The Ministry of Health of Costa Rica informed the Social Security Service (CCSS) that the “Protocol of clinical attention for the medical procedure related to article 121 of the Criminal Code: therapeutic interruption of pregnancy”, has been approved. The protocol, as stated in the Executive Decree, standardizes the actions in the health services network of the different professionals (OBGYNs...

Supermarket chain Walmart in Costa Rica which includes MasxMenos, Maxi Palí, and Palí have announced they will stop providing plastic bags as of January 1, 2021. Costa Rica has been working on its mission to becoming carbon neutral and banning the single-use plastic; eliminating supermarket bags is part of that goal. Most Costa Rican supermarkets have been promoting other options to pack g...

Even narco-traffickers are getting into the Christmas spirit this year. The Costa Rican Minister of Public Security reported that last weekend the Costa Rican Coast Guard along with the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), halted an Ecuadorian boat and its Costa Rican sister vessel containing 422 packets of cocaine – all prettily wrapped and decorated with Christmas gift wrap, featuring be...

Photo Source : PuroMotor  Alex Barquero Canadian native Mikyle Pike at 12 years old, dominated the entire 2020 Costa Rican Karting season competing in the VLR 100 JR category in his first complete year of karting. According to ACEK (Association de Corredores de Kartismo) the VLR category is brand new in Costa Rica for the 2020 race season and has shown promising potential as a stepping stone in...

On January 8, 2010, the Red Cross received an emergency call for a dead American in Florida de Baru. The ambulance driver who was first on the scene described walking into John Bender’s bedroom and seeing “a blanket of jewels”, both cut and uncut, strewn about the bedroom and stuffed loosely into backpacks – over 3,000 jewels in total. What has happened to them all? When the police arrived at t...

FIFA revealed this week the nominees to The Best FIFA Football Awards, a ceremony that will take place on December 17, 2020 and that recognizes the achievements of soccer players around the world during the 2019-2020 season. Two expert panels – one for women’s football and another one for men’s football – selected the candidates for each category. Costa Rican goalkeeper Keylor Navas currentl...

Debi Nova’s album 3:33 is the first album by a Costa Rican artist to be nominated to a Grammy. The album was nominated in the category best Latin pop or urban album where it will compete with other renowned artists such as Bad Buddy with his album “YHLQMDLG” (Spanish acronym for ‘I do whatever I want’), Camilo with “Por Primera Vez” (For the First Time) Kany Garcia with “Mesa para dos” (Table f...

In the year 2018, more than 400 Costa Rican women were forced to flee their homes due to abuse from their significant other. This year the challenges are greater due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This situation is being called the “Shadow Pandemic’’, a pandemic that accompanies the coronavirus and keeps abused women living with their abusers. November 25 has been dubbed by the United Nations as Intern...

For the first time, Costa Rica commemorates with a holiday the day of the Abolition of the Army which is officially December 1st but will be celebrated this year on Monday, November 30 due to the passing of a bill a few months back which moves the national holidays that fall on a weekend or mid-week to Monday with the purpose of having long weekends and promoting national tourism. President of ...

Costa Rican native Carlos Soto went off to college at age 18 to attend California’s Loyola Marymount University. Now he’s the CEO of his own company, and it’s all because he acquired a taste for tequila while hanging out with his college friends. Soto is the founder of Nosotros Tequila, a company that has just begun to hit its stride in the adult beverage world – undoubtedly NOT what his parents h...

After 8 years, the Turrialba Volcano National Park will reopen its doors to visitors on December 4, confirmed the National System of Areas of Conservation (SINAC). The reopening of this National Park will allow the reactivation of the local economy, especially hotels, restaurants, and local tourism businesses. The Park closed doors back in 2012 when the Volcano increased its activity which cont...

The National System of Areas of Conservation SINAC announced that tickets to visit the Irazú Volcano National Park and Tapantí National Park in Cartago are not available online through their page: https://serviciosenlinea.sinac.go.cr/. Irazu and Tapantí, join other national parks that already use this modality: Chirripó, Poás Volcano, Manuel Antonio and San Lucas Island. SINAC is trying to impl...

Renown travel website Lonely Planet recognized Costa Rica in its Best in Travel 2021 Awards, "We decided to make this year’s Best in Travel different by recognizing places and people demonstrating a genuine commitment to sustainability, community and diversity", reads the message of Lonely Planets' CEO Luis Cabrera. Costa Rica received the award under the "Diversity" category specifically as th...

