Costa Rica information, activities and news
A head on collision between a truck and a taxi on the new San José – Caldera highway, near the Ciruelas river, claimed the first life and left three wounded.
The early morning accident is the first fatal accident on the road that opening to the public last Thursday.
A poll shows Costa Rica’s ruling party candidate with a strong lead ahead of Sunday’s presidential election.
The poll by the Unimer company shows Laura Chinchilla of the National Liberation Party has 41 percent support, compared to 23 percent for Otto Guevara of the Libertarian Movement Party.
Otton Solis of the Citizens’ Action Party is backed by 20 percent.
Chinchilla has been justice minister and vice president in President Oscar Arias’ government. If elected, she would become the first woman elected president in Costa Rica.
The polling firm questioned 1,322 likely voters from Jan. 24-30. The survey has a margin of error of 3.2 percentage points.
Results were released Wednesday.
The 2010 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) gives Costa Ricans cause for celebration as the country is rated third in a detailed analysis of data from 163 countries in the World. The EPI was presented on the 28th of January this year to the World Economic Forum, where experts from the prestigious Yale and Columbia Universities were responsible for explaining the lengthy report. The index ranking system is based on a possible maximum score of 100 points. Costa Rica scored 86.4 on this scale. Neighboring countries Panama and Nicaragua were in 24th and 93rd places respectively, with scores of 71.4 and 57.4 in comparison.
Costa Rica’s placing in the index is especially significant when it is considered that the other countries in the top five positions of the index are all European: Iceland, Switzerland, Sweden and Norway and the USA ranked poorly in 61st place in the index.
The EPI is based on research in two main areas: environmental public health and ecosystem vitality. Within these two categories are indicators such as environmental health, air quality, water resource management, biodiversity and habitat, forests, fisheries and climate change. Those countries like Costa Rica which ranked very highly in the EPI were acknowledged as having made ‘substantial investments in environmental infrastructure, pollution control and policies designed to move toward long-term sustainability.
This report follows on the heels of the much publicized Happy Planet Index (HPI) of July 2009 which rated Costa Rica as the nation which is the happiest place to live out of 143 countries in the world and 99% of the world’s population. This news was of no surprise to the patriotic Ticos who have been fully aware of this fact for many years. The HPI ranking system is based on use of the world’s resources and the general well-being of the population, showing that Costa Ricans are happy and environmentally aware. The New Economics Foundation indicated in the report that Costa Rica was also very close to reaching the goal of ‘one-planet living’; in other words the population are near to only using what would be their rightful quota of the planet’s resources.
Costa Ricans have a high life expectancy and high level of well-being and contentment with their daily living, but have a relatively small “ecological footprint” which puts them at the top of the HPI’s ranking. The country only narrowly fails to achieve the goal of what NEF calls “one-planet living”: consuming its fair share of the Earth’s natural resources. Interestingly, unlike the EPI, Latin American countries generally ranked highly in the HPI, suggesting a Latino lifestyle of ‘mañana’ is better for your well-being and happiness that the stressful now of the Western world. How reassuring!
If you are looking for absolute perfection, then do bear in mind the National Geographic’s rating of Atenas in Costa Rica’s Central Valley as the place in the world with the best climate for human existence. The town is a little higher that San Jose but still within the mountains. The location is responsible for the warm days, cool nights and light rainfall which create climatic bliss. In Costa Rica, you really can have it all!
The day when restaurants will serve garlic grasshoppers or beetle larva skewers is getting closer in Costa Rica, where scientists are “growing” insects for human consumption.
Entomologist Manuel Zumbado’s research into this alternative food source is inspired by practices in Africa, where insects have long been part of people’s diet.
With its rainforests playing host to countless insect species, including thousands that have yet to be identified, Costa Rica is a perfect breeding ground for the work.
From leaf-cutting ants to rhinoceros beetles and a dizzying flurry of butterflies, the Central American nation is also a haven of ecotourism. But is it the next hotbed of mouth-watering bugs?
The food diversification program at the National Biodiversity Institute in Santo Domingo de Heredia, a small city close to the capital San Jose, looks into indigenous insect species.
But it also examines mushrooms, inspired by their importance in diets from the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan.
At the institute, Costa Rican scientists mingle with Bhutan mycology expert Ugyen Yangchen and Elisabeth Zannou, an entomologist from Benin.
Costa Rica and Benin share historical ties, as many slaves were taken from the western African country to Central America during the colonial era.
“Benin knows a lot about insect consumption and Bhutan about eating mushrooms, while Costa Rica is bringing its experience in managing biodiversity,” Marianella Feoli, who manages the foundation coordinating the research program, told AFP.
