The Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Environment are working together to protect wildlife in all the protected areas of Costa Rica. One of the most challenging areas in the country when it comes to the protection of wildlife is Corcovado National Park, its remote distance, difficult access and big extension complicates surveillance. Corcovado is among the top 10 best National Pa...

This August 24, Costa Rica celebrates National Parks’ Day, under the slogan “National Parks: Our true treasure”, the Ministry of Environment (MINAE) and the National System of Areas of Conservation (SINAC) invite all national and foreign tourists to visit the parks for free. Over 25% of Costa Rica’s territory is under some kind of protection law, whether they are National Parks, Biological Res...

Two American tourists that had gone missing since Saturday evening were finally rescued by Costa Rican firefighters and rescue team. The alert came in on Saturday that two tourists from the United States were visiting the area and following one of the trails (Los Tucanes) in the Arenal Volcano National Park, apparently they lost their way at some point or wandered off the trail. On Saturday...

He is considered a pioneer of rafting, eco-lodges and eco-tourism in Costa Rica, Michael Kaye a native of New York, passed away in the country that welcomed him and became his home since 1978. Michael Kaye fell in love with Costa Rica 40 years ago, and since then he dedicated his life to promoting the natural wonders of this country. Him and his wife founded the company Costa Rica Expeditions, ...

The CRx5 Challenge is an initiative of the Association Costa Rica por Siempre (ACRXS) and the National System of Areas of Conservation (SINAC) to promote visitation to some of the country’s Wildlife Protected Areas, the natural beauty in each of them, the work of the park rangers and the efforts being done in national conservation while at the same time enjoying an Eco-tourism adventure. This...

75 days ago the Zoo Ave Rescue Center in Costa Rica celebrated the birth of a King Vulture (Sarcoramphus papa), an event that scientists had been awaiting for years. The parents of the baby vulture have lived in captivity and isolated for over 28 years and they have attempted to reproduce for the last decade unsuccessfully. In an interview with Teletica Channel 7, Dennis Janik, founder of...

An imposing figure, known for its activity, the Poás Volcano is a perfect example of how a “living mountain” can bring about diverse, exciting tourist attractions in the neighboring areas. In this case, this area includes the communities of Poás, Vara Blanca, Fraijanes, Poasito, Sarchí and Bajos del Toro. Just a few days away from the country's mid-term vacation, between July 2-13, this region ...

The community of San Ramon in La Virgen de Sarapiqui is taking matters in their own hands to promote Eco-Tourism in the area through the creation of a new trail to the Braulio Carrillo National Park. With the support of the San Carlos' headquarters of the Costa Rica Technological Institute (TEC), members of the community organized and have come up with the project that will be ready by early 20...

Today, June 5, we celebrate the World Environmental Day, a day meant to encourage worldwide awareness and action for the protection of our environment. Costa Rica celebrated with the signing of a decree by President Carlos Alvarado and the Minister of Environment, Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, for the expansion of the Rincon de la Vieja National Park, with the purpose of strengthening the protec...

The activity at the Poas volcano was captured on video this past May 25th, as members of the National Seismology Network were doing maintenance work in the area. The impressive footage shows the degasification with an important column of water vapor. “The degasification is persistent but passive, it consists in low temperature fumaroles rich in water vapor with a relatively low content of ma...

Costa Rica is a perfect spot for bird-watching, and it offers a number of great places where exotic and unique species of birds can be appreciated in their natural habitat, one of this places is the Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor in Quizarra, Perez Zeledon. This biological corridor also known as Los Cuisingos is managed by the Tropical Scientific Center, the land was donated by Alexander ...

Today's travelers want to bring home more than tan lines and souvenirs. They aspire to achieve personal enrichment through life-changing experiences that create a shift in perspectives—of the world and the self. Enter transformational travel, the key to meaningful interactions, immersive encounters and genuine communion with nature and culture. According to the Transformational Travel Council, "we...

A group of tourists found the baby sloth alone in Playa Cocles, Puerto Viejo, Limon, and brought him to the Jaguar Rescue Center, where the personnel and volunteers took on the task of searching for the mother. The baby sloth weighed only 400 grams. They recorded the baby sloth’s cry and went into the forest armed with speakers playing the recording over and over. It took them two days but they...