By Laura Gutierrez of Immigration Help Costa Rica On my phone consultation with MOPT, it was confirmed that the validity of foreign driver's licenses has finally been extended to March 2, 2021. The official notice has not yet been posted on the MOPT site as of this writing, but it is official. For those of you whose validity would have expired today (November 18, 2020), you are free to drive le...

Famed bat biologist Dr. Bernal Rodriguez Herrera of University of Costa Rica, published a paper last week describing the bizarre mating ritual of what he called the “Masked Seducer” of the bat world, the Centurio Senex. The Latin name means “the hundred year old man”, referring to the odd, scrunched up, wrinkled face of this bat whose sex drive is apparently anything but geriatric. Up until 2018,...

Rescue teams received a call the morning of this Sunday informing of people stranded near the crater of the Turrialba Volcano. Members of the Fire Department and Red Cross had to walk several kilometers to get to the place where they found two people, one of them a woman who apparently had a fractured arm. Getting the couple back to safety took several hours. This was the second call received ...

Hurricane Iota strengthens and is now a category 2 as it heads towards Central America, expected to make landfall by late Monday, confirmed the National Hurricane Center and Central Pacific Hurricane Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “Iota is expected to bring potentially catastrophic winds, life-threatening storm surge and extreme rainfall impacts to Central Ameri...

Getting through Immigration can be stressful. Former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Paulina Porizkova found getting through Immigration at Juan Santamaria Airport last week completely overwhelming. Her meltdown was so intense, that she was put in a wheelchair and taken right back to the airplane that brought her. Porizkova’s challenge was that she attempted to enter Costa Rica with an expired p...

The Organismo de Investigacion Judicial (OIJ) announced Tuesday the capture and detention of three suspects in the case of missing American/Costa Rican, Christian Tijerino Lopez. Tijerino disappeared on February 18 in Bagaces, Guanacaste, while on his way to the beach to surf for the day. His Ford Explorer was found abandoned in front of the Bagaces School, where he had apparently run out of gasol...

By Laura Gutierrez of Immigration Help Costa Rica Based on a significant number of emails I receive, there are still many despondent or hesitant travelers to Costa Rica who have not yet heard that the onerous 72-hour negative COVID test is no longer required to enter Costa Rica. The entry requirements of carrying COVID medical insurance and filling out the health survey are still in place bu...

Christopher Corrales is the creator of the website: CostaRicaBeaches.vacations which provides information and valuable details on Costa Rican beaches both in English and Spanish. According to what the creator states on the website, he decided to travel throughout the country and lived for a month in the areas where the best beaches are located, this with the purpose of really offering complet...

Bernard Leon La Duke, an American citizen, and his wife Seidy Sánchez Chaves were dug out of under a mountain of mud and rubble yesterday, in the community of Concepción de Agua Buena in Coto Brus, South Pacific region of Costa Rica. The heavy rain caused by ETA during this week in Costa Rica has caused floods, landslides, and road damages in different areas of the country. According to neig...

As a result of the heavy rains that have affected the country in the past few days floors are saturated and floods have been reported in different areas of the country, the National Emergency Commission (CNE) in Costa Rica declared a red alert for five counties: Nicoya, Nandayure and Hojancha in Guanacaste and Corredores and Coto Brus in the South Pacific region. Red Alert is issued when there...

Lic. Mario Cerdac Salazar has been detained six times for operating a marijuana grow house on his terrace – within sight of the Alajuela Courthouse. He has never been to prison. He will now attend a hearing on November 4 th ,   according to the Supreme Court of Justice’s weekly bulletin. Cerdas has long been a self-proclaimed advocate of recreational marijuana use, something many expats also enjoy...

This Monday, November 2nd the National Insurance Institute (INS) began charging the 2020 Marchamo, the vehicle’s circulation permit, similar to the registration payment in the United States; this tax must be paid by December 31st for the 2021 period, otherwise, drivers risk getting a ticket and will have to pay a late fee. There is a total of 1,568,375 vehicles registered in the country. Tak...

At 11:01 p.m. on October 31st an earthquake described by many as "long and strong" shook Costa Rica and was felt in most of the Central Valley. According to the National Seismologic Network (RSN) the earthquake registered a magnitude of 5.7 and the epicenter was located 1 kilometer north of San Juan de Tibás in San José, it had a depth of 77 km. The movement was a result of the subduction of...

