Archive for April, 2009
Monday, April 13th, 2009
College friends Emily Howell and Emily Eagen – “The Emilys,” they called themselves – felt they had found Eden in Costa Rica.
The young women had become pals at Antioch College in Ohio. When Howell ventured to Costa Rica for a semester abroad in 2000, Eagen paid a visit.
The country is “better than anywhere,” Eagen enthused to her family back in the Midwest. “I have found paradise.”
And there was much to love about Costa Rica.
The Central American country of 4 million is a tropical wonderland, with jungles teeming with howler monkeys, rare orchids and an array of Technicolor birds. At just twice the size of Massachusetts, it spans from the Caribbean to the Pacific Ocean, with volcano-dotted mountains forming its spine.
Costa Rica is a stable democracy whose well-educated population has a reputation for being friendly to the ecology and tourists alike. Like countless other tourists, the Emilys were charmed by Costa Rica’s “pura vida” – pure life, as the national saying goes.
Emily Howell, described as sensitive and passionate, was thrilled to arrange a school photography project there.
“Emily was in love with Costa Rica,” a friend later wrote.
She left her hometown of Lexington, Ky., in January 2000 for Limon, Costa Rica, a Caribbean port city of 100,000. (more…)
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Monday, April 13th, 2009
Costa Rica’s current procedures for deporting and expelling immigrants violate basic freedoms and rights, the Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights, or FIDH, said Friday.
Among the “most serious contradictions” with regard to international and regional law, it cited the country’s “processes of deportation and expulsion and preventive detention,” adding that those procedures “do not respect the right to an effective remedy, with access to an independent and impartial court, and to due process.” (more…)
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Friday, April 10th, 2009
At Guachipelin Hacienda, in the foothills of the Rincon de la Vieja Volcano (near the town of Curubande and the Rincon de la Vieja National Park), a group of archaeologists from the University of Costa Rica (UCR) has recently made some interesting discoveries.
This part of northern Guanacaste, inhabited in the past by local tribes, still harbors important evidence of how these people lived. It is estimated that the property where excavations have been taken place could be hiding unprecedented archaeological treasures.
An archaeologist and anthropologist, Priscilla Molina is visiting the area with the goal of collecting evidence and information that could shed light on the customs and traditions of the region’s ancestors. She is working with geologist Luis Guillermo Salazar, as well as archaeologists and students from UCR. (more…)
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Friday, April 10th, 2009
Pop singer Pink is giving her romance with estranged husband Carey Hart another chance, the motocross racer has confirmed.
The couple has remained close since its separation in 2008 and the stars were rumored to have rekindled their love in January.
Carey tells British newspaper The Sun, “We’re working (expletive) out, I admit it. She’s just totally normal and low-key.”
The sportsman and Pink, real name Alecia Moore, married in Costa Rica in January 2006.
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Thursday, April 9th, 2009
Jimmy G is leaving Costa Rica tonight after having spent 3 months checking out the woman of CR. Jimmy is the fist person in Costa Rica to ever get his camera back after being robbed (and he got it back with just words). He learned many things on his trip 1, The weather is always good 2, You can golf every day 3, You can’t always win at the casino 4, You can drink your booze in a taxi 5, The woman all love Jimmy G 6, There are never enough condoms when you need them. I think it will only be a matter of time and Jimmy will move to Costa Rica. It is safe to say the woman of Costa Rica are all going to miss him.
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Thursday, April 9th, 2009
Two Chinese suspects have confessed to colluding with an international network to smuggle 300 Chinese youths to Costa Rica, China’s state media reported.
With the help of the Costa Rican Embassy in Beijing, Chinese police discovered some 300 people, most under 18, had applied for a Costa Rican visa using falsified documents, a Beijing public security spokesman told the official English-language newspaper China Daily.
Officials from the Costa Rican Embassy in Beijing told local police they noticed a high volume of visa applications for youngsters from China’s Guangdong Province who claimed they wanted to reunite with their parents who had settled in this Central American country.
However, a police investigation revealed that the applicants’ parents were all living in China and the application documents they used were fabricated.
