Top 10 Costa Rica

Opponents of the Tratado Libre de Comercio (TLC) - free trade agreement with the United States - apparently will not stop until the December 31 deadline passes and the trade deal is dead.

The latest roadblock is the failure of the legislature to approve two of the four nominations to the Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones (SUTEL).

SUTEL is the agency that will govern telecommunications in the country, including cellular telephone and internet operators, which is a requirement of the Ley de Fortalecimiento y Modernización del Sector Telecomunicaciones, the law that broke the telecommunications monopoly in the country and required under the free trade deal.

The Arias administration has the commitment to complete all the requirements in the trade deal by December 31, the last day it has to deposit the completed agreement with the Organization of American States (OAS), after it was given, a second extension by the trade partners to the deal.

Under the agreement, SUTEL is to be in complete set up by March 2009 and begin public offerings of the first telecommunications concessions by May 2009.

“Sure there are problems with the TLC, we are in the hands of the United States again for our own failures”, said the ministro d Comercio Exterior (Foreign trade minister), Marco Ruiz.

The Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos (Aresep) nominated last month four individuals to head up the SUTEL for the approval by legislators, who on Friday refused two nominations for political and business reasons.

Now, the Aresep must name two other individuals for consideration by legislators who go on their holiday vacation break in less than a week, which could impede the SUTEL nominations and the government’s commitment to honour the trade agreement.

The TLC negotiations began in 2004 and has been an uphill struggle for Costa Rica, which put the decision of the TLC in the hands of the people with the first ever referendum on the issue and the government having to ask for, not one, but two extensions from its trade partners, - Nicarauga, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, the United States and the Dominican Republic (the deal known as CAFTA-DR) - who all have already ratified and put in place their respective agreements.

The Spanish International Cooperation Agency announced yesterday a 35,000-euro ($47,900) donation to help Costa Rica prevent the spread of illness in the Caribbean region after heavy flooding hit the area at the end of November and early December.

The donation will go via the Pan-American Health Organization to Costa Rica’s Public Health Ministry.

The Spanish agency said the funds will be used to prevent problems such as dengue, malaria and pests, as well as ensure the quality of drinking water in homes and sanitary infrastructure, according to a press release.

Spain joins such France, the United States and the Netherlands as donors following the latest flooding, which left one person dead, forced more than 5,000 people out of their homes and caused more than $75,000 in infrastructural damage, primarily in the Caribbean province of Limón.

France donated 50,000 euros (about $68,400) and the United States gave $50,000, and loaned helicopters for evacuation operations. The Dutch, meanwhile, have pledged engineering expertise in flood prevention.

Puerto Viejo de Carapiqui, Costa Rica - A world leader in ecotourism, Costa Rica is a country that promotes nature conservation instead of the ruthless exploitation of natural resources, and wildlife-watching instead of competitive drinking at the side of hotel pools. The Central American nation is considered a role model in this respect, and its many natural treasures - including crater lakes, smoking and dormant volcanoes, Pacific and Caribbean beaches, and rain forests with howler monkeys, toucans and sloths - attract more and more tourists every year.

Even little creatures are big stars in Costa Rica. Take, for instance, a red poison dart frog spotted in the bushes by the Sarapiqui River. It looked up to see two cameras pointed in its direction. Barely as big as a thumb, the pipsqueak puffed out its throat mightily.

Two tourists from Germany, along with the rest of the small group, heeded the advice of Karla Barquero, their guide: They kept still and photographed without flashbulbs. The brightly coloured amphibian, normally quite shy, seemed to appreciate this behaviour and did not bound away. Read the rest of this entry »

March 3 as Iron Maiden arrives in Costa Rica for what is being billed as a “monster concert”.

Put on by the same uber concert promoter that brought the country Latin heartthrob Alejandro Sanz, Sting, the Black Eyed Peas and more recently Placido Domingo, Iron Maiden may be the biggest draw yet. That’s because heavy metal and 80’s music in particular is still widely played on radio by college age men and women. It is more a staple than the salsa music typically played in other Latin American nations.

Iron Maiden is a pioneer of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement. They first rose to fame in the early 1980s, and after several lineup changes, they went on to release a string of platinum and gold albums. These include the US platinum-selling landmark The Number of the Beast in 1982 and the follow up Piece of Mind in 1983. Iron Maiden released their newest studio effort in 2006 entitled A Matter of Life and Death peaked at number nine on the Billboard 200 and was certified gold in the UK.

