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.
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 Ricais 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.
For Google Innovation Community, Costa Rica was definitely an asset and has included as one of the participants and it was launched by the Ministry of Science of Costa Rica. The Google Innovation Group will be open to everyone in Costa Rica who wants to participate and will be used as an announcements board for free activities, training programs, scholarships and offers for financial support for scientific and economic research. The Ministry of Science of Costa Rica also plants to use other tools such as Youtube and Facebook to display any type of innovation developed in Costa Rica and document promoting the project has been sent to every school in the country as well.
In my opinion Costa Rica has proved to have extremely talent professionals and good resources for technology innovation, this addition of Costa Rica to the Google Innovation Community just proves that the potential in Costa Rica is above the parameters established by well known innovative companies around the world.
In Costa Rica, science and systems engineering are one of the top careers chosen by youngsters and many items we use today have been developed in Costa Rica lands, also many technological companies such as Intel, Hologic and Alienware have had their offices located here due to the fact that the professional labor in their areas is definitely strong and well prepared among professionals in Costa Rica
The famous actor Sylvester Stallone will be visiting Costa Rica soon to shoot part of his upcoming movie “The Expendables” which Stallone will produce and perform himself. The other two main characters will be performed by professional actors Jason Statham and Jet Li. Sylvester Stallone also wrote the screen play.
This is not the first Hollywood flick to be shoot in Costa Rica, in the past major films had locations in the Costa Rica territory: JurassicPark and the story of Christopher Columbus “1492” with iconic actor Gérard Depardieu was also filmed in Costa Rica among other countries. Although the details of the plot are not out yet it appears that the story follows a team of mercenaries on a mission to overthrow a South American dictator.
The film will be made in Costa Rica and Louisiana starting on February, 2009. This is also a great step on the rise of Costa Rica films since not only the best movies entirely made by Ticos were shot and shown this year but also it puts the country in the map again. I am happy to look back and see that the main reasons Costa Rica has made news this years have been because of the great talent and artists that this country produces.
I am not sure about the location of the shooting will be in Costa Rica but if anything is done in Guanacaste I will see how to check it out or a least get a glance of Rambo himself.
Finally after months of unstopping rains, storms and terrible floods the weather in Costa Rica is changing and the Christmas winds are here for good. In Costa Rica they have what they call “vientos alicios” and their main function is to literally blow away all the rainy clouds and let the sun shine.
In Costa Rica, holidays have a special characteristic: during the month of December the best weather can enjoyed all over the place from Guanacaste to Puntarenas the sun shines brightly but the cool breeze of the “vientos alicios” makes a chilly ambience that everyone enjoys.
Also this is the time when Costa Rica travel becomes more and more fun: the weather and the holidays are the perfect excuse to get away from the awful traffic in San Jose. Costa Rica also has an awesome tradition: tamales! Families gather together to cook huge badges (or piñas like people in Costa Rica call them) which are usually just delicious.
This is a great time to visit Costa Rica; real estatelistings are definitely bigger this time of year since people also want to start making changes and the weather in Costa Rica this time of the year is perfect for sightseeing and house hunting. Costa Rica expects to continue having these wonderful days until late April 2009, although the Christmas breeze is usually gone during the first weeks of January. So go ahead and start making plans to visit different properties and locations now that there will be no rain to delay your plans. Purchasing real estate in Costa Rica cannot be easier now that you can actually appreciate all the beauty of the surroundings in any Costa Rica property.
Formerly known as CCN Systems, Experian is a global credit information group, with operations in 36 countries. Their largest operation is Experian North America, a consumer credit reporting agency that is considered one of the three largest American credit agencies. Right now Experian has open up their Costa Rica branch with a total of 80 employees and plans to add at least 20 more by the end of the year and a total of 120 for the beginning of 2009. The main lines of business of Experian are credit services, marketing solutions, decision analytics and interactive services; in Costa Rica, Experian require data management and process specialists and software development engineers.
Along with Amazon Costa Rica, their offices will be located at Zona Franca Ultralag, in Lagunilla de Heredia. Costa Rica has been providing great work force to many different international companies over the years: IBM, HP, Alienware and Sykes are probably the biggest call centers right now providing jobs for thousands of young professionals in many different areas, not necessarily related to inbound and outbound calls.
