Baltimore, MD (PRWEB) February 01, 2016 / Many factors come into play when considering a retirement abroad. Cost of living, prices of rents and real estate, and healthcare options are main concerns. But quality of life for retirees moving abroad also depends in large part on being able to fit in quickly, learn the ropes, and mix well with the locals in their adapted communities. Language, culture,...

Microcephaly, a birth defect which causes babies to be born with unusually small heads and brains, is linked to the Zika virus. (Photo by Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters) Costa Rica’s Ministry of Health is planning to use bacteria in the fight against the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which spreads Zika virus, dengue, and chikungunya, amongst other viruses and diseases.   The bacterium, known as...

Flickr Commons COSTA RICA STAR NEWS BRIEF A criminal court in Osa, Puntarenas sentenced on Friday a 29-year-old Costa Rican man to 66 years in prison for the multiple rape of a French tourist in Dominical de Osa, Puntarenas in November 2014.   The court sentenced Javier Secundino Cortés Espinoza to a total of 66 years – 11 years each on six counts of rape.   However, u...

Wikimedia Commons In recent years, the idea of Costa Rica being a very expensive country has been widely reported in news headlines. Many North American expats who moved to Costa Rica believe that this is possibly the most expensive country in the world; nonetheless, this is not an assertion held by MoveHub, an online information exchange website for professionals and families who relocate int...

The Ministry of Public Health has confirmed two cases of the Zika virus in Costa Rica, and those two infections were enough for one traveler in from Minnesota to cancel an upcoming vacation in our country. According to a news report filed by Rochelle Olson of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, travel agents in that North American metropolis are warning their clients about the dangerous virus, which is ...

Flickr Commons U.S. Dept of Justice Press Release - Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Leslie R. Caldwell, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, announced today that ARTHUR BUDOVSKY pled guilty to running a massive money laundering enterprise in connection with his operation of Liberty Reserve, a virtual cur...

Rain forest in Costa Rica OSU Press Release. CORVALLIS, Ore. – As tropical forests become increasingly broken up by roads, farm fields, pastures and other developments, corridors of trees provide vital pathways for pollinators and contribute to a rich diversity of plant species, scientists have confirmed. A study at the Las Cruces Biological Station in Costa Rica shows that when forests are...

Lindblad's National Geographic Islander Seattle, Wash. (PRWEB) January 26, 2016 - Jensen Maritime, Crowley Maritime Corp.’s Seattle-based naval architecture and marine engineering company, was recently selected to provide detailed design and production engineering services for two, 100 passenger, U.S. flagged, coastal cruise ships for Lindblad Expeditions Holdings, Inc. The twin screw diese...

"Map of the Corn Islands (Nicaragua)" by Maximilian Dörrbecker (Chumwa) - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Commons The mortal remains of Sandra Mayela Chacón, born in Costa Rica but a longtime resident of the United States, laid in repose at Base Two of the Air Surveillance Service in the province of Alajuela, located next to the Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO). The lat...

"Map of the Corn Islands (Nicaragua)" by Maximilian Dörrbecker (Chumwa) - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Commons The Nicaraguan Naval Force did not issue a warning to Corn Islands mariners on the day that the tour boat Reina del Caribe capsized off the Caribbean coast, resulting in the drowning deaths of 13 tourists from Costa Rica. Such was the statement made by Fermin Blandon, son...

During a meeting that took place on Thursday morning, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the establishment of a High Level Panel for Women’s Economic Empowerment, which will be co-chaired by President Luis Guillermo Solis of Costa Rica and by Ms. Simona Scarpaleggia, CEO of IKEA Switzerland under the UN Women entity.   Economic empowerment is a something that the UN ...

File photo DAVOS-KLOSTERS, Switzerland, Jan. 20, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Germany is viewed as the best country in the world, according to the inaugural Best Countries report, a joint rankings and analysis project of U.S. News & World Report, WPP's BAV Consulting and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Created to capture how nations are perceived on a global scale,...

The number of foreign visitors from China increased significantly in 2015, but the Tourism Board of Costa Rica (Spanish initials: ICT) would like to see even greater growth. According to a news report filed by Diego Perez Damasco of national newspaper La Prensa Libre, the year-over-year increase of Chinese tourists in Costa Rica was nearly 30 percent last year. Still, the overall number of tour...

By Ivonne Malaver Miami, Jan 18 (EFE).- The first Cuban migrants - who had been stranded in Costa Rica - began arriving in Miami on the weekend distressed over their ordeal, but also grateful to the Central American country for its "incredible humanitarian consciousness" after Nicaragua closed its border to them, temporarily halting their trek to the United States. Odalanier Diaz, 27, was re...

