immigration, said this is part of an effort to provide more choices for people with disabilities in Costa Rica: "We i...

Three labor unions and a few student organizations in Costa Rica have agreed to hold a nationwide strike for Tuesday 26 June, in defense of the public health care system, La Caja, and against the newly amended Fiscal Reform Plan. The call was made six days ago by a national coalition that brings together the Association of Teachers of Secondary Education (APSE in Spanish), the Caribbean dockworke...

The President of the Republic of Costa Rica Laura Chinchilla and the Vice Premier of China Zhang Gaoli met last Friday to celebrate five years of bilateral relations. That meeting also saw the signing of an agreement between the nations to seek funding for a joint oil refinery project. Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos Roverssi told journalists in a news conference that the meeting served t...

In Costa Rica, a total of 53,792 mammogram appointments are currently on the waiting lists of the public health care system (La Caja), according to a report issued last week by the National Union of Social Security Employees (UNDECA). The labor union requested the intervention of the Ministry of Health, the National Ombudsman and the National Institute for Women (INAMU) to investigate the company...

The United Nations Organization for Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will provide $1.6 million in non-reimbursable co-op funds to Costa Rica in the next two years. On Tuesday, May 29th Mr. Jose Graziano da Silva, general director of FAO, made the announcement following a meeting in Rome, Italy with President Laura Chinchilla Miranda, Minister of Agriculture Gloria Abraham, and the Chancell...

A United States citizen and Dallas-area resident facing criminal fraud charges has been denied bail and remanded back to custody after a federal judge in Oklahoma determined he was likely to flee to Costa Rica. David Harper of the Tulsa World newspaper reported that Joshua Wayne Lankford appeared in court earlier this week after U.S. Marshalls tracked him down in Costa Rica. He is part of a group...

Lacrosse players from Princeton University in New Jersey are in Costa Rica to play exhibition games, hold clinics, promote the sport, and also perform a variety of non-lacrosse charitable service activities through Fields of Growth, an organization that uses lacrosse as an educational and economic tool in Africa. The Princeton team landed at Juan Santamaria International Airport earlier thi...

Kevin Iraniha is a 27-year old American who recently completed a graduate program at the University of Peace in Ciudad Colon, Costa Rica. Proud of his academic achievement, his family arrived from San Diego to attend his graduation ceremony. Mr. Iraniha was ready to return home to California earlier this week, bu he was denied boarding by Frontier Airlines and security personnel at the Juan Sant...

Justo Orozco is a legislator and Protestant minister who also leads the Committee of Human Rights at the National Assembly of Costa Rica. According to an article recently published by Act Up, Mr. Orozco spoke to national newspaper La Nacion and categorized homosexuality as a sin with a cure. The Act Up site describes itself as a "perspective from over 60 countries and 50 languages highlighting our...

Cesar Lizano is a long-distance runner who will have the honor of representing Costa Rica during the 2012 Olympic Summer Games in London. Mr. Lizano traveled to San Diego, California last month for two weeks of preparation and training for the tough race that awaits him in August: the men's Olympic marathon. Mr. Lizano's coach, Mario Fraioli, recently shared his coaching experience to online at...

Earlier this week, President Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua introduced a legislative proposal that would authorize the construction of a canal that would allow ship transit from the Caribbean to the Atlantic, according to a news report from the Agence France-Presse (AFP) published on Yahoo News. Officials in Costa Rica reacted to the news by demanding an explanation from Nicaragua over concerns that s...

The number of homicides in Costa Rica in 2011 was lower than in 2010 by a margin of 53 cases, according to a blog post in the Christian Science Monitor by Mike Allison, an associate professor in the Political Science Department and a member of the Latin American and Women's Studies Department at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania. Citing news sources from the Agence France-Presse (AFP) an...

A recent article in the Co-oerative Press Global News Hub highlights the work of Coopedota, a major coffee growing and roasting co-op in Costa Rica, with regard to its continuing efforts in helping the country achieve carbon neutrality by 2021. In 2011, Coopedota announced the launch of the world's first carbon-neutral coffee. The Costa Rica Star has previously reported on Coopedota's achievement...

Fifty percent of all municipal solid waste generated in Costa Rica comes from organic matter, according to a recent report issued by the World Bank. Twenty-one percent of garbage discarded by Ticos comes from paper, 18 percent from plastic, two percent from glass, and two percent from metal sources. In "What a Waste: A Global Review of Solid Waste Management" (PDF), Costa Rica is classified as a ...