As one of the most commercially successful heavy metal bands of all time, Iron Maiden have sold more than 70 million albums worldwide without significant mainstream or radio support. The band won the Ivor Novello Awards for international achievement in 2002, and were also inducted into the Hollywood RockWalk in Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles County, California during their tour in the United States in 2005. Their influences include Thin Lizzy, UFO, Deep Purple, Uriah Heep and Wishbone Ash.

Iron Maiden were ranked #24 in VH1’s “100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock. The band were ranked fourth on MTV’s “Top 10 Greatest Heavy Metal Bands of All Time Iron Maiden were named the third best metal band of all time on VH1 Classic: Top 20 Metal Bands The band also won the Ivor Novello Award for international achievement in 2002. The band was also inducted into the Hollywood RockWalk during their tour in the United States in 2005.

The Costa Rica concert is part of the final leg of an extensive world wide tour entitled “Somewhere Back in Time”. The setlist for the tour consists of hits from the 80s, with a specific focus on the Powerslave era for set design. The tour started in Mumbai, India on February 1, 2008 where the band played to an audience of about 30,000.

The Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto venue in Costa Rica, where the concert will take place, will be selling 25,000 tickets. Nearly all the shows on the tour have been sellouts.

On Wednesday, visitor number 2 million for the season is expected to pass through the immigration gates of the Juan Santamaría international airport in San Jose.

The Instituto Costarricense de Turismo (ICT) - Costa Rican tourism board - is preparing to receive the milestone visitor.

In a visit to Costa Rica yesterday, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary Fund said that Costa Rica is in relatively good shape to weather the global economic slowdown.

Strauss-Kahn, however, the country’s central bank should remain ready to act.

Strauss-Kahn met with Costa Rica’s president, Oscar Arias, the ministro de Hacienda, Guillermo Zúñiga, and the president of the Central Bank, Francisco de Paula Gutierrez.

Strauss-Kahn said there was general agreement that a combination of domestic policy adjustment and external financing are needed to help the Costa Rican economy and people deal with the slowdown.

“In this regard, the country can confront the challenging global environment from a position of relative strength,” he said in a statement. “The prudent fiscal stance of recent years provides the authorities with some room for maneuver.”

The Central Bank must remain “vigilant” to ensure “a smooth adjustment in domestic demand and the current account deficit, maintain the attractiveness of local currency assets, and ensure that inflation expectations converge toward the central bank’s inflation target,” he said.

Strauss-Kahn added that the IMF stands ready to help Costa Rica with as much credit as it needs to face the global financial crisis.

Another American has been arrested in the Costa Rica business scam that bilked people in the US out of some serious money. The scammers employed virtual resources to make it seem like they were located in the U.S.

“The Postal Inspection Service investigated a virtual office in Reno, Nev., and learned that it and the U.S. Mail were being used as part of a international fraud scheme aimed at United States citizens. Our investigation discovered a web of deception that led to Costa Rica. With international cooperation, we have now arrested two of the leaders of this scheme.” said U. S. Postal Inspector in Charge Pete Zegarac, based in Phoenix.

According to the Department of Justice:

Stephen Schultz was arrested based on charges that he and a co-conspirator, Jeffrey Pearson, purported to sell beverage and greeting card business opportunities, including assistance in establishing, maintaining and operating such businesses. The charges form part of the government’s continued nationwide crackdown on business opportunity fraud.

Pearson was arrested on Dec. 9, 2008, in Costa Rica. The United States intends to seek the extradition of Schultz and Pearson from Costa Rica.

Virtual Offices and VoIP were what the conspirators used to make it seem like they were in the US like their victims.

“We greatly appreciate the effort and cooperation of Costa Rican authorities in arresting these two defendants,” said Gregory G. Katsas, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Division. Assistant Attorney General Katsas commended the investigative efforts of the Postal Inspection Service offices based in Reno, Nev., and Miami.

Costa Rica property investment has provided investors with great capital gains over the last few years with low downside volatility.

Many investors now see Costa Rica property investment as expensive and are looking at other Central American countries such as Belize and Nicaragua, but Costa Rica still looks a better investment in terms of risk to reward due to the following:

1. An established market

Costa Rica property investment still looks to have excellent capital growth potential because it is an established market.

The fact is once foreign capital buys in more follows, as it instils confidence and there is a track record to look at and this encourages further investment

The Expat community continues to grow and the gains are too made in new up and coming locations as existing established locations need to expand out .

2. Stability

Costa Rica is a stable investment environment and unlike Nicaragua for example, there is no threat to this stability such as the Sandinista party, there is a track record of stable democracy.

3. Standard of living

Many people coming from abroad want the lower costs of a new location but they also want similar facilities to the ones they have at home, such as clean water, good roads, entertainment and shops and infrastructure and Costa Rica property investment gives them access to this.

