At this moment there are great changes happening in the Nicoya, Guanacaste area: two new bridges that pass by two of the main roads of Nicoya are being re-built. Although this is actually great news since both bridges were pretty much un-usable, the construction work over the Grande and Perico rivers, are causing terrible traffic congestion for drivers. The Perico river bridge has already been demolished and the construction is quite advanced, yet the old bridge has already been taken down, meaning that traffic in the area is hectic due to these constructions.
As I have stated on previous entries, Costa Rica properties have different values depending on the area, like anywhere else; yet, Guanacaste is experiencing a huge increase in the real estate market, Guanacaste and San Jose especially, given the fact that all these development projects are making the area a lot more fancy and services have become a lot easier to access from there.
The good thing is that now that the access to the Nicoya area is going to be renewed, all those development projects planned will move faster than expected. Real estate in Guanacaste was kind of in a stand by situation for a while, not only because of the governments concerns about threats to the environment, but also because the construction processes were a bit slow in some of the locations, such as Nicoya. Hopefully the construction of the thee bridges will be done soon, maybe the beginning of 2009, that way new properties in Guanacaste can be put on the market sooner than later, also the development projects will be able to begin operations and the Nicoya hotels and villas can take advantage of them a lot faster than they used to.
So far, I am happy with I am seeing and although the traffic issue is of concern, people will just have to be patient about it to enjoy the new upcoming bridges.
After months of expectation the Latin version of American Idol broadcast its final live last night. The show began with 12 finalists from different countries of Latin America: Chile, Argentina, Peru, Venezuela, Panama and Costa Rica and week after week one of them, the one with the fewest votes was sent home. At the end only Margarita Henriquez from Panama and Maria Jose Castillo from Costa Rica were left to battle against each other on stage.
Costa Rica went crazy: parties every where trying to collect money for votes, a lot of private companies such as Purdy Motor, ULACIT, ICE, Neutrogena, TCBY and more joined forces to support the Costa Rica girl that went beyond borders to make her dream come true. Although at the end of the show Margarita Henriquez was the one with more votes, Costa Rica has declared Maria Jose their own idol and both of the contestants ended up receiving the same prices: a new Toyota Yaris 2009, a signed contract with Sony BMG plus several other prices given by private entities, in the case of Maria Jose, she will be receiving a full scholarship at ULACIT, another full scholarship at Instituto Costarricense-Norteamericano to learn English, free voice therapy from Universidad Santa Paula (she ended up forcing her voice too much).
Maria Jose Castillo became a frenzy media star in Costa Rica, where celebrity status doesn’t really exist, also she managed to be a hero for all Costa Ricans who wanted her to become the next Latin American Idol and prove that there is talent in the country and all it needs is a break. Maria Jose will be coming back to a huge party and to a while different life compared to what she left behind 3 months ago. Hopefully she will continue to pursue her career in music, Latin America definitely wants more of her and after her recovery she should definitely continue.
The construction of the most expected new Caldera Dock in Puntarenas, Costa Rica will continue to be paralyzed; so far it has been for 19 months already due to issues with the Estate of Costa Rica itself and during all this time the costs of the construction have increased tremendously, so far it is estimated that the increase is for over $29 million dollars and the Sociedad Granelera de Caldera has already admitted that they cannot afford this huge increase.
The main legal issue that has delayed the construction of the bridge it’s a sue placed by the Asociación Nacional de Empleados Públicos (ANEP) claiming that the construction of the dock will compromise the right inhabitants of the are have to enjoy and healthy and ecologically balanced environment. The reason why this legal sue has taken so long to be taken care of is apparently an overload of work on the Sala IV which handles these types of issues. Costa Rica has a big trouble if the delay continues since money is being lost while the court can’t even look at the file itself. The Caldera dock needed to be not only rebuilt but remodeled since a huge percentage of exports in Costa Rica use this route.
So far, there are no resolutions and just the excuse of the overloaded Sala IV. Puntaremas will continue to use the old dock for every transaction, departure and arrival in the Pacific side of Costa Rica for the moment. The other main dock in Costa Rica is Puerto Limon which receives visitors, works with exports and imports and handles most of the Caribbean side economic trades and apparently is handling everything perfectly for the moment. The Costa Rica government still has not made comments on the issue so far.
Alterra will no longer take care of the Costa Rica airport in Alajuela, Juan Santamaria. Starting this next December the US company Houston Airport System will take over the management of the Costa Rica airport that was previously handled by Alterra since 2001. Before finalizing all the process of changing management, Houston Airport System Development Company (HASDC) will have to cancel and clear all debts acquired by Alterra during the past 8 years which apparently is about $90 000 000 in total , owed to the IFC. So far, HASDC has 60 natural days to cancel the debt before beginning operations.
