The Panamanian Tourism Authority (ATP, its initials in Spanish) announced this week they are considering reactivating a medical insurance option offered for free to visitors to the Central American country, said the government entity. The consideration to reopen the program comes in the wake of the killing of a taxi driver Tuesday, March 14 in the early morning hours in which two Canadians were...

Investigations carried out by Drug Control Police (PCD, its initials in Spanish) unit of the Ministry of Public Security led to the dismantling of 20 narco criminal structures operating in the country, said the ministry. These police actions took place from January 1 until March 15. Fifteen of these narco clans operated locally, of which 8 were family-run groups. The remaining five narco operat...

Who should cover women’s maternity leave? Private companies, the state, or both? In Costa Rica, maternity leave has traditionally been a shared responsibility, but has often been criticized as harming women’s employment prospects, as employers can be reluctant to take on the extra costs in the event a woman gets pregnant. And firing a pregnant woman in Costa Rica is against the law, precisely t...

  Costa Rican pineapples obtained the green light to be sold in the Chinese market, announced Costa Rica’s Ministry of Foreign Trade (COMEX) yesterday. There are currently at least 20 companies interested in exporting pineapples to China. Dialogue with China on the possibility of exporting pineapple from Costa Rican began in 2010 when the pineapple sector expressed an interest in export...

The Board of Directors of the Costa Rican Fisheries and Aquaculture Institute (Incopesca) announced today they would limit granting permits for tuna fishing in 2017 as a provisional measure while they implement a new model to better regulate the activity. The Costa Rican Presidency announced that the management model for the tuna industry is being reformulated in order to achieve a better balan...

Air France announced today that thanks to the successful operation of its existing Costa Rica-France route, the airline will be expanding to three flights a week for its 2017-2018 season starting at the end of October. Its 2016-2017 season surpassed 32,000 reservations for an average flight occupancy of over 80 percent. The Air France flights have increased French tourism to Costa Rica by an es...

Traffic look bad, too hot to go out, or want to order in for a company meeting? Eateries and grocery stores are beating traffic to reach more people in their homes and offices with expanded express delivery services, reported the companies this week. Quiznos, with 31 outlets in Costa Rica, and Teriyaki, with seven, recently implemented express delivery in the areas surrounding Lindora near S...

- Only 5 percent of the tuna caught in Costa Rican waters is hauled in by local boats. Data from a recent study by the non-profit marine conservation foundation, MarViva, shows Costa Rica lagging behind in the tuna fishery industry, a resource that could aid struggling coastal economies. “At a time when the fisheries sector is in crisis, the country's fishing resources must be managed in a sci...

Workers today in northern Costa Rica may make history with a first collective bargaining agreement on a pineapple farm. Costa Rica’s Labor Ministry is alert to a strike that initiated today at 3:00 a.m. by workers at the Santa Fe pineapple plantation in the far northern town of Los Chiles, said Gerald Valverde Santos, spokesman for the Private Sector Workers Union (Sitrasep, its acronym in Span...

Transportation officials announced early today a slight delay in the planned opening of three of the completely overhauled “Platina” bridge’s eventual six lanes. The three lanes they had hoped to open today will be ready early next week, allowing more time for workers to fit and install the bridge’s five expansion joints, a very precise and time-consuming process, said Minister of Public Works ...

During 2017, various companies plan to strengthen their relations with public institutions through public-private initiatives aimed at social and environmental problems. Since 2013, the Purdy Motor Group has teamed up with the Ministry of Public Education to develop a program called Purdy Cole, which aims to have employees of the company complete their studies. Purdy turns their meeting rooms i...

The last Sunday of each month, starting at 11 a.m., the National Museum in downtown San José fills with music that captivates crowds of up to 300 people. This is the 10th year that the San José Concert Band will offer concerts on the last Sunday of each month. Seating is limited, and you must arrive early to reserve a seat. Locals enter free (with id) and foreign visitors must pay the museum ad...

This week, the U.S. company DineEquity announced plans to open at least 10 International House of Pancakes (IHOP) brand restaurants in Costa Rica as part of its growth plan in Latin America, said Costa Rica’s business daily El Financiero. The brand’s international growth has mainly focused on increasing the number of restaurants in existing markets and, at the same time, entering three new mark...

