Since yesterday, the entire Poas Volcano area, Vara Blanca, Cinchona (the new ghost town) and nearby towns have been feeling new earthquakes that have brought back all the sorrow and frightening feelings. After an entire week after the earthquake, Costa Rica is finally getting back to normal, plans to get roads fixed and families moved away from shelters into new locations a little more settled and specific, but the fear remains.
People in Costa Rica are still very afraid of a new earthquake and to be honest even if the epicenter is far away from Guanacaste I am a bit scared as well.
In other news my trip with the real estate agents in Guanacaste was very nice and useful; both the properties are definitely a deal, the property in Santa Cruz is as big as I thought it was and all I need is a soil check to see if it a good place to build a housing project, Guanacaste is full of mountains and valleys and it is good to have the area checked before building anything.
The property near Africa Mia…is not as big as the property in Santa Cruz, but it is big enough for my plans. This property for some reason seems more interesting to me than the one in Santa Cruz…more appealing if I may call it that.
I received a couple of calls from two of the Costa Rica real estate brokers I contacted after the holidays, apparently those two properties are actually owned by the same person yet handled by different realtors. One of the properties for sale is conveniently located close the Guanacaste Zoo Africa Mia and that is a huge plus since business in the area is quite prosper; the other property is located in the road to Santa Cruz, which not as good but the property is incredibly big.
I will be meeting with both of the real estate agents in Liberia today so we can drive up to check properties together, one of them also mentioned having some other similar properties for sale in Guanacaste available so I will go with him and check it out.
Since I am not looking for anything specific the search should pay off today and maybe I will see something I like and worth to consider. My main idea is develop a housing project for professionals or students that come to work in Guanacaste, so I don’t really need any property at the beach or remotely close, I rather just get a good location with easy access to the main towns.
I have to start getting ready to leave, so I will catch up with you later, If possible I will bring back pictures of the areas so you can get a glimpse of what a good Guanacaste property looks like. I will also stop by the Red Cross and leave all the goodies I purchase for the people in the earthquake in Alajuela and check if there is anything else the need and come back with the info.
Apparently the tragedy is still not over in Costa Rica: yesterday a new tectonic failure appeared triggered by the terrible earthquake Costa Rica had just 6 days ago and new tremors have been felt since yesterday.
People are terribly scared and more and more areas are being evacuated due to the damage and danger. Costa Rica has many volcanoes and due to this it is common that a small tremor occurs from time to time, yet the issues the big earthquake is bringing not only to the Alajuela and Poas areas but to the people in general. In Guanacaste, the earthquake was not such a big deal and tourism and business go on as usual.
If you are interested in helping, there are several ways to assist:
The CNE (National Emergency Commission) of Costa Rica has come up with a list of important items necessary for the refugees:
1. Camping tents for 4-6 occupants
2. Sleeping bags and blankets
3. Food for 3-4 days. Including: Pasta, coffee, milk (not powder milk since it is harder to prepare with racionate water), water (preferably 5 gallon bottles), canned goods, batteries, matches, candles, emergency lights.
4. Capes for the rain
5. Personal higiene products such as maxi pads, toilet paper, diapers, etc.
All of these items can be delivered to any Red Cross Costa Rica station, Mega Super or given the Costa Rica Boy Scouts all over the country. Also if you want to volunteer to go help you can subscribe at the Red Cross stations as well.
For more information on how to help Costa Rica refugees after the earthquake, please call: 2210 – 2723 / 2210 – 2725 / 2210 – 2763 / 2210 – 2764.
Rumor has it that famous super model Gisele Bundchen is planning to marry her boyfriend, NFL superstar Tom Brady very soon and apparently have decided to have a Costa Rica wedding like many other celebrities.
Costa Rica is known to be a paradise like location and many celebrities own a home in Costa Rica including famous actors such as Mel Gibson and David Hasselhoff, even the super model herself, bought a nice Costa Rica beach villa for herself not long ago.
Although the Costa Rica wedding has not been confirmed yet, it seems that the Guanacaste beaches are the first choice on the couple’s list. It has been a known fact that many celebrities have visited Costa Rica on vacations before and rocks star Pink was one of the celebrities that chose a hotel in Costa Rica for her wedding to famous motocross racer Carey Hart back in 2006.
