Costa Rica-Real Estate Condos for sale in Guanacaste

 These are great news for Costa Rica, and off course for the many projects that are to be developed in the Guanacaste area; as a new reservoir could make a huge difference for the future investments in the province.

The project will be known as Rio Piedras Reservoir, and it is an initiative from the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (I.C.E) aided by the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE) It will take an approximated time of 4 years to see it completed; or more precisely, a year to evaluate the proposal and present the different reports on the subject, approve them and finally proceed to the building part that will more likely take 3 years for its completion.

The main purpose of this new reservoir initiative in Guanacaste will be to deal with the excedent water coming from the Hydro electrical reservoir Arenal (Corobici); whose currently operational procedure sends 30 cm of “unused water” per second to the sea.

And yes that is actually a lot of water

If you are wondering why is this happening? Let me give you a brief explanation, for currently when the Arenal Reservoir produces a lot of electric power, the water used in the process overflows the irrigation channels (Hence they throw it on the sea in order to protect them.) Never the less, when the reservoir’s electric production lowers, the irrigation channels suffer from lack of water; this new initiative however would change things quite a bit, as it will collect the water in order to be used for the different irrigation projects and the local community projects in Guanacaste.

Now let’s see some numbers.

The technical analysis alone will have a cost of $400.000, and once the construction company has been chosen the project will have a 3 year “deadline”

The Rio Piedras Reservoir will have a capacity of 85 cm million of water (In an area of 800 Hectares.) will give water to 200.000 people in Guanacaste, and will have an approximate cost of $20 million.

As I mentioned before, these are great news for Costa Rica and more specifically for the province of Guanacaste, with projects like this one it won’t be long to see another boom in the real estate industry in Costa Rica.

The very famous travel website Fodor’s Travel which is a division of Random House, Inc has announced their Costa Rica photography contest. The official theme of the contest is “Show Us Your Costa Rica.” The main idea of the contest is to have everyone: tourists and Costa Rica citizens share their most memorable Costa Rica pictures and the best ones will be selected to be featured in Fodor’s Costa Rica 2010 guidebook– on sale in October 2009.

Since the website is specialized in traveling, the pictures are expected to be show beautiful Costa Rica sceneries, culture and traditions and anyone interested can participate, the deadline to send the pictures is January 5^th, 2009. Among prizes, Fodor’s will be giving the winning photographer a suite of Fodor’s new full-color guidebooks and the 10 runners-up will receive two Fodor’s guidebooks of their choice, the selected pictures will also be featured in the Costa Rica guide at www.fodors.com as well.

Costa Rica has really incredible locations to take unbelievable pictures so; basically anyone who is in Costa Rica and has a camera can participate. I think the most trouble will be for the judges since I am sure the material for Costa Rica will be a lot even though the deadline is only two weeks away. Also since there are some many people coming to Costa Rica for vacations material will be plenty for sure.

For those interesting in sending their Costa Rica picture to the contest visit Fodor’s website and upload your picture as soon as possible, who knows, maybe your picture will appear in their Costa Rica travel guide.

As I advertised a few weeks ago, Costa Rica will be receiving their lucky 2 000 000 visitor this week and the ICT (Instituto Costarricense de Turismo) has arranged a warm welcome to the tourist that walks in and hits the mark.

The lucky Costa Rica vacation will be sponsored by several tourism companies and what they want is to celebrate the record set by giving the visitor the best Costa Rica experience possible: tours, free hotels, transportation, meals at well known restaurants and much more freebies to make this experience the best one for the lucky 2 000 000 Costa Rica visitor.

According to some statistics, the lucky 2 000 000 Costa Rica tourist is schedule to arrive tomorrow December 17^th at the Juan Santamaria Airport where personnel from ICT will be expecting him or her since early in the morning, so if you have and schedule flight to Costa Rica for tomorrow you might be the expected winner and will be able to enjoy the best Costa Rica vacation one can experience, all for free!

Another good thing is that if you are flying to Costa Rica, the weather could not be better meaning that you will be able to actually enjoy every tour and trip available in the area, not to mention the great holiday traditional activities in Costa Rica: El tope, the carnival, Zapote and all the cultural activities Costa Rica usually plans for these days. 

