Guanacaste, Costa Rica

Guanacaste with better roads
The Ministry of Building and Transport (MOPT) has announced that they are the main roads in Guanacaste repair make them better for to the public and tourist. Great progress, the road from Hojancha to Puerto Carrillo. Between Lajas and Puerto Carrillo is the already paved. Even the beaches is in the vicinity of Junquillal should get asphalt and the route from Samara to Punta Islita.

Airport in Liberia with more tourists
More tourists arrived in the first 3 months of the year at the international airport in Liberia Daniel Oduber Quirós of Costa Rica. Precisely 156028 tourists arrived. This represents an increase of 13% over the same period last year.

Electricity prices increased in Guanacaste
In Guanacaste the electricity supplier Coopeguanacaste will increase the price of electricity from 15 May. to 18.5% on average. In other parts of the country, the price of electricity up to 25% increase.

The Santa Rosa National Park burn in fire
More than 500 hectares of Santa Rosa National Park, in the province of Guanacaste were razed by fire, which started last Wednesday. The fire covered the area of vegetation that is in the process of natural regeneration, the emergency personnel joined in preventing the flames also in other areas of the park.
On Monday last conservation officers, firefighters and other volunteers turned off the fire St. Helena Park due to the burning of two hectares of grass and scrub.
The Environment Minister Roberto Doubles said that this year's fires have burnt 70 protected areas. And that has been caused by people who take Revenge, because now it is forbidden hunting.

Problems with garbage
The province of Guanacaste has problems with debris garbage. At the root of that before Easter the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and Energy (Minae) closed six of the 11 municipal dumps in the province, two others have closure order, Liberia, Santa Cruz, Abangares, Bagaces, Carrillo and Nicoya have no landfills, while Reeds and La Cruz should make the closure. These are some of the places that are not affected as they are veran: Hojancha, Nandayure and Tilarán. In Canton Nicoya are 30 tons of waste each day are collected and ahoran should look for a site where most file.
The reason for the closure of the dump, which is not giving a good use, because they threw solid waste and besides that did not meet the technical conditions for its operation. It is necessary to find a solution before. the problems get worse.

Fiesta in Hojancha near by Nicoya
The Fiesta of Hojancha, is from Saturday 29 March to Tuesday 01 April. The population is invited by the Parish Church of San Jose of Hojancha, to the celebration in honor of San Jose. On offer are rich foods, beverages, dancing and numerous activities.

Open air with Malpais in Samara was great success.
On 2 March came in concert Malpaís and various activities on the football field in Sámara approximately 1500 people and celebrated a successful open air concert by the communications center Alegria was organized.

Climate change in Costa Rica / Guanacaste
The unusual rain in February in Guanacaste is always on the ongoing climate change include, in all parts of the world, the weather, and the whole climate is changing and thus also to the flora and fauna impact. The question is what impact Costa Rica/Guanacaste in the future. It remains to be seen whether the rainy season (May-November), or moves such weather forecasts in future no longer possible.

High season - yet more visitors in Costa Rica
240,000 tourists will visit Guanacaste and double expectations. In the previous season 86,000 tourists entered through Liberia and during the year before it have been 79,000. The high season has officially started on December 15th. From that point on, until the next April the airport Daniel Oduber, Liberia has to handle about 60 flights per week. The airport manager Analive Rosales says that Mondays and Saturdays are the days when the largest volume has to be handled and some land simultaneously. Visitors entering Liberia spend on average about $ 2,200 (nearly ¢ 1,100,000) in his stay in the country, while Visitors who arrive by other points, mainly the Juan Santamaria, spend an average of $ 1,300. To meet the increased influx of visitors to be fair, the government is planning a $ 15 million investment for the construction of a new airport terminal. Completion is scheduled for January 2009.

Phone cables missing
500 meters of phone cable were stealing as in Garza, Guanacaste a tree fell down and the phone cable cam down. Whole villages and their hotels were without phone and with it also without Internet. The ICE needed around 3 days to repair the damage.

Turtle day, playa Buena Vista
IFrom de 30. November till 2.December 2007 in the Alegria in Samara Esterones on Beach Buena Vista. On the Program a Art auction to raise money for the turtle project at the Buena Vista beach to collect. Also Music, dance and et Sunday program for children. For more information Anette Nierhoff Tel: 00506-2 656 8191 + 8 899 89 86.