The Model-Football player couple is of course keeping the entire details top secret and because of this, I do believe that the Costa Rica wedding rumor might be true: lots of celebrities also use Costa Rica beaches as a hiding spot to relax and get pampered.
According to insider sources “The couple is discussing a huge fashionista event in the spring or a more intimate and quicker ceremony in Costa Rica” I really like the idea of having a beach wedding, they can actually enjoy their wedding and a pre-honeymoon in paradise by doing this and the media will not bother them as much.
The wedding will be held in March and neither Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen has made an official release of the news. As a NFL fan I certainly will love to get a glimpse on this wedding, not to mention that Gisele Bundchen is one of the most beautiful women in the world.
Almost fives after a terrible earthquake shook the Alajuela territory and the rest of Costa Rica, the losses are now more than they were on Friday: the entire town of La Cinchona in Sarapiqui has been officially declared a ghost town since basically no houses or structures were left standing after the earthquake. In Costa Rica, emergency commissions have been delivering food and clothing non-stop to the people affected who have been living in tents and refuges for the past five days.
It has been quite nice to see people helping, a lot of Costa Rica university students who are still on vacation, cut them short to go and help find the rest of the 60 people who are still missing, cook for the refugees and help with anything necessary in the Alajuela town. Some of the people of the area are still looking for their sons, daughters, parents or friends and it is definite that Costa Rica is suffering very much for all the losses.
This earthquake, has been categorized as one of the worst Costa Rica tragedies in history since an entire town was lost, the ecological impact has really affected the forest and jungles of the area and even the famous Waterfall Gardens, one the most impressive attractions of the Poas Volcano area is completely lost. Volunteers from all overCosta Rica, the United Stated and some other countries are working night and day yet the sadness in the locals faces are hard to erase.
The earthquakes have been stopping and the count is lesser and lesser everyday, we certainly hope that people can get back on track soon and that all of these can be left behind as soon as possible. My prayers go to the people injured, those who lost all their possessions and family members and to volunteers helping Costa Rica in this time of need.
Around 1:30 pm yesterday while I was having lunch a very strong earthquake was felt but at the moment I thought it was nothing to be worried about, that was only because I am in Guanacaste and the it is quite far away from the epicenter which was located near the Poas volcano in Alajuela. Costa Rica earthquakes are common but what was felt yesterday afternoon was in fact a huge one that caused a red alert in San Jose, Heredia, Cartago and Alajuela.
At the moment the Costa Rica earthquake has caused the loss of many homes, at least 15 people died and many injured and while the rescue workers still work on the area it is known that many people are still trapped underneath avalanches and incommunicado. In San Jose many buildings were evacuated and there were a few with cracks on the walls, In Alajuela, especially in the Vara Blanca area most people have lost their homes completely and some are still missing.
At the moment in Costa Rica, rescuers are still trying to find people, help the ones that are injured and probably later on this afternoon they will send a press release with the total losses and what kind of help will be necessary to get things back to normal. Stadiums have been open to be used as Heliports and all the hospitals in Costa Rica are ready to provide as much as assistance as possible.
Since it was not felt so hard in Guanacaste, I was definitely not aware of the huge damages caused by this Earthquake in Costa Rica, one of the most beautiful places I have visited: The Waterfall Gardens in Poas is completely damaged and the hotel itself is being used as one of the headquarters to help the people of the area.
With the New Year one would expect of course many changes, yet they all seem to be coming up in a slow pace in Costa Rica. The first thing that appeared was a phantom increase in the telephonic bills that ICE established without permission of the ARESEP, it was found that the increase included both cellular phone rates and land phones rates and it was as much as a 10%.
In other news, The Terminal movie story is being lived at the Juan Santamaria Airport where a Cuban man has been living for the past 33 days, the 40 year old electrician cannot be deported but his entrance is also forbidden since he came into Costa Rica with fake documentation. The man will remain in the Costa Rica airport until he is declared a refugee.
