By Britt Nelson   I was there when Coady was born I was there when Coady died. He was 26 years old. Coady died of a heroin overdose In Jaco Beach, Costa Rica, June 8, 2015.   He had accepted Jesus as his savior. Fifteen days before Coady died I saw him Baptized In the Pacific Ocean waves.   I did not know my son. During his adult years, There was always...

(Wikimedia Commons) In 1968, acclaimed British novelist James Graham "J. G." Ballard wrote a bizarre short story entitled Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan.  At the time, the late actor and former Governor of California was seeking to secure the candidacy for the Republican (Grand Ole Party or GOP) presidential ticket of the United States. Amazingly, J.G. Ballard predicted that Reagan would ...

Pixabay Commons USAA Media Release - At 12 years old, USAA member Marielos Vega was caring for her father and brothers on a coffee plantation in her native Costa Rica, doing all the household chores before walking to school every morning. At 14, she dropped out to become a housekeeper, and a few years later, immigrated to the U.S. to work as a child care provider.   “I did not know ...

Tamarindo Beach in Guanacaste Costa Rica BALTIMORE, MD (PRWEB) JUNE 06, 2016 - There are a few special places on the planet—undeniable favorites with travelers, expats and retirees—that are so extraordinary, they are often described as being “heavenly” or “like paradise.” These places can be radically different from one another, but they all offer something special that seems to make them more ...

Source: GoFundMe Dr. Julie Lambert, a science educator at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) who suffered a ruptured aneurysm and fell into a coma during an academic visit to Costa Rica, has been approved to fly home aboard a commercial airline as long as she sits in the first class section with a nurse by her side. As previously reported in The Costa Rica Star, Professor Lambert is a passio...

Pixabay Commons UPeace and Veritas University Press Release -  San Jose, Costa Rica. The University for Peace worked alongside the Ombudsperson's Office of Costa Rica at the launch of the Second National Photography Contest, in Commemoration of the World Day of Peace, a day that is celebrated the 21st of September of every year. This event took place at the Roberto Sasso Sasso Auditorium wh...

Flickr Commons Easy access to online social networks, themes portrayed in modern Latin American soap operas and the open discussion of family finances are causal factors driving young girls to prostitute themselves in Costa Rica. In mid-March, the incident of a 40-year old man reportedly sought to pay a 13-year old girl 150,000 colones (about $300) in exchange for a sexual session was repor...

Earlier this week, technology giant Google announced some exciting new features that improve the way users can control their accounts in Costa Rica and anywhere else in the world. The new features come exactly one year after the introduction of My Account, a powerful dashboard that allow users to control their apps and services such as Gmail, Google Play, Drive, Docs, Hangouts, Google Plus, And...

Many suspects awaiting trial are housed alongside convicted criminal in Costa Rica's La Reforma Prison, pictured. (ICR/CRS Archive) The National Association of Criminology Researchers (Spanish acronym: ANIC) is trying to file a lawsuit against the Ministry of Justice in Costa Rica over the release of nearly 6,000 convicted criminals who can no longer be housed by the national prison system. ...

Officers from the Operational Support Group (Spanish initials: GAO) detained five men suspected of belonging to a criminal group that preyed upon tourists in the Caribbean region of Costa Rica. The gang reportedly used strong-arm robbery tactics on foreign visitors, many of them from North America and Europe, who visited the communities of Cahuita, Manzanillo and Puerto Viejo, all within the Ta...

Source: OIJ On Monday afternoon, undercover agents from the Office of Judicial Investigations (Spanish initials: OIJ) arrested a 50-year old man from Colombia after he broke into a car rented by German tourists visiting Costa Rica. The undercover OIJ agents were from the regional office assigned to Jaco Beach and nearby Playa Hermosa. It was at the latter coastal town that they decided to c...

The United States today celebrates Memorial Day, and in Costa Rica the expat community often gathers to observe the men and women who gave their lives while serving in the dear Armed Forces of their country. Author’s Note: The use of the noun and adjective “American” in this Article conforms to the definition in Princeton’s WordNet: (A native or inhabitant of the United States), and the recomme...

Dengue, Chikungunya, and Zika are spread by the Aedes aegyptie mosquito (Wikimedia Commons) By Michele McDonald George Mason University researchers are on the front lines of Costa Rica’s defense against the Zika virus. Bordered by Panama and Nicaragua, the Central American country could be a natural laboratory for George Mason researchers, who have partnered with their counterparts at Co...

Scarlet Macaw BALTIMORE, MD (PRWEB) MAY 23, 2016 - When people consider retiring abroad, they most often cite as motivation the lower cost of living, escaping the worst of the North American winter, finding a more adventurous life, access to excellent, affordable healthcare. But many expats report that, once abroad, they discover a benefit they hadn’t considered in advance: a healthier lifestyl...

