Costa Rica is home to seven of the best resorts in the world, distributed in the Pacific coast and in La Fortuna de San Carlos, according to Forbes magazine: Forbes Travel Guide - 2019 Star Award Winners These are the seven resorts listed by Forbes as being among the world’s best: Four Seasons Costa Rica at Península Papagayo: The spa is a destination in itself, with a volcanic purification ...

The U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort will arrive to Puntarenas, Costa Rica this Sunday, July 21 to offer medical attention between Tuesday, July 3 and Saturday, July 27. This hospital ship is on a five-month deployment to Central and South America as well as the Caribbean in support of humanitarian and partner-building efforts as part of the U.S. Southern Command´s Enduring Promise Initiati...

In an operation by land, sea and air that began last Wednesday and concluded this Friday morning Costa Rican authorities seized a total 1.4 tons of marijuana and 44 kilograms of cocaine. Members of the Coast Guard Service received information of international authorities of a suspicious boat and they immediately set out to intercept them. As soon as the suspicious vessel spotted the patrol boat...

Costa Rica won the World Travel Award as Mexico & Central America's Leading travel Destination 2019, the award was presented in a ceremony held in the city of La Paz, Bolivia. The country’s biodiversity and rich nature positioned it as the best destination in the region, the country was picked by a jury of professionals of the tourism sector and representatives of specialized media. The ...

President Carlos Alvarado, alongside the Minister for Environment and Energy, Carlos Manuel Rodríguez and the Minister of Health, Daniel Salas, signed into law the reform of the Law for the Integral Management of Waste. This Law enacts the prohibition of the import into national territory, the commercialization and the delivery of polyethylene containers, better known as styrofoam, in any commerci...

Costa Rican World Champion, Hanna Gabriels, will defend her WBA Super Welterweight Championship on Wednesday, July 17 against Argentinian Abril Vidal at the National Stadium in San Jose, Costa Rica. This is part of a three-part Broadway Boxing summer series promoted by DiBella Entertainment and tht will be streamed live on UFC Fight Pass, the world’s leading digital subscription service for com...

Four dentistry students of the University of Costa Rica came up with a solution to reduce plastic waste caused by dental saliva ejectors, which are currently discarded after just one use. The students, Nicole Miranda, Maria Francinie Guevara, Yulieth Segura and Catalina Serra created a metallic ejector of surgical level that can be cleaned in the autoclave and used multiple times, eliminating ...

Costa Rican scientists discovered a new species of butterfly native of Guanacaste, the findings were presented during the first meeting of the United Nations Environment Assembly Bureau that took place in Norway. Philtronoma Cbdora, its scientific name, has back wings of a shiny pink color, which it hides under its grey front wings the moment it lands over a leaf or tree. “This new species ...

If you want to discover San José in a fun and different way try the Art City Tour this Wednesday, July 10, the best of all, it is entirely FREE. This edition of the Art City Tour, “Vacation in Chepe” (Chepe being the way Costa Ricans’ refer to the capital city of San Jose) will take participants to enjoy the cultural offer of San José and its surrounding areas. It will connect activities that t...

A Costa Rican man who also has a Canadian passport was detained this week as suspect of sending six tons of cocaine to Spain back in October 2018 in a banana shipment which was intercepted in Malaga, Andalucía in the South of Spain. The man, of last name Thompson was arrested when the Drug Control Police (PCD) raided his house in San Antonio de Coronado, San José. “The investigation allowed us...

Costa Rica’s Cocos Island National Park was nominated as candidate to the “Global Refuge Award” (GLORES), an initiative promoted by the Marine Conservation Institute. The Global Ocean Refuge System aims to safeguard marine biodiversity by assembling a strategic network of effective marine protected areas (MPA’s) that includes replicate representation of all marine habitats in each bio-geographi...

Starting November, JetBlue will offer a new route to connecting New York, USA to San José, Costa Rica , the announcement was made by the Costa Rican Tourism Board and Aeris, company in charge of the administration of the Juan Santamaría Airport. The direct flight #1793 will leave from John F. Kennedy Aiport in New York on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays at 6:25 p.m. and will arrive in San José a...

Mexican company Mexifrutas S.A. of C.V. announced that it will open a modern fruit pulp processing plant in Siquirres, Limón, through its Costa Rican subsidiary Inversiones Corymex MCR, S.A, with an investment of $20 million dollars. In its first stage, this investment will generate direct and formal employment for more than 130 people living outside the Greater Metropolitan Area (GMA). The ...

