Typha domingensi "Tifa" plant in Guanacaste Costa RicaThe forest fire season in Costa Rica will officially begin on January 15, but an early wildfire in Guanacaste recently served as a grim reminder that the hot, non-rainy season spells danger for the driest region of the country. The fire occurred in the Coral de Piedra (Stone Coral) area, a protected wetland located in the Nicoya canton. Firefi...

Save for shopping trips to South Florida and family outings to the amusement parks in Orlando, Tico tourists are mostly content with exploring their own country. Although rural tourism has picked up considerably in Costa Rica over the last few years, families in Costa Rica are increasingly looking for upscale, all-inclusive resorts when they go on vacation, and hoteliers in Jaco Beach and Guanacas...

Earlier this month, more than 250 firefighters from five Latin American nations concluded a major training exercise in Ciudad de los Ninos (City of Children), province of Cartago. This exercise was very timely for Costa Rica, a country that is expecting a high risk of wildfires due to increased human activity in nature reserves and farmlands, climate change, and overall carelessness. This multi...

Officials from the Bagaces canton in the province of Guanacaste are evaluating a nimble method of garbage collection utilized in the Free and Sovereign State of San Luis Potosi, Mexico. This curbside trash pick-up method does not involve the traditional dump truck contracts, which are often plagued by issues such as inadequate staffing, broken down vehicles, labor strikes, and subcontractor disput...

On December 20, members of the Playas de Nosara ASADA water board, sometimes referred to as the American Project ASADA, held a meeting to discuss the results of an engineering report required by the Costa Rican Water and Sewage Institute (AyA) as part of the rate increase application. Once the report has been sent to AyA, it will then go to ARESEP (Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos...

Airbnb in Costa RicaSince 2008, Airbnb has offered an online service that essentially brought a new dimension in terms of finding lodging and short-term residential options in Costa Rica. Airbnb's business model, which involves empowering property owners in Costa Rica to monetize their unoccupied living spaces by offering them to visitors, has been very successful; however, the hospitality indust...

Source: Nature A recent study published in the respected scientific journal Nature has been covered by some news media outlets as a prediction of an earthquake that rattled Guanacaste and all of Costa Rica in 2012. The September 5th earthquake will always be remembered as a significant event with regard to earthquake preparedness and anticipation, but it is important to note the difference bet...

Photo of the Marlin del Rey catamaran in Playas del Coco Guanacaste Costa RicaThe high tourist season is just starting to warm up in Costa Rica, and Marlin del Rey Catamaran Sailing tours on the Gold Coast is already feeling the heat. As one of the leading day-cruise providers in Guanacaste, Marlin del Rey operates three majestic sailing ships: The eponymous Marlin del Rey in Tamarindo, the New M...

Alleged greenwashing by Infinito Gold Just days before Christmas, eight Canadian organizations are increasing their pressure on Infinito Gold and urging the mining firm to drop its peculiar billion dollar lawsuit against the Republic of Costa Rica. One public petition has already gathered more than 300,000 signatures, and this letter is now calling on the Canadian government to release certain...

Source: Marina PapagayoIn 2008, just ten days before Christmas, one of Costa Rica's premier marinas inaugurated its operations against the backdrop of one of the worst financial crises in history. It was a day full of guarded hope for the principals of Marina Papagayo, located on the peninsula of the same name in the province of Guanacaste. Five years later, the marina looks back at its many acco...

Source: Wikimedia Commons As part of the ongoing love affair between Ticos and junk food, the significant expansion of quick-service restaurants (QSR) vastly overcame similar efforts by casual-dining and full-service restaurants franchises in Costa Rica during 2013. It's no longer major brands such as McDonald's and KFC seeking profits in Costa Rica, even smaller players such as Nathan's Famou...

El Pejibaye Home Page A new online news media site in Costa Rica recently reported on a lawsuit that compensated a truck driver who suffered a road traffic accident after staring at the ample cleavage of an attractive Tica while driving in Heredia. Another news item explained the commercial warehouse shopping district in Golfito is planning a “Blacker Friday” in response to a successful Black ...

Samara Organics is a family business owned by Angelina and Steve Phillips, located in downtown Samara. It has been part of the “Natural Center” complex for two years now and recently moved to a different building on the other side of the complex across from its old location. The new location offers clients a larger and brighter space, which allows them to welcome more people, distribute better ...

