Texas Tech University in Costa Rica (TTU-CR), officially announced its first enrollment period which will inaugurate the operations of the prestigious university in the Costa Rican campus. The enrollment period will extend through May of 2018 and the first semester will begin in August 27, 2018. The process can even be done online through the page www.ttu.edu/costarica Admission requireme...

The Costa Rican Constitutional Court (Sala Constitucional or Sala IV) sentenced the country’s authorities for the supposed abandonment of the National Parks. The sentence, dictated back in September 22 grants the Government a term of 5 years to take the necessary actions to resolve problems such as: the traffic of live animals, the contamination of the rivers, the lack of or damaged basis servi...

Black Friday started out in the United States and marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season, but it has become an excellent opportunity for commerce in many different countries to attract customers and increase their sales, Costa Rica is no exception. Since early in November many retail shops announce their promotions for the “Black Month”, “Black Weekend” or “Black Week”, discounts ...

Kicking off the holiday activities in Costa Rica, the Russian Circus on Ice can be enjoyed as of today, November 23 in La Sabana, San Jose. Costa Rica is one of the stops of the famous Circus in its tour through Latin America. The last time the Circus presented its show in Costa Rica was 16 years ago, but a lot has changed since an they promise a completely renovated spectacle. “The public...

Hans De La O Solis, a district attorney in charge of the division of “in flagrante delicto” in Heredia, Costa Rica was shot six times as he was arriving to his house in the community of El Jardin in Calle Fallas, Desamparados. The news was confirmed by the Public Ministry in a press release. According to the official version, De La O left his work at the District Attorney’s Office in Heredi...

A new species of mammal was found in Costa Rica, the discovery of the “bush dog” in Costa Rican territory (Carnivora: Canidae) was confirmed by the Neotropical Biology and Conservation website. The species was first spotted through camera-traps located in the protected zone of Las Tablas in Coto Brus, Puntarenas in May of 2016, however, it was not until September that it was confirmed followi...

The Del Rey Hotel, a known sexual tourism hot spot located in downtown San Jose, Costa Rica near the Morazan Park was affected by a fire this Wednesday evening, at around 7 p.m. The five story building had to be evacuated, but fortunately no one was hurt. Apparently the fire began in a room in the third floor for reasons that are not clear at the time. Several firefighting units arrived quic...

The Female Mariachi from New York City Flor de Toloache won the Latin Grammy for the Best Ranchero/Mariachi Album for its record Las Caras Lindas, the artistic production of this album was in the hands of Costa Rican Producer and Musician Felipe Fournier and Chulo Records. Fournier, who graduated from the Castella Conservatory in Costa Rica and the National University, also studied Jazz and Car...

Primo Entertainment, the production company in charge of bringing the Cirque du Soleil show “Sep7imo Día- No Descansaré” to Costa Rica, officially announced the ticket prices and dates they’ll go on sale. According to the press release, tickets will be available starting at ¢25,000 (approximately US$45.00) and the most expensive location will run ¢100,000 (approximately US$178.6), for the fir...

Access to Playa Naranjo in the Santa Rosa National Park is closed for indefinite time due to the damages caused to the road by tropical storm Nate. The access road to Playa Naranjo, a preferred spot for the practice of surf, is damaged in several points, in the area of Ojochal, where several fallen trees are blocking the road, and the Poza Salada River has large amounts of sand deposited in i...

Coffee produced in Costa Rica could soon be commercialized as the first coffee in the world to have the Carbon Neutral certification, this, thanks to a plan that should increase the production and quality of the coffee bean, while reducing the carbon emissions in its process. The Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Environment and the Inter-American Development Bank are the institutions ...

The Costa Rican Drug Institute (ICD) carried out its first inventory of seized assets since its creation in 2001. The entity cleaned, classified, appraised and stored each of the objects seized from drug traffickers. “When I took over the direction of the ICD what existed at the time was an approximate count of the assets seized which came to more or less 26 thousand objects without any or...

According to information provided by the Ministries’ of Labor the Central American countries, Costa Rica pays the highest minimum wages in the region, while Nicaragua the lowest. Minimum wage is defined as the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their workers; equivalently it is the price floor below which workers may not sell their labor. This amount should allow workers to cov...

Costa Rica’s Treasury Department (Ministerio de Hacienda) will auction 10 properties located in the provinces of San José, Guanacaste and Limón as part of the measures taken by the Central Government to face deficit. The properties being auctioned were given to Treasury as payment for debts and others were transferred from other institutions. One of these properties is a 1,092 square meter (...