In the wake of the tragic killing of a Canadian teacher over a week ago in Puerto Viejo, Limón, police have upped their presence. Through a number of different patrols, as well as meetings and conversations with community members and visitors, police aim to create a peaceful and safe environment for residents and tourists alike. An operation involving several different police forces has been...

If you are planning a trip Thursday night from the Central Valley to Limón or nearby points on the Caribbean coast, beware that the tunnel on the main highway will be closed for repairs. The closure will be in effect for five hours, from 10:00 p.m. Thursday, March 16 until 3:00 a.m. Friday, March 17, said the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT).   A detailed evaluation...

While crossing bridges around San José used to just be time-consuming - it may be getting quicker, even though potentially more tongue-tying. The newly inaugurated, widened bridge connecting San José’s La Uruca with Heredia via Pozuelo-Jardines de Recuerdo has been named after Costa Rican writer Yolanda Oreamuno (1916-1956). Better not try out the pronunciation while navigating traffic, ther...

Starbucks Coffee Company announced that it will develop a visitor’s center at its coffee farm, Hacienda Alsacia, on the slopes of Poás volcano, about 30 minutes from the international airport in Alajuela, Costa Rica. The center will begin receiving tourists in 2018. Since the purchase of the 240-hectare farm in March 2013, Starbucks has run it as a typical coffee plantation, and in doing so, ha...

Meet the most recent player on the Costa Rican taxi scene: Nova Transportes, a 100 percent locally owned business. The company is recruiting drivers, and also clients, on its Facebook page, and says it will accept car models from 2000 on. The newly formed Costa Rican company, Nova Transportes, is basing its model on Uber, and will begin operating in the second half of this year, said the com...

— The application is available for iOS and Android. Wondering when your local organic farmer's market is open, or want to visit an organic farm on an upcoming road trip in Costa Rica? A new App might help. The Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) announced earlier this month the launch of "Cr Organic", a free App that allows consumers to directly contact organic producers without intermedia...

The Costa Rican Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce (MEIC) joins an international campaign in March to increase awareness of consumer fraud, and ways to protect yourself, whether online or otherwise. This year's theme is Internet fraud, one of the most common fraudulent business practices today. Various online ploys can compromise your personal information that then allows access to your...

Costa Rica now has its first national policy on wastewater sanitation and a funding plan that includes $520 million in infrastructure to provide long-awaited, significant improvements to the country’s public and environmental health. This policy is the result of priorities established in the National Development Plan (PND) created under the current administration. These include strengthening in...

By Wendy Anders Over 11,000 elementary school students currently receive scholarships to aid their families to send them to school, said the Costa Rican President’s office. The scholarships are part of a series of investments being made to reduce poverty under the Bridge to Development program started under the administration of President Luis Guillermo Solís. The children, whose ages ran...

Costa Rica’s National Ombud’s Office reiterated the state’s obligation to provide full prenatal and maternal health services to all women irrespective of their migratory status in the country or their ability to pay for basic coverage. The office’s statement was in response to their recent investigation which found, among other things, that the state public health care provider (CCSS, its initi...

By Wendy Anders The day after International Women’s Day, a woman was nearly decapitated and left dead by her husband in a small town in Costa Rica. The country continues to move forward with protections of women’s rights in the workplace, in health care services, and in the streets with new anti-harassment legislation proposed, increased domestic violence services offered, greater gender awa...

When is the last time you texted while driving or answered an urgent call before pulling over? Living in Costa Rica, without the ease of finding shoulders on main roads, maneuvering overcrowded streets, and dealing with harried schedules, we are all guilty of texting while driving on occasion. It is no secret that taking your eyes off the road while driving, even for a fraction of a second, ...

By Wendy Anders The Costa Rican Public Health System this week became the first institution in the Latin America and Caribbean region, and the seventh in the world to be internationally certified for its emergency and disaster relief services. The World Health Organization granted the emergency medical team of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS), which runs the country’s universal pu...

