Source: OPI Costa Rica Curridabat, a municipality located in the eastern suburbs of San Jose, is home to many bars, but only one of them serves dry spa manicures, semi-permanent gel colors, express pedicures, skin treatments, and Coca Cola products that are not meant to be consumed but rather applied to fingernails. Fashionable Ticas who already familiar with Spanish brand OPI and its Nail Bar i...

Source: Bing commercial reuse The ongoing love affair between Ticos and junk food is becoming more steadfast each day. The fast food and casual dining sectors in Costa Rica have become extremely competitive over the last two years thanks to a flurry of brands eager to capture palates, bellies and wallets. According to the 2014 Costa Rica Consumer Profile recently published by business weekly E...

Source: Wikimedia Commons After more than 20 formal complaints filed by mobile phone consumers in Costa Rica during 2014, the Superintendency of Communications (Spanish acronym: SUTEL) has made a new ruling that will push service providers to continuously inform their customers about every single detail of their international roaming activity. According to a recent article by Rebeca Madriga...

Light traffic at a shopping center in San Carlos. Source: Wikimedia Commons Despite public opinion polls showing an acceptable level of approval for President Luis Guillermo Solis during his first trimester in office, most people in Costa Rica are feeling the inflationary blues and do not think that the economic situation on a national and personal level will improve soon. According to a recen...

North American investors in Costa Rica are usually surprised at the higher yields they can realize with plain-vanilla securities such as certificates of deposit (CDs). Once they get to learn a bit about how banking and financial systems work in this country, they understand how CDs can make them money with almost no risk. The following rundown of the banking system in Costa Rica is cordially p...

Source: MOGA From a small office in San Jose, three video game developers are working on a project that involves an oddly-shaped character named Fenix (Phoenix, as in the bird from Arabian lore that self-ignites only to rise from the ashes anew) who will go endure many trials and tribulations to earn a cookie. At a larger studio across town, a development team is basking in the glow of seeing ...

Mortgage applicants line up in Costa Rica. Source: Expocasa Just in time for Expocasa 2014, Costa Rica's most prominent housing trade show, the top two state-sponsored banks in terms of deposits announced that they will be promoting a new financial product aimed at middle-class house hunters: A 40-year mortgage that would allow qualified Tico borrowers to borrow up to 100 percent of the proper...

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...

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: 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: 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...

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: 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 ...

Central Bank of Costa Rica in San Jose At the Legislative Assembly this week, a proposal to empower the Central Bank to prevent speculative investments, hot money and capital flight in Costa Rica became law with 32 votes in favor and seven against. Capitales golondrina, as they are known in Costa Rica, are those fleeting and speculative investments made by foreign entities that seek to avoid f...

Journalism is a crowded career field in Costa Rica Biology, journalism and physical therapy are the three least-promising fields of study in Costa Rica. According to a report by daily tabloid La Teja, hundreds of biologists, reporters and physical therapists have given up looking for work in their chosen professional fields and have instead turned to low paying positions in telemarketing, cler...

Source: Mundo Motorizado ExpoMovil is the most prominent consumer trade show in Costa Rica, and its 2014 iteration was a massive success in terms of attendance and exposure. There were plenty of interesting new cars and road technology to look at, but visitors also had a lot more to focus their gaze on: A high number of curvy and seductive young Ticas hired to wear revealing, skin-tight clothi...

The elegant WTTC data explorer The World Travel and Tourism Travel Council (WTTC), a forum for business leaders in this important global sector, recently released its 2014 economic impact report. Among the highlights of the report, which is presented in a gorgeous interactive Web application featuring an Earth globe that you can manipulate right on your browser, Costa Rica's already sizable co...

This could be your next taxi ride in Costa Rica. Among the highlights of the 2014 ExpoMovil vehicle fair in Costa Rica, hybrid and plug-in electric cars are creating interest on prospective buyers. The Toyota Prius hybrid taxi has gotten lots of attention as well as the BYD Qin, a Chinese hybrid announced by the Costa Rica Star back in December. On the non-hybrid front, luxury vehicles stole a...

Locally crafted beer will surprise palates at the Costa Rican Craft Brewers Association’s 3rd Annual Craft Beer Festival. -The Festival will take place at Avenida Escazu Saturday, April 5th beginning at 11am and running until 5pm. -There will be more than 32 craft beers available for attendees to sample and enjoy. San Jose, Costa Rica - Craft brews created only in Costa Rica by small produ...

Reinventing a business is like soul-searching. Who are we? What are we about? What are we doing and why? It is a process not every business takes the time to tackle. Yet it is the most urgently talked about business concept over the past five years. Hotel Tropico Latino at beautiful Santa Teresa Beach in Costa Rica recently engaged in the challenge of reinventing and redefining its business. T...

Source: Starbucks The next time you are in Southern California and in urgent need of a shot of Costa Rica, you may want to head to Anaheim -specifically Downtown Disneyland. Once you are properly on Mickey Mouse property, look for the brand-new Starbucks Coffee location on the east side, go inside, find the Clover bar and look above: A giant electronic display will show you a digital photo mon...

Author's Note: This article was submitted by Asdrubal Zamora Corrales as a response to Bank Interest Rates for Term Deposits in Costa Rica, published on March 10th, 2014. Mr. Zamora is an executive in charge of debt instruments and other investments at COOPENAE, the most powerful credit union in Costa Rica. Mr. Zamora's original article has been slightly edited for grammar and style. COOPENAE's...

Flamingo, Guanacaste, Costa Rica: APEGUA (the Alliance for Progress of Education in Guanacaste) will be hosting a 5k/10k race on Saturday, May 3rd along the beautiful Guanacaste coastline. This popular annual event will see some changes in its fourth edition, including a new location (the race route will now span from Flamingo to Playa Potrero) and a new date. This year’s race, which is being orga...

