Los Lagos School in Liberia Columbia, MD, March 14, 2015 --(PR.com)-- Gary Williams, President of Williams Asset Management, in Columbia, MD, gathered with a group of prominent financial advisors at Commonwealth Financial Network®’s Leaders Conference, held March 1–6, 2015, at the Four Seasons Resort Costa Rica at Peninsula Papagayo. The Leaders Conference recognizes highly successful advisors...

A tourist from Montreal who visits Costa Rica each year to enjoy surfing was unexpectedly attacked by a caiman (crocodile) while waiting for a set. The attack occurred last weekend in Tamarindo Beach, a coastal community that is home to many North American and European expats. According to a news report filed by Pablo Rojas of online news daily CRHoy.com, the Canadian surfer was sitting on his ...

Wikimedia Commons The second Hard Rock Cafe in Costa Rica will be located in Guanacaste, specifically in Playas del Coco, and it is expected to open later this year. Such was the news reported by Cristina Fallas Villalobos of business weekly El Financiero.   The report from El Financiero quotes Mr. Gustavo Araya, president of the iconic Hard Rock franchise in Costa Rica. Mr. Araya e...

Gulf of Papagayo PHILADELPHIA, PA (March 3, 2015) — Apple Leisure Group®’s subsidiary, AMResorts®, announced the signing of the company’s third deal in the first quarter of 2015. Secrets® Papagayo Resort & Spa will also be the second property for the company in Costa Rica, following the highly anticipated opening of Dreams® Las Mareas Costa Rica late last year. Apple Leisure Group Signs D...

Source: Google Maps Last week, nearly 250 residents of Liberia assembled at the Municipal Gymnasium to coordinate an effort to reclaim one of the most treasured beaches in their canton: Playa Cabuyal. According to a report by online news outlet Primero en Noticias, residents of Liberia are protesting against what they consider to be an issue of illegal land registration by an extremely wealthy...

Source: Recovery Ranch One of the most important aspects of recovery from substance abuse is being able to once again provide meaningful contributions to society. Here is a very good example of such an action taking place in Costa Rica, specifically in the Nicoya region of the Guanacaste province. The Costa Rica Star thanks Recovery Ranch for this inspiring press release and for their excellen...

Source: Bue River Resort Guanacaste, Costa Rica, February 17, 2015 -- (PR.com) -- This year, Blue River Resort & Hot Springs was chosen by Fodor's for the service, quality, and value they offer every visitor at their resort.   Although each and every business that is included in Fodor’s Travel guide is deemed worthy of a traveler’s time, the Fodor’s Choice distinguishes hotels, ...

The city of Liberia in the province of Guanacaste may soon be home to the first Industrial Park of Science and Technology in Central America. According to a news report recently filed by Fiorella Valle of Guanacaste online news daily Primero en Noticias, the intention to build this park was announced during a business and development forum that took place in the campus of EARTH University in Liber...

Wikimedia Commons For a term of 12 months, an upscale resort in the dry province of Guanacaste will provide some neighboring communities with desperately needed water. The resort in question is the Reserva Conchal, which has ceded rights to a local utility so that water can be extracted from the Nimboyores aquifer located beneath the surface of this private property. An agreement between Re...

Tamarindo Beach A group of foreign squatters who had unlawfully broken into a home located in Tamarindo Beach, province of Guanacaste, were removed under the watchful eye of officers from the Municipal Police of Santa Cruz. The eviction took place on Friday, February 6th, and the squatters were reported to be from various countries, including: The United States, Chile, Peru, Venezuela, and the...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Ever since former President Laura Chinchilla was succeeded by President Luis Guillermo Solis, something has happened to all political parties in Costa Rica. As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star, all political parties in our country are in shambles, and their situation seems to be deteriorating further as time goes by. The latest political party to face a d...

Wikimedia Commons Between the months of May and June of 2015, some residents of the Guanacaste region in Costa Rica will be able to enjoy broadband Internet speeds of up to 20 Mbps thanks to a fiber optic cabling project that will be undertaken by the CoopeGuanacaste business consortium. This project is planned to cover the cantonal seats of Nicoya, Filadelfia and Santa Cruz. According to t...

A polemic representative from the province of Guanacaste before the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica has unceremoniously left his political seat. Many readers of The Costa Rica Star are probably familiar with legislator Ronal Vargas from the Frente Amplio (Broad Front) political party; Mr. Vargas is particularly known for his support of the separatist movements of Scotland in the United Kingdom ...

