Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
Reggie Bush and Kim Kardashian soaked their ridiculously hot bodies in the Costa Rican sun last weekend.
Cuddling up with shirtless Reggie Bush in Costa Rica on Saturday and Sunday. That Super Bowl-winning six-pack is certainly a welcome sight, and reminds us of their very sexy GQ spread last year. The two have been spending lots of time together since his season ended, including a couples pampering session with a head massage for Reggie. Scott isn’t the only Kardashian boyfriend getting heat these days, but it looks like everything is going great with Kim and Reggie on their exotic romantic getaway.
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The gorgeous socialite and her running back beau enjoyed a little rest and relaxation at the posh Four Seasons hotel, after a whirlwind series of weeks in which Reggie’s New Orleans Saintswon the Super Bowl, while Kim was busily promoting her new perfume.
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The tabloids have recently reported the couple’s relationship to be on the rocks, but these pics of the young lovers on the beach should silence those whispers — for now.
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Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
The bishops of Costa Rica released a statement expressing concern over a recent ruling by the country’s Constitutional Court which stripped the Church its right to choose which religion teachers will be hired in Costa Rican schools.
Last month, Costa Rica’s Constitutional Court took away the Church’s right to choose which religion teachers it will hire, after reversing a 1972 law stating that all religious teachers must be approved by the Bishops’ Conference of Costa Rica.
“We respect the decision of the Constitutional Court, but at the same time we are concerned about the insecurity and confusion that the ruling has caused among teachers and students of religious education, as well as parents,” the bishops said.
The foundation of religious education, they explained, “lies in the inalienable right of Catholic parents to educate their children according to their faith and convictions. It is a human right that must be respected, and it is the duty of the Costa Rican State to make the greatest effort possible to ensure parents are offered this education in public schools.”
After noting that religious education is also good for the state, the bishops expressed their concern over “the tendency to want to replace Catholic religious education with … education in ethics, aesthetics or values, denying the rights of parents and to choose Catholic religious education for their sons and daughters.”
For these reasons, the bishops called on parents to provide the necessary religious education to their children; on authorities to respect this right; on teachers to assume this task with responsibility and to respect “current law that protects Catholic religious education.”
They also encouraged a strengthening of the collaboration between the State and the Catholic Church in the area of education.
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Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
The dollar/colon exchange rate fell to a low not seen since December 2008.
This morning the Central Bank set the buy at ¢540.38 and the sell ¢550.41 for one US dollar.
Experts say that no major variation is expected until at least May, as the economy is in a low demand for dollars.
The dollar has dropped almost ¢20 colones this year, opening at ¢558.67 for the buy and ¢571.81 for sell in the first days of the year.
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Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
Last week a group of my friends and I who had been to Costa Rica for our honeymoons were debating on which were the best places for a romantic getaways there. As expected, there were differences in opinions as we all had different expectations and requirements when it comes to the places to for our honeymoons. Although quite a number of them names Tamarindo, Jaco and Quepos as their favourite places for honeymoons or romantic getaways. In my opinion while those are all great Costa Rica honeymoon places but they are also slightly overcrowded which is not my to my liking as I prefer places where you do not have to fight for a place to have your dinner.
So my place of choice to have a romantic getaway or holiday is definitely the Nicoya Peninsula on the north west side of Costa Rica. I was there with my wife for our honeymoon about 5 years ago and I have been back a couple of times as we felt that there were areas in Nicoya that we have never been. If you go to Nicoya Penincular you have got to visit Tambor, Montezuma, Mal Pais and Santa Teresa located on the south of the peninsular. You can start off with Tambor as it has a landing strip so you can take flight directly there from San Jose. Tambor is pretty serenely beautiful and the waters off the coast here is calm enough even for young children and novice swimmers to swim in it. However if you are looking for some partying at night, this is not the place to be. You need to go to Montezuma Costa Rica which is famous for its fabulous party scene on the weekend especially at a particular open air bar next to the beach. Montezuma Costa Rica is also a great place to visit the famous Cabo Blanco wildlife reserve where there are abundance of flora and faunas and topical animals. Next on the list is Mal Pais which is a tranquil and uncrowded beach town which is pretty popular with surfers due to the big waves. You can actually make a day trip here from Montezuma unless you are s serious surfer who wants to spend more time in Mal Pais. Further away from here is Santa Teresa which is equally well known for its surfing activities. More than that Santa Teresa is slowly but surely develop into quite a trendy place with the hip restaurants, hotels and other amenities that have come up over the years to cater for the growing number of tourists in this place.
