Costa Rica-Real Estate Condos for sale in Guanacaste

Helping save the earth and our environment is everyone’s business, even for a small country such as Costa Rica. This Saturday the WWF has organized an activity that will take place all over the world to help give a moment of peace to the earth.

The Earth Hour is an activity that has taken place for three years now and the whole idea is to turn off every electrical appliance, lights, computers and such to help the earth “breathe” a little. San Jose, Costa Rica will be one of the main cities where the Earth Hour will take place, although everyone in Costa Rica is encouraged to turn off their electrical power for an hour as well.

The Earth Hour will start at 8:30pm and will end at 9:30 pm Costa Rica time, however in San Jose there will be shows and performances at the beautiful Plaza de la Democracia since 7:30 pm to encourage people to get out of their homes and leave the lights off.

This year a total of 83 countries will participate in the Earth Hour and they expect that at least 1.000 million people from all over the world join the cause. To think it all started only 3 years ago in one country. In Costa Rica people have been talking about it and are definitely preparing for the moment they will turn everything off to help the earth. I certainly hope that the initiative of the Earth Hour attracts twice as much people next year.

I have spoken to friends here in Guanacaste and basically everyone will join the Earth Hour, some neighbors have even planned small parties in their homes with candles and acoustic instruments to spend the evening with the lights off.

So remember, if you are in Costa Rica this next Saturday, the schedule for the Earth Hour initiative will be set at 8:30 pm until 9:30 pm: turn off the lights in your hotel room, beach villa and if you are outside encourage everyone to do it.

The famous international super model Gisele Bundchen and new husband Tom Brady will continue their newlywed celebration by staging yet another wedding in one of the beautiful beaches of Costa Rica.

Apparently the recently married couple has been inviting friends and family to the beautiful home the supermodel owns in Costa Rica and will stage another wedding on April 3^rd.

Tom Brady and Giselle Bundchen got married in a very quiet and secretive wedding in Santa Monica, California this year; however they still want to share their special moment with loved ones and planned the new wedding in Costa Rica.

A Costa Rica wedding has become one of the most searched types of weddings among celebrities: rock pop singer Pink also got married in a Costa Rica beach and apparently more and more people are considering this paradise like location to tie the knot.  

Well, if you think about who wouldn’t want to get married with impressive tropical sceneries surroundings, good service and the ocean breeze as the stage, isn’t that what every little girls dreams of? Costa Rica is not as expensive as other tropical locations; some Guanacaste hotels even offer incredible wedding packages for people who would like a dreamy Costa Rica wedding at the beach.

Hopefully Tom Brady and Giselle Bundchen get to have a lovely marriage and truly understand what this means, especially if they are having more than one wedding, otherwise they are going to jinx the whole idea of a Costa Rica wedding.

According to recent declarations from the Costa Rica president, he will not allow oil drills anywhere in the country due to his commitment to the preservation of the environment. He gave these declarations in a surprising way yesterday while attending the presentation of the project for the new rural aqueducts in Costa Rica.

“We will continue with our commitment of not allowing any type of oil drilling or exploration in Costa Rica” said Oscar Arias in this very unusual visit to the congress. Apparently all the rumors heard about possible oil drills were just … rumors that began with declarations from the former minister of Ambiente, Energía y Telecomunicaciones (Minaet), Roberto Dobles, who during a press conference in 2008 addressed the need of exploring the possibility of oil drills in Costa Rica along with China.

In my opinion the preservation of the environment especially in Costa Rica rain forests, beaches and several locations of ecological importance should be the main concern of the government, maybe oil drills can benefit the country economically, but only for a while.

The damage oil drills do to the environment is really hard to compensate and after all Costa Rica is already a paradise, why would you want to compromise that? I salute the president that still knows the real value of its country.

In other news, last night I caught up a HGTV’s House Hunters episode in Costa Rica real estate where a California couple looked for a vacation home in Lake Arenal, which is pretty close to Guanacaste. Quite impressive views but they didn’t pick the home I liked.

Hopefully the government starts making plans to develop more projects for real estate in Costa Rica or tourism instead of listening to bad ideas such as oil drills. It would be so sad to see all the beautiful places in Costa Rica damaged just because someone wants to make a few more dollars.

As I have shared with before, there are several international companies in Costa Rica that through call centers provide service to the United States with very well trained professionals, providing something that was once a stable job and career opportunities, as well as great benefits for all its employees.

