Luckily for Costa Rica and Nicaragua, Hurricane Otto lost strength as it made landfall on the coast of southeastern Nicaragua, it is currently traveling at a speed of 15 kilometers per hour with winds of 175 kilometers per hour. Heavy rain continues to fall in the northeast area of Costa Rica. The Meteorological Institute expects that Otto will continue to move through Costa Rican territory wit...

Update: Hurricane Otto had already strengthen to a category 2 hurricane early this Thursday morning and affected certain areas in Costa Rica with heavy rain. As of 11:15 a.m. Costa Rica time Hurricane Otto hit land in Bluefields, Nicaragua, north of Isla Calero in Costa Rica with wind forces almost reaching a category 3 hurricane. Experts expect Otto will lose strength and will degrade to a tropic...

By Wendy Anders Update on Otto at 1:00 p.m. EST today from The Weather Channel. The Ministry of Public Education announced a nationwide cancellation of classes this afternoon as a preventive safety measure due to the expected arrival of tropical storm Otto this evening or early tomorrow in Costa Rica, announced Education Minister Sonia Marta Mora Escalante on the institution’s official Face...

By Wendy Anders Update on Otto at 1:00 p.m. EST today from The Weather Channel. A red alert for Costa Rica’s northern coast remains in effect due to the expected arrival of Otto late tonight, with residents having been evacuated, schools closed, and clinics in the surrounding region outfitted with additional emergency supplies and increased emergency staff, said the National Emergency Commi...

By Wendy Anders Residents of remote areas in the northern Costa Rican Caribbean are escorted to safe areas by plane in advance of Hurricane Otto. In a televised announcement today, Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solís ordered communities along Costa Rica’s northern Atlantic coast to leave their homes in advance of Hurricane Otto’s imminent arrival. Otto is expected to make landfall...

CARIBBEAN HURRICANE Photo from The Weather Channel. Miami, Nov 22 — Tropical Storm Otto on Tuesday strengthened to a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 km/h) as it continued to move toward Costa Rica and Nicaragua, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. As of 21:00 GMT (3:00 p.m. Costa Rica time), the storm was located 305 miles (485 km) east-southea...

By Wendy Anders The 400 ms of illegal fishing nets seized in the Gulf of Nicoya this week by Coast Guard patrols, photo Public Security Ministry. Officials from the National Coast Guard Service seized illegal trawling nets that unidentified fishermen were using in the Gulf of Nicoya, said the Costa Rican Public Security Ministry in a press statement yesterday. The trawling nets were loca...

Dentons to be first global law firm with offices in Central America PRESS RELEASE : Proposed combination with Muñoz Global would unite world’s largest law firm and regional leader with offices in Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua November 15, 2016: Dentons, the world’s largest law firm, announced it would become the first global law firm with offices in Central America if a proposed combin...

The highest cloud tops, corresponding to the most vigorous convection, are shown in the dark red and pink colors. To be designated a tropical cyclone, deep convection must persist near a closed circulation of low pressure at the surface. Satellite image from the Weather Channel last night. By Wendy Anders Costa Rica is taking the brunt of a late-season tropical low-pressure system that fore...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica's balance of trade, 1995-2016; Central Bank data. In the first nine months of this year, Costa Rica's trade deficit fell to USD 3.86 billion from USD 4.11 billion in the same period last year, as exports grew 7.4 percent to USD 7.43 billion while imports increased 2.4 percent to USD 11.29 billion. Costa Rica's trade deficit decreased by 9.3 percent in September...

Route 257 which connects route 32 with the new APM Terminals Moin will have an ecological corridor that will allow monkeys, sloths and other small animals to go across without danger of being run over. This is one of the environmental aspects being worked into the project currently under construction in the Caribbean. The new road, valued in close to $71 million US dollars, involves only 2.8...

A total of 5.38 km (3.35 miles) of bicycle track should be ready by February 2017 in San Pedro, Montes de Oca confirmed the mayor of this town Marcel Soler who also confirmed the Municipality is studying the possibility of extending the bike paths to other areas in the county in the future. The path consists of three different tracks, one will connect the Law Faculty of the University of Costa ...

The Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA)along with the Morpho Independent Life Center and the Information Committee of the Organizations for Disabled People (COINDIS) organize the II International Seminar for the disabled population under the slogan “Building alliances for the future”. During two days’ participants, will be able to share and reinforce their knowledge with talks, ro...