Costa Rica education does have enough professionals to comply with the work force requirements these companies need to hire and for over 10 years they have established themselves are part of the most reliable companies in Costa Rica. These companies provide a whole lot of benefits to their workers and since most of them still attend school they also give them scholarships or provide them with constant trainings in related matters. Business in Costa Rica is definitely getting bigger and the addition of Experian to the list of serious companies in Costa Rica is certainly good news.
The beautiful Costa Rica girls have again the opportunity to represent their country in one of the most important beauty pageants nowadays: Miss Hawaiian Tropic. The selection of the 12 finalists to represent Costa Rica will take place on November 15th between 12 m. a 6 p. m. at Mall San Pedro, in down town San Jose, Costa Rica.
In Costa Rica, women are definitely beautiful and very educated, so far it has been really hard to find a woman in their 20’s without college education and most of them also work, don’t have children too young and don’t seem to be in any rush about getting married. Costa Rica high rates in education are definitely real, since I have to admit that most Costa Ricans: women and men are very well educated.
Regarding the Miss Hawaiian Tropic Pageant, the 12 finalists that will be chosen on November 15th will compete against each other in Playa Flamingo in January and the winner will travel to Las Vegas, Nevada in May, 2009 to represent Costa Rica among the most gorgeous girls in the world. This year, during the Miss Hawaiian Tropic pageant 2008, the girl participating for Costa Rica, Kimberly Zúñiga actually won the pageant and hopefully this next year will be just as successful.
It is actually not uncommon that girls from Costa Rica are somehow recognize in the pageants they participate, most of the times they come back with recognitions and not empty handed. I certainly wish them all good luck and we can just sit and enjoy watching beautiful Costa Rica girls in the meantime.
To anyone interested the exact location for the casting at Mall San Pedro will be announced in the next few days, so just be patient and keep looking, so far the only confirmed info is the date (November 15th). Good luck!
There is definitely something very colorful about Costa Rica buildings: some may be one of the most fashionable buildings with impressive taste and modern architecture while a small room built on cardboard and old pieces of wood will be standing right behind it. Unfortunately, like in many other countries this is the reality, Costa Rica is being bought by big companies and enterprises that built amazing structures without giving one moment of consideration about the surroundings.
It is not uncommon to see old wooden houses almost falling apart in one block, and a huge luxury home in the next property. Costa Ricais still feeling the huge changes of crazy real estate all over the place and the local families can’t seem to be able to keep up with these building developments so their small homes become the awful side of an area full of luxury. Costa Rica is showing its two faces and given the fact the prices in the real estate listings in Costa Rica have gone way up high and are completely not affordable for a regular middle class Costa Rica family, foreigners with higher access to dollars and euros are buying the country in small pieces.
Huge examples are the apartment buildings that are being developed in the Sabana surroundings, these tall, luxury buildings were created to be sold for over $100 000 or rented for over $1500 a month. In Costa Rica, a middle class professional hardly makes $1000 in the best case scenario, meaning that all those apartments are just not accessible unless you are a foreigner. Real estate in Costa Rica needs to be regulated as soon as possible, maybe all these prices are low for us, but this country also has locals, who work hard and dream of owning a home. In my opinion is just not fair.
Every six months the Ticos receive a salary raised according to the Costa Rica law. The cost of life increased in 11% last September in Costa Rica, one of the highest increases in 10 years, so the Costa Rica people were expecting a big raise, unfortunately the salary raise approved was only a 7%, meaning that this so called raised won’t even cover transportation costs daily.
The Costa Rica government supports this claiming that a higher raise may cause the jobs of some people since they will have to be lay off to afford paying a higher salary raise. This news are very sad and a huge problem forCosta Rica workers. In this graphic, you will be able to see how low salaries already are in Costa Rica compared to what we Americans are used to see, most of the raises are only a few dollars:
ProfessionActual SalaryRaised Salary
Construction worker$11.73*$12.55*
Store Clerk$11.73*$12.55 *
Security Guard$346.47$370.72
Superintendent$321.64$344.15
* Daily wages
As you can see salaries in Costa Rica per month are not even close to what we are used to get weekly in the United States, yet these people are supposed to buy groceries, clothing, pay for school uniforms and supplies, services and rent with those salaries. Now this example you can see why the real estate market is just an impossible dream for Costa Ricans since the requirements banks have to give home loans in Costa Rica, are basically the same and as high as in the United Estates. It really doesn’t make any sense at all, if you think about it.
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. 
Every six months the Ticos receive a salary raised according to the