Source: El Sabanero New York, NY (PRWEB) January 21, 2015 - Drishti Yoga Teacher Training today announced that Kurt Reichenberger, owner of El Sabanero Eco Lodge near Tamarindo, Costa Rica has built a brand new yoga shala for their upcoming yoga teacher training in March 2015. For the second year in a row Drishti Yoga Teacher Training announces their Yoga Teacher Training in Costa Rica will...

Hotel Iguanazul Introducing the new Hotel Iguanazul - a truly unique Costa Rican experience Beautifully updated Costa Rican hotel on the Pacific (TRAVPR.COM) CANADA/COSTA RICA - February 2nd, 2015 - The Hotel Iguanazul, a boutique hotel located in Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica, has recently undergone a wonderful transformation. The upgraded hotel features 24 comfortable guest rooms tha...

Playa Hermosa Guanacaste This past Monday, a retired woman from Montreal and her two-year old grandniece tragically drowned in Playa Santa Teresa, located on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. According to the Toronto Sun, Andree Hamel rushed into the surf to save little Jasmine, who was born in Costa Rica; alas, both were caught in the strong undertow produced by dangerous rip current condition...

In the coastal town Source: Wikimedia Commons of Playa Sámara, province of Guanacaste, a homeless man was relieved of his pet boa constrictor by officers from Fuerza Publica, Costa Rica's national police force. The act of confiscation was conducted in response to calls from several neighbors in Playa Sámara who were concerned that the large snake could slither away into the community when t...

Tourism Police Assisting Backpackers. Source: Fuerza Publica Over the last two months, Fuerza Publica officers assigned to the special branch of Tourism Police have been reviewing their operations and strengthening their presence in Guanacaste and other regions of Costa Rica that welcome a high number of visitors during the high season. According to a press release recently published by the...

Source: Cala Luna Tamarindo, Guanacaste, Costa Rica - January 14, 2015 /MarketersMedia/ --  The online magazine PsychologyToday.com recently featured an article entitled "The importance of vacations to our physical and mental health" written by columnist Susan Krauss Whitbourne, Ph.D. Dr. Whitbourne writes, "Taking a vacation may be necessary for mental health. The act of taking a vacation or ...

Readers of The Costa Rica Star are likely to be familiar with the real estate saga of Hacienda Dorada in Playa Barrigona, province of Guanacaste; after all, the owner of this opulent mansion is none other than Hollywood legend Mel Gibson, who has been trying to sell this particular property over the last few years. It so happens that interest in this property is heating up, and more real estate...

Playa Conchal The Westin Golf Resort and Spa in Playa Conchal, province of Guanacaste, has earned the coveted World Travel Awards in two important categories. This grand hotel and upscale golf resort in Costa Rica has been recognized as Mexico & Central America's Leading All Inclusive Resort 2014 as well as Leading Family Resort.   As described by parent company Starwood, &nb...

Source: Fuerza Publica Along with Puntarenas and Limon, Guanacaste is a province in Costa Rica that is known to attract many revelers for New Year’s Eve celebrations. These provinces also happen to be hotspots of disorderly activity and domestic violence that transpire during the festivities, particularly after 10:00 pm on December 31st. For this reason, officers from Fuerza Publica, the natio...

A surprising, last-minute resolution by the Committee on Traditional Celebrations of the Santa Cruz canton to move the National Folklore Festival is being blamed on politics and the Chikungunya virus. According to Guanacaste news website Primero en Noticias, the hasty resolution consists of moving the fair from Plaza Lopez, also known as Los Mangos, to the fairgrounds, and the reason given by the ...

Source: Facebook The celebrity and tabloid gossip mill surrounding pop music diva Britney Spears is currently running at full speed as rumors about her possible engagement taking place in Costa Rica over the holidays. The extremely popular musician is reportedly dating Charlie Ebersol, a successful entertainment producer who is the son of a powerful couple in the world of television production...

Wikimedia Commons SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, Dec. 19, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency (CINDE) and the Ministry of Foreign Trade of Costa Rica (COMEX) announced that 39 new investment projects from the sectors of Corporate Services, Life Sciences, Light Manufacturing, Advanced Manufacturing, Agribusiness and Food Industry were attracted to Costa Rica in 2014. Thes...

The people of Catalonia, an autonomous region of Spain, have democratically spoken: They want out of the Kingdom of Spain, and they are supporting their leaders who are concocting a plan for independence to be achieved in the next two years. As 80 percent of more than two million Catalans turned to the polls to vote on an unofficial independence referendum, some residents of Guanacaste, the former...

The massive Santa Elena luxury resort and housing complex in Guanacaste is set to expand within its 1,000 hectares over the next 15 years with new hotels and gated communities. Such was the report filed by Cristina Fallas Villalobos of business weekly El Financiero earlier this week. Readers of The Costa Rica Star will remember that we reported on the Dreams Las Mareas beach resort earlier this...