Most of these companies settled in Costa Rica in the past 20 years offering better work places and good salaries, one of these companies was a gaming computer monster. This company provided great job opportunities in Costa Rica to sales and tech support professionals offering good salaries, medical benefits and a fun work environment.

Many North American companies with businesses in Costa Rica have already established that they will not cut off jobs in Costa Rica, and this company’s employees heard the same story over and over again, as far as they knew, their jobs were safe. A couple of years ago, another huge computer company acquire this enterprise as part of a business strategy and things dramatically changed for all the “safe” employees in Costa Rica gradually, yet they were always told everything will be Ok.

Unfortunately, the work environment changed and just like another North American Company in Costa Rica, employees started losing benefits with the financial crisis: no bonuses, no more Christmas parties and apparently not only they have been losing employees like crazy in the past months, rumor has it they will have their businesses cut by half and all sales employees will now be laid off. I don’t now how true this is, but I certainly hope all those people are able to find jobs quickly. Costa Rica has very well trained professionals and a lot of them work (or worked) for this company, hopefully other companies that are still “safe” can take advantage of their training and knowledge.

I do have a quick comment for all those foreign companies in Costa Rica: be true to your employees, this is not a good time to be out of a job in Costa Rica or anywhere else for that matter and they could have done something about if only they knew what was in store for them.

Hundreds of countries from all over the world recently participated in the ITB (International Tourism Fair) in Berlin, Germany and apparently Costa Rica was not overlooked: the country won third place for their elaborate stand at the fair where they showed all the beauties of Costa Rica for everyone to see and enjoy besides providing tourism information to potential visitors.

The entire Costa Rica tourism stand was designed to give a small taste of what the rain forests in Costa Rica are and all the activities that can enjoyed including canopy, vegetation, and local animals. Visitors of the tourism fair were by far impressed with the showcase and all that is left is their arrival to Costa Rica for vacation.

Costa Rica beaches and all the wonderful rainforests are visited every year by thousands of people from all over the world. Costa Rica tourism is one of the most important economic activities and this award puts them on the map for those who hadn’t even heard of the country, especially in Europe. I am happy that the efforts the country has made to continue advertising its beautiful locations is paying up, after all Costa Rica is now my home and everything good that happens to the country is in fact happening to me and my family.

Another great thing and is that several Costa Rica tourists end up moving here after visiting the place, meaning that this is a great thing potentially for real estate in Costa Rica, which definitely makes us all happy. Who knows, maybe after my housing project I will have to build rental villas in Guanacaste to help with the economy, which will be just awesome.

Right now there are several automobiles expositions going on in San Jose, Costa Rica and if you have the cash, this is your time to buy a car from a renowned agency at crazy low prices.

This weekend we took a trip to San Jose to check on the Transitarte Art fair I was telling you about last week and also went to the Expomovil 2009 in San Antonio de Belen and I have to admit I came back very impressed with what they had to offer.

Prices in several cars were cut down a lot and financial opportunities are every where. Although Costa Rica is going through the same financial crisis everyone else is also experiencing, people still took the time to see what the car agencies had to offer.

Expomovil 2009 has apparently not had the same success it has in past years, visitors so far have been half the amount they were last year and on an interview in a Costa Rica newspaper, managers of the different car agencies have expressed they know they will also sell half the cars they have sold in previous years.

Prices in new models at the Expomovil 2009 have gone down from $4000 to $10 000 and although people visiting the fair seemed excited, there isn’t really much they can do since this is not a good time to finance a car due to the financial crisis. Costa Rica has also experience the huge problem of its roads; most of them are in terrible condition due to the excessive amount of cars and the bad planning of road construction.

So if you are one of the many people who recently went relocated to Costa Rica and did save money to purchase a car, this is your chance to get a nice one with the crazy prices set up by these car agencies. The Expomovil 2009 will be going on all week until next Sunday.

As I promised I collected a lot more information about the Transitarte, the art fair taking place in San Jose, Costa Rica this weekend. Their idea is to bring arts to the people on the street and create an activity where everyone can enjoy everything from shows, performances and music during those two days and learn more about the talent in Costa Rica.

The activity will take place in the main city parks in down town San Jose: Parque Morazan, Parque España, Parque Nacional and El Jardin de Paz. All the activities will be taking place starting today at 10:00 am but the official ceremony will take place at 6:00 pm this evening. The official schedule for all the activities can be found on these files: http://www.vueltaenu.co.cr/docs/programa%20arte%20retiro.jpg and http://www.vueltaenu.co.cr/docs/programacion%20arte.jpg .

