Punta Uva and Montezuma Beach, "The heart and soul of the Nicoya Peninsula," tourism is down and so are the airline tickets ... so what better time to take a vacation!
No doubt Costa Rica’s tourism is down due to the instability of the economy, particularly the US were Costa Rica gets a majority of their tourists. This in turn has also lead to the layoffs of 1000s of workers and off course the belt-tightening of businesses. However, all is not lost, and if there was a time to take a trip down south, this is the best time to do it.
Several things are happening, and the two big ones are, 1) Airline tickets, and 2) the tourism in general.
I have not seen airline tickets hit this low in probably a good 10 years. This week I surfed for round trip (r/t) to Costa Rica on www.expedia.com, www.cheaptickets.com, and www.orbitz.com and here is sample of some of the prices … all I can say is, “Wow!” because last year at about this time, the below prices were about 50-80% more! Read more... (379 words, 1 image, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)
Is this the future of Costa Rica - White roofs to save energy and the world in Global Warming?
One thing about being the admin of Costa Rica’s largest directory, we get a lot of emails, about everything under the sun (no pun intended on this post) – from where to buy the best airline tickets, to hot nightclub action, to just rant and raving.
And then we get the curious or concern like the posts on Costa Rica bedbugs and Swine Flu. One thing for sure, we are not short of posting material 
.
Since the US and Costa Rica have excellent ties, just about anything that happens in the US somehow filters to Costa Rica. Last Tuesday US Energy Secretary Steven Chu said at a some sort of energy summit in England, the Obama administration wanted to start painting US roofs an energy-reflecting white to help save energy and to prevent Global Warming.
Yip, you guessed it, we got a couple of emails, if Costa Rica was going to follow in the footsteps of the US and have to paint the country white? Read more... (467 words, 3 images, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)
Credit Card Fraud is on the rise in Costa Rica
With the economy suffering, credit card fraud is higher then it has ever been in Costa Rica. In the last few months, just the Tico Times Directory, the fraud attempts have tripled. A month ago, we received payment for a statewide ad to rent a car, condo and cell phone. Ten days after the ad was placed we were informed by Paypal the card was unauthorized and the money removed from our account. In the last 2 weeks, five attempts were make to place ads with stolen card, almost twice the amount we had in the whole year of 2008 and we are only in the first five months …
Stories like this are endless, from car rental places and super markets in Alajuela and Escazu, to a surf shop renting surfboards in Jaco, to a casino in Golifto. I swear, it has become a pandemic of fraud.
The good news is, most stolen credit cards, the owner is likely to get their money back. Or in our case, if we suspected something fraudulent, we email the card owner to verify the card before we placed an ad and even that does not always work! Obviously! And most credit cards have some sort of protection against this. Read more... (586 words, 1 image, estimated 2:21 mins reading time)
Patti Blagojevich who is know for her obscenities is now taking husband's Rod's place on the reality show "I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here"
The first lady of ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Patti Blagojevich is now going to take her hubby’s place on being on the NBC show “I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here,” (which got canceled due to poor rating) to be filmed in Costa Rica.
If you remember (ugh, like it is one of those most important things in your life) a federal judge barred Rob Blagojevich last month who faces federal corruption charges from being on the NBC show because would send him out of the country. But his wife, Patti, accepted an offer from the network and seems to be doing it for two [important] reasons: 1) for the money and 2) to help clean up her reputation. Hummmm!
The Chicago Tribune portraits her as an “unflattering depicting Illinois First Lady” and “a modern-day Lady Macbeth who plotted against her husband’s perceived enemies and backed his corrupt schemes emerged in court documents connected to the governor’s arrest …” Read more... (425 words, 1 image, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)
Costa Rica is following in the footsteps of the US with their quadruple raise in cigarette tax and smoking bans in certain public place
It seems that Costa Rica’s government is following in California’s and other US States footsteps by proposing a new tax on cigarettes to increase their revenue.
Yes I know – cigs are bad, unhealthy, lead to lung cancer, and blab blab blab…
This law would limit smoking in some work places, public recreation, and cultural areas and near health centers like hospitals, clients and wellness centers. However, it is unclear if the law will affect the private sector of health facilities. Costa Rica private sector for wellness and recovery centers is one of the fastest growing in the world.
A few legislators are supporting a bill (of course backed by the Health Ministry) that would ALSO quadruple the cost of cigarettes.
Yes you read me right! Okay, I can see maybe double, but Quadruple! That’s a big hit to penalize those that do smoke.
Now they want about $0.18 more per cigs or about $3.50 more per pack (or $1.10 for the cheap brands to $4.67 for the expensive) making the cigs almost just as expensive as what other US States are demanding. Read more... (415 words, 2 images, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)