Source: Asociacion Nacional de Guardavidas de Costa Rica Thanks to the inexhaustible efforts of the National Association of Lifeguards in Costa Rica, more aquatic lifesavers are being trained and posted on our numerous beaches. On September 15th, the Association was formally accepted into the International Life Saving Federation; this announcement prompted them to complete training of a new gr...

One of the most pristine beaches in Costa Rica is home to luxury resorts, spectacular real estate, lush vegetation, sugary sands, and yellow-bellied snakes that slither right out of the ocean and give some people a good scare. Playa Flamingo is located on the Gold Coast of Guanacaste, one of the hottest tourist spots in Costa Rica, and it is here where sightings of Pelamis platura, yellow-bellied ...

Despite economic uncertainty in Costa Rica, the luxury real estate development sector has experienced a solid year. This is specially the case in the Gold Coast beaches of Guanacaste, where developers are continuing to build exuberant gated communities in the highlands so that residents can enjoy sweeping vistas of the Pacific Ocean. One such project breaking ground at this time is Las Ventanas de...

The Guanacaste province continues to lead the way in terms of luxury resort development in Costa Rica. Earlier this year, The Costa Rica Star reported on the development activity by the Apple Leisure Group at the massive Santa Elena tourism complex in La Cruz of Guanacaste; that project has been finalized just in time for the high tourist season, which is just a few weeks away. Here is the officia...

Thanks to JetBlue Airways, residents of the Greater Boston area in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts can now board a flight from Logan International Airport (BOS) and in just a few hours they could find themselves enjoying the pristine beaches of Costa Rica's Gold Coast. On November 1st, JetBlue announced a strategy to connect New England residents with choice Latin American and Caribbean destinat...

Source: OVSICORI Trick-or-treaters and costumed revelers in the Gold Coast beaches of Costa Rica were shaken up by a 4.2 MW earthquake, which was felt in the communities of Santa Cruz, Nicoya, Cerro Negro, Diria, Nambi, Playa Samara, Playa Grande, Hojancha, and Playas del Coco. The epicenter was located inland, about 9 km south of Diria, between Liberia and the Nicoya peninsula, at a depth of ...

The casino experience in Costa Rica is becoming modernized and will soon match the level of gaming seen at some Las Vegas game rooms. Earlier this year, International Game Technology announced that it had been selected as the primary provider of games for the upcoming Croc's Casino Resort in Jaco Beach, slated to open later this year. Nonetheless, casino players in Guanacaste may be able to experi...

Playas del Coco in Guanacaste The Gold Coast beaches of Guanacaste were jolted by an earthquake as residents and tourists were preparing to enjoy the weekend. According to a report by the Observatory of Seismology and Volcanology of Costa Rica (Spanish acronym: OVSICORI), the seismic movement was detected at a few minutes past 1:00 pm, with an epicenter 14 kilometers north of Playas del Coco a...

The coastal community of Playa Ostional, located in the Guanacaste province, is home to one of the most magical beaches in the Gold Coast of Costa Rica. There is something about the sand on this beach that is attracting more and more sea turtles to massively arrive during nesting season. Although climate change is affecting sea turtle arrivals in other parts of Costa Rica, this is clearly not the ...

One of the most celebrated Hollywood films of last year has a curious connection to Costa Rica, Florida, Wall Street, and an outlandish financial scam. The film is The Wolf of Wall Street, a biopic directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort. The connection is Ira Lee Sorkin, a renowned attorney who once represented Mr. Belfort and later Bernard Madoff. Mr. Sorkin ...

Source: Flickr Kristine Gorman is a tax accountant from the New England region who is planning on becoming an expatriate in Costa Rica. She is 41 years young and is looking to one day retire here with her significant other and their 2-year old child. She was recently in Playa Flamingo, looking at properties in one of the Gold Coast beaches of Guanacaste. She has been kind enough to share her e...

Even though statistics and public opinion surveys indicate that the administration of former President Laura Chinchilla was able to make good on the campaign promise of a safer Costa Rica, uncomfortable news reports about crimes against persons and property are prompting both Ticos and expats in Guanacaste and other affluent parts of the country to weigh their options with regard to firearms. G...

The province of Guanacaste may be home to the Gold Coast beaches, the Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport, the most expensive communities in Costa Rica, and a thriving expatriate scene, but it comes up way short in one aspect: a reasonable and efficient supply of drinking water. One of the most vexing challenges of the current administration under President Luis Guillermo Solis is to ensure...