Quito, Dec. 14 — The Ecuadorian government on Wednesday signed a contract with Canada's Lundin Gold company to exploit a gold and silver deposit in the southeastern Amazon province of Zamora Chinchipe. Mining Minister Javier Cordova signed the deal to extract the precious metals as part of the Fruta del Norte project in the Yantzatza region. With an investment of $1 billion, the Canadian fir...

Since ancient times, hot springs have been a fabled source for wellness, relaxation and cleansing throughout the world.  In Costa Rica, they've not forgotten the many benefits and pure pleasures of indulging in thermal baths.  The country welcomes visitors to share and discover their own favorite spot and therapy.  From coast to coast to coast, from the Northern Plains to the Guanacaste and Centra...

Nekupe Sporting Resort and Retreat, a luxury countryside resort, has opened on a 1,300 acre (526 hectare) nature reserve in southwest Nicaragua, not far from the Costa Rica border. One of Nicaragua's many volcanoes. Boasting an intimate eight-room property, a luxury spa facility and a number of outdoor pursuits, the resort, located around 30 minutes north of the historic colonial town of Gr...

Geneva, Dec. 13 — Malaria has retreated in almost all of Latin America. Mosquito nets are key in preventing malaria transmission. Costa Rica is listed as free of malaria transmission by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and it, along with several other countries will be certified malaria-free by the World Health Organization (WHO) in coming years. The exceptions to thi...

By Wendy Anders Close up of a Marijuana plant flowering during the final stages of growth. EFE/file On Tuesday, Colombia legalized medical marijuana through a decree signed by President Juan Manuel Santos, which regulates the cultivation, processing, import and export of cannabis and its derivatives for therapeutic purposes. Colombia thus joins  Mexico, 23 states in the U.S., and Uruguay, w...

By Wendy Anders Nearly all species of sea turtles are endangered, reported Great Big Story, but Tortuguero, a small island on the eastern coast of Costa Rica, offers a safe place for nesting green and leatherback sea turtles. It was here in 1959 that Dr. Archie Carr opened the world's first turtle conservancy. To this day, the island is one of the world's most important breeding grounds for ...

Punta Arenas, Chile, Dec. 12 — Researchers are doing the science needed to help the planet survive "south of south," officials said Monday at the inauguration of the Scientific Circulation and Innovation Hackathon in the Chilean city of Punta Arenas, a forum that has attracted young entrepreneurs from seven South American countries. A whale watching excursion in Chile's far south, source Fac...

Guatemala yesterday welcomed into its market the U.S. application found in more than 70 countries and 480 cities. Among those who joined in congratulating the arrival of Uber to Guatemala was the United States Commercial Service. An Uber driver in Bogota. Wikimedia Commons "This country has all the potential to receive Uber, and we are sure that Guatemalans will find the benefit of a new al...

Panama's aviation rating has plunged since 2005 with failures  in procedures and regulations, reported the online English news media in Panama, Newsroom Panama, yesterday. Panama's flag. The disturbing report comes from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) which audited the country in 2015. On inspection, the Panamanian air system earned a score of 36.4 points out of a hu...

Montevideo, Dec. 8 — Uruguay on Thursday inaugurated the first cannabis museum in South America, seeking to show visitors the history of cannabis and educate them about the "enormous variety of uses" the plant has, according to Eduardo Blasina, museum director. Medical marijuana, Wikimedia Commons The Cannabis Museum of Montevideo (MCM) is located in the heart of the Uruguayan capital, in t...

Barcelona (Spain), Dec. 11 — Santiago Peralta went from being an Ecuadorean peasant, raising cows and selling guinea pigs as a child, to being ranked the Best Chocolatier in the World by the Fine Chocolate Industries Association (FCIA). "Thank God I've never been to any chocolate school," says the founder of the family company Pacari, to EFE in Barcelona, who boasts growing the first organic co...

The creation of protected areas and parks in Central America aimed at conserving tropical forests has pushed indigenous people off the land they have nurtured for generations, researchers said on Friday. Protected areas are more effective when the rights of indigenous people living on the land are formally recognized, said the report released on the sidelines of a U.N. conservation conference i...

Paris, France. Dec. 7 — Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is calling for the immediate release of Okke Ornstein, a Panama-based Dutch journalist who was arrested last month in Panama City to begin serving the absurdly disproportionate 20-month jail sentence he received at the end of a flawed defamation trial in 2012. Bananama Republic is Ornstein's satirical site that jabs at Panama's ...