The government claims that efforts are being done to comply with the security and safety requirements established by the National Emergency Commission necessary to reopen the Poas Volcano National Park to the public. Tourists and tourism businesses are impatient and tired of waiting, in fact, neighbors and business owners are planning to march this Sunday at 9 a.m. as a protest to demand the pr...

In his last days as President of Costa Rica, Luis Guillermo Solis signed at the beginning of May, an executive decree to declare the Hammerhead Shark Sanctuary of Golfo Dulce, a critical nursery habitat for the Scalloped Hammerhead, a shark that is listed as Endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. “This Shark Sanctuary designation ...

Many tourists choose Costa Rica as their vacation destination because of the variety of options that the country offers, beautiful beaches, relaxation, wellness retreats , eco-tourism and of course adventure. 23% of the tourists that visit the country said they did so with the purpose of experiencing adventure tourism according to statistics by the Costa Rica Tourism Board (ICT). Canyoning is a...

During the months of March through June the Cerro de la Muerte (Mountain of Death) in Costa Rica offers a unique natural spectacle, with hundreds of fireflies or lightning bugs that make their appearance. The Cerro de la Muerte is the place fireflies pick for their reproductive season due to the climate conditions and the dense vegetation, it is a very rare chance to see many of these winged be...

Thanks to the effort of neighbors of the areas of Cuajiniquil, El Jobo and Puerto Soley in La Cruz, Guanacaste, the 732.1 hectares that make up Santa Elena Bay are now a Marine Protected Area. The objective of establishing this zone as a Marine Management Area is to reserve it for particular purposes, among them the conservation of marine life, the promotion of recreation and tourism and the s...

A 30-year-old German tourist that was participating in a scuba diving expedition at Isla del Coco, Costa Rica, had the scare of a lifetime when a tiger shark went after him. According to the report given by a witness to local news site CRHOY, the foreigner was diving along with other tourists in the sector known as Manuelita at around 10:40 on Saturday, April 28, when a shark went after the tou...

Costa Rica and Ecuador signed an agreement of cooperation for the conservation of the marine species and birds that will allow the strengthening of the conservation actions, control and protection of the ecosystems in the national parks Coco Island and Galapagos Island respectively. “The agreement Frame of Cooperation between the Direction of the National Park Galapagos in Ecuador and the Natio...

Over the past few weeks Costa Rica has been the site of multiple world class sport fishing events. The Los Sueños Signature Triple Crown The Offshore World Championship Sport Fishing Tournament The Marina Pez Vela Open The Quepos Billfish Cup Costa Rica is quickly becoming one of the most important destinations for sport fishing aficionados in the world. The variety of marine s...

Three irresponsible people once again disregarded the warning signs this time at the Turrialba Volcano National Park and accessed the area closed to the crater putting their lives at risk. Apparently the three men broke one of the access gates with their car and entered the park illegally, however, authorities only realized what had happened after the damage was done and the men had left the ar...

Video by: Cusuko Fotografia The magnificence of the Turrialba Volcano in Costa Rica, one of the current active volcanoes in the country and the second highest sitting at 3,340 meters above sea level (10,958 ft.), is showcased in this video created by Costa Rican Iván Salazar Cruz from Cusuko Fotografia and featured in the Spanish version of National Geographic Magazine. The majority of the i...

Incidents are reported frequently of national and foreign tourists that choose to ignore the warning signs at the different national parks in Costa Rica and end up risking their lives and endangering the lives of members of the rescue teams. This time its the Guanacaste Conservation Area (ACG) that urge visitors to respect the rules established in each park, this because on April 10 a visitor ...

The National System of Areas of Conservation (SINAC) has been working in the past weeks in gathering the funds and organizing the work that could lead to a reopening of the Poas Volcano National Park to the tourists. This park has been closed now for one year since it's eruptive activity began on April 13, 2017; the closure of the park, which was the second most visited in Costa Rica, has resul...

The activity at the Turrialba Volcano in Costa Rica just doesn’t stop, on April 1st, two significant eruptions took place early in the morning and carried on for close to 30 minutes. The biggest eruption was registered at 8:38 a.m. local time and the cameras located near the crater registered a column of ash that reached between 500-700 meters above the active crater. The activity at the volcan...

On March 28 the official arrival (arribada) of Olive Ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) began at the area known as Main Nesting Beach in Playa Ostional, Guanacaste, Costa Rica. The National System of Areas of Conservation is taking control and protection actions to avoid the illegal transportation and commerce of sea turtle eggs in these sites. Each olive ridley turtles can lay in a...