By Wendy Anders Egidio Robles Gamboa, was awarded the Quality of Life Improvement Award for promoting community social action. The Costa Rican Ombudsman’s Office recognized the success achieved by an initiative aimed at improving the economic, social and cultural conditions of indigenous Bribri and Cabécar women in Talamanca, Limón. The Association of Indigenous Women of Talamanca (ACOMU...

By Wendy Anders A family in Escazú forced into the street by a taxi parked on a sidewalk, photo published by the Accidentes en Costa Rica Facebook group. This Monday, a draft "Framework for Safe and Sustainable Mobility of People" was presented to the Costa Rican Legislative Assembly by Legislator Marcela Guerrero, as reported in elperiodicocr.com, a digital Spanish news source. The prop...

By Wendy Anders The Costa Rican Chamber of Private Businesses (UCCAEP, in Spanish) announced yesterday they filed a case on Monday in the constitutional court denouncing what they describe as disproportional privileges granted to employees of the state-owned oil refinery, Recope. Earlier this year, Recope announced they were curtailing some long standing employee benefits, but UCCAEP members...

By Wendy Anders African migrants in Costa Rica; OAS The Government of Costa Rica yesterday resumed deportations of Haitian citizens who are in the country without legal documents, reported the Spanish news service EFE. The deportations had been suspended a month and a half ago due to the emergency situation in Haiti in the aftermath of Hurricane Mathew, said government officials. A gr...

By Wendy Anders Hydroelectric plant in Costa Rica, photo for illustrative purposes. Costa Rica’s Cote Hydroelectric Plant near Arenal Volcano is the only plant in Costa Rica approved for carbon emission reduction sales through the World Bank’s Prototype Carbon Fund. Run by the National Power and Light Company (CNFL), the 6.8 MW Cote Hydroelectric Plant (CHP) offsets an estimated 9,500 to...

By Wendy Anders Nicoya beach, Guanacaste. Flickr Commons Ontario, Canada's University of Windsor has a new dean of science who studies beaches around the world, and their deceptively strong rip tides. Whether it’s dangerous rip tides or currents in Costa Rica or beaches along the Great Lakes, Houser encounters the same problem. Swimmers don’t know how to spot a rip current. When your ...

With barely 1,000 individuals left in the world and its habitat dwindling each year, a fight is under way in Costa Rica and the Caribbean to save the exotic green macaw (Ara ambiguus) from extinction. A green macaw at Ara Ambigua. The Ara Project is being carried out in the tropical forest of Manzanillo in Costa Rica's Atlantic Limón province, which has become an important site for the cons...

3M 3M inaugurated new global service center in Costa Rica, increasing its presence in the country. This center will provide support to the company’s operations in conjunction with two other service centers located in Philippines and Poland. The new operation will focus in providing financial services, human resources services, technology information, optimization of processes, data use and se...

This past Thursday, November 10, the government of Costa Rica officially launched the campaign “Blue Heart against Human Trafficking”, an initiative that aims to influence the Costa Rican institutions and different sectors to raise awareness among the population about this scourge. The campaign also empowers society to express its solidarity with the people affected by this network of organized...

Foreign man shot dead in his Mazda by unidentified motorcyclists while driving near La Sabana park at noon today, photo AMPrensa.com. By Wendy Anders — Story in progress — A man who is believed to be of Ukranian descent named Spridonov and about 60 years old was declared dead today at about 12:30 p.m. near the on-ramp to Route 27, south of the La Sabana Stadium, reported AMPrensa.com, a ...

By Wendy Anders Park guards measure one of the dead sharks to learn more about the animals. Photo by Geiner Golfín, park ranger. Cocos Island’s protected biodiverse waters were the scene of a marine tragedy Tuesday. Rangers who patrol the island and, most importantly, the 12 nautical miles surrounding Cocos, were distraught to find 14 sharks caught on an illegally placed 5 mile longline ...

The Costa Rican police dismantled a gang of drug traffickers with links in Mexico and Guatemala, a spokesman for the Ministry of Public Security (MSP) said yesterday. ARCHIVE/FILE: Some 1,700 tons of cocaine is expected to pass through Costa Rican territory in 2016. (Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Public Security) "At the moment there have been 14 detained, after making 24 raids, and it ...

The Legatum Institute published its 2016 Prosperity Index; this study evaluates 149 countries based on several variables such as the per capita GDP, the wellbeing of the population and even the internet access. The Index ranks nations over nine areas: Economic Quality, Business Environment, Governance, Education, Health, Safety and Security, Personal Freedom, Social Capital and Natural Environment...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica's global ranking on press freedom since 2002, courtesy of Gobierno.cr. In its 2016 global report of 180 countries, Reporters Without Borders ranked Costa Rica 6th highest for freedom of information, topping the Americas. This is the highest ranking Costa Rica has received for the free practice of journalism since 2002, reported the Costa Rican government’s pres...