BirdSongSOS.com Imagine a world without birdsong. Su Rynard’s wide-ranging and contemplative documentary THE MESSENGER explores our deep-seated connection to birds and warns that the uncertain fate of songbirds might mirror our own. Moving from the northern reaches of the Boreal Forest to the base of Mount Ararat in Turkey and from the streets of New York to the coffee farms of Costa Rica, ...

CIMA Hospital in San Jose is often visited by medical tourists A slippery United States citizen of Persian ancestry claims that his health is rapidly deteriorating as he awaits trial in Costa Rica, and he is planning international demonstrations to call attention to his plight. Cyrus Anoushirvan Sepher, a Southern California resident in his early 50s, has been remanded to the San Sebastian ...

Although no Zika virus infections have been reported in Costa Rica as of mid-January, officials from the Ministry of Public Health (Spanish initials: MSP) are not taking any chances. According to a news report published yesterday by El Nuevo Diario, a national newspaper in Nicaragua, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) will hold a workshop on this dangerous virus on February 2nd and 4th...

Source: Facebook A swimsuit and lingerie model from Costa Rica will be evaluated by a prison psychiatrist in Nicaragua after she allegedly expressed strong suicidal intentions. Such was the report broadcast by Nicaraguan news radio station La Nueva Ya yesterday about Kathia Adriana Corella, who has been incarcerated in that country since early December. As previously reported by The Costa R...

IOM Media Release - A pilot group of 180 Cuban economic migrants stranded in Costa Rica since 14 November, 2015, left shelters provided by the Government of Costa Rica and departed the country as regular migrants. They have each paid USD 555 for a commercial plane and bus tickets in a package trip to reach Mexico via El Salvador and Guatemala. “The departure of the pilot group of Cubans should ...

Source: Blue River Resort Costa Rica Rincon de la Vieja, Costa Rica, January 9, 2016. Dinosaurs have indeed taken up residence in the spectacular Rincon de la Vieja Volcano National Park. The premier Dinosaur Adventure Park is being unveiled by The Blue River Resort & Hot Springs in a lush Rain Forest, along a Blue River. The resort is located on the North Side of the Majestic Volcano R...

Source: Red Cross of Costa Rica Miami, Jan 8 (EFE; additional reporting by The Costa Rica Star).- Mayor Tomas Regalado warned Friday that Miami does not have the necessary funds to deal with all the Cuban refugees expected to arrive in South Florida from Central America over the coming weeks. The municipal administration up to now has not been notified by the federal government about any pl...

H1N1 vaccine will be available in Costa Rica in March 2016. Source: Wikimedia Commons San Jose, Jan 7 (EFE).- At least 14 people, including an expat woman from India, have died from the H1N1 flu virus since December in Costa Rica and 22 others remain hospitalized in serious condition, the Health Ministry said. Northern Costa Rica's San Carlos hospital had the highest number of fatalities, w...

That nearly incapacitating fear that many people experience when visiting their local dentist is not as prevalent when they engage in dental tourism, and British researchers are learning why this happens and how patients can overcome this phobia. Odontophobia is one of the many terms used to associate the unfounded fear of dental procedures. Longitudinal research studies conducted in the United...

In 2018, genetically engineered dinosaurs could roam around Costa Rica, thrashing everything in their path and fighting each other as they chase after Hollywood stars. The follow-up episode to the popular Jurassic Park film franchise may move out of Isla Nublar to the mainland of Costa Rica, according to various reports published well ahead of the production schedule. In an exclusive intervi...

Source: Flickr Commons A man gored by a bull during the traditional holiday “bullfights,” known as "Toros a la Tica," is currently under intensive care at the Calderon Guardia hospital in the capital city of Costa Rica.   The incident took place during the afternoon run of Sunday, January 4th, and it was broadcast live by national television network Teletica. The man has been identi...

Selenas Gomez, Wikimedia Commons Hollywood film stars, television actors and a famous pop singer were among the celebrities who chose Costa Rica as their getaway destination during the end-of-year holidays. According to a news report filed by Kimberly Herrera Salazar of daily newspaper La Prensa Libre, the Directorate of Immigration confirmed the arrival of various celebrities right after C...

Source: Flickr Commons A group of activists plans to stage a protest against animal abuse at the Zapote holiday fairgrounds, located in the eastern suburbs of San Jose, on Sunday afternoon. The protesters specifically want to call attention to the holiday events known as “Toros a la Tica,” which are sometimes characterized as bullfights, but they are more of a cross between the running of the ...