A Joke? Yes, a joke shared by Costa Rican Judge Hugo Porter two years ago on his Facebook page will be used by the attorneys of Juan Carlos Bolaños and Mario Barrenechea to challenge the resolution that ratified the preventive detention measure. Attorneys are arguing that the judge that dictated the resolution is prejudiced against bankers. Attorney Jose Miguel Villalobos, secondary lawyer to J...

The Ministry of Security confirmed the arrest of a man in Quepos who was driving a van with 18 illegal immigrants aboard. The arrest took place when officers were in the middle of routine controls in the roads of Quepos, Puntarenas, the officers stopped a van that was exceeding its passenger capacity, and requested the documents for all of them, however, only the driver had an identification do...

The Costa Rican Police detained on Sunday night three Mexican men in Guanacaste with 785 kilos of cocaine. Police officers were in a routine control operation in front of the Daniel Oduber International Airport in Liberia, when they saw two cars turn around, they immediately began the chase, after several minutes one of the cars was abandoned in the entrance to Playa Hermosa, the officers were...

Costa Rica’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal released data regarding the 2018 presidential election. In total there are 3,322,329 citizens registered to vote, representing 7.93% more than in 2014; half of these voters, 1.6 million, are between the ages of 18 and 39 years of age, as a matter of fact, 40% are under 34 years-old; 12.34% are senior citizens and 633 voters are over 100 years old. The ...

The Recreo Verde touristic complex in the area of Venecia de San Carlos in Alajuela, is surrounded by lush nature and has delicious and healing hot springs, however, it is also home to something a bit less appealing, The Cave of Death. Any living being that goes into the cave does not come back out, this happens because the inside of the cave is filled with carbon monoxide, a colorless, odorles...

The Scuba Diving Community Center Ambassadors of the Sea, is an non-profit organization that offers free diving classes to the South Caribbean youth with the purpose of teaching them about the importance of protecting the ocean from an environmental and historical point of view. The project began in 2014 with the intention of offering a work opportunity to the young men and women from the area,...

The date was Sunday, April 6, 1986, the location, La Cruz de Alajuelita in San José, Costa Rica. For a catholic country like Costa Rica, this Sunday held a special significance since it marked the beginning of another Holy Week; but this day would go on to be part of the country’s history for something very far from this. Early that Sunday morning a woman named Rosario Zamora, 26 years-old at t...

The Court of Appeals reconfirmed on Friday the three month preventive detention for businessman Juan Carlos Bolaños and the six BCR executives, established on November 4  and in relation with the "Cementazo" corruption scandal. The attorneys of each of the seven defendants had presented their appeals and allegations and tried to convince Judge Hugo Porter to set their clients free or change the...

In 2013 Costa Rica’s Sala Cuarta or Sala Constitucional (Constitutional Hall) made clear its position (and the country’s position), by forbidding the renovation or emission of new trawling permits due to the environmental damages this practice causes, the sentence also established that the only way they could reconsider allowing this practice would be if enough changes were met to make it a sust...

More than 11,000 people loved the concept of the Street Food Festival that took place in the Kölbi Center in Parque Viva, Costa Rica earlier this year, the success was such that the organizers decided to do a second edition the presence this 2018. The Street Food Festival this year had the participation of 25 food trucks and stands offering different gastronomy options, live music, kids zone,...

The Daniel Oduber International Airport in Liberia, Guanacaste, Costa Rica, became as of Friday the first air terminal in Central America to be certified as carbon-neutral. In order to earn the certification the Airport had to first quantify the greenhouse gases that were being generated and then had to elaborate a plan to reduce this number considerably and also recover refrigerant gases. T...

Costa Rica already reached 300 days this year producing its energy from renewable sources, according to data by the National Energy Control Center. 99.62% of the national electricity production comes from its five clean energy sources, water, wind, sun, geothermal and biomass, with the hydroelectric energy making up the bulk of energy production, 78.26%; wind 10.29%; geothermal 10.23%, and 0.84...

In Costa Rica there are approximately 440,799 senior citizens, and so far in 2017 there have been 854 cases of violence and 3,877 aggression reports against this population and over 700 elderly have been abandoned according to data by the Social Management Unit of the National Council for the Senior Citizens (Conapam). In response to these situation Costa Rica's Ombudsman's Office (Defensoria d...

