If you love spending time in Guanacaste but would like to see other beaches aside from Tamarindo and Flamingo, perhaps somewhere that’s a little more secluded, how about the area of Nosara? Nosara is a district of the county of Nicoya in Guanacaste, it’s actually home to a big community of American expats that established in the area many years back. The town of Nosara is 6 kilometers from the ...

Guanacaste, Costa Rica, Sep 3 (EFE).- Costa Rica now seeks to preserve the beauty and improve the conservation of its wetlands, an ecosystem forever undervalued by the local population that considers them no more than breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Though wetlands are the most efficient areas for absorbing carbon emissions, their ecological and economic usefulness have been disregarded over t...

By Wendy Anders  With no end in sight to Guanacaste's ongoing potable water shortages as wells throughout the region face very low levels, some businesses and also the government are turning to sea-water processing as an alternative. Last month, Reserva Conchal hotel inaugurated the first desalination plant in Costa Rica which produces 23 liters of potable water per second by processing ocea...

By Wendy Anders Police carried out a multi-town operative Saturday night in Guanacaste Province's counties of Santa Cruz and Carrillo to “recuperate public spaces and return them to the community,” stated Costa Rica's Public Security Ministry in a press document Sunday. Officials were aided in their efforts in the towns of Belén, Playas del Coco, Playa Hermosa and Santa Cruz by the police's ...

Costa Rica School of Massage Therapy, located in Nicoya, Costa Rica, is proud to support Las Divinas, an empowerment effort geared towards teen girls who are impoverished. The group is organized by Associacion CREAR, which aids these girls in self-esteem and education. To promote knowledge of the cause, and to support the group, the school held a yoga class for them. All CREAR teens who attende...

Wikimedia Commons Red Cross volunteers searching for a drowned young tourist from the United States were led to discovery by a jaguarundi (eyra cat, similar to a mountain lion), which seemed to be guarding the deceased child. As reported by The Costa Rica Star earlier this week, a flash flood swept away three U.S. tourists swimming in the Blanco river in the Rincon de la Vieja (Old Woman's ...

A river in Costa Rica Three tourists from the United States, including a little boy, were mortally caught in a flash river flood near Hacienda Guachipelín, one of the most luxurious and exclusive country resorts of Costa Rica. According to a news report recently filed by Manuel Estrada of daily tabloid Diario Extra, four relatives were enjoying a pristine swimming spot at the river located ...

Source: DVIDSBy Staff Sgt. Charles Martinez, New Mexico National Guard CUAJINIQUIL, Costa Rica - Eight hours of team work by the New Mexico National Guard’s 1st Platoon, 919th Military Police Company, was all it took to remove one month’s worth of jungle growth from the grounds of a school building in Cuajiniquil, Costa Rica July 20, 2016. Located in the Guanacaste province in the northwestern...

By Wendy Anders Yesterday Costa Rican Foreign Trade Minster Alexander Mora announced the start of $2.5 million construction on the Invenio University campus in Guanacaste that will house the Illinois, U.S.-based Continuum Data Center, LLC. Continuum Data offers purpose built data centers and colocation solutions to businesses. Starting with a staff of 20 they plan to eventually grow to 300 a...

Source: MSPA disarmingly cute newborn jaguarundi, sometimes called an eyra cat, was rescued by officers from Fuerza Publica (the national police force of Costa Rica) on Friday afternoon. The rescue took place in Gamalotal, a rural district of Nicoya in the province of Guanacaste. According to an official press released issued by the Ministry of Public Security, the wild kitten was actually fo...

Wikimedia Commons A group of Costa Rican schoolchildren now have species of tiny wasps named after them, thanks to research to identify the species led in part by a University of Guelph professor. Prof. Alex Smith, Integrative Biology, was part of a team discovering and describing forest wasps found in a remote location in northwestern Costa Rica. The team found 20 previously unknown spe...

By Jack Donnelly Mexico and Central America gained their independence from Spain on September 15, 1821. The news did not reach Costa Rica until October 11th, but Independence Day is still celebrated here on September 15th. Actually, there is a small movement to change the date, but the 15th is still the official holiday.   It took some time for the Central American countries to sort ...

File photo By Wendy Anders Located along the sumptuous Gulf of Papagayo in Costa Rica’s northern Guanacaste province, Hotel El Mangroove recently stunned ABC’s Good Morning America producers with their swimming pool. Ranking second after a hotel in the Seychelles, El Mangroove’s 130-foot-long fresh-water, black-tiled pool directly faces the Pacific Ocean. “Flanked by private cabanas and l...

