Helping poor rural women become successful farmers is one of the best ways to build a food-secure world. That’s what the P4P programme is doing in Guatemala by teaching women farmers how to grow more and better food that they can sell on local markets. It's just one example of what investing in women farmers can achieve as we mark the International Day of Rural Women on October 15. When she...

Historically, the best place to get fruits, vegetables, and other locally grown/made products near Escazu, has been at the Escazu Central farmers market, on the street just above the Catholic Church every Saturday morning. But if you want to try something new, we recommend Bodega Verde at Avenida Escazu every Saturday from 9am to 2pm. The food products are hand picked to be the absolute be...

Welcome to the Amistad Art Prize 2012 offered for the best art piece inspired by the “Plight of the World’s Rainforests”. -Supporting 3 different environmental projects -The artist makes 40% of the bid received for the piece in the auction -Social responsibility and exposure The Problem Deforestation in Costa Rica has a serious impact on the environment and directly or indirectly co...

Next year marks the 25th anniversary of the Chirripó Race. For the past 24 years madcap runners have been beating the clock in a 34 km marathon up and down the highest mountain in Costa Rica, and this past year a new record was set at 3 hours 5 minutes. For the anniversary run several of the prizes will be dazzling – especially if anyone can beat that 3 hour barrier! Registration for the ra...

The Guatemalan Congress has approved borrowing from banks in Brazil and Argentina for the purchase of six Super Tucano aircraft and a tactical air control centre. Elperiodico.com.gt reports that the need to monitor areas like Alta Verapaz, Baja Verapaz and Petén, to weaken the activities of organized criminals and drug traffickers in these regions under project entitled ‘Construction of a...

A tourist guide had a lucky escape from a crocodile recently after he tried to get up close and personal with the monster. Luckily, the croc was already full. A tour guide in Costa Rica can count himself (and his fingers) lucky after having this near miss with a monster of a crocodile. While trying to impress a group of tourists by dangling some chicken in front of the croc, the guide w...

1. Calakmul, Campeche, Mexico One of the most important cities of Mayan civilization, Calakmul was once home to more than 50,000 inhabitants. Though the city's timeline goes as far back as the Preclassic period (300 B.C. to 240 A.D.), its golden age was in the Classic period (250 A.D. to 900 A.D.), when it served as Tikal's main rival and battled for dominance of the central Mayan area. Man...

The country’s National Police has turned to technology to make the streets safer, as it recently implemented a global positioning system (GPS) to coordinate officers’ responses, Minister of Public Safety Mario Zamora said. The system, which was first installed in 20 patrol cars in late April, allows officers to see exactly how far they are away from a potential crime scene. “If a citizen...

In the past The Costa Rica Star has reported on Costa Rican scientists working towards a cure for cancer. Experts from Costa Rica and the Spanish company PharmaMar, dedicated to marine biotechnology research, beginning in February will seek new cures and treatments for cancer in organisms living in Costa Rican waters. The Spanish company will work for five years in the territorial waters...

A long, tranquil beach, great surfing, a plethora of yoga classes, and all within walking-distance from your day-to-day life, It sounds like the perfect creative environment, and for many, it is. The ability to take some time off from the everyday, and turn Nosara or Samara into your base can be attractive, but can it be affordable? For longer-term renters, the balance between location and ...

In the past The Costa Rica Star has published about bodybuilding and the top gyms in Costa Rica. RAW Fitness Costa Rica is an outdoor fitness club providing a balance of cardio, strength and endurance training across various RAW exercises. So grab a hammer, tire, sand bag and let's go! Description We believe in exercising Outdoors - moving the body the way it was designed to move. Dyn...

The opening up of the telecommunications sector in Costa Rica promotes modernization and increased supply of cable TV services. Nación.com reports that "the entry of the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) with television services, and other new entrants such as Claro and Repretel with satellite television, predicts a sharp rise in subscription services, as radical as those of m...

In the past The Costa Rica Star has reported on a campaign to end dog fighting in Costa Rica. Costa Rican authorities detected the illegal import of genetically modified dogs for use in fights, reported local media yesterday. According to the National Animal Health Service (SENASA), this is the first time they seize these hybrid dogs used for profit, since of the 23 seized, 11 were aggre...