A total of 73 films, (50 feature films, 20 short films, 1 web series documentary, 1 virtual reality movie and a medium-length film), in 18 different languages from 35 countries and 70 national and 50 international guests will be part of Costa Rica’s International Film Festival 2017 (CRFIC) an event organized as usual by the Film Center (Centro de Cine) and the Ministry of Culture. This is the s...

The General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC) saw many weaknesses in the way the Tobias Bolaños Airport is being managed that gave cause to irregularities and many times suspicious activities. So far this year the authorities discovered 27 unauthorized small airplanes in the hangars of the Pavas national airport; also, several cases of airplane owners trying to take fuel from the planes, ...

Medical tourism in Costa Rica showed considerable growth in 2015 and 2016 in comparison with previous years. According to statistics by the Costa Rica Tourism Board, the number of foreigners that visited the country with the purpose of seeking high quality and affordable medical care went from 9,774 in 2015 to 13,131 in 2016 which represents an increase of 34%, a very significant achievement fo...

Walmart in Costa Rica will have once again great discounts this weekend with the “Pre-Black Weekend”. Over 300 products are included in the promotion which will have discounts of up to 50%. Some of the articles included are: Nintendo Switch Consoles, cell phones, flat screens, household items, home appliances as well as clothing and some groceries, even motorcycles. The discounts will apply ...

The Costa Rica National Symphony Orchestra was awarded the Latin Grammy in the category of “Best Classical Music Album¨ in the 18th edition of the Latin music award ceremony that was celebrated Thursday evening in Las Vegas, Nevada. The recognition was awarded for the album ¨Música de Compositores Costarricenses, volumen 2¨ (Music by Costa Rican Songwriters, Volume 2) a production directed by ...

The last spot available in the Russia World Cup 2018 was taken yesterday with the classification of the Peru National Soccer Team which beat New Zealand 2-0. With this, and after three years of competition and 2,456 goals celebrated, the 32 teams that will participate in Russia 2018 are now decided. The Russia 2018 is marked by the absence of historically strong teams such as Italy, Netherlands...

Costa Rican congressman part of the National Liberation Party for the province of Guanacaste, Juan Marin, passed away this Thursday after his car crashed against a protection wall in the Rio Segundo, Alajuela tollbooth (General Cañas highway). The congressman was driving his Hyundai Tucson 2013 when the accident occurred, for reasons still unknown, at around 2:51 a.m., according to the hour reg...

The 2017 Costa Rica Sustainable Hotel and Tourism Investment Conference was held at the Real Intercontinental Hotel this past November 13 and 14 and had the presence of over 200 participants, among them, investors, developers and specialized media from different parts of the world. This was the first edition in Costa Rica  of the conference on sustainable tourism investment, organized under the...

Costa Rican Police seized 213 kilos of cocaine on Wednesday morning, concealed in a van. A Hyundai van was detained during a routine road check in the area of Turrúcares in Alajuela, the car was checked by the officers and a Yanko from the K-9 unit; it was the dog that alerted the officials of the presence of the drugs. The car was taken to the Alajuela police station where they proceeded to ch...

Costa Rican super featherweight boxer Francisco Fonseca who jumped to the public eye when he faced former world champion Gervonta Davis, in the undercard of the Mayweather-McGregor mega fight in Las Vegas Nevada back in August, will be back in the ring next December 14, in Panama City, Panama. Fonseca, a former IBF Inter-Continental Super featherweight Champion, is now going after the WBO Latin...

The National Emergency Commission (CNE) declared the afternoon of this Wednesday green alert for the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica, due to the heavy rains that have affected the area in the past 24 hours and that are expected to continue through this Thursday. The alert applies for the South, Central, and North Pacific. The south zone, or Zona Sur, has been the most affected so far by floods, fal...

Is the Costa Rican educational system ready to respond to technological evolution, automation, artificial intelligence and other disruptive megatrends that are changing the world and the jobs of the future? More than 250 representatives of the Costa Rican government authorities, academy, private sector, chambers, pro-development organizations, education experts, presidential candidates and other r...

This holiday season, globetrotting families should consider exploring the cultural wonders that are waiting to be discovered in sunny Costa Rica. Celebrating the season with an unforgettable immersive experience is one way to ensure lasting memories that will be treasured long after the tan lines are gone. Experiential travel, which continues to rise in popularity for its transformative results...