Roadblocks continued this Monday in Costa Rica in different key roads, particularly Route 32 which communicates San José and Limón. The pressure by different sectors forced the resignation of Minister of Education Edgar Mora, one of the demands of the protesting groups. Labor union leaders announced that roadblocks and other forms of protests will maintain throughout this week as they will p...

US Embassy in Costa RIca Alerts: On Monday, July 1, 2019, the U.S. Embassy received credible open source information that student protestors and trade unions will continue to protest against government politics with a new focus on the resignation of Finance Minister Rocio Aguilar. In addition to these demonstrations, protestors continue to block main roadways throughout the country, reportedly to ...

Transport services, fishermen, students all took the streets this week in Costa Rica to protest against the government. Driving slow enough to cause congestion (tortuguismo) and blocking different key roads, drivers, specifically truckers, representing different transport services were the first to manifest their anger earlier this week against the implementation of the Value Added Tax (VAT) wh...

The multinational company Boston Scientific Corporation, dedicated to the design, manufacturing, distribution and sale of minimally invasive medical devices of the highest technology, announced that it plans to hire approximately 600 new employees in the upcoming months who will join the 4,200 collaborators that currently work in its operations, making it the largest employer in Costa Rica’s medic...

American Airlines announced it will have two new flights from the John F. Kennedy Airport in New York to the Juan Santamaría Airport in Alajuela (SJO) and the Daniel Oduber Airport (LIR) in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. The route JFK-SJO will begin operations November 21, the flight will be daily, leaving JFK at 3:59 p.m. and arriving in SJO at 9:42 p.m. and leaving SJO at 11:03 to arrive at New York...

Today, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) announced the creation of 2,000 job openings. These positions will be based in Amazon’s dedicated centers in Costa Rica and will include specialist roles in areas such as customer service, technology, cloud services, finance and accounting. These specialist roles will support Amazon’s customers around the world and provide 24/7 world class customer servi...

A 6.6 magnitud earthquake shook Costa Rica at 11:23 p.m. on Tuesday. According to the preliminary report by OVSICORI the epicenter was registered 12.3 km Northwest of Laurel, Corredores, Puntarenas. Reports indicate the movement was felt in most of the Costa Rican territory. The National Seismology Network (RSN) confirms the movement had a depth of 31 km and it was originated by the subd...

Costa Rica stands out in the latest edition of The European, a renown international magazine that reviews topics such as business, foreign direct investment, finances, technology, among others. Costa Rica: The Natural Choice of Business, is the article's title, which highlights the country’s success formula to attract FDI and how it fosters world-class innovation. "Comparatively, Costa Rica ...

The pill known as “morning-after” pill, used as an emergency contraception method is now available in Costa Rica after receiving green light from the Ministry of Health. Pharmaceutical house Quinfica is the company distributing the “morning-after” pill under the name Posterga, and it will be sold in pharmacies for a price of 18 thousand colones (approximately $31.00 USD). Posterga will be ...

Sunday, June 23 2019, Costa Rica will celebrate the tenth edition of the Pride Parade, a colorful event that celebrates the differences in sexual preferences and promotes tolerance and respect of the members of the LGBTI community. 24 floats, music, dance, shows, international guests, are just part of the event that will once again take the streets of San Jose, starting at Centro Colón in Paseo...

Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas is a renown operator of luxury hotels, resorts and spas, managing 19 hotels and resorts across 14 countries, plus 37 spas under the brand names Six Senses, Evason, Six Senses Spas and Raison d’Etre; since February 2019, Six Senses became part of the IHG® (InterContinental Hotels Group) family of hotel brands. Six Senses will be opening its first resort in Central Ame...

Equifax, a global data, analytics, and technology company announced today that it will hire 200 people in the upcoming weeks to become part of its 1,000-collaborator workforce. “Equifax is undergoing the largest transformation of its recent history,” said Jairo Quiros, Vice President of Global Shared Services. “We are leveraging our Costa Rica Shared Services talent to enable the company to dri...

The Ministry of Science, Technology and Telecommunications announced that Costa Rica will host the biggest human rights event in the digital era, RightsCon 2020. The announcement was made at the end of the RightsCon 2019 which took place in Tunisia with 2500 participants from 130 countries. “Back in October we presented the Digital Transformation Strategy towards the Costa Rica of the Bice...

Bayer’s Shared Services Center started operations in Costa Rica two years ago. Today, the company announced that it will duplicate its payroll to 500 employees by the end of this year. Currently, the center has 285 collaborators in three offices located at America Free Zone, in San Francisco de Heredia. The expansion will be in three departments: Order to Cash, Source to Pay and HR Operations....

