Travelers Checks used to be the best way to take money, but not that good in Costa Rica because they are hard to cash and some charge huge fees.
One of the questions we get asked all the time, what is the best form of money to take, travelers checks, credit or debit cards, or cash when traveling to Costa Rica?
Travelers checks are probably the worse, because in Costa Rica, many establishments don’t take them anymore and when you do find one that will, some places have been known to charge a outrageous fee. Banks are still the best place to cash them, but it can be very frustrating. Costa Rica banks are not fast service; lines can be out the door. Once you do get to the teller it can get worse. In otherwords, you can be interrogated, if you are the person that can cash them – so make sure your signatures match and bring other forms of ID beside your passport, like a driver’s license and even a copy of your plane ticket that has your name on it.
NEVER, give a person your Social Security number. If they ask, politely say, “ I can’t remember it” and excuse yourself and leave. Read more... (855 words, 2 images, estimated 3:25 mins reading time)
There are many ways to market ones Costa Rica business and one of them was to submit articles. There are websites called, article directories (dubbed, Content Farms) that accept numerous articles from numerous authors. A couple of well known places are EzineArticles.com and Buzzle.com. These Content Farms helped send traffic (by your author and/or business link) over to your website.
But things have changed. A few weeks ago, Google had a major algorithmic update which focused on Content Farms. They claimed these were not “quality sites” because they listed “low-quality” content where much of the content was copied, and/or duplicated (same article sent to many) and/or nothing but sales hype. Google states that this improvement will impact almost 12% of all search queries, a high percentage. A new extension for its Chrome browser NOW lets users block specific sites from showing up in their search results.
In otherwords, Google is now officially demoting sites from search results with poor or useless content and wants to index quality content. Read more... (756 words, 2 images, estimated 3:01 mins reading time)
We stand on the brink of a period of strong economic growth that will be fueled in part by a shift to a more sustainable use of our natural resources. The international market for eco-tourism is rapidly expanding and seeking new destinations, particularly in the area of sportfishing. With proper planning and execution, Panama can and should establish itself as the regional leader in this industry. But there is much work to be done.
Previous studies of sportfishing tourism from The Billfish Foundation, a non-profit organization and leader in worldwide marine conservation programs and their economic benefits, have revealed that sportfishing in Baja California Sur – a single state in Mexico – generated over $630 million in 2008, accounting for 35,000 jobs and over $1.25 billion in revenues overall. In neighboring Costa Rica, sportfishing dollars added nearly $600 million to its gross domestic product and created 63,000 jobs in 2009.
Incredibly, these figures are based primarily on tourists from just the United States and Canada.
In the United States alone, approximately 7.5 million people travel outside their country to fish. Research from The Billfish Foundation shows that only 1% of these tourists currently travel to Panama. To remain competitive in Latin America, Panama must dramatically increase this number and create further economic opportunities for our nation. Read more... (733 words, 1 image, estimated 2:56 mins reading time)
After becoming the first Central American country to ban commercial netting and longlining from its waters, Panama is launching a socio-economic study to improve its sportfishing tourism and marine conservation efforts. (Photo courtesy of The Billfish Foundation)
The Billfish Foundation tapped to conduct 18 month long socio-economic research…
PANAMA CITY, Panama and FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla., USA – Panama’s minister of science, technology and innovation has announced a socio-economic research study on the impact of sportfishing tourism. The Billfish Foundation in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., will conduct the research.
In a conference call, Dr. Ruben Berrocal, National Secretary of SENACYT (Secretaría Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación) said, “My ministry is involved in tourism and the impact of sportfishing on the local marine life is very exciting, so we’re supporting this research.
”He said other Panamanian ministers are also involved to enact sound environmental policies to preserve Panama’s precious resources while creating opportunities for economic prosperity. Last summer for the conservation of its marine life and its country’s socio-economic growth, Panama banned commercial purse seining. Earlier this year it also restricted longlining.
Dr. Russell Nelson, TBF’s Science Dir., said there are three parts to the research study. Read more... (716 words, 1 image, estimated 2:52 mins reading time)
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A couple of months ago the above question was asked in Yahoo answers, and even if we answered, “yes,” and gave our reason(s), we were totally surprised that one answered, “NO.”
Our second surprise, it was voted best answer!
Hummm … pretty clear those people had no idea of Costa Rica’s technology growth, or probably still think Costa Rica is still a, Third World Country.
Five years ago, about 5% of the country used the internet. Recently a report came out and that number has jumped to 50%. Now honestly, “What does that tell ya?”
While a relatively small and low-gross domestic product country, Costa Rica has a strong growth in IT infrastructure and it was ranked at 49 out of 102 countries in the Networked Readiness Index in the Global Information Technology Report a few years back; making it the leading Central America country in the index.
Unlike many other countries where government has IT policies Costa Rica’s technological growth is not really driven by government, rather, it is driven by the private business. Read more... (719 words, 3 images, estimated 2:53 mins reading time)
