The regulatory agency, the Authoridad Reguladora de Servicios Públicos, ordered a 6% cut in the price of gasoline and an 8% cut in diesel Wednesday.
Super gasoline goes from 627 colones (about $1.16) per litre to 593, a reduction of 34 colones or about 6.3 US cents.
Plus gasoline goes from 599 to 566 colones, a decrease of 33 colones.
Diesel drops from 534 to 493 colones, a reduction of 41 colon. Read more »
The Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica reported 12 quakes Monday. They ranged in magnitude from 1.5 to 3.2. A local fault is being blamed for a flurry of earthquakes that have been detected in the vicinity of the Irazú Volcano.
The observatory said that the quakes were located a few kilometres northeast of the volcano crater and that they had no relationship with volcanic activity. The quakes took place in less than an hour from 7 pm to 8 pm.
Irazú volcano has been emitting acidic gas and steam for several months now and access to the Turrialba volcano has been closed completely.
The US government on Saturday extended a tsunami watch to Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia following the earthquake that hit an area in the Pacific Ocean near the coast of Chile.
The quake registered a devastating 8.8 magnitude. The earthquake struck 320 km southwest of Santiago at a depth of 59.4 km 3:34 a.m. (0634 GMT), according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The epicenter was only 115 km from Concepcion, Chile's second-largest city with a population of 200,000 people. Read more »
Ethel Trejos, the director of epidemiological surveillance at the Ministerio de Salud (Health Ministry) confirmed that according to the latest results Costa Rica will not be hit by a second wave of the AH1N1 flu virus as had been expected before.
The director explained that the current strain of the virus in Costa Rica is different than that of last year and that No NEW deaths have been attributed to the virus.
50 people lost their lives to the AH1N1 last year.
January exports from Costa Rica were 22 percent higher comparing to the same period a year ago, said the Promotora del Comercio Exterior.
The agency said that Exports in January were $728 million, or about $133.5 million more.
The increase was due to the recovery of agricultural lands that were flooded a year ago in along the Caribbean coast. Also last year the province of Guanacaste lost most of it's rice crops due to severe drought.
Costa Rica is banning harvesting of lobsters in the Caribbean starting March 1 for full four months. The period of the ban is the peak time for reproduction of the Caribbean lobster, said the Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería. The peak lobster season in the Caribbean is from November to February.
Lobster harvesting is a $1.6 million-a-year business in Costa Rica. More than 900 persons are employed in the catching and preparing lobsters for the market. The annual catch is about 150 tons.
Other Central American nations (El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua) and Belize all have agreed to enforce the ban.
The Colegio Federado de Ingenieros y Arquitectos reports a surge in construction in the first month of the year. The Colegio said that in January 2010 some 631.000 square metres of construction were approved, 220.000 more than in January 2009.
The majority of the construction is for commercial and residential projects. Read more »
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 »
Southern Costa Rica got another jolt this Tuesday. An earthquake estimated at a 5.0 magnitude took place at 12:22 p.m. That was less than a day after a quake estimated at 4.4 magnitude took place near Quepos (Central Pacific). Read more »
An earthquake of a magnitude of 4.4. took place near Quepos at 8:50 p.m. Monday.
The Obvservatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica said the epicenter was about 15 km (9 miles) northwest of Quepos. Read more »
On Monday the Instituto Meteorológico Nacional (IMN) issued an alert for the coastal areas of the Pacific, as the expected tide is the highest in the last five years.
On Tuesday the town of Puntarenas witnessed the tide over 3 metres between 5:30am and 6:05am that flooded the port town. Traffic to and from Puntarenas was affected as part of the road leading to the port was flooded.
A similar tide is expected for Thursday.
The new San José-Caldera highway didn't live up to its promise Sunday when a flood of drivers jammed toll stations and completely paralysed the highway. Some traffic jams were truly miles long.
The problems were attributed to an insufficient number of individuals working at toll booths and the desire of many Costa Ricans to check out the new highway, which was supposed to cut at least 45 minutes off the trip from San José to the Pacific coast. Read more »
The Comisión Nacional de Emergencias (CNE – National Emergency Commission) has declared a "green" alert for the Pacific coastal areas due to rising tide.
According to the CNE report the tides are expected to reach 3.5 metres or more, the highest in the last five years. Read more »
Foreigners coming to Costa Rica to study, work or participate in academic activities are considered to have a "special status".
On February 1st, immigration officers at the borders will start placing a sticker in the passport of those who arrive with the "special status", informed the Dirección de Migración y Extranjería (immigration service). Read more »
The first at 8:59 a.m. was in the southern zone about 8 kms (about 5 miles) northeast of Sabalito, said the Red Sismológica Nacional at the Universidad de Costa Rica. The magnitude was estimated at 4.
The second was at 1:10 p.m. in Carrizal de Alajuela. It registered a magnitude of 4.6, said the Red Nacional. Gentle rocking could be felt throughout the Central Valley.
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March 12, 2010 10:51 am
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