Tamarindo is setting out to be a regulated, authentic tourist destination, with sustainable practices, community participation, and a diversity of products primarily geared towards family entertainment. Local Tamarindo stakeholders have established three priority projects to be completed within a period of five years. The projects are focused on the integrated management of solid waste and sewa...

Costa Rican surfers Leilani McGonagle and Brisa Hennessy confirmed their participation in the upcoming ISA World Surfing Games 2019. McGonagle currently sits in the ranking in position 26 in the second division while Hennessy holds the 8th place in the first division; the two athletes will be traveling to Japan next September. The participation of the Costa Ricans in the World Surfing Games pu...

According to the last report on air quality in Costa Rica, the area close to the National University in Heredia shows an annual average of 34 µg/m3 (micrograms per Cubic Meter of Air) of particulate matter (the sum of all solid and liquid particles suspended in air many of which are hazardous), value that despite being under the maximum limit of 40 µg/m3 established in the + Air Quality Criteria f...

Starting December 18 and through April 25, 2020, an Air Transat Airbus A321LR will connect Vancouver, Canada to San José and Liberia in Costa Rica. Tickets went on sale starting June 6 and will be offered twice a week, Wednesdays and Saturdays, leaving Vancouver at 6:30 a.m. and arriving to Liberia, Guanacaste at 5:25 p.m. making an 80 minute stop at the Juan Santamaría Airport in San José. The...

Soon you will be able to camp in style overlooking the Arenal Volcano in La Fortuna, San Carlos, Costa Rica, glamping “glamourus camping” will arrive to this popular tourist destination by December 2019 by way of Nayara Tented Camp, a new option by award winning Nayara Resorts. The concept, inspired on the tented camps in Africa and Asia, is designed by Luxury Frontiers and will include a total...

Paradise Ingredients, known for its processed juices and beverages in the food industry, opened today its new plant of juices and drinks NEWVANA. Paradise Ingredients is the world’s top banana puree processing company. With this new aseptic juice processing operation, it will create 120 jobs in Cartago. The Minister of Foreign Trade, Dyalá Jiménez, said: “The country’s development requires...

This Monday, June 3, 2019, Costa Rica kicked off  the first ever vaccination campaign to protect young girls against Human Papillomavirus (HPV). HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection and some types lead to cervix cancer, the vaccine is now part of the national vaccination program and will be applied free of charge by social security to 10-year-old girls. Cervical cancer is th...

Concentrix, a technology-enabled global business services company specializing in customer engagement, announced today 600 new job positions in the country. This is part of a growth strategy the company is deploying to become stronger in Costa Rica and to establish itself as a specialty high value solutions center. “Our world is demanding changes in the way we make business; this forces compani...

Coffee Britt in Costa Rica kicked off the first stage of its reforestation plan part of its corporate social responsibility commitment; volunteers planted native trees in the Toucan Rescue Ranch situated in Nazareth, Sarapiquí. “Toucan Rescue Ranch, our partner on Hábitat Sloth coffee, has welcomed our volunteers on numerous occasions for projects such as maintenance, painting murals, and refor...

Leading software company Wind River expanded its operations with the opening of a new office in Oficentro Mediterraneo in San José, Costa Rica. It has more than 40 collaborators working in customer support, engineering, finance, and tech support. “Wind River’s decision to open an office in Costa Rica was based on its great economic climate and nascent technology sector; it’s also a place where...

The Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency (CINDE) announced that NTT DATA, Inc. opened a center of excellence in Costa Rica to serve its Salesforce portfolio. The company, located in America Free Zone industrial park, has been certified as a Platinum Salesforce Partner with more than 15 years of partnership with Salesforce. NTT DATA, a leading IT services provider, currently has a dozen Sales...

A new location of Selina Hostel recently opened doors in Monteverde, Costa Rica, this is the tenth hostel the company inaugurates in the country. Selina, named as one of the 2019 World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company, targets millennials and offers a hostel style lodging that includes services such as yoga, meditation classes, coworking spaces, concerts, cultural activities, worksho...

The Constitutional Chamber in Costa Rica (Sala IV) annulled this week 11 salary increases that benefited employees of the state refinery (RECOPE). The benefits were granted to the employees in what is called the “Convención Colectiva” (collective convention), which is an agreement celebrated between one or several worker unions and their employers to regulate the conditions under which the work...