Costa Rica-Real Estate Condos for sale in Guanacaste

After months and months of terrible weather that carried floods and lots of damages to some towns in Costa Rica and couple of weeks of breezy cold weather, we are finally feeling good temperature changes, at least in the San Jose and Guanacaste provinces.

In Costa Rica, weather in the coastal areas is lot warmer than it is inside the country sort of speak, so if you are visiting Costa Rica these days, try not to limit your packing to beach wear and include a couple of jeans and jackets just in case.

The beaches in Costa Rica have started receiving a lot more visitors and hotels are starting to decorate their premises for the holidays, just driving by Tamarindo you can see how lots of establishments are getting ready to have nice holidays and travelers are definitely enjoying the atmosphere.

I have to admit that I am actually looking forward to eat tamales like any other Tico…for some reason Costa Rica does get under your skin once you spend a while here and you tend to get exited about every little thing Ticos get excited about in Costa Rica. Guanacaste may be just a town in development, but it is definitely the place I was looking for.

The North American community in Costa Rica is so big that this year’s Thanksgiving dinner is going to be just like if I was in the US. In my neighborhood, there are even people who rented villas for their Costa Rica vacation buying all the ingredients and more for their thanksgiving dinner and a friend of mine who owns a catering service told me he was almost overbooked for today.

Here in Costa Rica thanksgiving is not celebrated, given the fact the Mayflower is only a North American tradition, yet the amazing increase in ex-pats has mixed the thanksgiving celebrations with the Costa Rica culture and more and more Ticos join their American friends into enjoying the wonderful feeling of thanking god for everything we receive. I think that is probably why Ticos receive this celebration with open arms, they feel that sitting and thanking for all the wonderful things we receive is worth to enjoy and celebrate.

In my case, I will thank this wonderful year I have spent in Costa Rica, a country that certainly feels like home and for the wonderful people I have met here. I will however pray for all the people who lost their homes at the terrible floods we had this year. To all the gringos around the world Happy thanksgiving and I hope you get to enjoy it with people you love and God bless every one of you.

One of the most damaging activities has been banned in Costa Rica: logging to develop building projects. A government decree authorizing the logging of coastal forests for eco-tourism projects in Costa Rica was approved in 2004 allegedly to benefit a hot shot entrepreneur who needed to remove a partial piece of forest to build a hotel.

According to Alvaro Sagot, an environmental law professor: “The decree had a first and last name…It was made for someone in particular that needed to cut down forest to build hotels”, yet he would not name names since his main concern is not to look for people responsible but to take care of Costa Rica forests.

The decree was set by the Environment, Energy and Telecommunications Ministry (MINAE) back in April 2004 and basically what it stated was a regulation for eco-tourism, calling these projects “tourism developments that simultaneously promote environmental education in Costa Rica, the conservation of natural resources, the socioeconomic development of the inhabitants that reflect an environmental conscience and identity”. The decree also limits definition to coastal projects that fell within the first 200 meters inland from the ocean, which is state-owned land known as the maritime zone.

Lately a lot of people around the world have been saying that Costa Rica natural resources were disappearing because of several development projects, yet the problem was not really there until this decree was found, and now completely annulled to prevent any damage to Costa Rica forests and other natural reservations.

The decree was actually a terrible decision made the government back then since it was signed by former Costa Rica environment minister Carlos Manuel Rodriguez and former President Abel Pacheco. The decree allowed so called “eco-tourism” projects to get concessions on forested property in Costa Rica and build over as much as 15% of old growth or primary forest, and 25% if the forest is second growth.

Starting today, gas prices in Costa Rica will go down a little after huge price increases experienced during the last year. According to the ARESEP, the price reduction in gas will include a ¢52 drop for super gasoline, from ¢692 ($1.26) to ¢640 ($1.16) per liter; a ¢46 drop for plus gasoline, from ¢670 ($1.22) to ¢624 $1.13); and a ¢3 reduction for diesel, from ¢612 ($1.12) to ¢609 ($1.11), yet RECOPE, which is Costa Rica’ oil refinery did request much larger price reductions; all these changes will be fully set up by next week.

Transportation in Costa Rica has been a constant problem since in one side buses are cheap they are old and bus driver keep overloading the buses to almost twice their capacity, also they have become extremely insecure and impossible to ride at night time. ARESEP has announced that they are considering a “historic reduction” of 4.69 percent sometime soon in bus fares as well.