Delicious breakfast with an amazing ocean view of the Gulf of Papagayo, at Hotel ChantelHotel Chantel, an ocean view boutique hotel in Guanacaste that offers the best 360-degree panoramic view of Playas del Coco, is pleased to announce the inauguration of its scenic rooftop restaurant. This new restaurant will be for the exclusive enjoyment of Hotel Chantel's guests; however, the hotel management...

A cavern at Barra Honda National Park in GuanacasteWe stood at the top of a dark opening, looking at the curve of a metal ladder that disappeared down into the hole. Two guides tightened our harnesses and secured us to a rope for the descent, 17 meters (55 feet) down into the entrance of Terciopelo, one of the 42 underground caverns that have been discovered so far in Barra Honda National Park. ...

Last year Coconut Harry’s surf shop opened a juice bar; this year they are taking their menu a step further and opening a taco bar. The business is located across from Hotel Café de Paris on the main street of Guiones, where you can sit and watch people passing along the street. The taco bar is Rachelle Sexton and Steve Reyer’s new project. Sexton’s tacos have become famous in Guiones thank...

Receipt for $7 to cross into Nicaragua from Costa RicaThe Costa Rica Star has recently published information about receiving your permanent residency in Costa Rica to avoid border runs, wasting time, and money. I read every article I could get my hands on regarding the new tax required to leave Costa Rica at the Nicaragua pedestrian border. According to news sources, I could pay the fee at any...

Source: palmrealestatecr.com After a tepid 2012, the housing market in Costa Rica got off to an auspicious start in 2013. Construction starts picked up considerably in the first quarter, and healthy demand for commercial properties gave a major boost to the economy during most of the year. Activity in the residential market was lukewarm at the beginning of the year, but by September it had bec...

This past Saturday December 14 was the 2nd Nosara Artisans Holiday Art Fair at The Gilded Iguana. Thirty artists living in Nosara displayed their ceramics, fabric art, furniture, glass art, jewelry, mosaics, paintings, photos, prints, upcycled art, and wood carving. Several community organizations participated as well. There was face painting for Escuelita Verano and holiday gifts from the new...

Nosara returned to the news with its selection, made by the American television network CNN and the magazine National Geographic, as a world-class tourist destination to visit in 2014. On December 14, CNN published the article “11 places to go in 2014,” where they included Nosara as one of the recommended places to visit during international travelers’ next vacation. According to the publica...

After 20 years of neglect, the Municipality of Nicoya will give maintenance to the streets of the community of Matapalo in Samara. The reason why the streets have not been fixed in so long is because they are not recognized on the map of the canton’s road network. This was expressed by Marcos Jimenez, mayor of the Municipality of Nicoya, and council member Rodolfo Orozco at the meeting held ...

Adventurous athletes will soon have a new option to test their abilities. A climbing wall is currently under construction in Nosara and should be ready by late December. Climb Nosara was designed locally by Steve Way and architect Olivier von der Weid. “Rock climbing is an awesome sport,” Way commented. “It will work great along the surfing and yoga mentality, with its core workout, balance,...

The Costa Rica Star recently reported on 4G internet coming to Guanacaste in 2014. It's no secret that many places in Guanacaste lack access to technology when compared to other parts of the country. However, the gap may be closing, opening new opportunities along with new concerns. A study done by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Telecommunications (MICIT- Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecn...

Eden Pastora Once again, members of the Nicaraguan government of Daniel Ortega say that the colonial town of Nicoya and the province of Guanacaste are part of Nicaragua and that an international court should define to which country they belong. This time, the statements come from ex-guerrilla Eden Pastora, who is the person responsible for dredging the San Juan River along the border betwe...

A joint project between a division of the Ad Astra Rocket Company in Liberia and the government-owned Petroleum Refinery of Costa Rica (Spanish acronym: RECOPE) aims to generate and store hydrogen fuel to be used by the transportation sector. This hydrogen plant was recently unveiled in Guanacaste, a province that is leading the way in clean energy projects and sustainability. According to an o...

Update: Portions of this article have been removed on behalf of a party involved, due to being inaccurate. The remainder of the article will stay intact as the original. Witnessing a monkey electrocuted by un-insulated power lines or transformers is a very disturbing, yet an all too common sight in Playa del Coco and surrounding beach communities. As many well know, the Coco area is a natural ...