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Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
The Costa Rican government has declared retirement communities, aimed at attracting U.S. pensioners, to be “of national interest.” Plans to create “retirement clusters” providing complete health services for older adults are seen as a profitable prospect for this Central American country.
Old people as a business: this is the bottom line of the government and private sector’s new project.
Noting the rapid development of the “health cities” in Mexico and Panama, Costa Rican officials and entrepreneurs are poised to tap into the perceived gold mine among middle and upper-middle class senior citizens of industrialized countries.
The concept is simple, and includes slashing red tape to the minimum by providing one-stop residence permits at the Migration Directorate, so that foreigners, especially the well-heeled, can come to live in the country.
Tax exemptions on real estate and vehicles are on offer, and a promotional campaign aimed at older adults abroad will be run by the Costa Rican Institute of Tourism (ICT). The government will also boost training of human resources such as health personnel through the Costa Rican Social Security system, and seek to attract investment.
The Competitiveness Ministry has already identified eight locations for retirement clusters in Costa Rica, in areas of natural beauty with plenty of tourist attractions, and close to large hospital complexes.
Promoting Costa Rica as a retirement haven includes much more than boosting real estate sales or medical tourism. “It includes the hotel sector, travel, hospitals and research. Costa Rica will benefit from it,” Competitiveness Minister Jorge Woodbridge said. Patients and their relatives are likely to travel all over the country, staying at hotels and engaging tour operators and so on.
Every 10,000 retirees are expected to generate employment for 40,000 people a year, 10,000 of them in direct jobs and 30,000 indirectly. The average income of the target population (middle and upper-middle class U.S., Canadian and Spanish citizens) is 3,500 dollars a month.
The main Costa Rican medical centers are already building two major hospital complexes in the city of Liberia in Guanacaste province, the top tourist destination in the country. They will comprise a hospital and residential zone, where services will be provided for four levels of care: active retirement, independent living, assisted living and skilled nursing, in increasing order of patient need.
A small retirement community for 12 people, the country’s only operational cluster so far, has opened on the slopes of the Poas volcano.
Coming to Costa Rica has economic advantages for foreign pensioners. They pay for accommodation and medical care, and a family visit from home once a month, and it costs less than paying for medical services back home, he said. His customers pay 1,600 dollars a month, whereas in the United States they would have to pay 4,500 dollars a month for comparable services.
“We want to attract 10,000 pensioners a year,” Woodbridge said. Estimated annual foreign exchange earnings per 10,000 retirees are 340 million dollars, “so in five years, the total would be 1.7 billion dollars,” he calculated.
In any case, the plan will take at least five years to take off as a national strategy, Foreign Trade Minister Marco Vinicio Ruiz said.
Other Latin American countries have a head start on Costa Rica. Mexico, which has been developing its policy for over 20 years, is now home to 700,000 pensioners from the United States who are living in Mexican retirement communities.
Its other rival is Panama, which has been advancing in this direction for about a decade. Panama has five retirement communities at present, with another 42 currently being licensed and built.
But the government authorities are optimistic. The climate, enormous biodiversity, security, stability, and polls describing Costa Rica as “the happiest country in the world,” are factors that will work in its favour, according to Woodbridge.
Costa Rica’s reputation as “the Switzerland of Central America” will also help.
Not everyone is in favor of the creation of this new market, however. “It will affect the rights of the people of Costa Rica,” said Carlos Páez with the National Union of Social Security Fund Employees (UNDECA).
Páez said “if this is put into practice, doctors and nurses will go into private medicine,” which could bring about a crisis in the Costa Rican public health system, presently stretched to the limit. “There is already a lack of specialists and health personnel,” and the flight of these workers to private clinics and hospitals will only increase the shortage, said the UNDECA trade unionist.
“The first thing the country should do is to solve the crisis in the social security fund, before opening the market to additional demands,” Páez argued.
Every day, some 6,000 people reach the age of 65 in the United States. The baby boomer generation, born between 1945 and 1964, controls 77 percent of the available financial resources of that country.
Forty-six million people in the United States have no medical insurance, a fact that Costa Rica plans to use to attract U.S. older adults to its shores.
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