A property market can provide good upward growth for many years and Costa Rica property investment is no different, the key is location.

As foreign capital continues to come into the country, the way to enhance capital growth is to pick locations wisely, in up and coming areas.

Look at changes in the infrastructure that benefit the expats and if you buy in these areas then capital growth potential to risk will be maximized.

Value Capital growth potential in a secure country

Costa Rica property investment is no longer the cheapest in Central America but offers value for money and good capital gains potential, linked to low downside volatility.

This after all is what most investors are looking for from property investment.

Will countries such as Nicaragua and Belize for example grow like Costa Rica?

Only time will tell, but the amount of capital being invested in Costa Rica property investment points to the fact that a lot of smart money still sees great potential.

Costa Rica property investment for retirees, second and holiday homes remains a solid investment and the future looks bright for those investors looking for great upside with low downside volatility.

This is December. The month of the aguinaldo, the avenidazo, crowds, lots of traffic and the Zapote Fair in San José, school vacation and time to head for the beaches and mountains.

The central government will shut down for the holidays on December 19 and re-open on January 5. Any dealings with the governments will be suspended during that period.

Autonomous government agencies, like ICE, Racsa, CCSS, follow their own closing times, some following the lead of the central government, while others not.

Best to check ahead before heading for a doctors appointment or clinic. Public hospitals and clinics will be open regular hours except for December 25 and 31. All emergency services will operate as normal 24 hours a day, every day.

Banks also close during the holiday period. Most private banks follow the lead of the state banks closing only December 25, 31 and January 1.

At the Acueductos y Alcantarillados (water and sewer) and the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (telephone and electricity), they inform that they will close the central offices and many regional offices from December 19 to January 5, however, customer services offices and booths will be open save for December 25, 31 and January 1.

Only December 25 and January 1 are legal holidays in Costa Rica. However, many businesses and professionals, like doctors, dentists, lawyers, accountants, etc. shut down from a few days to a week before Christmas and re-open in the new year.

Always call ahead and save yourself a trip.

The Comisión Especial de Seguridad Ciudadana del Parlamento (special legislative commission on citizen security) said it has completed discussions on the motions and that the Ley de Protección de Víctimas y Testigos bill is ready to be presented to the full legislature for voting come January.

The proposed law will give the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) extended powers to protect victims and witnesses to crimes and send to prison petty criminals when the theft of loss to the victim is less than “one base salary”, as well as establish a process of speedy trials for criminals caught “en flagrancia del Delito” (red handed).

The proposal includes harsher penalties for recurring and professional criminals, like sending a suspect to preventive detention (jail while waiting trial) if the individual already has to open cases.

The Ley de Protección de Víctimas y Testigos is complimentary to the bill “Ley de combate contra el crimen organizado” (law combating organized crime) which is still in the motions process.

The Ley de Protección de Víctimas y Testigos still has some challenges when it hits the legislative foor.

Legislator Evita Arguedas is one who wants to see greater limits on interrogations by the OIJ, by making a motion that would impede authorities to interrogate a suspect for the first six hours of the arrest.

Luis Antonio Barrantes, party whip for the Movimiento Libertario and president of the commission confirmed that he ordered a new publication of the initiative in the official government publication, La Gaceta, since the bill includes a tax on securities in foreign currencies which would go towards finance the operation of an office to for the protection of victims and witnesses which will be operated by the OIJ.

JetBlue Airways Corp. said Wednesday it will begin daily nonstop flights between Orlando and San Jose, Costa Rica, on March 26.

New York-based JetBlue also said it would begin daily nonstop service from Orlando to Bogota, Colombia — its first South American destination — Jan. 29, and to Nassau, Bahamas, Feb. 1.

For the San Jose service, JetBlue’s first in Central America, the airline will operate 100-seat Embraer E190 jets. The service is dependent on approval from Costa Rican authorities.

JetBlue said it has begun selling one-way tickets to Costa Rica starting at $99 through Dec. 23, with fares otherwise starting at $139 each way.

International service has been stronger than U.S. travel, although some carriers have reported a recent falloff in international traffic, especially premium business- and first-class seats.

Shares of JetBlue fell 7 cents to $5.50 in afternoon trading.

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Your borrowing power will depend primarily on the equity that you have. Our lenders will also need to be fully assured as to the feasibility of the project you have in mind. Before we present a project to our lenders you will need plans and the necessary permits in place.

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Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen have revealed to close pals that they’re planning to tie the knot in a secret ceremony in Costa Rica. “They’re not going the traditional route,” an insider said. “There will be no engagement, just a small wedding in mid-March.”