By Wendy Anders Alleged 'greenwashing' by Infinito Gold, file photo. Just when you think it's over … Crucitas returns. On November 17-18, Canada’s Inifinito Gold company will face Broad Front Legislator Edgardo Araya in San José’s Second Judicial Criminal. The company is pressing charges for Araya’s alleged defamation of Infinito Gold during previous legal battles in which the company...

By Wendy Anders Glen Gaulton from University of Pennsylvania's School of Medicine gives a talk. The University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine signed an academic cooperation agreement with Costa Rica’s Ministry of Health last week to lend their expertise to collaborative research projects, reported the Health Ministry. Areas of interest include oncology, neurological diseases...

The long-awaited Metallica concert that took place this Saturday, November 5th at the National Stadium in Costa Rica, was the main topic of conversation in social media all through Saturday night and more so on Sunday morning, unfortunately, for the wrong reasons. A concert, of any kind, should be a cultural event, a fun gathering for fans of a particular band, artist or genre, and well, there’...

The global peace index in the 10th annual edition ranks 163 independent states and territories according to their level of peacefulness. The GPI states “The 2016 Global Peace Index overall score deteriorated slightly compared with 2015, and at a faster rate than the previous year. Once again, the Middle East and North Africa was the region that saw its levels of peace deteriorate the most.” ...

“Somos 2021” (We are 2021) is the name of the initiative presented by the Costa Rican Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the chancellor Manuel González; this initiative hopes to obtain 200 scholarships by 2021 to celebrate the 200 years of the independence of Costa Rica. The objective is to find the best universities and the best academic offers in countries such as: Canada, U.S.A., Mexico, Colomb...

As of Tuesday, November 8, 2016 Condor airlines will offer direct flights from Munich, Germany to Juan Santamaría Airport in Alajuela, Costa Rica. This airline provides services from Frankfurt to Alajuela on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays since 1991; and it’s precisely the increasing demand an the raise in the number of passengers that have resulted in this new route. “We are very happy to i...

By Wendy Anders RAW outdoor fitness in Costa Rica. One way to increase your wellbeing is through physical activity. “People the world over say what is most important to them is to be happy,” said British environmentalist Nic Marks, creator of the Happy Planet Index, in a TED talk on his work. If so, then our current methods for measuring success and progress have it all wrong, he continu...

By Wendy Anders Rincon de la Vieja national park in Guanacaste has been eyed for its geothermal energy potential. A proposal to open Costa Rica’s national parks to geothermal energy projects was dashed last week by the Legislative Assembly’s environmental commission. After Libertarian Party legislators, Otto Guevara and Natalia Diaz, introduced the bill (number 19,339) in 2014, the initi...

By Wendy Anders Late last night, a Costa Rican non-profit environmental group reported an emergency off Brasilito beach in the country’s northern Guanacaste region on the Pacific coast. The Costa Rican Institute of Oceanology (Instituto de Oceanología) based in Playa Potrero said in a press statement published on their Facebook site that the shrimp boat, the Azoriano, allegedly collided agai...

By Wendy Anders A recent night-time eruption. On October 29, 2014, just before midnight, the Turrialba Volcano blasted an eruption that sent nearby residents fleeing from their homes, as reported by the National University’s Volcanology and Seismology Research Institute (Ovsicori-UNA). No one was hurt in this renewal of the volcano’s active phase, luckily. Now, after two straight year...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica’s Telecommunications Superintendency (Sutel) last week announced they would extend by 5 working days the public consultation period on proposed changes to the country's telecommunication markets. The extension was in response to pressure from the country’s Ombudsman’s Office (Defensoría de los Habitantes). However, the country’s ombudswoman, Montserrat Solano Carbo...

By Wendy Anders Researchers at Stanford, through intense observations, mapping and analysis, generated a method of estimating biodiversity based on tree cover. The results can be used by policymakers to help protect biodiversity and endangered species. Stanford researchers discovered that in agricultural areas of Costa Rica, increased tree cover corresponds with increases in biodiversity. Th...

By Wendy Anders After the new animal welfare law approved by the Costa Rican legislature in July was given a thumbs down by the Costa Rican Constitutional Court (Sala IV), legislators regrouped to revise the law’s text. The changes, which mainly included lowering the fines and prison terms in the original version, were accepted unanimously by the committee in charge of drafting the bill. ...