Last week a guy came out of the bank in San Jose and got followed by two robbers, when they tried to attack him, the guy shot both of them and killed them. The crime rate in Costa Rica has sky rocketed in the past couple of years, it has become so bad that the Security Minister elected for this current Costa Rica government resigned stating that she had no idea of what she was doing; the good thing is that the person that occupied her job did know what she was doing and has managed to pick up the pieces quite well.

Costa Rica is a peaceful place, don’t get me wrong, but after some “Maras” started gaining territory through Guanacaste, criminals did go on the loose and now it has become a bit of an issue. There are certain areas in Costa Rica where crime rate is higher and when you came here you should definitely avoid them, it is also recommended that if you came to Costa Rica on vacation you use the safety choice of you hotel room to keep your passport and most of your money.

Safety in Costa Rica is however taken very seriously, people have come together to create organizations to end the insecurity issues, and there are now harder punishments for even petty theft, criminals are not getting away that easily. Visiting Costa Rica is definitely the dream of many, and you will certainly enjoy your stay a lot more if you are careful if you are coming to any beach in Guanacaste or Puntarenas, do not leave your stuff unattended; if you are going to stay in San Jose avoid walking at night by yourself and do not carry all your items with you.

Today I am in San Jose doing my Christmas shopping. I decide to come here because I wanted to get an idea of how Christmas in Costa Rica is prepared and enjoy a few of the events taking place this week: the Costa Rica book fair, the Avenidazo and the Festival de la Luz.

I thought it was going to be a lot more hectic than it is and talking to some people I noticed that it is because of the financial crisis, apparently in Guanacaste you can’t really see how this has affected Costa Rica. Some friends were telling me that a lot of people have lost their jobs, so they have had to cut off some expenses and people are not going crazy in the stores as they usually do.

On the other hand the traditional activities in Costa Rica have not let me down at all: the concert I saw last night at la Antigua Aduana were quite impressive and at the book fair I bought most of my Christmas gifts which was great and one learned about the Avenidazo which I didn’t really understood and scared the hell out of me.

The greatest thing about living in Costa Rica and staying for the holidays is for sure the excessive amount of tamales one can consume, so far I have eaten 5 different types and bought a few piñitas to share with the family back in Guanacaste. Costa Rica is a very different than what a gringo like me is used to, but I have to admit I do like and enjoy these differences.

Economic Airline JetBlue will begin operations to fly to Costa Rica next March, 2009; this route will be the first one the airline opens for Central America. The airline will set 100-seat Embraer E190 jets to provide a daily route between San Jose, Costa Rica and Orlando Florida, this route will be JetBlue’s 22nd nonstop route from Orlando, while it continues opening their Latin American market which by the way will begin operations in January 29^th from Bogota, Colombia in South America to Orlando, Florida.

People who interested in experiencing this new JetBlue route to Costa Rica can start making reservations although flights are set to start in March, the company has some nice introduction offers with tickets priced below $100 in some cases, meaning that a Costa Rica vacation is now even closer than ever.

Another good thing about this new flights to Costa Rica is that by the time JetBlue begins operations summer time in Costa Rica is at its best, so you can now sit an enjoy in a lovely Guanacaste Beach for way less than you would right now, also the prices in hotels a way cheaper during these days because of the green season in Costa Rica.

These cheap flights to Costa Rica are also a good opportunity for those foreigners investing in real estate since it would cost less to come and check on properties in Costa Rica or keep an eye on any development project you may have.

This week in San Jose, Costa Rica is hosting two of the most important events of the year: The International Book Fair and the Festival de la Luz.

The book is coordinated by the Costa Rica Book Chamber (Camara Nacional del Libro) and it is taking place in the heart of down town San Jose this week. All the different book distributors have stands set in the Boulevard that goes from La Plaza de las Garantias Sociales up to Parque Central by the Metropolitan Cathedral.

Dunia Solano, president of the Camara Nacional del Libro has worked hard and intensively to have as much to offer to the public and arrange different activities throughout the week to provide a little more culture to passers by and anyone who is interested in visit the Costa Rica book fair.

