Costa Rica Takes Steps to Cut Down on Fuel Usage. The Costa Rican government plans to reduce the taxes paid by energy-efficient and low-emission cars. This tax break will cover hybrids, electrics, and those that are powered by biofuels such as ethanol. Automobiles in Costa Rica currently pay between 35% to 53% worth of [...]

Filed under: Costa Rica News on April 18th, 2008 | No Comments »

Lapa Rios provides luxury accommodations in the jungle. Lapa Rios is well known throughout Costa Rica as being one of the front runners in sustainable tourism but also as being in one of the most bio-diverse areas in Costa Rica, as well as on the planet. When the hotel was first designed many asked the [...]

Filed under: Hotel Reviews on April 17th, 2008 | No Comments »

Costa Rica celebrates its 15th anniversary of Internet access. Today, fifteen years after the internet took it's first baby steps into Costa Rica, about 35% of the Costa Rican population has access to a computer with internet. Academia is conducted through email and over the internet, and more Costa Rican businesses, organizations and companies are realizing [...]

Filed under: Business on April 17th, 2008 | No Comments »

Don't get left behind! New Costa Rica bus schedules effective tomorrow. Tomorrow, Friday, April 18, Costa Rican residents and visitors will see bus prices rise once again. Each one of the 3,642 different fares on Costa Rica's 732 bus routes will go up between ¢5 and ¢250, mostly depending on the length of trip.

Filed under: Travel on April 17th, 2008 | 4 Comments »

Countdown to the Festival Imperial 2008 in Costa Rica. This weekend's Festival Imperial, which will take place at La Guácima's racetrack in Alajuela, is expected to welcome a total of 50,000 people - 25,000 on Saturday and another 25,000 on Sunday. The much-awaited international music festival is just two days away, and plans are in full-swing. [...]

Filed under: Costa Rican Music on April 16th, 2008 | No Comments »

Retouramont performs tonight at the Costa Rica International Arts Festival. This group of French ballerinas captured a Costa Rican audience last night in the Plaza de la Cultura, with their presentation of "Réflexion de façade”, a ballet taking place in another dimension. The artists seemed to be dancing vertically on the parade of the Grand Hotel [...]

Filed under: Living on April 16th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

President Arias Meets with Regional Leaders to Discuss Economics. More than 500 business, academic and political leaders from 46 countries and 7 Latin American presidents are meeting today, April 15, and tomorrow, April 16, 2008, at an economic forum in Cancún, Mexico. The III World Economic Forum in Latin America (a regional version of the World [...]

Filed under: Business on April 15th, 2008 | 2 Comments »

Bill Gates met with President Arias in 2007 regarding tech support for Costa Rica. Anyone who lives in or has visited Costa Rica's sunny shores knows what makes many of its first-time visitors into repeats: beautiful beaches, impossibly green rain forests, ecologically diverse cloud forests, and one of the world's most active volcanoes, complete with natural [...]

Filed under: Social on April 11th, 2008 | No Comments »

Costa Rican Students Await the End of the Teachers' Strike. La Asociación de Profesores de Segunta Eseñanza (APSE, or the Association of Secondary Education Teachers), is holding firm in its strike against el Ministerio de Educación Pública (MEP, or Ministery of Public Education) regarding wage discrepancies. Teachers interrupted the commemoration ceremony for Juan Santamaria today in [...]

Filed under: Costa Rica News on April 11th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

High-tech Costa Rica still has room for advancement. According to a recent report by the Foro Económico Mundial (World Economic Forum), Costa Rica is the most technologically developed country in all of Central America. In addition, it is also the seventh most developed country in Latin America and the Caribbean, behind Mexico, Brazil, Barbados, Puerto [...]

Filed under: Business on April 10th, 2008 | 4 Comments »