The operators of the ferry service linking Puntarenas with Paquera on the Nicoya Peninsula, Naviera Tambor, S.A., has been granted a 10-year extension of their concession to run the service, said the Ministry of Transportation and Public Works (MOPT, in Spanish) this week. Paquera links tourists to the nearby beaches of Tambor, Mal País, Montezuma, Santa Teresa and others in the southern Nicoya...

By Wendy Anders From March 13 to 17, Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solís, as announced on his Facebook page,  will make a “working tour” to the United States. “In New York, I will be presenting, together with the High Level Panel on Women's Economic Empowerment, the final report containing actions and good practices for the effective inclusion of women in the workplace,” said Solís. ...

Costa Rica moves forward with its nature conservation agenda by signing into law a National Wetlands Policy this week. Luis Guillermo Solís, President of the Republic, attended the launch of this historic public policy together with environmental authorities and representatives of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Costa Rica has more than two thousand wetlands that fall under th...

Costa Rican police have noted a significant drop in thefts and break-ins in the popular Central Pacific tourist region during the first two months of 2017. Police are attributing the decline to changes in their policing which includes strengthened preventive actions and greater cooperation with other regional agencies, said the Public Security Ministry. Thefts decreased by 66 cases in Januar...

An annual human rights report found the main problem areas in Costa Rica to be “overcrowded prisons, discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and infringement on the rights of indigenous people,” said the 2016 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices published by the United States Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. Other human rights conce...

This article was updated on Thursday, March 9 with correct name information for the victim. By Wendy Anders Today, in the early morning hours, a man was discovered lying along the side of the road with stab wounds in his stomach in the center of Puerto Viejo, a tourist beach town in the Atlantic coastal province of Limón, reported judicial investigative police (OIJ) press officials this afte...

If you have a post-paid mobile Internet plan with the Costa Rican Electric Institute (ICE), you may want to dig out your contract. Starting this month, all post-paid mobile Internet plan holders will have their Internet speeds docked down to the slowest speed (128 kps) if they exceed the maximum download amount stipulated in their plan. This lower speed, if a user exceeds their quota, will appl...

The Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT) is moving forward with a project that will improve road safety at 91 railroad crossings along the three San José metropolitan train lines of Pavas-San José-Curridabat, Heredia-San José, and San José-Cartago, said the agency this week. Carlos Villalta, Transportation Minister, explained that three offers were received from different companie...

A regional proposal by the Costa Rican Judiciary’s Restorative Justice Program was chosen from more than eighty projects submitted to an international competition organized by the European Union. The program proposes a regional approach to restorative justice, and will receive support from the European Union for its implementation, said European Union Ambassador Pelayo Castro Zuzuarregui. Costa...

Two cases of incestuous pregnancy in an underage girl were reported last week alone in Costa Rica. In the few days since the Costa Rica Professional Sociologists Association (CPSCR) published the following statement (which has been lightly edited and condensed) on Friday, February 24, local media (Repretel) reported on a new case of pregnancy in an underage girl in Costa Rica who reports having...

The National Symphonic Orchestra hosts virtuoso American violinist Philippe Quint as guest soloist this Friday, March 3, and again on Sunday, March 5, in the first 2017 Season concert at the National Theater, said the orchestra. The OSN returns to San José's glorious rennaissance theater under the baton of Conductor Carl St. Clair, who has led the group since 2014. Philippe Quint, who has wo...

Costa Rican health authorities estimate needing 2,750 people to donate blood in March. “Why March?” you might ask. The public health system, run by the Costa Rican Social Security Agency (CCSS) always does an extra push for blood donations to shore up stocks in advance of April’s Holy (Easter) Week. Holy Week, known in Spanish as Semana Santa, is, for less strict Catholics (meaning most o...

After a five-year wait, Carrillo, Guanacaste finally made the cut to host a Ironman 70.3 triathlon this year. This is the first time Costa Rica will host one of the world famous endurance competitions, and it is almost completely filled. With 2,000 competitors already filling all of the general registration spots for the June 18 event, according to the Ironman website, event organizers expect t...

The United Nations System in Costa Rica last week expressed concern about recent cases of sexual violence against the children and adolescents and increasing rates of reported violence in this population. Alice Shackelford, U.N. Resident Coordinator; Gordon Jonathan Lewis, Representative of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF); and Paula Antezana, Assistant Representative of the United N...