The Book fair in Costa Rica takes place usually twice a year and this one will be held until this next Saturday until 3:00pm to begin the Festival de la Luz activities. This wonderful parade has been celebrated in San Jose since 1996 and this year the Festival’s leader will be Latin American Idol finalist Maria Jose Castillo.

Another wonderful activity taking place in San Jose this week is a “Vacaciones en la Aduana” (Vacations at La Aduana) in the old Aduana’s building where concerts, poetry readings, shows a lot more of activities will be held during these cold Costa Rica afternoons for free and anybody who wants to participate.

Apparently Central America leaders are undergoing negotiations to create a union very similar to the European Union in matters of economic and migratory laws and regulations.

What they are thriving to achieve is have a common currency among the Central American countries as well as a common passport for citizens and with this create a better and bigger community. Although Costa Rica has always been very apart from any type of attempt unify Central America they are apparently very close to this proposal given the fact is one of the main choices to avoid being so affected by the global economic financial crisis.

As a Costa Rica citizen I have to admit this worries me a bit: Costa Rica does not have an army while most of the other Central America countries do, also the migration laws have done an incredible job regulating the massive increase of foreigners coming to live in Costa Rica avoiding criminals and law breakers to move in as much as possible and some countries such as Guatemala and El Salvador are to known to have terrible issues with gangs (which they call “Maras”) and you just can’t see those types of criminals in Costa Rica, if a common passport is issued I am afraid that Costa Rica will now see types of violence people here are just not used to live with.  

Also, I live in Guanacaste, Costa Rica is closer to the rest of the Central America countries through this province so most people will be entering the country through here increasing traffic and well in a positive way, the development of the area, although besides that possibility I don’t see much positive changes for Costa Rica if they decide to join this Central America Union.

If everything goes as expected, today the Asamblea Legistativa of Costa Rica will vote for the implementation of a newly revised traffic law in Costa Rica that will be a lot harder and less permissive than the previous one.

This new traffic law will include higher charges for those that break the law including fines of over $300 for using a cell phone while driving and over $400 for drunk driving. In Costa Rica they don’t have the license points systems but with the inclusion of this law, the system will be included in everyone license as well as adding pertinent information to the document itself such as blood type.

A few other changes in the Costa Rica traffic law will include longer jail time for fearless driving, for example if a fearless driver kills someone they could be facing up to 15 years jail time if considered guilty, they will also have their license taken away immediately.

A friend of mine from Guanacaste always says as a joke that if you can drive in Costa Rica, you can drive anywhere in the world is sadly correct since the street are in most part in terrible condition, also people are rude on the streets. I do believe that these changes in the Costa Rica traffic law will bring a lot of positive things for the country, driving in Costa Rica is definitely hard but that is because people just don’t respect the law, also a lot of kids think that having a license gives them permission to drive fast which combined with the high alcohol ingestion Costa Rica has is a formula for disaster.

Hopefully everything will go well today at the Asamblea Legislativa and the new Costa Rica traffic law may be ready to begin operations at the beginning of next year.

Apparently, building a home in Costa Rica is going to become a lot easier now when the Colegio Federado de Ingenieros y Arquitectos (CFIA) implements a new tool that will allow people to request their construction permits online through their website www.cfia.org. Right now the tool is working only for three towns in Costa Rica: Curridabat, Grecia y San Carlos but it is expected that throughout 2009 the tool will be implemented for at the main towns Alajuela, Belén, Escazú, Garabito, Goicoechea, Heredia, Nicoya.

Hopefully Nicoya can be one of the next towns to be included in the program since there are lots of projects not only there but in the entire Guanacaste area waiting to be approved. Among these housing projects in Guanacaste, I have heard of condos, villas a even hotels waiting to receive and “approved stamp” to begin the construction of the project.

In Costa Rica, housing projects and any other type of structure building need to be approved by the CFIA first and later by the municipality of the location where the project is supposed to built, with this new tool the entire permit can be requested in one small step which will make things work faster for developers in Costa Rica. The people from CFIA hope that all 66 municipalities in Costa Rica can be integrated into the system in less than 2 years.