There have been many issues with the current management at the airport and the Costa Rica government has been way too patient with them, in addition, HASDC has offered not only to finish up with the construction of the airport but to also include $40 000 000 of their capital in development and remodeling the aircraft terminal creating new boarding rooms, customs an d migration offices.
Costa Rica has two big airports right now: the JuanSantamariaAirport in the city of Alajuela where access to main provinces such as Heredia, San Jose and Alajuela itself is easier; and the Manuel Oduber Airport in Liberia, Guanacaste mainly used for tourism traffic since it is closer to the most visited beaches and natural reservation areas. Also airports for smaller airplanes are located in strategic point such as Quepos, Golfito and TamborBeach. The Guanacaste Airport, has been an impressive addition to the commercial development of the Guanacaste area allowing the economy of the area increase faster as well as access to high end technology, better education, and of course commercial development with the construction of Malls and the inclusion of big companies providing better jobs in Guanacaste.
There are high hopes for the HASDC management plan and hopefully, all the projects left behind by Alterra in the Juan Santamaria airport could now be a reality due to the high level of experience Houston Airport System has proved to have over the years.
If you have never been to Costa Rica, there are several survival rules to move here, one of them, and probably the most important one to know that the streets and highways are extremely dangerous due to several, and I mean several holes. For some reason in Costa Rica, the maintenance of the streets is very low or sometimes I even think non-existent, and driving has become a hassle, specially in the downtown area of San Jose. Costa Rica has an entity: Ministerio de Obras Publicas y Transportes (MOPT) who is supposed to take care of the roads all over the country and watch for careless drivers as they are also what we know as the highway patrol.
Costa Rica roads are definitely not made for the amount of traffic found everyday on streets; just yesterday a 72 year old man went through hell when driving towards Mall San Pedro in San Jose and the street just disappeared below his car, apparently the issue began with the strong rains of the past few weeks that debilitated the sewer and caused the street to collapse. In Costa Rica, roads are definitely only safe for 4×4 cars and until the Government realizes that patches are not good enough and built proper streets drivers in Costa Rica are doomed to these dangerous situations.
Traveling throughout Costa Rica is actually a lot safer, since highways are a lot less neglected that main roads. Also it appears that sewer problems in that specific area in San Jose are very common: a few years ago there was a huge hole in the middle of a road in San Pedro, Costa Rica people even called it the “hellhole”, but it was fixed a few months ago. Hopefully this was just random accident and people from the Municipalidad de San Jose will push the MOPT into getting a real damage control plan for the area.
PriceSmart the giant supermarket chain of membership shopping is expanding more and more in Central America. Right now, PriceSmart has several branches in many countries of Central America and the Caribbean such as: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Aruba, Barbados, Dominican Republic and Jamaica just to mention a few. Just in Costa Rica the supermarket has 4 establishments. This Wednesday, October 1st, the company has made a press release announcing that PriceSmart has has entered into agreements to acquire properties in Costa Rica and Panama; these properties will be used for the construction of new PriceSmart Warehouse Clubs and the development of adjoining Commercial Centers.
In Costa Rica, property acquisition has already begun: the company acquired 21,576 square metres of real estate in Alajuela, Costa Ricawhere a new PriceSmart Warehouse Club will be built to be the fifth in Costa Rica. This new facility is expected to open in the spring of 2009.
This type of membership shopping started business more than 10 years ago and started growing more and more over the years. PriceSmart offers great quality products such as electronic, computers, health care, furniture, automotive items and sporting goods among others. Costa Rica families are usually big and purchasing items in big quantities is normal and necessary, PriceSmart offers this choice by providing great prices for big quantities. Also, Costa Rica properties in locations where the main target customers reside are still easy to acquire, therefore the decision was not hard to make.
I have no information in whether or not there is going to be a PriceSmart in Guanacaste so far, I will assume they may be discussing the possibility of acquiring also property in Guanacaste due to the huge development of the area. Guanacaste has grown so much in the past few years it will actually be a smart move to include the area on their list of property acquisition.
Although it appears that some of the big development projects in Guanacaste were put on hold for while, it appears that there actually nothing to worry about. For a moment a lot of realtors and investors in Costa Rica were a little bit frustrated and worried, yet the hold was set with the best interest.
Due to the terrible weather conditions that the Guanacaste area suffered in the past month, a lot of emergency alerts were set and most of the projects that ere put on hold just needed to be either checked for security and some because of their proximity to the affected areas.
The weather has now cleared a whole lot and some of the holds were removed already, some properties in Guanacaste still need to go through a detailed check up but everything seems to moving smoothly and quick.
Guanacaste real estate is also changing due to the fact that people are really getting tired of the ridiculous high prices and even some real estate agents in Costa Rica have started to do something about it, refusing to deal properties that don’t comply with their standards. It is ok that a huge property located in the middle of an impressive Guanacaste beach to be expensive, but no one was really checking if the prices were fair or not.