Front view of Paradizio Condos in Playas del Coco GuanacastePlayas del Coco, Costa Rica. March 17, 2014 – The Paradizio condominium developers are excited to announce the debut of their new website and virtual sales office for prospective buyers looking for stylish residential properties in Costa Rica's Gold Coast. Prospective buyers are invited to review the website and become familiar with ever...

Source: AnyStockPhoto.com In late 2012, Starbucks proudly introduced to the world its most expensive cup of coffee: $7 for a “grande” (tall cup) of Geisha grown at Finca Palmillera in the Tarrazu region of Costa Rica. Back then, Starbucks sold a half-pound bag of Finca Palmillera Geisha roast for $40. Meanwhile, at supermarket chains such as Pali and Jumbo, shoppers can find popular brands suc...

Recent cover of US Forbes edition Two of the biggest global names in financial news media have recently expanded to Costa Rica and the rest of the Central American Isthmus. Bloomberg TV has teamed up with El Financiero of Mexico to launch a multimedia platform that will broadcast in Spanish, and Forbes announced the debut of a print magazine dedicated to Central American financial news. Acc...

Minister Garita At a recent meeting of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Costa Rica's Minister of Justice and Peace presented a formal request to join the working group dedicated to monitoring and analyzing international business transactions for the purpose of guarding against corruption and bribery of public officials, a group that has been operational since ...

Hoteliers in Guanacaste and other tourist hotspots in Costa Rica have been doing brisk business and are enjoying the high season thus far in 2014, but their counterparts in San Jose are not. According to recent surveys conducted by the Costa Rica Chamber of Hotels and the National Board of Tourism (Spanish initials: ICT), hotels in the capital city have seen a 15 percent drop in occupancy comp...

Central Bank of Costa RicaUPDATE: please click here for more information about Coopenae in Costa Rica. Thank you to Asdrubal Zamora Corrales for the additional insights and information. Last week, the banking interest rate in Costa Rica dropped to its lowest level since July 2008. The “tasa basica pasiva” is set by the Central Bank of Costa Rica and it is a closely-followed economic indicator ...

Source: Hockey Canada As Canadian snowbirds and visitors in Costa Rica were following the performance of their compatriot athletes at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, their Finance and National Revenue Ministers announced that an intergovernmental agreement with the United States had been reached on the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) of 2010. What this means for U.S. taxpayers is...

A petition by Costa Rica before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to determine clear maritime boundaries on the issue of international borders with Nicaragua goes beyond the intentions of President Daniel Ortega to build a transoceanic canal. It is the possibility of oceanic exploration for sources of oil and methane by Nicaragua that has Costa Rica worried. A recent article by Pablo Roj...

The mangroves near the proposed airport. Over the next few years, the sublime and mysterious stone spheres at the Palmar Sur park indigenous park in Costa Rica will witness the construction of the Brunca Region International Airport, Costa Rica's latest effort in expanding its lucrative tourism industry. While many residents and landowners rejoiced at the news, others groaned about what they d...

The TEDx Pura Vida 2014 event, with 25 local and foreign exhibitors presenting their innovative ideas, will take place today, February 27th, at the Auditorio Nacional del Museo de los Niños. The event will also be available by video streaming at dozens of halls in different parts of the country at schools and businesses, like the TEC in San Carlos and Cartago and the Museo de Guanacaste, among ...

Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman. Source: Wikimedia Commons The announcements by Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto as well as by the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) reverberated around the world: Joaquin Guzman, the fugitive leader of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, was captured by Mexican naval infantry forces over the weekend. Thousands of news media outlets around the world broadcast the...

Part of Santa Elena Preserve Luxury beach resorts, marinas, theme parks, and hotels: This is Guanacaste in the 21st century. It was not too long ago when this region of Costa Rica was known as the “forgotten province.” These days, however, luxury resort developers and assorted capitalists are looking at Guanacaste with hungry eyes. A new $125 million project recently announced that it will ...

Source: MEP In late January 2014, Ambassador Mamoru Shinohara was busy preparing for the Japanese Culture Month in Costa Rica, which started on February 6th and will continue through March 15th with many activities -including a cool anime film festival in San Ramon. Still, Ambassador Shinohara made time in his busy schedule to sign a funding commitment worth $104,600 to remodel the San Luis de ...

The new Peugeot 3008 Although executives at new vehicle dealerships in Costa Rica are not quite ready to expand their showrooms to Guanacaste, they are paying close attention to the number of car buyers from that region. The year 2013 was highly satisfactory in terms of new car sales in Costa Rica, and they expect 2014 to be even better. With slightly lower import taxes for new cars in Costa Ri...

Hotel guests enjoying a cocktail at Living Hotel NosaraThe Living Hotel is now a whole complex of services to cater to health-conscious guests. Located across from the Mini Super Delicias del Mundo, it is fully operational this high season with its own Living Café restaurant, full service spa, yoga classes, Nosaranet office center, bike rentals, surf lessons and airport transportation. Ricardo Mi...

Regardless of how you may feel about buying drinking water that has been taken from an everyday source and put into a plastic bottle, the fact is that bottled water is big business in Costa Rica. When the ongoing arsenic contamination brouhaha in Guanacaste reached a boiling point back in August, a group on unscrupulous businessmen began selling bottled water that was found to have the same arseni...

Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations meet protests in Salt Lake CityThe acceptance of Costa Rica into the Pacific Alliance, a new Latin American trade bloc, has been reported with a certain level of interest and excitement around the world. Israel is one of the various observer nations in this new bloc, and Arutz Sheva (Channel 7) recently remarked on the trade and economic opportunities...