Thursday, January 24th, 2008
If you are thinking of coming to Costa Rica during the Easter period then you may wish to hurry. Easter or Semana Santa as it is called in Costa Rica, is one of the busiest times of the year. Typically the country stops work from Wednesday until Sunday and then is back to work on Monday. People find it a great time to travel as the country has festivals and is more local as locals are at the beaches as well.The majority of smaller exclusive hotels are already full - Latitude 10 in Mal Pais/Santa Tresa has been fully booked before Xmas and Sueño del Mar in Tamarindo has been booked for months. Owners say that apart from Xmas these are the busiest dates of the year.Easter in Costa Rica is also well known for great weather as well. Over the past 4 years these dates have recorded some of the hottest and driest days and some of the best for sunbathing and fishing. Normally the Easter weeks is the peak of the dry season as towards the end of April Costa Rica starts to see some afternoon showers.
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Thursday, January 24th, 2008
Costa Rica can put another notch in its belt of global recognition for being a green do-gooder, now that it has scored high on a new environmental performance list by researchers at Yale and Columbia universities.
While Switzerland and the wealthy Scandinavian countries dominate the top five, Costa Rica came first in Latin America and placed well among industrialized nations on the first official Environmental Performance Index released yesterday. After Switzerland came Sweden, Norway, Finland and Costa Rica.
Costa Rica is proud to be a global leader in environmental conservation, said President Oscar Arias.
In Latin America, Colombia came second after Costa Rica.
The United States, meanwhile, came 39th among the index’s 149 countries, with the United Kingdom scoring at 14.
Back in Costa Rica, a separate report also brought good news to the environment. The country has cut its imports of ozone depleting gases by 71.5%, the Environment Ministry said. In 2004 the country imported 105 tons of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), while in 2007, the amount was just 30 tons, according to newswire ACAN-EFE.
Industries have also reduced the purchase of harmful agricultural chemicals such as methyl bromide, typically used by melon growers to control a wide variety of pests. Imports of that chemical dropped from 1,070 tons in 1999 to 400 last year, thanks to a national phase-out program.
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