The Observatory of Volcanic and Seismic Activity in Costa Rica (OVSICORI) gave an update on the status of the Turrialba Volcano, confirming that in the past three days there have been no more ash emissions but it is emitting a passive but important flow of magmatic gases at high temperatures of 600⁰-800⁰C (1112⁰-1472⁰F). These gases originate from a body of magma reach in volatiles “which sugge...

The National System of Areas of Conservation (SINAC) in Costa Rica, confirmed they are working diligently in all aspects necessary to be able to reopen the Poas Volcano National Park to the public. Even though some media channels announced earlier this week that the park could reopen for the upcoming Holy Week, SINAC confirms this is Not possible, since they have to comply with security requir...

Personnel of the National System of Areas of Conservation (SINAC) found two silky sharks and 30 fish tangled in an illegal fishing device 5 nautical miles from Isla del Coco. The device, known as fishing aggregating device (FAD), is used to aggregate fish and captures them in large quantities; it is believed it had been in areas close to the Isla del Coco National Park for months. “This typ...

Sadly this is not the first time this happens and likely it won’t be the last, a tourist got lost at the Arenal Volcano National Park in Costa Rica, the alert was received by the authorities at around 6:37 p.m. on Saturday, March 10. The tourist was able to communicate with his mobile phone and apparently got lost in the woods close to the trail known as “Coladas”. According to the initial...

NatGeo posted today a beautiful video (included below) of a baby sloth that was rescued in Costa Rica. The story behind this: The baby two-toed sloth was rescued in the area of Osa Peninsula, where an expat from Ohio, USA, Dirk Morgan, owner of Morgan’s Jungle Lodge, learned from guests about the sloth holding on to a rock and crying for help in the area known as Punta Tigre, they immediate...

Costa Rican NGO "Nicoya Peninsula Waterkeeper" demands a regulatory plan from the Puntarenas Municipality to ensure a sustainable development of the tourist areas of Santa Teresa, Mal Pais and Hermosa. A new aqueduct will soon be operational in the area of Cobano in Puntarenas, this project was created to solve some of the existing water-shortage problems that affect this region; however, neigh...

The wonders of Corcovado National Park have been recognized by several travel magazines and environmental publications in the past, among them Discovery Corp. which considered it as one of the best National Parks in the world, and National Geographic which described it as “the most biologically intense area in the world when it comes to biodiversity”; today, the beauty of this park located in Cost...

This is the first time in history that a Costa Rican government complies with what is established in the Ley Orgánica del Ambiente of 1995 (Organic Law of the Environment) by presenting the State of the Environment Report, a document that provides a common frame of information to address environmental topics by sectors and in a comprehensive way, with the purpose of providing a diagnosis of the st...

A colony of bats from the species Furipterus horrens set a nest under the roof of one of the rooms at the Selva Verde Lodge in Chilamate de Sarapiquí, Heredia. This species of bat had not been seen in Costa Rica for more than 45 years and in fact there are not many left worldwide. One of the bungalow type rooms at this hotel was the place picked by  close to 80 bats who set their nest; the h...

Every year thousands of tourists visit the Marino Ballena National Park, located in the South Pacific of Costa Rica and famous for the common sightings, specially certain times during the year, of whales and dolphins; however, this natural wealth is being threatened by climate change. “Climate change is already here. It is not just a change of temperature, it goes way beyond that”, said to EF...

The Ministry of Environment and Energy in Costa Rica (MINAE) is carrying out the campaign “Limpia tu Huella” (Clean your Footprint), on Saturday, February 24 and are requesting the help of volunteers that wish to participate on the cleaning of National Wildlife Refuge Camaronal located in the North Pacific of Costa Rica, seven miles south of Playa Samara. The contamination of the oceans is af...

Being mindful of the environment, when planning a wedding, is increasingly important. Luckily, it's also now easier to achieve. For couples interested in hosting an earth-friendly wedding, Costa Rica provides plenty of ways to do so. With beautiful natural landscapes, farm-to-table culinary traditions and sustainable venue options, an eco-responsible ceremony in Costa Rica can be a magical experie...

The University of Costa Rica is organizing the International Symposium based around Isla del Coco, an event that will bring together experts from different countries who have researched and studied this National Park which was declared a World Natural Heritage site twenty years ago. Isla del Coco has been an object of different investigations and studies for centuries. At the end of the XIX and...