Wikimedia Commons By Carol Blair Vaughn Costa Rica is called by many “The Happiest Place on Earth”, including the Happy Planet Index which rated us #1 in 2015, and the U.N.’s World Happiness Report, which rated us #12. We came in behind Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, and The Netherlands – such cold places!! But is this ranking scientific, or just a tourist label from those wanting...

Source: Lindsay Lohan Instagram Hollywood actress and tabloid mainstay Lindsay Lohan will celebrate New Year's Eve in Costa Rica, specifically in the Guanacaste Gold Coast. According to various social media updates posted by the star of films such as Mean Girls, Freaky Friday, Chapter 27, and A Prairie Home Companion, she is currently staying at a luxury resort in Bahia Salinas. In a video ...

Guatemala/San Jose, Dec 28 (EFE).- The Central American Integration System agreed on Monday to carry out an initial "pilot humanitarian transfer" of thousands of Cuban migrants from Costa Rica to El Salvador, and later to Mexico, in January, after they were stranded in the region during their attempts to travel to the United States. The move was agreed to after a working group was set up that w...

Each year, the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden provides its employees an opportunity to request financial support for in-situ wildlife conservation or conservation education projects through the Internal Conservation Grants Fund. This time, the Cincinnati Zoo will grant funding to projects that benefit wildlife conservation in Ohio, Zambia, Guatemala, and Costa Rica. The project that will b...

Source: iCafe By Joel Clement, Director, Office of Policy Analysis at the United States Department of the Interior How do we work with diverse ecosystems and landscapes to address climate change? How can we help these natural systems build resilience and pull more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere? Globally, the degradation of forests, agricultural areas, wetlands and other important la...

In 2014,  the School of Statistics at the University of Costa Rica published a report (PDF) that focused on topics beyond the traditional demographics. The 2014 Current Events Survey investigated sentiment and facts related to Pope Francis, Ebola, football, mosquito-borne diseases, extraterrestrial life, and even Christmas traditions. With regard to Christmas and the end-of-year holidays, the S...

Wikimedia Commons By Carol Blair Vaughn Santa’s going to have more help delivering packages this year than just Rudolph’s very shiny nose. The universe is giving us all a gift that we don’t even need to unwrap: a full moon on Christmas Eve. This phenomena is called the Yule Moon, or the Full Cold Moon, and it’s the first time since 1977 that this has happened, 38 years ago. NASA predicts...

A nine-year-old schoolgirl is to front a global educational campaign to save one of the world’s rarest frogs. Lucy Marland joined forces with The University of Manchester after coming face to face with a Lemur Leaf Frog, kept at Manchester Museum and one of only a few hundred left anywhere in the world. The campaign, called Learning with Lucy, aims to educate primary age school children in t...

Jack Donnelly By Jack Donnelly If you don’t want to see a bull bleeding and dying in front of you, don’t worry: in Costa Rica the bulls win! Costa Rican style bullfighting, toros a la tica, is nothing like the gory spectacles that take place in Mexico and Spain. Here the bulls are well cared for and almost never injured. Tico (Costa Rican) friends of mine joke about the bulls’ contracts cal...

Wikimedia Commons Bruxism is an involuntary and unconscious condition that prompts individuals to grind their teeth, usually while they are sleeping. There are four main symptoms ofbruxism: morning headaches, earaches and worn-down teeth. The American Dental Association (ADA) defines bruxism as a habit of forcefully clenching your teeth. The morning soreness and aches are caused by the ...

With border controls getting tighter in many parts of the world, should perpetual tourists in Costa Rica worry about their legal status? According to Marcela Gurdian, founder of Immigration Experts Costa Rica, some incidents in 2015 should be carefully reviewed and considered by foreigners who have not formalized their legal status in our country. In 2015, the exacerbation of the European re...

Wikimedia Commons The U.S. Embassy in San Jose reminds U.S. citizens that the holiday season in Costa Rica traditionally correlates with an increase in the frequency of property crimes.  Home invasions, robberies, burglaries, and thefts occur with greater regularity during the period between the end of October and the start of the new year.  The holiday season also tends to correlate with an i...

ZURICH: Eduardo Li, former head of the Costa Rica football federation, has decided to stop fighting a United States extradition application and accept a flight from Switzerland to face FIFAGate charges writes KEIR RADNEDGE, a respected author of several works on football and professional sports. Li had been just about to be admitted formally to the executive committee of world governing body FI...