Flickr Commons Acting Bergen County Prosecutor Gurbir S. Grewal announced today the arrests of forty-six (46) individuals, the execution of forty-six (46) search warrants in three states (New Jersey, New York, and Florida), as well as the seizure of approximately $2,000,000 in U.S. currency. The arrests, search warrants, and seizures are the result of an investigation into a large-scale, multi...

Source: DOD DVIDS By 2nd Lt. Anna Doo, 200th Public Affairs Detachment, NMARNG QUEPOS, COSTA RICA - Twenty-two Costa Rican Guarda Costas attended a two-day workshop conducted by Sgt. 1st. Class David Muniz and Sgt. Michael Marfia, medics from New Mexico National Guard, as part of the National Guard Bureau's State Partnership Program. The Subject Matter Expert Exchange, or SMEE, aims to deep...

Source: Correos de Costa Rica A cadre of 19 legislators from eight political parties in Costa Rica have signed a request for Papal intervention against the potential legalization of abortion. The request was announced earlier this week during an ordinary session of the Legislative Assembly; of the eight parties that signed the petition, seven are well-established in Costa Rica, only Restaur...

IsmaelCala.com MIAMI, May 23, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Following the success of the inspirational trips organized by Ismael Cala, particularly the most recent one in India, others are now being created. The new destinations and projects retain the objective of the participants' personal growth. Ismael Calá is a renowned journalist and news host of his eponymous show on the CNN Español network. ...

HINGHAM, MA--(Marketwired - May 24, 2016) -  DigitalX Limited is pleased to announce that Telefónica Internacional S.A.U. ("Telefónica") is the Company's first strategic partner in Latin America following the successful integration of the DigitalX AirPocket App into Telefónica's network. The mobile phone giant signed a marketing, distribution and sales agreement with DigitalX, which was announc...

The Turrialba on May 5. OVSICORI A series of powerful eruptions by the hyperactive Turrialba volcano have left the Central Valley of Costa Rica coated with ultra-fine ash, prompting savvy street merchants to offer surgical masks at busy pedestrian intersections in the capital city. Street sales of surgical masks have been brisk in San Jose ever since the Ministry of Public Health (Spanish i...

Wikimedia Commons GENEVA  – The diversity of the needs of older persons is invisible in current policies related to ageing in Costa Rica despite the existence of good practices in the country, the United Nations Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons, Rosa Kornfeld-Matte, said on 18 May. “Older persons are not a homogenous group,” the expert stressed at the...

Illustrative image. (Flickr Commons) San Salvador, May 10 (EFE; additional reporting by The Costa Rica Star).- El Salvador's murder rate so far in 2016 exceeds 38 per 100,000 inhabitants, well above the rate in several neighboring Central American countries, such  as Costa Rica, for all of 2015, according to official figures released on Tuesday. According to information provided by police d...

Wikimedia Commons The U.S. Mission in San Jose is seeking eligible and qualified applicants for the position of Cashier. OPEN TO: All Interested Candidates POSITION: Cashier, FSN-8; FP-6* OPENING DATE: May 9, 2016 CLOSING DATE: May 26, 2016 WORK HOURS: Fulltime 40 hours/week SALARY: *Not-Ordinarily Resident (NOR): FP-6 US$39,558 annual (Starting salary) * Ordinarily Resident ...

Cielo Google Play COSTA RICA (PRWEB) MAY 16, 2016 - Itellum, a Costa Rica-based, privately owned and operated international telecommunications, Internet and technology company with a focus on US and Central American markets, announces that its Cielo unified communications application has surpassed 12,000 registered users in Costa Rica, making it the leading and fastest growing application of its...

  "All homeowners are investors at heart" is an expression often heard in certain real estate circles, and in Costa Rica this is something that extends to the process of legal immigration. In general, foreigners and their immediate family (spouse, parents and children) can apply for residency if the applicant has investments worth USD $200,000 in Costa Rica. The types of investment shou...

Manuel Antonio Beach in Costa Rica LAKELAND, FL, MAY 5, 2016 – Dean Saunders, ALC, CCIM, recognized Florida land expert and broker/founder of Coldwell Banker Commercial Saunders Real Estate (CBCSRE), is now selling land in Costa Rica and other Latin American countries. The most recent sale was a classic international marketing transaction, connecting a buyer in Indiana with a seller in Costa R...