In Benin, termites, grasshoppers and crickets, as well as butterfly and moth larvae are a common part of people’s diet, explained Zumbado, who traveled with his colleagues to explore the phenomenon in the coastal country.
“In other countries, gourmet restaurants serve insects,” he noted.
“In the beginning, people thought we were a bit crazy, but I think this is an alternative, not only as a survival food, but also as a cultural concept.”
Esperanzas, a large grasshopper species with long antennae that abound in Costa Rica’s forests and rural areas are “far more savory than shrimp” when seasoned with garlic, according to the researcher. Zumbado should know — he has consumed scores of insects during his travels in Costa Rica and Benin.
“It’s worth the effort to taste them,” he added.
“You can fry them, grill them on skewers with onions.”
Insects a la fish were a favorite of Benin locals.
As part of his effort to convince a skeptical public not particularly enthused at the thought of munching on crunchy creepy crawlies, the entomologist suggested first adding insect delicacies to the menus of the best restaurants in town.
A boutique hotel in the northern province of Guanacaste — the country’s top tourist destination — was tempted, an accompanying wine oblige.
“I would recommend a big pricetag for the entree, so that clients appreciate it,” Zumbado said with a malicious smile.
Costa Rica’s state water utility AyA will invest US$270mn to start treating the 2,800l/s of wastewater currently produced in the greater metropolitan area in and around capital San José, local paper La Nación reported.
The project involves the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the sewerage networks in nine municipalities in San José and one in Cartago province. A total of 360km of secondary pipelines will be installed and four trunk sewers will be repaired.
A wastewater treatment plant will also be built in the La Uruca municipality.
A US$17.4mn tender to carry out studies and draw up the master plan for the underground network was awarded to a consortium formed by Japanese NJS and the French firm Sogreah on January 22.
Pending contracts include the construction of the underground network and for the wastewater treatment plant. Two Spanish firms and a French firm are participating in the tender process to build the plant, the report said.
The initiative is being financed with a US$130mn loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). Another US$140mn will be provided from the country’s own resources.
Upon completion in 2015, wastewater produced by the 1mn people living in the San José municipalities of Desamparados, Goicoechea, Alajuelita, Vázquez de Coronado, Tibás, Moravia, Montes de Oca, Curridabat and Central will be treated. La Unión municipality will also benefit.
Currently, wastewater from these municipalities is disposed of without treatment in the rivers Torres, María Aguilar, Rivera and Tiribí.
An international kidnapping case with Springfield roots is heating up.
Springfield native Trina Atwell Chavarria is in Costa Rica where she fled with her now-18-and-a-half month old daughter.
An international war is being waged over Emily Koyama.
Her mother is charged with felony parental kidnapping.
“So hopefully all of this can be just a bad dream for her.”
Roy Koyama says its been a nightmare for him, one that’s taken him into foreign territory.
Koyama’s fiance Atwell fled Springfield with their then-7-month-old daughter Emily, almost exactly one year ago.
“I went into a deep state of depression. It’s almost like mourning a death, because I was in love with my child and deeply in love with her,” Koyama tells us.
Atwell claimed abuse.
“I had protection orders against him, and he violated those by sending me text messages constantly, sending me emails,” from Costa Rica last month.
Koyama denies those allegations, and KSPR could find no record of any protection orders.
So this father embarked on a quest to get his daughter back.
“The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has helped me out a lot. They actually helped me obtain travel expenses through the U.S. Department of Justice. They paid for everything for me.”
Koyama took his case to Costa Rican court.
When he went to Costa Rica last week he brought along new evidence.
Back in November he asked Greene County to grant him sole custody of Emily.
Since Atwell never showed up in Missouri for a hearing, Koyama won.
Now he’s waiting, 5 days for a ruling, and in the meantime, vacating his mobile home and heading to what he calls a more suitable home for a child.
“This is the home that emily and I will be living together in,” Koyama explains as he shows the house on Newton Street.
He’ll move in mid-February, along two boys from a previous marriage.
It’s the happy family that exists now only in pictures, and Koyama says that’s the real crime.
“I’m innocent of everything except for I’m guilty of being a father that wants to be with his children, and I’ll take that life sentence because I love my kids.”
In five days the judge’s decision will determine whether Emily will stay in Costa Rica or return to the United States.
Both Koyama and Atwell have set up facebook pages for Emily.
Koyama’s allows fans to make direct donations to his attorney to help cover his legal fees, which he says have been exhorbitant.
