Archive for April 11th, 2008
Friday, April 11th, 2008
There has been talk for some time of a presidential decree limiting the height of high rise buildings in Costa Rica since the towers in Jaco started construction. The reason for this decree is because of 2 reasons 1) Costa Rica’s earthquakes could bring one tumbling down, 2) It makes Costa Rica’s Coast line ugly and very Americanised. The decree was signed on Wedensday by the President Oscar Arias and is now in effect on any new developments.
The decree its led limits building height to under 15 metres within 4km of the coast. Currently if you look at place like Playa Hermosa, Jaco and Tamarindo from the Ocean the coastline is starting to look riddled and ugly with higher rising buildings. Land in Jaco has got so expensive that the only way for developers to make any money is of course to build up. The decree is split into 4 distance sections:
1) 0-50 meters from the beach is public property.
2)50-200 meters is ruled by the maritime law and you can construct with concessions.
3) 200-1000 meters = no buildings above 24 meters.
4) 1000-4000 meters is limited to 36 meters.
The decree will set the stage for the next 4 years as the decree is temporary and much like a band aid until a more solid law can be enforced to limit buidlings. Therefore any developers looking to build high rise buildings may have to wait up to 4 years for the decree to be deemed powerless. However it it hard to see how Costa Rica will revert back off this decree and allow developers to destroy the air above the beaches.
There is however good news for developers who have already had plans approved as the decree is not retroactive and these approved constructions will not be held accountable to the decree.
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Friday, April 11th, 2008
Bill Gates met with President Arias in 2007 regarding tech support for Costa Rica.
Anyone who lives in or has visited Costa Rica’s sunny shores knows what makes many of its first-time visitors into repeats: beautiful beaches, impossibly green rain forests, ecologically diverse cloud forests, and one of the world’s most active volcanoes, complete with natural hot springs. The country’s latest famous visitor, Bill Gates, arrived last Friday, April 4, along with his wife, Melinda, and two of his three children, aged 8 and 10.
Bill Gates and his family flew into the five-star Arenal Kioro Suites & Spa yesterday, with more style than most, in a private helicopter. The computer mogul and family traveled first to the Four Seasons in Guanacaste where they have been staying, and opted for a four hour trip to see the hot springs in Arenal, during which time they reserved a suite and the children ordered hamburgers. Their afternoon stay was accented by beautifully manicured grounds, a spa that offers almost every indulgence you can imagine, and spectacular views of Arenal Volcano.
As one of the most active volcanoes in the world, Arenal and its neighboring La Fortuna are one of the most visited locations in Costa Rica. While there, visitors climb to la Catarata de La Fortuna (La Fortuna Waterfall), luxuriate at Tabacón Thermal Resort, boasting some of the area’s most beautiful hot springs, and wait to watch orange lava tumble down the volcano’s side, cloud cover permitting.
After their visit to el Volcán Arenal, Bill Gates and family, informally dressed and looking like any other vacationing family, headed back to the Four Seasons. Located on the Papagayo Peninsula, the five-star resort offers incredible views, a world class spa, and beautiful suites fit for, well, Bill Gates and family.
Papagayo has long been known for its incredible white sand beaches, friendly service, lush vegetation, and almost year-round beautiful weather. Unfortunately, the Gulf of Papagayo has been in the news recently not for its beauty, but for its sewage and pollution problem. The Four Seasons Resort is not directly affected by the pollution, though Papagayo lost its blue flag, helping prompt the country to undergo a proposed $500 million sanitation makeover.
Though Gates is the latest celebrity to visit Costa Rica, the country has played host to several vacationing stars. In fact, love seems to flourish here: Pink and her then-boyfriend, Carey Hart, married in front of 100 guests at the Four Seasons – Guanacaste in 2006. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt spent Christmas 2006 and its following New Year’s Eve here, helping Columbian refugees and enjoying the sun. Recently-engaged Ashlee Simpson and fiancé Pete Wentz spent the beginning of 2008 in Costa Rica, as well.
In addition to the country’s visiting lovers, Costa Rica has also lured Mel Gibson, who purchased a $28.5 million ranch along the Pacific, and several famous musicians, including members of Incubus and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who are known fans of Costa Rica’s big surfing waves.
Clearly, though Bill Gates’ visit to Costa Rica was unexpected, he is not the first celebrity to add a Costa Rican stamp to his well-traveled passport.
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Friday, April 11th, 2008
There’s no shortage of things to do this weekend in the Central Valley, with arts festivals, national hero celebrations and outdoor food frenzies taking over the streets.
The latest ingredients to be thrown into the mix are 2,000 kilograms of beans and 1,800 kilograms of rice for the first-ever National Gallo Pinto Day Sunday in downtown San José’s Paseo Colón.
The day is in homage to Costa Rica’s favorite breakfast dish, gallo pinto, which consists of one- to two-day-old rice, black beans, diced peppers and onions, Lizano sauce and some other optional herbs and spices.
From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. organizers are expecting some 30,000 people to attend.
It is an unstated attempt to beat Nicaragua, which rivals Costa Rica’s claim to being the birthplace of the dish, and whose record “ gallopintorama ” in September served up the stuff to more than 20,000 people.
Ticos, emboldened by today’s commemoration of their national hero and airport’s namesake, Juan Santamaría, could be up for the task.
The feast also comes during a weekend of spectacles in the 11th International Arts Festival (FIA) program, which runs through April 20 in San José, Alajuela, northwest of the capital, and the central Pacific port city of Puntarenas. The festival is showcasing the best of Costa Rican performing and visual arts, as well as 70 international arts from 20 countries.