Guanacaste local drug group structure. Courtesy of Ministry of Public Security. By Wendy Anders Cocaine might be harder to come by these days in Guanacaste, especially from your local seller. Liberia, capital of the Guanacaste province of Costa Rica, was the scene of a large drug bust this morning when Drug Control Police (PCD in Spanish) captured three ring leaders and several underling...

SAN JOSE, C.R./TAMPA Fla. (June 16, 2016) – IRONMAN announced today the addition of a new licensed race in Central America with IRONMAN® 70.3® Costa Rica. The inaugural event will take place on Sunday, June 18, 2017, in Playa del Coco, Guanacaste, located on the Pacific Coast. “With its beautiful natural landscape and indigenous flora and fauna, Costa Rica is the ideal place to host an IRONMAN ...

Source: MSP Officers from the National Coast Guard Service of Costa Rica rescued a school of juvenile sharks estimated to have been born only a few days before getting caught in an illegal fishing net. The rescue took place in the Pacific Ocean, specifically in the Abangares maritime sector of the Gulf of Nicoya, province of Guanacaste. According to an official press release issued by the M...

Photo by Jack Donnelly By Jack Donnelly Malacrianza killed two people and is much loved for it. Malacrianza (bad upbringing, badly raised) is Costa Rica’s most famous bull. He killed two of his riders—a huge career boost—during his time on the circuit. He performed for the last time in 2013 and was found dead in his pasture in March of 2015. He came from Hacienda La Nueva Esperanza in...

Conservationists from the Leatherback Trust, an international non-profit conservation organization that protects leatherback turtles and other sea turtle species from extinction, recently released rare drone footage of a female olive ridley swimming away from a beach in Costa Rica. The nesting event was filmed in Las Baulas National Park, located in the Playa Grande sector of the Guanacaste pro...

Wikimedia Commons In just one week, more than 700 hectares (1,729 acres) of dry tropical forest have been affected by wildfires in the Conservation Area of Guanacaste. Flames have run through three major national parks of Costa Rica: Guanacaste, Santa Rosa and Rincón de la Vieja, and officials are investigating leads that suggest this may have been an act of arson.   According to a ...

Flickr Commons - Activ Solar SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica--(BUSINESS WIRE) -- The first face-to-face module of the distance learning programme Especialización en Energías Renovables took place from the 22nd to the 26th February 2016. The Especialización is offered jointly by the EARTH University in Costa Rica and the German expert in capacity building Renewables Academy AG (RENAC). This one-year inter...

(Facebook/OIJ) Officers with Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigate Police (OIJ) along with SWAT officers from the Special Tactical Response Service (SERT) conducted a series of raids beginning shortly after 10 a.m. on Friday, making five arrests in the murder of a 21-year-old man who was attacked by a mob of at least 20 people outside the popular Lizard Lounge bar in Playas del Coco, Guanacaste on...

Illustrative image. (Flickr) A 21-year old man was fatally stabbed while on vacation in Playas del Coco, a seaside vacation hotspot of Guanacaste and one of the Gold Coast beaches of Costa Rica. According to a news segment broadcast by national television network Repretel, the murder took place on Good Friday at a crowded bar.   Agents from the Office of Judicial Investigations (Spa...

Playa Conchal, Costa Rica (March 17, 2016) – The “Live More” spirit of XTERRA meets the essence of “Pura Vida” in Costa Rica when the first race of the inaugural XTERRA Pan American Tour gets underway on the beautiful beaches of Guanacaste this Sunday, March 20. XTERRA fans from around the world are invited to tune-in to the live coverage of the event starting at 7:30 a.m. local time (also ...

Source: Wikimedia Commons To celebrate the change of season, Sunwing Vacations’ latest limited-time promotion is spring loaded with some of the best offers of the year. Available from March 12 to March 18, 2016, customers can take advantage of savings of up to 50% off selected vacation packages across the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America. Along with getting the best price on their holi...

Justin Bieber performs in 2011. Wikimedia Commons San Jose, Feb 25 (EFE).- A Costa Rican animal rescue center invited singer Justin Bieber to visit it, learn the importance of letting wild animals live free and stop buying monkeys. Vanessa Lizano, who heads the Rescue Center in Tilaran, in northern Costa Rica, told EFE on Thursday that she does not know if Bieber will accept her invitation,...

Source: Flickr Commons Editor’s note: This is a breaking news story and will be updated as more information becomes available. UPDATE 1: (Click to read) Suspect in murder of entire family in Guanacaste identified; US man amongst victims Police on Tuesday morning discovered an entire family of five, including three children, brutally murdered in a home in Matapolo de Santa Cruz in Guanaca...