BOXING PUERTO RICO Puerto Rican sisters Cindy (l) and Amanda Serrano are sparring partners as they prepare for upcoming matches, source Facebook. San Juan, Dec. 7 — Puerto Rican boxer Cindy Serrano’s hoping for an unusual gift this Christmas, said the Spanish newswire EFE. If she wins a match this Saturday, Cindy and her sibling Amanda would become the first sister duo to hold simultaneo...

Montevideo, Dec. 7 — Uruguay has made a dramatic turnaround in addressing the serious problem of child sexual exploitation, reported expert Luis Purtscher. More than a dozen institutions and groups came together to draft Conapees national action plan against child sexual exploitation in Uruguay, photo Facebook. The country did an about face from basically denying the situation several years...

Sao Paulo, Dec. 6 — Colombian singer Shakira said here Tuesday that the task of being a mother has been the most difficult one in her life, admitting that combining motherhood with her professional career is a "daily challenge." Shakira with her eldest son in early 2015, source Facebook. "I don't know how I do it. I imagine that, like all women in the world, we're crazy. It's a daily challe...

Managua, Dec. 6 — "We are willing to pay (Costa Rica). We just want to clarify the accounts they are charging us" for US$6 million, said Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, after receiving the credentials from the new Costa Rican ambassador to Nicaragua, Eduardo Trejos. The San Juan River that divides Costa Rica and Nicaragua, photo credit AFP. The International Court of Justice in The Hagu...

San Salvador, Dec. 5 — Some 10,800 people have disappeared in El Salvador since 2010 due to violence attributed to gangs. This is 8,000 more than those officially registered as disappeared during the country’s civil war that lasted between 1980 and 1992. None of these have been reported by police as "found." Mara Salvatrucha Gang, El Salvador, file photo. The year in which the greatest numb...

Lima, Nov. 30 — A spectacled bear was photographed for the first time in the Rio Abiseo National Park, a reserve in the Peruvian Amazon region of San Martin, officials said. A spectacled bear cub, source Facebook. Camera traps were used to capture an image of that vulnerable species, also known as the Andean bear, and which is of great cultural and ecological significance in Peru's Andean a...

Shortly after Venezuela’s former president Hugo Chavez passed away, many news channels reported on the fortune he inherited by his family, from valuable properties, to car lots, mansions, planes, and a lot of money in offshore banks. According to Venezuelan news website Noticias Centro in an article published in 2015 “the late president’s family owns 17 country estates, totaling more than 100,0...

Addis Ababa, Dec. 1 — The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) declared on Thursday the Mexican charrería, a traditional horseback practice in communities dedicated to the breeding and grazing cattle, as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Mexico's charreria, source Facebook. The decision was made by the Intergovernmental Committee during its annual...

By Wendy Anders This morning, Colombia's low-budget regional Wingo airline joins a growing number of regional flight options available out of Costa Rica when it touches down for the first time in the country with passengers from Panama. After an inaugural celebration at the Juan Santamaría Airport (SJO) in Alajuela, roughly 15 miles west of San José, passengers will then board for a flight t...

By Wendy Anders The low-budget Mexican airline Volaris will launch its regional flights in and out of Costa Rica today, reported La Republica, a Costa Rican Spanish newspaper. Volaris will start its service by offering two daily flights to Guatemala from Alajuela's Juan Santamaría (SJO) airport; one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Over the next three years the airline plans t...

(EFE).- At least 75 people died and five survived the Lamia flight that crashed in Colombia with 81 people on-board, police said Tuesday. On-board the plane were 22 players from the Brazilian Chapecoense soccer team, 28 management staff, members of the technical team and special guests, 22 journalists and nine crew members, who were en route to Medellin, Colombia to play Atletico Nacional in t...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.  By Britt Nelson Current Cuban leader, Raul Castro, talks with Elian Gonzalez. Welcome to a world without Fidel Castro. President-elect Donald Trump will be the first president since Dwight Eisenhower, who left office in 1961, not to have this Communist ...

Thomas Reuters Foundation - Nearly two in every five pregnancies among girls in El Salvador aged 10-12 are the result of rape and incest but the rapists nearly always go unpunished, a U.N. agency has said. Girls under 12 are four times more likely to get pregnant as a result of rape by stepfathers and relatives, mainly fathers, grandfathers, uncles and cousins, than girls aged 13 to 17, the U....