ARESEP has also announced it is changing the process by which fuel price reductions or increases are made that would include a reduction in the calculation period for the average international price of oil reference from 30 days to 15. Although in Costa Rica car prices are quite accessible, people were hesitant about purchasing an automobile due to those incredibly high gas prices and even well known car dealerships had to go out of business in the Alajuela city of Grecia. Costa Rica traffic is also a big problem since the streets are not built for the amount of traffic they receive everyday, causing terrible delays and constant accidents.

Since probably the beginning of this year, a group of people from Costa Rica got together to fight against crime and force the Costa Rica government to implement better and faster security measures for everyone, through an organization named “Recuperemos la Paz” which in English means “Let’s get the peace back”.

On their website, http://recuperemoslapaz.org this group has compiled lots of information regarding Costa Rica crime rate, a manifesto and a lot of artists have donated work pieces to create awareness to people and the Costa Rica security entities.

Their manifesto is called “ Manifiesto por la recuperación por la paz” (Manifesto to get the peace back) and was signed on April, 2008 by the three government branches it can be found, only in spanish, on this link http://www.recuperemoslapaz.org/manifiesto.html; what it basically strives to achieve is for the Asamblea Legislativa to incorporate stronger laws and better national security everywhere in the country to try and remove the violent crimes that have been taken place in the past years, where people have been killed even if they cooperate with the criminals for small things such as cell phones and ipods. Costa Rica was once a lovely place where people were able to come and go free, take buses or walk at night anywhere without being afraid of getting killed and this Costa Rica organization is trying to give those days back to the people in Costa Rica and their visitors.

The government has a dateline to comply with their demands and so far they seem to be doing an “ok job”. Costa Rica tourism is definitely one of the affected areas since a lot people dream of having a vacation in Costa Rica and just like the citizens themselves, Costa Rica tourists also need to feel safe during their stay.

We really hope that Recuperemos la paz accomplishes every goal they have set for themselves and to be honest I am proud to live in a country where people just don’t sit and wait but move to have a better life.

This upcoming December, Costa Rica tourism will set a record to be remembered: for the first time Costa Rica will receive the visitor number 2 000 000 in year and the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo (ICT) plans to make a huge celebration about it.

The person that arrives on Costa Rica shores or international airport as number 2 000 000 will be part of a huge party as a welcome will be treated like a king with complementary stays in renowned Costa Rica hotels, the person will also receive personalized tours of the country and a lifetime access to Costa Rica will be granted.

It is certainly amazing how much the tourism in Costa Rica has grown this year, almost twice as much as it did in 1999 when the 1 million visitor broke the record. Tourism enterprises in Costa Rica are very excited about the upcoming event and a lot of planning has been involved into receiving the luck 2 million visitor.

At this moment we don’t really know where the lucky Costa Rica tourist will arrive, but after a few studies a prediction has been made and it has been predicted to pass through the Juan Santamaría airport in the first week of December. If you have scheduled a vacation in Costa Rica during those days, cross your fingers since you might be the lucky one.

Costa Rica is well known around the world for having extensive natural beauties that include, volcanoes, beaches and rain forests. In Costa Rica, the tourism industry is one of the most important economic activities and they take this matter very seriously, since it means that their efforts to increase tourism activities in Costa Rica is paying off nicely.

According to a recent study conducted by the Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo among 40 000 people from Latin America and the Caribbean, the happiest and most satisfied people are the Costa Rica citizens. Their analysis took into consideration some of the most important facts in people’s everyday life such as quality of education (which in Costa Rica is probably the best in America), health services, home and work environment.

Costa Rica had the highest scores according to the study: Costa Rica had an average of 7,4 close came Panama at 6,8 and finally México con 6,6. I have to say that it doesn’t really surprises me, all you have to do is walk around for a couple of hours and see that those scores are definitely real, In Costa Rica people are plain happy. Costa Rica lifestyle is simple and laid back, people have gorgeous sceneries in Costa Rica so there is basically beauty to enjoy everywhere; development rates are almost the same as in the US and in Costa Rica education is at the top of the importance list, there is really a lot to be happy about.

Another thing that comes to mind is the fact that in Costa Rica, health services are available for everyone who needs them anytime and anywhere, both public and private practices, also, as an example, in Costa Rica, plastic surgery is one of the best in the world, not to mention way cheaper than in it is in the US.

Let’s not forget that Costa Rica doesn’t have or need an army either.