According to an official press release (PDF) from the National Chamber of Tourism in Costa Rica (CANATUR in Spanish), a new mobile app for Android-powered smartphones and the Apple iDevices will allow users to find out more about special offers and promotions. The name of the app is Toditico, which is a colloquial diminutive for "absolutely everything." Toditico can be downloaded from the iTunes ...

Friday was a very busy day at the National Assembly in Costa Rica. Legislators approved six projects, five on second debate and one pending final hearing. According to an article by Fernando Francia of digital newspaper El Pais, the Friday session was one of the busiest and most fruitful of the current Assembly. Taxes on Sportsbooks and Casinos This was the only law passed on first debate. It se...

Author's Note: This article has been adapted from a note published on the Facebook Timeline of Terapia Fisica y Rehabilitacion, an organization that contacted The Costa Rica Star and asked for publishing space. Any questions regarding services or assistance for people living with disabilities in Costa Rica should be directed to the National Council on Rehabilitation and Special Education (CNREE ...

On Friday, June 1st, the director of Fuerza Publica, Commissioner Juan José Andrade met with the Head of Air Surveillance Services, Captain Alex Romero, and together announced a new initiative for combining land and air operation's in the battle against crime in Costa Rica. Commissioner Andrade explained that, with the support of Air Surveillance Services, Fuerza Publica has apprehended a few s...

The town of Santa Cruz de Turrialba is preparing for the 2012 Cheese and Fair Expo to be held on June 30th, July 1st, July 7th, and July 8th. This is a community activity set up to promote their number one economic resource. The cheese production industry employs 96 percent of adults in Santa Cruz, and the Cheese Fair and Expo is an opportunity for neighbors to celebrate their traditions while pro...

According to an article in digital newspaper Costa Rica Hoy, American pop queen Lady Gaga's concert in Costa Rica has been officially confirmed. Juan Carlos Bonilla, a spokesperson for the the Sports Institute of Costa Rica (ICODER in Spanish) confirmed the rumor, which in Costa Rica began as speculation and hearsay, only to progress to the status of a news leak on Facebook earlier this week. The...

The Ad Astra Rocket Company, an aerospace business enterprise with research facilities in Costa Rica and the United States, recently announced the signing of a Support Agreement (Annex 6 - PDF) with the NASA Johnson Space Center to collaborate on aspects of safety, reliability and mission assurance related to the development of the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) technology...

Author's Note: The Costa Rica Star welcomes input from the scientific research community in all topics published herein. Professor Jaime E. Garcia G. is an agricultural scientist from the University of Costa Rica (UCR) and the National Distance Education University (UNED) who recently contacted The Costa Rica Star with regard to the article "Why Monsanto Left Costa Rica." Mr. Garcia has researche...

SAN JOSE - The twelfth edition of Expo Hotels and Restaurants (EXPHORE) will take place at Pedregal Events in Heredia, Costa Rica, in June 2012, from Tuesday 19th to Thursday 22nd. The objective of EXPHORE is to promote the commercial development of hotels and restaurants sectors in Costa Rica and Central America.

 This event will bring together key actors in the sector, where more than 200 stan...

Many Latin American consumers are ready to leave their wallets at home and begin making payments at retail establishments with their smartphones. The necessary factors of familiarity with technology and willingness to use it are certainly there. In Costa Rica, the mobile payments market is timidly being investigated, despite a strong mobile penetration. In a recent study released by MasterCard Wo...

A recent article in the online version of the Cleveland Jewish News described a typical example of conflict resolution in Costa Rica. Dental practitioner Dr. Yoav Taub and his wife arrived in the Juan Santamaria International Airport and tried to clear customs with a few days' supply of kosher food. As previously reported in The Costa Rica Star, importing food into our country can be a highly bur...

The prized tourism industry in Costa Rica could be threatened by the surge in criminal gang activity that is sweeping through other countries in Central America, according to various news reports and the general sentiment of the population over the last few years. Such fears have already come true in Belize, a Central American nation that by all accounts should surpass Costa Rica as the ultimate t...

Fans of the National Football Team of Costa Rica left the National Stadium disappointed last night after a game that should have been won by the host squad. In the first official qualifier for both El Salvador and Costa Rica, the host team had a clear advantage in the first half. Costa Rica went on the offensive right after the initial whistle. Young star striker Joel Campbell -who played a ver...