The US Customers and Border Protection said Wednesday that the variety of leafhopper found late last month from Costa Rica can cause severe damage to such crops as grapes, potatoes, soybeans and corn.

Crews found a type of aphid in late June. The leafhopper was the second "first-in-the-nation" pest that inspectors at the Southern California port complex have found in the last two months.

The interest rate for the first three years will be 3 percent or less, officials said. That is far lower than commercially available agricultural credit.

Coffee brings in about $100 million to the country each year. There are nearly 100,000 hectares, some 247,000 acres planted in coffee now. 

Officials think that the fund will result in replanting 30,000 hectares or about 74,000 acres. The useful life of a coffee plant is 15 to 20 years.

The issue first appeared in the south of the country where a record harvest of 43,000 metric tons was recorded, 22% higher than average.

Óscar Campos, president of the Costa Rican association of rice producers (Conarroz), commented that this is causing queues of trucks in the region’s processing industries.

Campos added that the problem could worsen in August as rice harvesting in the north of Costa Rica begins. That's especially true considering that September and October are the rainiest months of the year in the Pacific and Central parts of Costa Rica.
 

The Irazú shook and shook and shook between 5 am and 11 am on Thursday. Surprisingly, only one of the tremors was felt by the population, registering 3.1 on the Richter scale.

The activity at the Irazú Thursday is called a seismic or earthquake swarm, events where a local area experiences sequences of many earthquakes striking in a relatively short period of time. The length of time used to define the swarm itself varies, but the United States Geological Survey points out that an event may be on the order of days, weeks, or months. They are differentiated from earthquakes succeeded by a series of aftershocks by the observation that no single earthquake in the sequence is obviously the main shock. Earthquake swarms are one of the events typically preceding eruptions of volcanoes.

Rodolfo Van Der Laat, geologist of the Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica (OVSICORI) explained that the Irazú is a very active zone but currently there is no report of changes in the structure of the volcano.

The origin of the earthquakes are due to the activation of a local fault and not the collision or convergence of tectonic plates.

So, is Irazu going to erupt? Only time can tell for sure..
 

The Municipalidad de San Jose inaugurated a recycling center in Hatillo Thursday. The municipality hopes to collect 10 percent of the recyclable material in the area around the center. There are 25 locations that accept glass, plastic, paper and cartons and other materials. The Hatillo center is open every Saturday.

The center represents a $341,000 investment with part of the money coming from the government of Japan.

The other part of the loan from Japan is supposed to go towards the construction of the San Jose sewage treatment plant. That plant is supposed to clean the Tarcoles river and quite a big chunk of the Pacific coast currently affected by sewage pollution brought from San Jose by the river.

According to the Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica in Heredia, the epicenter of the earthquake was about 15 kilometers (about nine miles) south of Sámara on the Nicoya peninsula in the Pacific Ocean. The estimated location is about 130 kilometers or 80 miles west of San José.

The cause of the quake was an interaction between the Coco and Caribe tectonic plates. There were no reports of serious damage or injury.

El Nino's disappearance is being attributed to the heavy rain forecast for this year.

The heavy rain is also attributed to an increase in hurricanes and cyclones in the Atlantic for 2010. Costa Rica will not be directly hit, but it will feel the affects of most of the hurricanes (mostly from "cola" or tail of the hurricane).

According to the IMN, the Pacific coast and the Central Valley will be the most affected areas.

Contrary to the statement by the Policía de Tránsito on Saturday that the Braulio Carrillo (San José – Guapiles) highway would be re-opened Monday morning, the road will continue closed at least until Thursday.

Work crews of the Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes (MOPT) have been busy since last Tuesday removing debris from the landslides east of the Zurquí tunnel.

MOPT engineers had hoped to use a series of controlled dynamite explosions of two slopes considered high risk areas for the large number of landslides they generate.

However, bad weather has delayed plans.

The MOPT says it hopes to dynamite the slopes today and then use the coming days to remove the debris. Work crews were already on the scene this morning to take advantage of the clear morning skies, as well as  agents of the Dirección de Inteligencia y Seguridad (DIS) – Costa Rica's intelligence security police, who control the movement of dynamite in the country.

Geological studies confirm the instability of the soil and this has MOPT authorities worried of further mudslides and risk to human life.

Some 6.000 vehicles daily use Ruta 32 in the area where it is closed, causing a nightmare for people on both sides of the closure.

If you plan to travel to Limon province, don't forget to check the web site to see if the route has been opened, and if not, ask for alternatives or just go to one of the Pacific beaches.

The event is being sponsored, in part, by the Cámara de Exportadores de Costa Rica, which said it sees the country positioning itself as one of the leaders in the $40 billion medical tourism industry.
 
Some 1.6 million U.S. citizens are expected to travel overseas this year for medical care, but only about 8,000 are expected to come to Costa Rica, said Allan Flores, minister of Turismo. In 2009 as many as 30,000 persons traveled here for medical care, he added. Each medical visitor is worth about $4,000 to the country, officials estimate. The decline is blamed on the North American economy.

In spite of the poor performance of the US economy, many US citizens plan to travel to Mexico for medical treatment in spite of the recent waves of violence in the country.

The new cost of a litre of super gasoline is ¢628 (up from ¢593); regular ¢597 (up from ¢566); and diesel ¢514 (up from ¢494).

Luckily, a price drop is expected next month to reflect the dramatic fall of the dollar we're all witnessing.

The new rates were published by the road concessionaire, Autopistas del Sol, in Friday's La Nacion.

The new toll charges for passenger vehicles and motorcycles at Escazú will come down to ¢300 (currently ¢320); ¢460 (currently ¢490) at San Rafael (La Guacima); ¢610 (currently ¢640) at Atenas; and ¢460 (currently ¢480) at Pozón. The new total toll charge will be ¢1.830 (currently ¢1.930).

Under the concession contract, Autopistas del Sol can adjust the toll charges quarterly. The reduction was caused by the lower dollar exchange rate.

ICE had requested a 30% increase, but rates will go up only 10% or so.

What 10% means to an average family is an increase of ¢1.800 on their monthly bill for an average consumption of 250 KWh.

The ICE said it needed the increase to finance investment, expansion of works that includes construction of hydroelectric plants.

The Aresep (regulating agency) did not approve the increase requested by ICE, saying that ICE has sufficient funds to carry out the works.

In addition, ICE claimed costs in repairing the Cariblanco generating plant damaged last year by the Cinchona earthquake. However, the Aresep pointed out that ICE will be receiving ¢10 billion colones from the Instituto Nacional de Seguros (INS) – state insurer – on the insurance policy carried by ICE.

The rates will go into effect when the resolution announced Wednesday is published in the La Gaceta official newspaper.

The Instituto Meteorologico Nacional said that a cold front was bringing windy conditions to the bulk of the country today in addition to some rain on the Caribbean coast and in the northern zone. The central and south Pacific may have it a little cooler because partly cloudy skies are predicted for the afternoon, the weather institute said.

Residents of the Central Valley are hoping that the front brings some rains. Coffee and sugarcane fields can use some water just as most soccer fields and lawns.

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.

There are similar reductions for other types of petroleum products supplied by the national monopoly, Refinadora Costarricense de Petróleo, S.A.

The calculations were based on prices and exchange rates from Jan. 28 to Feb. 11, so the regulating agency is always behind the curve. The new prices are effective when published in the government's legal newspaper  next Thursday. 

The agency was responding to the strength of the colon against the U.S. dollar and world petroleum prices, it said.