Manuel Briceño Jimenez opened Carnicería La Colonial in downtown Samara three months ago. In Nicoya, he has another butcher’s shop with the same name 300 meters from the Alfaro bus station. “Samara is a market we decided to enter because many customers we have in Nicoya told us to go to Samara. We wanted to cover that area and please our customers with a good product at the same prices as in Ni...

Are we able to understand large amounts of information more easily with comprehensive images? On December 11th, international journalists, developers, and designers gathered at the Universidad National Costa Rica in Nicoya for a conference on Data Visualization sponsored by Voice of Guanacaste. The workshop was led by Brazilian journalist and Knight Fellow Mariana Santos and co-created by Voice...

The Nosara 2013 Cultural Festival was carried out with a completely full arena and the streets flooded with color, music and people. For the second time, Nosara’s Integral Development Association (ADIN) organized the festival with the help of residents of La Esperanza, Garza, Delicias, Barco Quebrado and Nicoya who joined in for the family activities. This year saw more action than last. The...

National park rangers and officials of the Guanacaste Conservation Area, one of Costa Rica's most active regions in terms of visits by both national and foreign visitors, recently announced the hours of operation they will observe durind the holidays and the busy high tourist season in Costa Rica. The following schedule will go into effect on Monday, December 16th, 2013 and will remain until Janua...

Source: MAG The city of Canas in the province of Guanacaste is now home to the first research station in Costa Rica that is dedicated to studying the effects of climate change on soil and regional agriculture. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Affairs (Spanish acronym: MAG), this research station is the first of its kind in Costa Rica, Central America and the Caribbean. ...

The hot days of December in Costa Rica entice children to enjoy a quick dip in the many beaches, lakes, ponds, and rivers across the country. One of the hottest regions during this time of the year is Guanacaste, and this is where three children recently passed away as they tried to escape the heat. One drowned in the Gulf of Nicoya and two others died in a pond near Sonzapote. The sad events w...

The Nosara Red Cross is organizing a family-friendly horse ride with the goal of raising funds for their special vertical rescue unit. The event will be this Saturday, December 14 and will start from the soccer field in La Esperanza. The tour will travel through several different parts of the Nosaran countryside, such as Playa Guiones and Garza. Carlos Villalobos, head of the Red Cross in No...

Poas Volcano crater in Costa RicaRecent volcanic activity along with sulphuric emissions and the heavy presence of noxious gases are prompting national park rangers in Costa Rica to take precautions with regard to visitors. Volcano tourism is very popular in Costa Rica during this season, and some of the most-visited volcanoes are certainly showing off their natural beauty, but officials are cont...

If you live in Guanacaste, or just about anywhere else in Costa Rica, you may be familiar with the following situation: You have already turned off the lights in your bedroom and sleep is about to consume you when suddenly you hear TCHAK-TCHAK-TCHAK, or a permutation thereof. That would be an adult male gecko invading your bedroom; a younger female will sound more like chip-chip-chip. What should ...

BBQ with friends and family on the rooftop patio lounge at Hotel ChantelSundays are now the best days to enjoy the Gold Coast of Costa Rica. At Hotel Chantel in Playas del Coco, every Sunday is Funday, which means that visitors get to take a dip, relax by the pool and spend the afternoon enjoying a BBQ in the company of friends and family while delighting in the best beach view in Guanacaste. ...

The children of Samara will soon have a new place where they can go to run, play and spend their pent-up energy. Parents of the students of Samara Pacific School are in the process of building a playground next to the school that will be open to the public. Although the public elementary school in Samara has a playground, it is only available to the school’s students during school hours, noted ...

In addition to the typical December tamales, seafood is one of the most valued seasonal foods during the year-end season. For that reason the fishing of certain species is increasing and those such as conch and sea cucumbers are covertly harvested, despite being protected by law. On Sunday November 24, volunteers from the Red Cross regional marine group, while carrying out diving practice, f...

The Costa Rica Star recently published about cowboys and horse culture in Guanacaste Costa Rica. Time to polish up your cowboy boots and belt buckles to look spiffy for the next round of traditional community festivals. This season the first community to host fiestas in the canton of Nicoya will be Caimital, this weekend from December 13 to 16. According to Maria Teresa Salas Murillo, presid...

The Costa Rica Star has previously published extensively about Costa Rica's animals being harmed or killed by electric shock from missing insulation in power wires throughout Costa Rica. In mid-November, ICE crews began insulating more than 100 transformers that have been identified in the area as danger points for the electrocution of monkeys and other wildlife. In the past five months, Nos...