President of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado, exercised his right to veto a bill and said No once again to the practice of trawling. Alvarado gave a total veto to the bill, he explained that the analysis carried out to this date have not provided sufficient scientific elements and technical studies to guarantee the sustainability of the technique described in the bill. “For this reason and exercis...

The practice of trawling in Costa Rica has been a topic of discussion for several years, and since 2013 the Constitutional Chamber had forbidden the renovation or emission of new trawling permits due to the environmental damages this practice causes. There are currently no valid licenses for trawling. However, the topic was brought back to life this past few days when 28 members of Congress a...

Costa Rican authorities located 2.4 tons of cocaine in a container that arrived from Colombia and located in a container transport facility in Liverpool, Limón, in the Caribbean of the country. The investigators of the Drug Control Police carefully checked the container in a routine inspection and found a total of 2,420 packages containing what apparently was cocaine. Each package weighed appr...

As part of its expansion plans, Concentrix Costa Rica, which has operated since 2005, is now opening its fifth location in the country. The company is currently in the midst of a Costa Rican expansion, with the creation of more than 1,300 jobs in various parts of the metropolitan area; this has generated work opportunities at the new offices and in work-from-home positions. The new building is ...

As of November 1st, residents of all American states will be permitted to enter Costa Rica if they have the appropriate paperwork and proof of a negative COVID-19 test; Canadians are already welcome with correct paperwork. The United States Embassy posted on Monday that those wanting to visit Costa Rica should reconsider given the strikes and traffic blockades, as well as the increase in COVID cas...

The company Fresh Del Monte recently launched an exotic product: the pink pineapple, currently only grown in Costa Rica, more exactly in Buenos Aires de Puntarenas. These pineapples are known as “Pinkglow”. This genetically modified fruit has the approval of the FDA “The pineapples were simply "engineered to produce lower levels of the enzymes already in conventional pineapple that convert the ...

With the objective of reactivating tourism and employment in the country, especially in the rural areas of Costa Rica including Guanacaste, the North Zone, Central and South Pacific and the Caribbean, the Government announced today during a press conference that national and foreign travelers flying in will no longer need a Covid-19 negative test to enter the country. “This decision is taken in...

All owners of real estate property with a size greater than 900 square meters (almost 10,000 square feet) who want to segregate lots, could find themselves with an unpleasant surprise as of  September 13th 2020. This is because the National Institute of Housing and Urbanism or INVU made an amendment to the Regulation of Fractions and Urbanizations, with which to carry out said segregations of lots...

What began as a routine investigation of suspicious activity in a condominium in Escazu on Wednesday, culminated in the seizure by the Fuerza Publica of almost two tons of cocaine, $1.5 million dollars, and c235 million colones. The condo is located in the Trejos Montealegre area of San Rafael de Escazu. Three people were detained in connection with the drug bust: two Colombian males, and a Costa ...

Different Unions in Costa Rica have announced they will be protests in different areas of the country starting at 8 a.m. this Monday, October 19. This is part of what has been called a “national strike”, a movement that is trying to pressure the government to go back in their plan of creating more taxes, they are also protesting against the initiative of eliminating salary incentives for two ye...

According to the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC), the number of poor homes in Costa Rica reached 419,783 through June 2020, a 26.2% of the total, this is the highest percentage since 1992 when that percentage reached 29.4%, and a rise of 5.2 percentual points in comparison to 2019. As of July 2019, the number of homes living in poverty was estimated in 335,895; however, une...

The government announced this Thursday, October 15 that as of this weekend the vehicular transit restriction will continue only by schedule and not by plate number. All plates will be allowed to transit on Saturdays and Sundays from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. The measure will go into effect this weekend, October 17. Authorities had also announced earlier this month an extended schedule to visit beac...

A shipment of drugs was found hidden inside a container loaded with bananas in the APM Terminal dock in Limon, the container had Amberes, Belgium as the final destination. In total, Drug Control Police (PCD) of the Ministry of Security found a total 2,903 kilograms of cocaine in one of the containers that were randomly selected to be scanned. The packages were distributed in 117 black gym bags....

On May 23, 2018, Italian fruit exporter Salvatore Ponzo was found dead in a pool of blood, in front of the Italian Embassy in San Jose. Two gunmen had pulled up on a blue dirt bike as Ponzo and his girlfriend were exiting. Ponzo was felled by six bullets, his girlfriend was seriously wounded. This January, Italian courts shed light on who Ponzo really was: a cocaine smuggler who had stolen a shipm...