The sun is back in Guanacaste
It will be a long way for Costa Rica to recover from the floods which have destroyed 7,000 km of the streets along the country. The strong poring rains from October have caused more damages than three hurricanes that affected the country in 2005, the road traffic licensing department of Costa Rica (MOPT) explains. The repair work will take at least a year, depending on money and manpower that are available to the street services.
More than 3,000 km of the destroyed streets are found in Guanacaste where many tourists are about to spend their Christmas vacation. Especially the streets around Nicoya are in a bad condition and some places cannot be reached at all. Therefore it is also difficult to get to some of the beaches in the area. Indeed, in some places they started to repair the streets temporary to make them drivable and the bridge over the river Rio Garza to Nosara is built up in the meantime but the street is still in a bad condition.

The tourism branch in Guanacaste is worried that the bad conditions of the streets keep away the guests. The authorities have repaired the worst damages temporarily and fortunately, the sun is shining again in Guanacaste, the streets dry up and the rivers are passable again.

Fines and Derecho de Circulation pay by Internet
Fines by traffic offence can be paid from now on on the Internet with Internet banking with Banco National and Banco de Costa Rica. With his number of the driving license one comes to the fines list and then can pay. Also Annual-expensive for vehicles (Derecho de Circulation) can be paid on Internet banking about these banks.

51.6% voted SI
Last Sunday finally the international commercial agreement, the contract of free trade in Central America (Cafta) between Costa Rica and the United States was approved. After more than six years of waiting 51.6% of the population agreed to the support of the trade relations in plebiscite Until the 29th of February an according law will be approved by the Congress. If this decision is a positive one for the people in Costa Rica will be seen.

Congress guanacasteco
The regional cultural office of Guanacaste invites to take part at the first congress of the culture of the province which should be realised between 8 and on the 10th November in Santa Cruz. Interested should announce themselves up to the 15th of October. Contact address: Phone 2 665-29 96 or mail congresoculturaguanacaste @gmail.com

Events on the university campus in Nicoya
On the campus of the university Nacional in Nicoya events like dissertations on different subjects, presentations (the youth dance group UNA and the group Bury Dancehall amongst others), a yoga presentation, discussions, a football tournament as well as some concerts take place from 18th to 22nd September, 2007. During these days there are daily festivals in front of the university at 7 p.m. On Monday night there will be fireworks.
For further information please have a look on our program.

VIPs in Guanacaste
First Hollywood-Stars like Elisabeth Taylor came to Guanacaste to spend a relaxed vacation, now Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi invest here in a hotel project of US-multimillionaire Steve Case. Paris Hilton gets connected in sharing in an estate on the Four Seasons Hotel in golfo de Papagayo, the Hilton Hotels have now signed a franchising contract with Hilton Garden Inn in Central America and Michael Owen bought a property in Nosara and Hollywood-film manager Mel Gibson one in Sámara, more and more celebrities seem to come to Guanacaste. Brad Pitt stayed in the Four Seasons on Christmas with his family and now, the prince of Saudiarabien came for a visit. Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal has announced another six to plan to establish another six hotels in Costa Rica. In a meeting with Costa Ricas president Oscar Arais Sanchez and his construction representative expressed Al-Waleed that he intends to build two of the hotels in golfo de Papagayo, Guanacaste where also a luxury hotel of the chain Four Seasons is located. As a reason for his plans he mentioned the high tourist development and the political and economic stability of Costa Rica. During his stay in Central America the multimillionaire rented 48 rooms in the Four Seasons Hotel in Liberia.

Cultural sponsorship for Guanacaste
The government Oscar Arias has raised the cultural expenses and a stock was made available by the Ministry of Culture to sponsor cultural projects. Some artists from Guanacaste have applied for this support for their projects and some have already got money to be able to put their projects into practice.
Primarily, it is about the support and identity of the culture in Costa Rica and especially in Guanacaste. A meeting of all artists recently took place in the cultural centre Alegria close to Sámara, on the beach of Buena Vista. The artists in Guanacaste want to incorporate and organize cultural activities in future. Within the scope of this idea pictures were painted and music was played in the Alegria. The next meeting of this kind takes probably place in September in Tileran.