Guanacaste residents have taken to drastic measures to combat road dust in recent years. In this photo from December 2014, a local resident carries a bucket of molasses and some material with which to spread it on the roadway. (Photo: Adam Dietrich / La Voz de Guanacaste) COSTA RICA STAR NEWS BRIEF Costa Rica’s National Roads Authority (CONAVI) said last week that it will soon begin an effo...

(Archive / Stock) As the result of the over-exploitation of aquifers throughout the northwestern province of Guanacaste, thousands of people are receiving water that has been salinized to the point it is no longer fit for human consumption, Elizabeth Fallas, one of the officials that oversees community water systems known as ASADAs for the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers (AyA), t...

Wikimedia Commons Agents from the Office of Judicial Investigation (Spanish initials: OIJ) arrested a bartender in Playa Sámara, province of Guanacaste, and charged him with dealing drugs at a popular beachfront bar frequented by North American expats, tourists and backpackers. According to a news report published by Andres Rojas Solano of daily tabloid Diario Extra, the arrest took place a...

Press Advantage - The Costa Rica School of Massage Therapy has announced the presence of the Costa Rica School of Yoga on their Playa Samara campus. With this addition students will be able to take part in yoga teacher training. Those who sign up now will be able to enjoy a free week of teacher training in Nicoya. "We have focused on various elements of fitness for some time now and are so happ...

(Archive / Illustrative - Pailas geothermal plant) Costa Rica signed a US $500 million agreement with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to finance renewable energy projects and their respective transmission and distribution systems on Friday. Costa Rica’s Ministry of Finance and the state-owned Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) said in a statement that the deal consists of two...

Source: Global Journeys CALABASAS, CA (PRWEB) FEBRUARY 05, 2016 - The PACT Institute's co-founders, Drs. Stan Tatkin, PsyD, MFT, and Tracey Boldemann-Tatkin, PhD, have announced four WIRED FOR LOVE and WIRED FOR RELATIONSHIP retreats, to be held in 2016. Like Dr. Stan Tatkin’s books Wired for Love and Wired for Dating, these retreats show participants how to create and maintain relationships tha...

Zika is spread by the Aedes aegyptie mosquito (Wikimedia Commons) A tourist from the United States fell ill with the Zika virus after visiting Costa Rica, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Costa Rican health officials, who are investigating what could be the first case of indigenous transmission of the virus in the country.  The announcement was made by the Minister o...

Miravalles geothermal power plant WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--With demand for clean electricity on the rise, international attention has turned to geothermal energy with a highlight being the declaration of 38 countries forming the Global Geothermal Alliance at the Paris Climate Conference. Building on this momentum, the Geothermal Energy Association's (GEA) U.S. and International Geothermal ...

Source: Rythmia The Rythmia Life Advancement Center, a luxury resort in Costa Rica that made headlines in the past due to a controversial therapy that involved the use of a psychedelic substance, has reformed its operations and is now offering holistic vacations. As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star, Rythmia was mostly known for its use of Ibogaine, a substance extracted from a few...

Source: Four Seasons Costa Rica Four Seasons Resort Costa Rica at Peninsula Papagayo, an award winning hillside and beachfront oasis surrounded by lush Costa Rican jungle, has launched its own signature Guanacaste Pale Ale craft beer as a collaborative effort with TreintayCinco Brewery called Four Sins. Made exclusively for the resort, the brew was created to embody the distinct local flavors ...

Source: RythmX DAYTON, OH - In January, world-class instructor Tom Gasparrini of Rhythm X, Bellbrook High School, and the Bluecoats heads to Costa Rica for a whistle-stop tour of the country teaching marching percussion at six local bands and schools. The last stop of the tour will be in Guanacaste with the Marching Band of the Colegio de Bagaces. This whirlwind event will bring the total n...

Wikimedia Commons One of the joys of purchasing property in Costa Rica is the potential for landowners to plant and care for trees that will bear fruit. According to the real estate professionals at RE/MAX Ocean Surf in Tamarindo Beach, fruit trees are attractive features within listings of farms and single-family homes built on generous plots of land. Listings in the province of Guanacaste...

Source: Nomadic-by-Nature.com By Mike McCaffrey In early June, before the rains bloat the rivers and the roads wash away, when the flame red flowers of the malinche tree fall in halos around their trunks — the olive ridley sea turtles crawl ashore at Ostional beach under the cover of night.  In the mornings, the Guanacaste cowboys create tornadoes of dust with their cattle, but in the after...

Source: Kalia Living ROCHESTER, N.Y., Dec. 1, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Elite Alliance, the leader in exchange services for prestigious residence clubs and luxury, professionally managed vacation homes, announced Kalia Living as the newest addition to its growing, international portfolio of vacation destinations. Located in the northwestern region of Guanacaste, Costa Rica, Kalia Living's sustainab...