The sunny days in Guanacaste beaches and forests are only a few weeks away and people are definitely getting ready to spend a well deserved vacation during the holidays. If you are planning to do the same, make sure you get your reservations quickly since most vacation properties in Guanacaste might get rented before you know it.
This past weekend the production of Latin American Idol allowed her to visit her family and friends and make a small video of her life in Costa Rica as part of the final shows before the real Latin American Idol is chosen. This past Friday the JuanSantamariaAirport was a filled with fans since the early hours of the day who wanted to take greet and meet the Costa Rica singer. People collapse the streets between the airport and her house in Heredia, they held banners and gave her flowers and even a Cimarrona (group of local musicians that play typical songs) awaited her arrival in Barva de Heredia. The young Maria Jose Castillo did small performances for her fans and spent time with her family, friends and boyfriend and although she did not have much time to rest, she said that her batteries were charged and she was really to leave the name of Costa Rica up high.
The support given to the performer has shown that Costa Rica is proud of their contestant and even small activities took place to collect money for messages to vote this next Wednesday, when the Latin American Idol semifinals will take place in Argentina. Even big companies such as Neutrogena and TCBY ice creams have worked on promotions to make people vote: Neutrogena paid for huge banners place in big bus routes and TCBY has been giving away ice creams in exchange for votes.
The hopes are high and the faith is big, the Costa Rica people have been supporting Maria Jose very strong and proving that a small country can have idol material and that the power of pride can join countries, since a lot of the Central American people have supported her with the same power Costa Rica has. The next performance for the top for will be held this next Wednesday, voting will be enabled right after the show ends and to support Costa Rica’s performer all you need to do is sent a text message: Maria at 43657. I honestly wish the best of luck to her and Costa Rica.
The final steps to begin working with the approved TLC (Free Trade Agreement) Costa Ricaworked with the US government will be put on hold until November 6th, 2008 according to recent resolution between the Costa Rica government and the US. On that date a delegation that will be headed by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce, Carlos Gutiérrez, and the United States Trade Representative, Susan Schwab will arrive in Costa Rica to check on final details and operations required to start moving on with the proposal and the process and advances of approving the last of the 13 “complimentary” laws that are required to accompany the trade deal.
Costa Rica agreed with the TLC last year after several years of discussions and even and entire referendum to make sure that the agreement was a decision made by the majority of citizens, as the their democratic laws and government type requires. Costa Ricais much firmed on their democratic and peaceful way of living and decisions are often made taking into account the opinion of the people first.
Even development projects in Guanacaste, Puntarenas, Limon or any other province where natural reservations may be around have to be approved by a board or commission before hand. Properties in Costa Rica located in the surrounding areas of beaches, rain forests, volcanoes and rivers are carefully checked to make sure they comply with all protection requirements.
Regarding the Free Trade Agreement (TLC), Costa Rica has been the hardest country to sign, and now with this delay some countries that have already moved forward will stay on stand by until the agreement is finalized.
If you ask me, I am actually proud that this country work so fair with their people, laws and the government is actually handle by the word of the citizens. Costa Rica government model should be used as an example of democracy and taken into consideration for other countries, even the US government.
Recently the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) has submitted a request to increase the electricity rate for residential customers by 30% to the ARESEP, if this request is approved a regular family in Costa Rica, that usually pays a bill of 10.000 colones (a little less than $20 ) a month will have to pay over 3.000 colones more each month. The ICE is actually pushing an increase of 46% and the 455 mil users of the Compañia Nacional de Fuerza y Luz (CNFL) will come to experience and increase of almost a 56%.
There have been several increases in utilities bills during the past few months, Costa Rica is experiencing one of the fastest increases in years and a recent study confirmed that regular consumption products like rice, beans, meat, toilet paper and cleaning products are over three times more expensive now than 3 or 4 years ago. Unfortunately in Costa Rica, cost of living is increasing unparallel to salaries and families are the ones getting more and more affected by this discrepancy.
As I have published before, Costa Rica is indeed a paradise for foreigners, where the dollar became king and Costa Rica citizens are hardly able to afford a middle class life. The very sad part of all these is that in Costa Rica most of the people have college education and all the hard work is not paying off enough. A College graduate minimum salary hardly covers rent rates in middle to low class neighborhoods and loans are hard to get with those salaries.
Oscar Arias, Costa Rica president second time around has claimed he feels “tired” of trying to please the people which has become frustrating to all the hard working Costa Ricans that can’t see any progress at all. While properties in Guanacaste are on the most wanted list for young professionals due to the fast development of the area, prices are high and it seems property owners rather inflate their pocket with US investment.