Black Star Line before the fire. Wikimedia Commons Late April was an unkind time for Afro Caribbean culture in Costa Rica. On April 29, a structural fire consumed the Black Star Line building in Limón, destroying an important symbol of the legacy left by Marcus Garvey in our country. Starting today, the good people of Limón will conduct a series of cultural and family events for the purpose...

Source: Red Cross Costa Rica The livelihood of foreigners who choose to live as perpetual tourists in Costa Rica is highly dependent on the stability of the land borders. It so happens that in recent months both the northern and southern borders of Costa Rica have been afflicted by the global migrant crisis; how is this affecting the lives of perpetual tourists? "Visa runs" are those trips ...

Chicago, IL (PRWEB) May 11, 2016 - In a recent Bird-X blog post, the company explains how it helped preserve history at the National Theatre of Costa Rica with the installation of its bird shock track system, Avishock™. In April, Fuera Aves PRO, part of the JAMUVI Group of companies, installed 300 meters of Avishock™, on the theatre’s rooftop ledges to stop birds from landing and defecating on ...

(Courtesy/WhatsApp) The most popular mobile messaging app in Costa Rica is now available for the desktop and with full end-to-end encryption. Use of WhatsApp in Costa Rica is estimated to grow by 228 new users each week, and the total number of active users is approaching that of Facebook, which happens to be the owner of WhatsApp. In the last two days, WhatsApp has made a couple of importa...

According to RigthMove, the leading property search portal in the United Kingdom, searchers who are interested in real estate overseas have been looking up Costa Rica in the last few months. According to the company's overseas search report for April 2016, Costa Rica is among the Top Ten Trending Searches. Specifically, Costa Rica is at number six, above Argelès-sur-Mer in France and below Swed...

Serenity Gardens Costa Rica BriefingWire.com, 5/09/2016 - For those who dream of living with nature in Costa Rica, the Serenity Gardens Eco-Village provides a unique opportunity. An eco-village is a growing trend in green living; an international community with a focus on sustainable living. In an eco-village like Serenity Gardens, like-minded people come together to live as a community co-op....

Club Sport Herediano On Monday, May 9th, the first round of the First Division Summer Tournament Finals will be played at the Alejandro Morera Soto Stadiumn in the city of Alajuela, province of the same name. The most storied clubs in the history of professional football in Costa Rica will repeat the May 2015 finals, when Club Sport Herediano (CSH), a legendary club owned by an association ...

Photos by Bryan Fabio Herrera "If there's no chocolate in heaven, I'm not going." -- Jane Seabrook There have been dire predictions recently from the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO), and others, that the world is running out of chocolate. Said the Washington Post, “We are in the midst of what may be the longest streak of consecutive chocolate deficits in more than 50 years.” Experts...

Source; EFE file photo How do you use the Internet? Do you browse the Web to get a quick answer or to complete a certain task without leaving comments or opinions about your experience? Are you concerned about revealing your identity online? If you answer the questions above in an affirmative manner, you may be a digital visitor. If you, on the other hand, live out your life openly on the I...

Source: U.S. DHS WASHINGTON, May 4, 2015 – Today, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson met with Costa Rican Foreign Minister Manuel Gonzalez Sanz to discuss opportunities for bilateral engagement on border security, information sharing, counter-narcotic efforts, and migration flows through Central America. Secretary Johnson and Foreign Minister Gonzalez discussed opportunities to stre...

Source: Wikimedia Commons The family of a 63-year old man from the United States, who passed away under mysterious circumstances in April, are asking that Federal Bureau of Investigation agents become involved in the case. According to a news report filed by Luke Roberts of the Douglas Enterprise earlier this week, Mitch McCrimmon did not survive a coma that placed him in the hospital from ...

The National Museum of Costa Rica, in conjunction with the community development associations of the Osa, Palmar and the Diquis Delta region, invite you to the 11th Festival of the Stone Spheres from May 13th to the 15th . The Annual Festival of the Stone Spheres is a cultural and festive event that celebrated the magnificent National Park of the Stone Spheres of Costa Rica, which is a UNESCO W...

Source: Sunwing Foundation TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - April 28, 2016) -  Last Saturday April 23, 2016 the Sunwing Foundation made a donation of 43 pairs of new soccer shoes to the local soccer school in Bijagua, Costa Rica. Janine Chapman, Chief Marketing & Technology Officer for the Sunwing Travel Group, visited the soccer field to make the gift to the aspiring young soccer players in pe...

Source: OVSICORI Residents of the Turrialba canton in the province of Cartago woke up this morning to find a white steam column atop the summit of their eponymous volcano. According to an early morning press conference given by the Observatory of Volcanology and Seismology of Costa Rica (Spanish acronym: OVSICORI), seismic activity has been on the rise at the Turrialba Volcano since the early ...