“It’s been a joint success, especially in regard to protecting the rights of minors, in accordance with the (United Nation’s) Convention on the Rights of the Child, fundamental both for Costa Rica and for China,” Costa Rican Ambassador to China Antonio Burgués told newswire EFE.
Burgués added that “cooperation (between the two countries) has been excellent on the issue of immigration as well as other areas and with mutual benefit” since Costa Rica became the first Central American nation to established diplomatic relations with China in June 2007.
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Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
At stroke of midnight tonight bars will have to call it quits to service alcohol as the “dry” law kicks in for Semana Santa, which suspends completely the sale of all alcohol products in the country for 49 hours.
All bars, restaurants, casinos and anywhere alcohol is served, must shut down their sales and lock up their liquor cabinets and beer coolers as the “ley seca” kicks in.
Supermarkets have to close off their beer and liquor sections or remove the products from their shelves completely, liquors generally close entirely for the 48 hours.
The dry law starts at 0 hour on Thursay and end at midnight Friday.
The local municipalities are responsible to place “sellos” (seals) on liquor cabinets, beer coolers and doors of establishments that dispense alcohol. Janina del Vecchio, ministra de Seguridad, said that 10.652 police officials of the Fuerza Pública will ensure that the dry law is respected and will enforce regulations where municipalities fail to do so.
The sanction for violating the “ley seca” is possible jail time and loss of a liquor and beer license.
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Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
The sudden death of thousands of fishes in Playa Lagarto, northwest of Costa Rica, a national tourist zone, is the object of investigations by the National Fishing and Aquaculture.
Luis Dobles, its executive president, told the press that by now, the causes of the phenomenon cannot be confirmed, though it was seen by fishermen and other people last Sunday.
Close to the shore, there were a lot of poisoned fishes and witnesses told reporters there had been an explosion in front of Playa Lagarto.
For others, the cause was a spill of a chemical substance by ships, and others attribute the facts to so-called “red tide”, which is the proliferation of algae with contaminant effects.
A biologist, and expert in conservation of the flora and fauna, Gino Biamonte, told local newspaper La Prensa Libre that the “red tide” is normal in this time of the year, and also a cause of the high temperatures in the last days.
Close to the place of the accident there is a community of 1,500 inhabitants, dedicated to fishing.
Specialists advised not to eat fish coming from Playa Lagarto and adjacent places, and tourists not to take their baths on the zone.
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Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
The Costa Rican government will collect a tax this year from 388 companies that are polluting rivers around the country with wastewater and the funds will go to improving the water treatment system, the local press reported Tuesday.
The Environment Ministry intends to penalize those firms, homes or government institutions that dump sewage, soaps or other pollutants such as agricultural chemicals, solvents and untreated human waste into rivers.
The tax will vary according to the level of pollution, and it will be different for companies and homes, according to the daily La Nacion.
The Costa Rican government hopes to collect some $8 million by the end of the year by assessing the tax, funds that will be used to build sanitary sewage systems and to treat wastewater from firms and individual homes.
Ministry official Jose Miguel Zeledon said that the effort will benefit the municipalities that do not have an adequate system for disposing of liquid waste.
About 60 percent of the money collected will go toward improving the water system, 20 percent toward monitoring the points at which pollutants are being dumped, 15 percent toward promoting environment-friendly production systems and the remaining 5 percent toward environmental education.
Official figures indicate that in Costa Rica only 3 percent of the wastewater receives treatment to make it safe to dump into the environment. EFE
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Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
Costa Rica is a small country, but it has big economy potentials that place it on the number eleven position of the largest economies of Latin America. Tourism, Agriculture and the technological services have placed Costa Rica in the top positions. Over the past ten years, poverty has been reduced. During the 90’s, poverty levels were between 21% and 22%, while nowadays the index has dropped down to 16.7%, and the economic growth has gone from 0% to approximately 7%, registered in the past few years. (more…)
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Tuesday, April 7th, 2009
Four finance centers blacklisted last Thursday in a renewed crackdown on tax fraud were taken off the list on Tuesday after committing to international standards on bank information disclosure.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said that it was moving Uruguay, Costa Rica, Malaysia and the Philippines to a grey list of offenders that say they will put things right, a long list that includes major finance centers such as Switzerland.