Another big change are the free transportation tickets the Costa Rica government provides to senior citizens, which, due to inconsistencies will no longer be given away, from now on the CCSS will allow senior citizens the right for free transportation by having them present their ID card to bus drivers instead.
Also, Costa Rica will have their president elections in 2010 so many pre-candidates to the presidency have stated working on their campaigns included San Jose’s Mayor Johnny Araya and the very well known Laura Chinchilla, along with them former Costa Rica deputy Epsy Campbell, by the way things look, Costa Rica will probably have its first woman president very soon.
In Costa Rica tourism news there isn’t much to say, the hectic holidays may be over, but hundreds of people are still enjoying their vacation in the Puntarenas and Guanacaste beaches, a lot less crowded now if I may add.
Last night I was watching the news at and I noticed that they either have a serious lack of interesting news or maybe Costa Rica reporters need to rearrange their stories somehow. One of the headlines was a story on how some random billionaire from Russia is vacationing in Costa Rica. At first I thought maybe he was trying to run some business in the area, but by the time the story was over all they talked about was the hummers he rent in Arenal and how he hired an ATV tour company, paid upfront and never showed up for the tour, does anyone really care about that?
In my head I thought it was way more important to see how the new Costa Rica traffic law is going and if there is any change at all after it was implemented, or how the free trade agreement Costa Rica has with the US is settling down on its first week. Even which bands will be playing in Palmares was way more important than some random guy’s vacation. Costa Rica has much more interesting news available, what is happening to the reporters?
It was simply amazing to watch how an entire news hour from Costa Rica says absolutely nothing important and sport news are definitely more serious than the rest of the broadcast. At the end I did get some important news from a local Guanacaste newspaper, which apparently has better professionals working for them and in case you were wondering: Reggueton band Calle 13 is the one playing at Palmares this year, again from the local Guanacaste newspaper not the Costa Rica TV news shows.
A whole list of foods of regular consumption in Costa Rica will experience a significant price decrease during the first three months of 2009. Among these products we can find rice, cookies, pasta and bread, which are in the top ten products in the Costa Rica diet. It is estimated that although bread and pasta have already experience a nice decrease in their prices, they will be at least 10% cheaper in a couple of months.
These are great news for all of us, but mostly for low income families in Costa Rica since these products seem to be the easiest to afford during this financial crisis. Costa Rica is definitely not an expensive country, however salaries are definitely not good enough in most cases these price decreases in regular consumption foods are a great help for the common Costa Rica family.
Last month even the gas prices went down and driving to Guanacaste beaches during the holidays was possible for families that had already lost their hope on any vacation at all. It was not such a good year for big hotels in Puntarenas and Guanacaste since people decided to save money by staying at beach cabins or camp.
Another good thing happening to the Costa Rica economy are the implementation of the Free trade agreement which will provide work for more Costa Rica professionals and help with the finances of the area in the next few months.
This weekend I went on a Costa Ricaroad trip to a place I heard a lot about but hadn’t had the chance to visit with enough quality time: Cartago. Costa Rica has 7 provinces and Cartago is apparently the oldest one, there is definitely a lot Costa Rica history in the place and the architecture of some places is just stunning.
The main thing that attracted me was the incredible cheap real estate in the location: huge lots and farms set at ridiculously low prices. There was even a sign stating that you could separate a lot for only 50 000 colones which is less than $100!
Costa Rica real estate is definitely cheaper than real estate back home; this really surprised me, especially because the entire place has lovely views, good soil and overall nice weather. Properties in Guanacaste, although they are not expensive, are priced way higher than in Cartago, and even knowing that it is because of the proximity to the beaches in Guanacaste, I have to admit that there is also a lot of beauty in Cartago as well.
In Guanacaste, lots for sale can be found costing at least twice as much than a Cartago property, this makes me think that maybe in Costa Rica don’t know how impressive this area is and that maybe it is under priced, if only the Tourism Chamber of Costa Rica showed a little more of the beauties inside the country these locations could be a lot more appreciated by visitors. The inside of Costa Rica is full of green valleys, lagoons waterfalls and awesome forests, why is it that they only advertise the beaches in Costa Rica?