As you can see, it is definitely obvious why people in Costa Rica are happier than people in any other Latin American Country….

This week the shopping monster company Amazon began operation in its Costa Rica branch with its first one hundred and something employees at their offices in a free trade zone in Heredia.

Just like many other companies around the world have decided to outsource their customer and tech services to professional workers in Costa Rica, Amazon is now part of the work force that will make a difference in Costa Rica.

It has been known for decades that Costa Rica education is above standard rates in America and lots of different companies have opted to outsource some of their services to this country: Acer was one of the first ones about 15 years ago, when they decided to provide all their customer services and tech support from a location in another free trade zone in Costa Rica. After that, came the Sportsbook businesses that for over 12 years have been a regular work opportunity for many people in Costa Rica. Online poker sites, online pharmacies and even micro engineering at Intel continue to come here and get really well trained professionals to work for them.

Not only the fact that Costa Rica work force is well trained is one of the reasons for all these companies to come, a big percentage of Costa Rica students are bilingual and the free trade zones are always offering great deal for big international companies businesses, allowing them to get great deals and cut expenses when opening a company in these areas. IBM, HP and Alienware are companies that established their operations in free trade zones and have been in the market for almost decades now, also other outsourcing companies such as Sykes and Stream provide services for many industries and sell their high quality customer services to banks and credit card companies and all their services are based in a free trade zone in Costa Rica.  

Bio geographer and investigator for National Geographic, Sally Horn, after coming to Costa Rica for the first time on 1982 has now begun an extensive investigation on the impact of human activity and climate change on forests in Costa Rica. For this research she has received the assistance of over 30 students and professors, who have conduct their own investigations on the climate change and the roll that human impact plays on this matter.

Sally Horn is a professor from the University of Tennessee in the United States. So far on her work in Costa Rica she has managed to extract sediments from the lagoons and determine, among other discoveries, what they used the soil for as much as 10,000 years ago. For example, in Guanacaste, they have planted corn for 5,450 years. Dr. Horn has been interested in Costa Rica for this research because of the biological diversity that can be found in its forests, especially in Guanacaste.

As part of her studies, she has also discovered that 5,000 years ago Costa Rica land was more humid, especially in the Caribbean and in the mountainous areas; it is still humid in those areas so I wonder how much humidity can make a difference regarding the soil in this case. Dr. Horn has concentrated her studies on the high mountain ranges in Talamanca, San Vito and Buenos Aires of Puntarenas and Guanacaste. Costa Rica is in fact the place she needs to conduct this research as you can see.

This investigation has also been set up to search for newer ways to take proper care of the Costa Rica soil and check out patterns of evolution to avoid future problems with the soil. Another study conducted by Karen Masters, a scientist residing in Monteverde, reveal that in this area there is less rain, higher night temperatures and mini droughts from 2 to 10 days. All these studies will certainly be of huge help for Costa Rica once they are done.

Although it is sad a lot of people do search Costa Rica looking for wild sexual adventures and either they don’t care or want minors on their itinerary. For some twisted reason there are people that have heard of a place I definitely don’t live at: Costa Rica sex industry. The saddest part is they are not only looking for regular prostitutes, they are in fact looking for under age girls in Costa Rica.

I one of those main stream Hollywood flicks “The Sweetest Thing” actually makes a terrible and awful remark when one of the supporting characters tells one of the main characters that what he needs is to come to Costa Rica and that for “5 pesos” a girl will give him the time of his life. Costa Rica sex industry is just as hated here as it is anywhere else in the world and trust me if they catch someone trying to engage into a sexual relation with a minor they will prosecute them. Another thing in Costa Rica, money is called “colones” not “pesos” and 5 colones are basically a penny you wouldn’t even care to bend down to pick up.

Just last week A 31-year-old Reno man was arrested for allegedly coercing a 16-year-old girl from England to fly to the United States for sex then he planned on have her move with him to Costa Rica. The man actually fell for that tolerance with sex with underage girls urban legend a lot of people fall for. Costa Rica girls may be gorgeous, but to be honest, most prostitutes here are not Ticas at all; most prostitutes in Costa Rica are actually from Nicaragua, Dominican Republic and Colombia.

As you can see, Costa Rica law is definitely serious about the zero tolerance for illegal sex. Costa Rica is a peaceful and well educated country; it will be very hard to expect less from their authorities once you see how things really work around here.