Archive for August 13th, 2008
Wednesday, August 13th, 2008
Costa Rica is the oldest democracy in Central and South America with the Pacific Ocean to the West and Caribbean to the East.
Costa Rica shares Central America with Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Belize
It was the first country in the world to constitutionally abolish it’s army and is an American protectorate.
The economy has been growing at 7% pa, with major inward investment via big multinationals such as Hewlett Packard, Intel, Microsoft, Abbott Laboratories, Merck Sharpe and Dome
The population is 4 million, of which 96% are literate – one of the highest literacy rates in the world, with more teachers than police
5% of the worlds biodiversity can be found in Costa Rica (i.e. 1 in 20 of all living organisms), and NASA described it as having the best climate in the world – with average temperatures of 25-30 degrees
The country is ranked 5th – 2008 Environmental Performance Index with over 25% of Costa Rica declared a protected nature reserve
There is a $1.9 billion pa tourism industry, with many American celebrities choosing Costa Rica for their pad – such as Oprah Winfrey, Bruce Willis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Lisa Marie Presley.
Land prices in Costa Rica have shot up in recent years driven by
* massive demand from mainly American holiday makers looking for their little piece of paradise, in this beautiful stable country
* foregin inward investment from multinational companies
In the best areas land has doubled year on year over the past 5 years. Of course this land price has started from very low price levels, but these increases will not be sustained forever, so invest now and benefit from the land price increases while you can!!
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Wednesday, August 13th, 2008
Two ornithologists were attacked by a machete-wielding group while surveying birds in Costa Rica, reports National Geographic.
Dr. Cagan H. Sekercioglu and Dr. Jim Zook — both prominent bird experts — were apparently mistaken for thieves when looking for a Pacific Screech-owl in Liberia, Costa Rica.
Zook, who has lived in the Central American country for 30 years, suffered a cut hand from a machete and bruises after being pummeled by a mob of around ten people. Their car was heavily damaged by rocks and the windshield was shattered.
Costa Rican police eventually arrived to sort out the incident. Zook was taken to the hospital where he was treated and released.
Cagan H. Sekercioglu with the damaged car (left), Jim Zook was cut in the hand and bruised on his back (right). Photos courtesy Cagan Sekercioglu
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Wednesday, August 13th, 2008
Amazon, the world’s largest internet retailer, is to establish a customer contact centre in Costa Rica, as its steps up its efforts to woo Spanish speaking customers both in the US and in Latin America.
The retailer is planning to open a Latin America contact centre in San Jose in Costa Rica, with between 100 and 150 staff, in its first direct presence in Latin America.
Costa Rica, which has wages well below those in the US, has attracted several call-centre operators who use it to service customers in the US, Latin America and Spain.
Amazon’s planned investment in Costa Rica comes as the retailer expands the Spanish language offerings on its US site. This week the retailer launched a Spanish-language software store, and it plans to add a Spanish-language DVD section alongside its existing Libros En Espanol books section.
Amazon is one of the most popular internet retailers in Latin America, in spite of currently selling to customers there only via its predominantly English-language US site.
According to figures from ComScore Media Metrix, an estimated 5.9m Latin American users visited its sites in May, trailing the 7.5m visitors to the retail, entertainment and travel sites of B2W, a subsidiary of Brazil’s Lojas Americanas.
The traffic to its US site from Latin America exceeds traffic to Amazon’s independent French website, according to Media Metrix figures.
Amazon has not expanded into new territories since 2004, when it acquired China’s Joyo.com site.
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