News about travel, vacations, adventures and retirement in Costa Rica
Category: Attractions
You've probably never heard about such thing as "mule festival". Yes, we have that in Costa Rica.
The country's national mule festival will run both weekends until February 22 in the central pacific coast town of Parrita.
The festival involves more than mules. There is a queen contest, bullfighting, food booths, dances, parades and other typical events in local fiestas. Read more »
The iguana is an endangered species because in some parts of the country locals gladly eat its meat. Iguana skin still is used in the creation of delicate pieces for personal use: wallets, shoes, handbags, etc.
Though some private companies are trying to reproduce the iguana in captivity with the purpose of elevating the quantity of specimens, their effort is not producing results fast enough. Read more »
Five participants (4 Colombians and 1 Brazilian), are in Costa Rica as winners of a contest partially sponsored by the Instituto Costarricence de Turismo. That contest revolves around the TV series "Lost". One of the hosts and the star of the show is Jorge Garcia. He plays Hugo. Read more »
Law officers may have been too late for one green turtle, but they managed to save the life of another in northeastern Costa Rica.
Officials of the Servicio Nacional de Guardacostas said they saw a man who had trapped a turtle on the beach at Barra Pacuare. The officers on patrol managed to sneak up on the man and then place him under arrest. It appeared the man was trying to get the giant turtle off the beach perhaps to kill it for meat. The officers said the man, later identified by the last names of Álvarez Martínez, tried to flee, but they caught him. Read more »
The World Surfing Games in Playa Hermosa (Puntarenas, Costa Rica) started on Saturday. There was a big crowd cheering for Costa Rica’s Gilbert Brown. His win was definitely the crowd’s favorite. It brought standing ovations and a flurry of national flag waving. Read more »
Construction at the National Museum of Cost Rica has turned into an archaeological dig because workers have uncovered tunnels and a small room, that no one knew about. The tiny room wasn’t on the available plans.
The museum is located inside the former Bellavista fortress, that was constructed in 1918. Read more »
The Turrialba volcano is one of two active volcanos situated at the east end of the Central Valley. The other one is Irazu. Both are practically joined at the bottom and are considered two craters for the same volcanic system underneath.
Turrialba as well as Irazu volcano is being closely monitored by electronic devices to detect any increase in activity.
The national emergency commission is taking steps to improve the escape route from the vicinity of the Turrialba volcano. Meanwhile, the commission and local officials are asking the Ministerio de Ambiente, Energía y Telecomunicaciones to close the park around the volcano to reduce the number of people who might have to leave in a hurry. The emergency commission is also doing a census of the population around the volcano and making plans for temporary housing if it comes to evacuation. Read more »
Gonzalo Vargas, president of the Cámara Nacional de Turismo, explained to the government the severity of the economic crisis facing the tourism industry. Almost 30% of tourism operators were forced to fire employees in the first half of this year, according to a tourism organization official.
His organization supports an effort with the tourism institute to offer special incentives to would-be visitors. Among these are extra nights lodging and other discounts outlined on the tourism institute’s Web page.
The official web page (VisitCostaRica.com) is now ranked 63,953 in the United States and 96,316 in Canada (Alexa stats www.alexa.com). That’s after the $500,000 spent on the advertising campaign. It’s ranked 631 in Costa Rica, with about 50% being the visitors from US, 20% from Costa Rica, 4% from Germany, 2.8% from Canada, and 2.6% from Spain.
Millions of locals are getting ready for the “mid-year vacations”: schools in Costa Rica will be on vacation between July 4 and July 19.
This week ads for deals at hotels and resorts have been in all the local print newspapers, deals for rooms for only $30 a night in places like Manuel Antonio or $65 for a La Fortuna (Arenal) hotel, which also includes three meals with the room. Read more »
The Observatorio Vulcanologico is based at Universidad Nacional in Heredia. Experts from the Observatorio Vulcanologico y Sismologico de Costa Rica visited both Arenal and Turrialba this month and reported that any major eruption or even activity is unlikely. Read more »
Ruta (highway) 245 that runs along the east side of the Osa Peninsula just got a $30 million face lift. 8 bridges were constructed from scratch to make an all-weather road of the 21-mile stretch between Puerto Jimenez and Rincon south.
The improved highway is good for tourism. Now motorists can use it to reach roads that go to Parque Nacional Corcovado in dry or wet weather conditions.
In early 2008 the Museo Nacional de Costa Rica in conjunction with the Ministerio de Ambiente, Energía y telecomunicaionces and the University of Miami started excavations on the island that is currently known as Refugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre
Isla San Lucas was a penal colony until 1991. It had the reputation of being the roughest jail in Costa Rica and its 117 year history is rich with tales of violence. It’s best known internationally through the book “La Isla de los Hombres Solos,” written by one-time inmate José León Sánchez.
The scientists are trying to uncover the day-to-day lives of the prisoners. the museum has said that the prison will be restored as a tourist attraction, and the findings of the archaeologists will be part of the public displays.
Guayabo Ceremonial Center, Costa Rica was built between 300 B.C. and 1400 A.D.. It is considered the main pre-Columbian archaeological site in Costa Rica. It is believed to reflect a bridge between the Mayans and the Incas.
The Guayabo historic site is situated in the province of Cartago.
The location was nominated by the Costa Rican Engineer and Architects College for its fascinating and still functional aqueducts and cobblestone roads.
This is only the second pre-Columbian site in the Americas to receive such a designation. The first one is Machu Picchu in Peru.
Source: asce.org (American Society of Civil Engineers)
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February 14, 2010 4:58 pm
Attractions, Tourism
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