London, Nov 26 — Former Cuban President Fidel Castro's human rights legacy is "a tale of two worlds," providing access to public services to the island's people while engaging in systematic repression, Amnesty International said Saturday. "Fidel Castro's legacy is a tale of two worlds. The question now is what human rights will look like in a future Cuba. The lives of many depend on it," Amnest...

(EFE).- U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said in a statement Saturday following Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro's death that he hoped the passing of the "brutal dictator" would usher in a new era of prosperity and freedom for the Caribbean island. Trump - whose first reaction was a brief tweet Saturday morning that simply read "Fidel Castro is dead!" - issued a full statement a few hou...

(EFE).- Cuban leader Fidel Castro has died at the age of 90, his brother, President Raul Castro, said Saturday in an address on state television. The Cuban revolutionary leader built a communist state, and for five decades defied the United States efforts to topple him. The leader of the historic Cuban Revolution died at 10.29pm Friday local time (3.29am Saturday GMT), and his remains will be c...

(EFE).- Representatives of the 27 countries that make up the Latin American Energy Organization, or Olade, underscored the need to promote sustainable development in the region at a meeting here Friday. Olade Executive Secretary Fernando Cesar Ferreira said at the organization's Meeting of Energy Ministers that "absolutely all the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean are doing something...

By Wendy Anders Hurricane Otto on its approach towards Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Hurricane Otto left at least 564 damaged homes as it passed through the municipality of San Juan de Nicaragua, also known as Greytown, on the southeast coast of the country bordering Costa Rica, where it landed on Thursday late morning as a Category 2 hurricane, leaving no casualties so far, authorities said to...

A 7.2 earthquake in the Ritcher scale struck El Salvador at 12:43 p.m. at a depth of 33 kilometers, some 96 miles southwest of Puerto Triunfo, El Salvador, and was felt in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Guatemala. No injuries or damage have been reported, the Salvadoran Environment and Natural Resources Ministry said. The Nicaraguan government issued a tsunami alert for the country's entire Pacific...

Panama City, Nov. 22 — At least four people have died, another has gone missing, about 50 dwellings have been destroyed, classes have been suspended and flights at airports have been interrupted due to Tropical Storm Otto, which has since been upgraded to hurricane status, Panamanian authorities said Tuesday. Hurricane Otto's projected path, U.S. Weather Channel. A boy was killed Tuesday mo...

By Wendy Anders Wikimedia Commons In contrast to most European Union members who are tightening entry requirements for visitors, the United Kingdom just announced they are expanding their list of countries eligible for fast-track entry to include 12 Latin American countries, reported BBC Mundo. Rolando Drago, Chile’s Ambassador to the UK, was one of the main protagonists of the recent mo...

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 Mandro Linton (19) and Rubén Bolaños (29) were the two most recent divers to die harvesting sea cucumbers in Nicaragua; photo courtesy of La Prensa. Two recent deaths bring the total to seven sea cucumber divers who have died in Nicaragua’s North Caribbean sea since September of this year, reported Nicaragua’s daily La Prensa last week. Meanwhile, two deaths have been rec...

By Wendy Anders Jaguar, image by Wikipedia. Tomorrow the British Broadcasting Corporation will show the first episode of a new documentary, “The Dark: Nature’s Nighttime World,” highlighting Costa Rica’s diverse nocturnal wildlife. Scheduled for 4:15 p.m. (which would be 10:15 a.m. in Costa Rica) on BBC Two, the "Central America Jungle" episode brings viewers up close to Costa Rica's rar...

By Wendy Anders Photo for illustrative purposes. Gay men prepare for pornography photo shoot, courtesy of Wikipedia. "Government bodies should function equally for all, not only for women," said Miguel Moctezuma Longoria, Ph.D., professor of development studies at the Autonomous University of Zacatecas (UAZ), reported NTR Zacatecas, a digital paper in north-central Mexico. Speaking on In...

(EFE).- Central American nations and South Korea expect to sign a free-trade accord by June 30, 2017, representatives of the parties said here Wednesday at the end of the final round of negotiations. The proposed pact is consistent with the rules of the World Trade Organization, the governments of South Korea, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama said in a statemen...

Quito, Nov. 18 — Visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping joined Ecuador's Rafael Correa on Friday for the inauguration of the Andean nation's largest hydroelectric dam, largely financed through a loan from China's Export-Import Bank. Ecuadorian and Chinese Presidents meet, source Facebook. A day after proclaiming a "comprehensive strategic association" between their two nations, the president...