News about travel, vacations, adventures and retirement in Costa Rica
Category: Tourism
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 »
Although, according to the official sources, the number of tourists has not dropped significantly over the last year, the amount of money tourists leave behind has dropped drastically.
According to the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo (ICT), in 2008 each tourist left behind an average of $1.040 during an average of a 10 day stay, but in 2009, the average stay was only 9 and half days and the amount left behind dropped to $855. Read more »
Banco Nacional will be lending funds to many health providers practicing in Costa Rica. The money is designated to obtain official international certification.
Costa Rican medics are undoubtedly some of the finest in the world. Most have been trained in the US. The money will help local providers meet the international requirements so they can market more effectively for medical tourism.
According to the official numbers, the number of visitors from U.S. to Costa Rica dropped by at least 5%, according to the Carib World News newspaper.
The number of U.S. visitors to the Caribbean declined 7.3% for the first six months of 2009 (compared to last year).
The Internet newspaper said that the visitor statistics was based on air travelers.
After September 16 it will cost you 25 colones more (the first kilometre, 455 colones) and 30 colones more (416 colones - all subsequent kilometres). The increase will become effective right after it is published in the "La Gaceta" official newspaper.
In March, the Authoridad Regulatora de Servicios Publicos cut taxi fares slightly (about 1%), saying that the gasoline prices went down.
Don’t forget that you’re paying for any tolls on your trip as well.
On Wednesday 30 trained mountain rescue workers started the search for a missing U.S. citizen. His name is David Gimelfarb, he’s from Chicago. David failed to return to his hotel after a hiking trip to the national park. His rented car was found inside the park.
The Cruz Roja (Red Cross) has also telecommunications specialists and three cartographers on the search. 2 U.S. military helicopters joined the rescue later in the day. Unfortunately, the rescue team is facing terrible weather conditions with mild winds, but heavy rains.
The Rincon de la Vieja national park is located in northern Costa Rica.The park contains 14 thousand hectares (about 35 thousand acres). It is home to two volcanoes, the Rincon de la Vieja and Santa Maria; 32 rivers and creeks and 6 different volcanic peaks.
It’s only been 47 years in the making, but finally the Costanera Sur, that runs from Barranca de Puntarenas to Palmar Sur in the Osa Peninsula, will be ready by December the Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes (MOPT) promises. Read more »
Heat Wave To Last Until Monday, The It’s Back To The Torrential Rains
The national weather forecast service from the Instituto Meteorológico Nacional says that the canícula (summer break) will linger for several more days, at least until Tuesday. 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 »
As you already know, the Caribbean part of Costa Rica was severely flooded 3 times in the last 12 months. Many families lost their homes and clean up took months. Some roads are still impassable. 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 »
On Tuesday the lawmakers passed for the second and final time a new immigration law. The main item of the law is integration of foreigners into the Costa Rican culture. The new law seeks to improve the conditions of immigrants with respect for their human rights.
Although the main target audience is the Central American immigrants, US, Canadian and European expats will be subject to some changes, too. For example, now they have to join the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social as a condition of their residency. On the plus side, visitors will be able to seek residency without leaving the country. On the down side it makes hotel and operators of other lodging businesses responsible for maintaining a registry of their customers. 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.
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February 14, 2010 4:58 pm
Attractions, Tourism
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