The OECD published three lists last Thursday in response to a request from world leaders looking for ways to tighten up on financial regulation at a G20 summit in London the same day.
It put just four on the blacklist, more than 30 on the grey list of repentants and about 40 countries on a white list of places where the authorities are considered fully committed to international standards of information exchange. (more…)
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Tuesday, April 7th, 2009
Tom Brady stats’s agent says security guards patrolling Gisele Bundchen’s compound claim to know nothing about a shot that barely missed two photographers, but police in Costa Rica yesterday launched a “full investigation” into the wedding-day gunfire.
“I have no knowledge of the events being described,” the usually elusive Don Yee told the Associated Press. “Additionally, security personnel have reported they do not have any knowledge of such an event. Given this, I have no other comment.”
But Mario Sanchez of Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Agency told People that a report was filed on the incident and an investigation is set to begin.
Sanchez said authorities will bring charges against the security guards if the evidence is solid. He added that Brady and Bundchen likely would not be held responsible for any actions by their guards. Still, police hope to interview everyone who was present the night of the incident, the magazine said. (more…)
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Tuesday, April 7th, 2009
A bail hearing is scheduled today for a man charged with kidnapping his son and taking him to Latin America.
David Albanese, 28, was arrested in July in Costa Rica by authorities acting on a warrant that Acushnet police obtained in September 2006, charging him with kidnapping a minor by a relative.
Acting on the advice of Costa Rican lawyers, Albanese fought — unsuccessfully — efforts to extradite him to Massachusetts. U.S. marshals transported him last Friday to Logan Airport in Boston. He was arraigned Monday in New Bedford District Court. (more…)
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Monday, April 6th, 2009
Costa Rica health authorities on Saturday ordered the cancellation of the eagerly awaited performance of legendary Mexican singer Vicente Fernández, the same night the show was set to take place.
The concert, scheduled for Ricardo Saprissa Stadium in Tibás, north of San José, lacked health and other permits, according to press reports.
A star of ranchera and mariachi music, Fernández told the daily La Nación he has never seen anything like this. “Why if the sound, the stage, the lights, everything is all ready, did they close off the stage?” he asked.
Thousands of fans waited outside the stadium hoping the doors would finally open.
The concert has been rescheduled for April 28, La Nación reported Sunday.
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Monday, April 6th, 2009
Picture perfect wedding? A police officer inspects the damages caused by gunfire in the car used by AFP photographer Yuri Cortez and Al Día photographer Rolando Aviles while covering of the wedding of supermodel Gisele Bündchen and U.S. football star Tom Brady in Santa Teresa. The photographers claim that one of the newlyweds’ bodyguards shot at the photojournalists, who managed to escape unscathed.
Two photographers claim that a private security guard shot at them Saturday at the wedding of Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen and U.S. football player Tom Brady at the Costa Rican beach town of Santa Teresa on the Nicoya Peninsula. No injuries were reported.
Rolando Avilés, photographer for Costa Rican daily Al Día, told newswire EFE the incident occurred after he and photographer Yuri Cortez, of French newswire AFP, refused to hand over their photography equipment to the security guards.
Whereupon, one of the guards pulled out a gun and opened fire at the photographers’ vehicle, shattering the back window, Avilés said, adding that the bullet whizzed “by the head” of Salvadoran photojournalist Cortez. “It was really scary,” Avilés said.
According to the Al Día photographer, neither he nor Cortez had entered the property of Bündchen’s mansion, where the wedding took place, and were snapping shots from a nearby hill “outside the private property.”
The news became the buzz this weekend on celebrity blogs.
According to INF Daily, Bündchen had made an exclusive deal with a Brazilian magazine to cover the wedding, which may have prompted the guards to demand the Tico and Salvadoran photographers turn over their material. Avilés told INF he was in disbelief, saying, “ I could have lost my life for the sake of some pictures that Gisele didn’t want published. Are they insane?”
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