If you are going to be in San Jose during this weekend, this is your opportunity to enjoy a lot more than Costa Rica sight seeing and catch really good performances, buy nice Costa Rica souvenirs and learn more about the culture for free. From hip hop performers to stand up comedians and sports showcases, Transitarte has really become one of the most expected summer activities in Costa Rica and people seem to really like it.

Yesterday was a very scary day in Costa Rica: new earthquakes were felt in the southern coasts, Cartago and San Jose during the afternoon hours, scaring people all over the country. Just two months ago Costa Rica suffered one of the worst earthquakes in history in the province of Alajuela where hundreds of people lost their homes, one of the most impressive Costa Rica national parks were buried and several people were found dead.

The three main earthquakes showed Richter scale of 6, 5.2 and 5 degrees all located near the Golfito area in Puntarenas on the southern region of Costa Rica very near to Panama. So far no great damages have been reported besides from some stuff that fell to the ground from shelves and no people injured at all. Costa Rica earthquakes have very common because of the many volcanoes found in the country; locals are mostly used to having a few shakes however big earthquakes like these really make people jumpy.

These specific earthquakes were not felt in Guanacaste whatsoever, so everything is pretty much normal on this side of Costa Rica. Tourism has raised a lot since the cold temperatures are finally gone and as far as my Guanacaste housing project everything seems to be going right on schedule. I couldn’t ask for more.

If you are in San Jose this weekend make room for several shows and presentations that will be taking place in the main parks down town with the Costa Rica arts fair “Transitarte” which will be going on all weekend with belly dancers, bands, boxing matches and souvenirs sales among many other activities, all in San Jose down town. Tomorrow I will make sure I bring some more information about it.

The Costa Rica Zoo Africa Mia, located in the beautiful province of Guanacaste is celebrating a first in Latin America: Roxi, a giraffe weighing 50 kilos and standing 4.9 feet tall, was born at Africa Mia Animal Park. This is the first giraffe to ever be born in Central America. As you probably know tourism in Guanacaste is one of the main businesses in the area and the fact that the animals brought into the Zoo are reproducing marvelously has everyone excited.

Both Roxi, who was born this past Sunday and her mother Adriana the giraffe are doing well and recovering perfectly. Africa Mia can now move on to have more and more species reproducing and help these animal species continue their legacy. Guanacaste’s weather somehow resembles the weather in Africa with a few minor differences and the animals seem to be doing really good there.

Park officials have also said that Roxi could soon have company since another female giraffe, Amapola, is pregnant. Animal species in Costa Rica are always taken care of since the whole country strives to maintain and ecological friendly atmosphere. If you are interested in visiting Africa Mia, you can arrive either at the Liberia Airport and the Zoo is located only 20 minutes away; if you arrive at Juan Santa Maria Airport, Africa Mia is located in the Pacific coast province of Guanacaste, 124 miles west of San Jose.

Either way this is a trip worth doing, since all animals are let to run free in the Zoo and people can just appreciate them by riding in Hummer trucks and walking through the several trails inside the property. Guanacaste has many other ecological reservations and national parks that are open to the public all year long.

Sasha Campbell is a well known singer and performer here in Costa Rica who has worked hard to launch her career and a few months ago moved to USA to continue looking for the fame and recognition she deserves.

With a sweet and lovely voice the young performer took a chance and sent all her material to the very well known Irish band U2 and her efforts paid up: Sasha Campbell will be performing with the band during their 2009-2010 world tour in 250 concerts in many different locations such as Ireland, Brazil and Asia. To the exciting news all she could do was scream and jump.

In Costa Rica, arts locally are not taken so seriously and although there is a small group of people who follow them and support them it is really hard to see a Costa Rica performer go that far. Sasha Campbell does have the talent to that talent in Costa Rica is serious and impressive. Other great performers from who had made international appearances are the MTV Latino winners Le Pop, the metal band Sight of Emptiness who played in Europe and Gandhi who has been part of the music scene for over 12 years now.

It is very rewarding to see a Costa Rica performer prove that there is more than tourism here and put the name of the country out there, I really hope she has a blast during this tour with U2 and other bands and artists in Costa Rica work as hard as her to make their dreams come true, after all how many people can say they were chosen by Bono himself to perform in a world tour with U2?

UPDATE: The Costa Rica artist was scammed by a false publicist who actually has several issues with U2’s label. Sasha Campbell will not be performing with U2 at least for the moment.