Problems with refuse disposal in Guanacaste
The disposal problem is not really new and also known by the responsible authorities for years. While in the areas of high population density as San José and surroundings there are waste deposits, there is no running garbage pick-up service available for all parts of Guanacaste. There the garbage is still poured in pits and simply burned. Businessmen and inhabitants of Nosara are now incorporating to enlarge the pressure on the responsible authorities. If Costa Rica wants to call itself the environmental country number one, it should worry more about the problems that appear with a increasing population and a dramaticly growing tourism industry.

Problems with waste disposal continue
in the area Sámara and surroundings. Partially the garbage was not decontaminated for five weeks. The Municipalidad waits for new trucks to be able to take away the garbage. Also in other areas of Guanacaste and in other parts of the country, as for example Limón, there are big garbage problems, which is one of the reasons why the traditional carnival was canceled there.

Mayor Lorenzo Rosales Vargas back in the office
According to the Municipalidad from 24th July Lorenzo Rosales Vargas has taken up the office as a mayor again after his recovery and is confronted with many problems.
The lawyer for the zona marítimo-terrestre is not in the office anymore and it is sought-after for a new trustful lawyer.

Mel Gibson in Costa Rica
Mel Gibson bought recently a premise at the Playa Barrigona in Northguanacaste to live there private and to possibly shoot movies at this place in future. He intends to establish an integral nature reserve there. On 9 July he met the president of Costa Rica to talk about donations which are aimed to go to the native Indians.

Quick telephone lines for Esterones and Samara
According to the information of Lic. Mario A. Diaz B., Chef of the ICT Agencia Telefonica in Nicoya the region ought to be equipped with quick telephone lines by the end of September. For the affected tourism companies this would be a blessing after the long waiting period.

Mayor wants to solve problems
Lorenzo Rosales Vargas, new mayor of Nicoya, is in search of a new lawyer for the Municipalidad because Fabiola Quesada, coordinadora de la oficina de la zona marítimo-terrestre (ZMT) and present lawyer is not in the office anymore. In March the new mayor Lorenzo Rosales Vargas explains during an interview that he wants to solve the internal problems in the Municipalidad first. Then step by step he will turn towards the many other problems, as for example the problems in the Zona Pública and Zona Marítima, the plan regulador, the rubbish etc.
It appears as if something changes, and we wish the new mayor of Nicoya that good and reasonable solutions are found.
The mayor of Santa Cruz, Jorge Chavarría, has asked his inspectors to check all constructions in Tamarindo and the city administration of Liberia has rejected applications for a concession in the zona marítimo-terrestre from Cabuyal, Papagayo because it is a zone of public interest and the area was announced to ¨conservación de los recursos naturales¨.

Turtle day
On 03. February, 2007 the turtle day took place for the second time at the Alegria on the Playa Buena Vista. During the afternoon several families and children enjoyed the multiplicity of actions and meetings, and a musical highlight of the extra class was offered to the latetime visitors. Members of the groups 'Mal Pais' and 'Gandhi' provided a pleasant and remarkable performance in a 'jam session'. An auction of art objects, donated by national and internationally well-known artist brought 600 $, which were handed over to the turtle camp manager. With this money a water pipeline to the camp will be build. With more than 400 guests this festival was a complete success and the organizer plan a continuation in December 2007.
The 'turtle and nature protection project' on the Playa Buena Vista, Samara plead actively for the protection of the landing, egg-laying turtles as well as for their babies. In the time of the one year's existence of the Camp, more than 28,000 eggs were collected and incubated under supervision. In December more than 150 turtles were sighted, said the Campmanager.

Back Gammon Buenavista Open
In November 2006 at the Hotel Costa Rica Samara 'Paraiso del Cocodrilo', Playa Buena Vista, Samara the first tournament of this kind took place. Punctually at 14.00 o'clock the players arrived. The starting fee amounted to 5000 Colones, however the prospect of gaining a profit 5 times bigger than the starting fee attracted many gamers. The whole profit of the event was used by the ALEGRIA association to support the local school in Esterones. The winner had donated the whole sum he won liberally. Due to the success of the event the tournament planers are thinking of a 2nd edition next year. Information in addition with ‚Asociacíon Intercambio Cultural ALEGRIA': 8 899-89 86