University students in Costa Rica and Athens can learn about sustainability — while learning from the same professors. Beginning in the spring of 2013, the UGA Costa Rica study abroad campus has a new program option: the Sustainability in Action semester, which offers a new sustainability certificate awaiting approval and collaboration between professors in both Costa Rica and Athens. Th...

It's a vicious circle where lack of trust leads to unnecessary requirements, the requirements leads to cumbersome procedures, the procedures sets up the trap, the trap to the bribe, and the whole thing starts over again. Welcome to Central America. Hugo Maul in his article on the blog of the National Economic Research Center (CIEN), unveils the hidden evil behind the red tape that stifles...

A proposal has been made to change the rules for the election of congressmen so that the majority be elected in their constituencies, so as to legitimize them with their communities. A group of Costa Rican citizens have began to take action under the premise that the "Costa Rican political system is weakening" and must be renewed. From the text of "Our Position" on the website of the...

Costa Rica state-owned operator Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), via its Kolbi mobile unit, has launched a voice call service dubbed 'Kolbi Favoritos'. Service users can select a favorite on-net mobile number and make unlimited anytime calls to that number. The Kolbi Favoritos service is available for both prepay and postpaid customers and costs CRC 3,500 per month. Customers can...

Florida Ice and Farm has complained that vast amounts of beer are entering Costa Rica at very low prices. The complaint, originally made to the Directorate General of Taxation so that this institution could verify that the correct taxes were paid on these imports, was later presented to the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce (MEIC) as a suspected case of dumping or unfair competit...

The Balloon Fiesta is no stranger to hosting international visitors. There are 550 pilots representing 19 countries this year. Esteban Elizondo is piloting the Serendipity balloon from Costa Rica, and is participating in the Balloon Fiesta for the first time. Elizondo said this is something he has always wanted to do. "It's always been a goal for every balloonist this - this is the Mecca...

Just days from a game that could well prove decisive for its chances of advancing to the final round of CONCACAF qualifying, Costa Rica is in the midst of preparing for one of its biggest qualifying challenges in recent memory. The Ticos travel to the Estadio Cuscatlan for a Group B showdown against host El Salvador, a fifth match-day game from which the six-time Central American champion ...

The prison island San Lucas has a dark history as the most brutal prison in Costa Rica. The prison ran between 1873 and 1991 and housed the most notorious and dangerous criminals in Costa Rica, but is now being converted into a tourist destination. Located close to Puntarenas, the area is already a major tourist destination. The island San Lucas, 472 acres, is located three kilometers from ...

In the past The Costa Rica Star has reported on how La Nacion is getting better at information visualization. Last year, Miguel Angel Rodriguez, who served as president from 1998-2002, was sentenced to five years in prison for accepting bribes from French telecom giant Alcatel; two years before Rafael Angel Calderon was jailed for embezzling funds from a Finnish loan intended for medical eq...

In the past The Costa Rica Star has published about cage free egg choices in Costa Rica. Humane Society International encourages Costa Rica consumers to take steps to improve the treatment of egg-laying hens in conventional egg production. Costa Rica has approximately three million egg-laying hens, many confined in barren battery cages. In these small wire cages, each hen spends practica...

In the past The Costa Rica Star has reported on Sir Richard Branson calling for the end to Shark Finning in Costa Rica. Today, the Government of the Republic of Costa Rica will sign a decree that seeks to eliminate, once and for all, the practice of shark finning in Costa Rica. The activity for the signing of the decree called "shark finning ban, import, and transport in Costa Rica water...

Hugo Chávez may have won the Venezuelan presidential election on Sunday, but in El Salvador he faced an overwhelming electoral defeat. The city of Ilopango in the Central American country voted by a landslide to rename “Hugo Chávez” boulevard, which the previous mayor had instituted when she led the local government back in 2006, Spanish news wire EFE reports. Only 13 of the 1,520 voters...

In the past The Costa Rica Star has reported on the Canadian Government helping with ballistic identification in Costa Rica. Swamped by a rising tide of crime Belize is reaching out for assistance to foreign donors and the government of Canada has come forward with the donation of a Ballistic Identification System to help the local police improve crime fighting capabilities. An official ...

Relying mainly on its geographical and cultural attractions, today Central America points to a dramatic growth in tourism, with some reports estimating that the number of foreign visitors will reach 14 million by 2020. According to reports by experts of the National Tourism Congress of Costa Rica and studies released on the Internet, in 2011 the region earned 3.6 percent of the total touris...

Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina has never been soft on crime. The 30-year military veteran rose to power last year on the wings of his law-and-order platform, crystalized in his campaign slogan: “Iron fist, head, and heart.” And he recently approved the creation of two military bases, outfitted with 2,500 soldiers, to guard against the growing presence of drug cartels that have turned G...

The deaths of eight indigenous demonstrators taking part in a protest against the Guatemalan government in the southwestern province of Totonicapán have provoked outrage within the country and abroad. The protesters accuse the army of shooting into the crowd. “Now more than ever we are sure that it was them (the military) who opened fire. We were not armed,” Carmen Tacam, president of the i...

We know how frustrating it can be to consume all of the news and information you need about Costa Rica, going between the Tico Times, Inside Costa Rica, La Nacion, Costa Rica Hoy, and others. We have decided to launch and will continually develop our newest feature at The Costa Rica Star. We hope this saves your time and energy when finding the news that you need most. The Costa Rica Star n...

Pictured above is the Fer De Lance Snake, one of the regions most deadly. Although the production of antivenom is at normal levels, an unexplained over demand is causing severe shortages, which worry farmers, its main consumers, who are requesting the drug’s importation. Veterinary antivenom produced in Costa Rica is produced by the Clodomiro Picado Institute, whose director Alberto Al...

Driving in excess of 150 km/h on Costa Rica's roads can land the driver up to three years in jail and the loss of their driver's license. The sanction is part of the new Ley de Tránsito that the country will see go into effect in the coming weeks. Driving at such a high speed does not come with a monitary fine but rather with a prison term as called for in Article 254bis of the Penal Code. ...

Costa Rica's national parks and preserves continue to attract attention from the world’s media. A recent story in The Australian wrapped up the appeal saying this is a park system where visitors “glimpse the seething life of the tropical rainforest” ... “simmering volcanoes and cloud forests offer otherworldly vistas and its reliable surf breaks are suited to beginners and experts alike.” T...

When weathered school buses are retired from commission in the United States, they don't always end up being scrapped: many times, they find a new life (and a new paint job) in Guatemala and other Central American countries. Known to English speakers as "chicken buses," because of the likelihood travelers might find themselves sitting next to livestock, these buses can be found throughout the ...

The Costa Rica Star recently reported on this story and the private cities set to be developed in Honduras. In Latin America, branding someone a neoliberal is an offense that falls somewhere in between imperialist and pedophile. So it seems passing strange that Honduras, a poor unassuming isthmus in Central America, is cooking up the most brazen free-market proposal the Western Hemisphere h...

Under a joint programme promoted by Cuba and Venezuela, more than 17 million people from Latin American countries have had free eye surgery since 2004, the Prensa Latina news agency reported. A total of 17,596,388 eye surgeries have been performed under the "Mission Miracle" programme. The figure includes more than 1,433,000 people from Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemal...

In the coming days Costa Rica will have a new traffic law that replaces the traffic law of March 2010 (that was approved in 2008). Among the major changes is the term of the validity of the drivers license, and the point system. Article 92 of the new law states that a license, when first issued, is valid for three years and upon first renewal if the driver has accumulated four points or ...

Costa Rica's National Seismological Network (RSN) published a detailed report about the changes to the country's active volcanoes induced by the great M7.6 earthquake of September 5 and recommends the access closure to the craters of Rincón de la Vieja and Turrialba volcanoes, which increased activity. On September 5, 2012 at 8:42 am (local time) there was a great earthquake at 10 km south...

The state's national ombudsman, Ofelia Taitelbaum, started the process, saying "people will understand that this is about rights" that are appropriate for "our times." In the worldwide debate over abortion and women's rights, this might seem like an unusual law. After all, in-vitro fertilization actually creates life. But Costa Rica is heavily Catholic; more than 76 percent of its people id...

Few political leaders have benefited more from Hugo Chavez’s largesse than Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. Consequently, few foreign leaders will be watching the Venezuelan polls on Sunday closer than the Sandinista strongman. Ortega and his party’s politburo, recipients of more than $2.2 billion in Venezuelan petrodollars since 2007, insist they are confident their Venezuelan benefacto...