In Santa Ana, southwest of San José, the Luz de Luna Festival is still underway this weekend. Tonight’s “Moonlight” program sees Latin jazz, tomorrow has theater and dance and Sunday, tango and a circus, starting at 6:30 each evening outside Santa Ana Church.
National hero celebrated April 14
Today, April 11, is the actual day, which commemorates one of Costa Rica’s national hero attributed with saving the country from the mid-19th century U.S. citizen William Walker, who sought to turn Central America into a slave-trading colony.
Most Costa Ricans will take off work on Monday, as decreed by the country’s labor law. Anyone who works that day has the right to double pay.
Many institutions and offices including the U.S. Embassy will be closed Monday.
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Friday, April 11th, 2008
The Arias administration took steps Thursday to discourage the casino business in Costa Rica. Various ministries unveiled a total of five decrees that, among other things:
• emphasize the unenforced restriction that casinos must be within hotels rated at three stars or higher by the Instituto Costarricence de Turismo;
• created a special health permit for casinos that will cost $5,000 a year;
• forbids free alcoholic drinks in casinos;
• sets casino hours at 6 p.m. to 2 a.m.;
• suggests that casino owners and others will have to donate for psychological help for addicted gamblers;
• appears to put the operation of slot machines under the consumer protection laws and demands a payback of 85 percent by the casino to players;
• requires the casino owner to be the same as the owner of the hotel;
• brands casinos as places that can encourage prostitution, drug addiction and insecurity.
The decrees, that will have the force of law when published in the la Gazeta official newspaper, did not establish any other special taxes for casinos. The measures set a six-month window for compliances except some of the major rules, like the one that says a casino must be part of a hotel, go into force immediately.
The decrees also did not address the flourishing business of online casinos that are run without any supervision whatsoever in Costa Rica.
At a press conference to announce the decrees Thursday afternoon there was little said about casinos, such as the Horseshoe at Avenida 1 and Calle 9 that are not part of a hotel. The officials said there were 48 existing casinos that are associated with hotels in the country.
There was no mention of the plans by an international/Russian casino company to set up shop in Costa Rica. The company is remodeling the Hotel Bulevar just off the Avenida Central pedestrian mall. Local officials have vowed to try to keep the company out of Costa Rica.
The rules for having a casino in a hotel say that only 15 percent of the space of the hotel can be dedicated to gambling. This is similar to the contents of a casino proposal that is languishing in the Asamblea Legislativa. A series of casino proposals has been awaiting action for years.
The decrees, on the other hand, are done deals, signed by President Óscar Arias Sánchez and relevant ministers. Some casino operators are certain to appeal the measures to the Sala IV constitutional court. One ground might be the ex post facto nature of some of the rules that are being imposed on existing operations.
One decree is dedicated to the addicted gambler. The decree seeks to cast the condition as a mental infirmity. It cites a 1980 declaration by the World Health Organization.
There were other health concerns. The health minister, María Luisa Ávila Agüero, said that another danger exists when gamblers win a lot or lose a lot and run the risk of having a heart attack. Members of the audience laughed and acted as if the health minister had told a joke, but she quickly said that such events were serious problems.
Another decree spells out the need for a casino to be an adjunct to a hotel and not the other way around. The idea originally was to use casinos to stimulate tourism in Costa Rica. However, Carlos Ricardo Benavides, the minister of Turismo, said that Costa Rica is not Las Vegas and that he does not think people come here to gamble.
The clientèle of most casinos now appear to be residents rather than tourists, although that might not be the case in geographically isolated hotels.
Some casinos in the metropolitan area are 24-hour a day operations and employee armies of dealers and support personnel. The decrees would seem to put people out of work if the time allocated for gambling is eight instead of 24 hours.
The hotel rules say that a casino must be in a hotel with at least 60 rooms. The well-known downtown hotels seem to meet this requirement. The Hotel Del Rey has 104 rooms, employees said. The Sleep Inn, the hotel associated with the Casino Colonial, has 86 rooms. A casino can have 10 gaming tables for the first 60 rooms. There are increments after that.
One problem for the Casino Colonial will be the fact that the management maintains two casinos on the premises. A smaller one is a non-smoking casino. The decrees forbids more than one casino per hotel.
The casino also can have one slot machine for each hotel room, said the decrees. Until now there did not seem to be any oversight on the payback of slot machine money as winnings. The decrees say that payback must be at least 85 percent, and there is a complicated certifying process involving the Ministerio de Gobernación, Policía y Seguridad Pública. Some Las Vegas casinos promise a 97 percent payback. The decree also prohibits slot machines anywhere but in casinos.
The decrees were constructed by an executive branch commission that was set up just last March 26. Also deeply involved in the drafting was Laura Chinchilla Miranda, vice president and minister of Justicia y Gracia. She also is the acting security minister until April 25.
Storm International is the company that said in late February that it would invest $5 million to refurbish a downtown hotel. The casino rules seem to be directed at this newcomer. The proposal would just meet the decreed requirements. The project will include a 60-room hotel, said the company at the time.
Storm International said it is diversifying and opening casinos overseas because of restrictive laws being passed in the Russian Republic that require the firm to put casinos in geographic zones. Costa Rican officials are nervous because Russian gambling operations and many other businesses are influenced by ex-KGB officials who are ruthless in business and related criminal activities.
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