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...

By Laura Gutierrez of Immigration Help Costa Rica Over the past ten years, there have been many exchanges between myself and clients or would-be clients about the advantages of living in Costa Rica vs other so-called popular countries recommended by such sources as International Living. The list includes but is not limited to Panama, Nicaragua, Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia and Uruguay. Inquirer...

Construction company H.Solis was awarded the widening of the road that connects Lindora in Santa Ana and Belen in Heredia, known as “Radial Santa Ana-Belen”, specifically the works involve 2.2 kilometers (1.37 miles) from that goes from the Virilla River to Corrogres, one of the sectors with more traffic jams in the west side of San Jose. The contract is for a total of $13,341,734.00. This proj...

The Congresswoman from the Liberación Nacional Party, Silvia Hernández, the Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency (CINDE), and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), organized the forum “From Lagging to Regional Leadership: Costa Rica’s Concessions Program”. The event was held the morning of this Friday, January 18, to analyze the country’s challenges and opportunities to improve through inn...

A year and a half have gone by since the Solis Administration announced it had received the complete report regarding the technical viability for the international airport in Orotina, Alajuela, it also presented a few weeks later the much-awaited masterplan for the proposed project; this airport was meant to replace the Juan Santamaria International Airport which supposedly will be unable to meet ...

The Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT) and the Costa Rican Road Safety Council (COSEVI) had announced last year the plan to operate the entire Centralized Traffic System with the use of solar power, this system consists of 474 intersections with traffic lights located in San Jose, Cartago, Heredia and Alajuela, the project has now entered its fourth stage. In this new stage, p...

A group of neighbors from the South Caribbean known as CicloVida presented a proposal to the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation for the creation of a bike line of almost 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) from Hone Creek to Manzanillo in route 256. The group started promoting this project in August of 2017, as an option to create a safe area for cyclists to transit this area, in communities kn...

The bridge over Drake River is being built through an alliance between the Rural Development Institute (INDER) and the OSA Municipality, and will allow the access to the Osa Peninsula, area that is home to 2.5% of the worlds’ biodiversity. “Osa Peninsula, with over 50% of Costa Rica’s biodiversity and its point of entry Drake Bay, is one of the most beautiful places in our country, visited by t...

The expansion of the bridge over the Virilla River which connects Belen in Heredia, with Lindora in Santa Ana will finally conclude early August, confirmed President Carlos Alvarado and the Minister of Public Works and Transportation, Rodolfo Mendez Mata, during an inspection done this Wednesday. This bridge is being expanded from two to four lanes and it’s the first step in the expansion of th...

This Tuesday a team lead by a technical team from the University of Costa Rica's National Laboratory of Structural Materials and Models (Lanamme) with the support of the Coca Cola company, the ALIARSE Foundation and the Municipality of Desamparados, presented their project “Green Asphalt” (Asfalto Verde), a new asphalt mix, unique in Latin America that includes within its components PET plastic f...

The Costa Rican government has approved the project “Fortuna en Dos Ruedas” (Fortune in Two Wheels), which proposes the creation of a 60 kilometer bike lane in the tourist area of La Fortuna de San Carlos. With an investment of close to U.S. $20 million, the bike lane will be developed in five stages and will take cyclists through some of the most important tourist sites in this area, the cent...

Whether you like it or not Jacó Beach, on Costa Rica's Central Pacific coast, is destined to become much bigger. More condos, more homes, more Croc’s casinos, more restaurants, more churches, more shopping, more night clubs and more people spending money: In Jacó the next 10 years will see more development than in the past 37 years combined. There’s much unoccupied, flat, development-prime l...

A project to improve the infrastructure and conditions of the different Wildlife Conservation Areas in the South Pacific is already on its way, the same is part of the program “Tejiendo Desarrollo” of the Ministry of Environment and the National System of Areas of Conservation. Improvements include, lodging shelters, adequate bathrooms and showers, souvenir shops, bridges, among others, and wi...

Sort of strange how tons of water falling from the sky can wipe out people's home and business water supplies, but Costa Rica's aqueducts are subject to the same vulnerabilities as structures and roads that traverse the mountainous, and sometimes slick and slippery hillsides. Considerable damage from last Thursday's Tropical Storm Nate to water pipes and distribution tanks have kept more than 2...

The director of the National Meteorological Institute (IMN), Juan Carlos Fallas, after meeting with the President's Governing Council today, said that there is possibility of afternoon rains today, tomorrow, and Wednesday, and a possible arrival of a tropical weather system over the weekend. "We are assessing the presence of tropical system number 43 for the weekend, which means that we are monit...

With an eye to receiving more and larger ships in the near future, the pacific port of Caldera, in the province of Puntarenas, is getting a much-needed boost to its facilities. The US$20 million improvements aim to decrease wait time for ships to load and unload, thus making the port an attractive option by saving ships money. President of the Republic, Luis Guillermo Solís and the First Lad...

Costa Rican Vice Minister of Foreign Trade, Jhon Fonseca, concluded a third round of negotiations on a recent trip to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) centered on attracting investments for the country's planned "megaport" on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. At the site of the Moín, Limón port, an expanded facility with improved capacity and logistics aims to be able to receive over two and a h...

Costa Rica's 300-odd electric vehicle (EV) drivers have some welcome news with new charging stations coming to rural areas. Two stations to join the grid will be located in the mountains south of San José along the Interamerican Highway: one in San Marcos de Tarrazú and the other in the vicinity of the Los Santos Wind Farm. The recharge points are being built by the National Consortium of El...

The construction of the new Flamingo Marina in Guanacaste, Costa Rica has been talked about for years, over a decade actually, ever since the government shut down the prior marina in 2004 by order of the Administrative Environmental Court after a lot of controversy since it didn’t have the proper environmental impact study and there were reports of contamination. Grupo de Desarrollo Marina Flam...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.  The federal emergency management response to both Hurricanes Harvey in Texas/Louisiana and Irma in Florida will seal the fate of President Donald Trump and his team at FEMA. They will be judged on how well they coordinate with state officials on all leve...

During a recent visit to Beijing, China by Costa Rica's foreign trade authorities, considerations for the creation of a Chinese funded and developed Special Economic Zone in Costa Rica were discussed. China presented results of a technical study undertaken to determine the feasibility of developing such a commercial zone. Moving forward on such a large scale and long-term initiative requires...