Vacation Travelers Group Blog

The La Ruta is one of the toughest race if you ever want to try, known as one of the most physically demanding off road bike race in the world. Also known as the La Ruta de los Conquistadores, bikers rave over four days through Costa Rica’s mud pits, jungle, river crossings, etc.
Racers cycles from the Pacific ocean to the Caribbean sea. This “Coast to Coast” is billed as the toughest mountain bike race on the planet!

The race began on Wednesday in stage one as riders raced for 100 kilometres from Playa Jacó on the Pacific coast to Cuidad Colón through the Carara national park.

Stage Two: A shorter stage over 75km through sub tropical rain forest from Cuidad Colón to Tres Rios – the west side of San José to the east. Extremely steep climbing, in some cases over 20% gradients, on part paved roads. Long technical descents through coffee plantations.

Stage Three: The highpoint of the race is reached on this 67km stage from Tres Rios to Turrialba. With an ascent to the top of the Irazú volcano there is less mud and humidity but riders have to contend with rain, cold and mist followed by a heart stopping technical descent off the mountain.

Stage Four: The race finishes on the Caribbean coast at Bonita Beach; the longest section at 125km but probably the easiest terrain. Except that is for the dreaded train tracks, a bone jarring section of the ride that saps every last ounce of energy. Every finisher truly feels like one of the Conquistadors as they tumble onto the sand at the end of the ride.

The winner gets us$15,000.

Is it worth it? Most would say that it’s just an accomplishment to finish it.

“Odissey 2050″, an animated film made in Costa Rica was released to the public last Friday. The movie was produced in collaboration with the British Embassy, and its purpose is to teach about climate change and the destructive actions of humans on Earth.

“We are very happy to have this great opening here in Costa Rica; in this country there is a lot of talent among youths, and thanks to this initiative, a lot of kids are going to be able to learn about the importance of taking care of the planet,” said Bruce Callow, from the Communications Office of the British Embassy.

“Odyssey 2050″ was declared of Public and Cultural Interest by President Laura Chinchilla in May this year. According to the movie’s website, the project wants to present in a fun and enthusiastic way, the consequences of climate change.

The film also represents a big leap in the Costa Rican movie industry.

“Costa Rica has a lot of potential in the field of animation, because there is not only talent, but also a lot of creativity,” said Alejandro Hernández, Director of Science and Technology Promotion of the MICIT.

“This is just small sample of what could be done. It is the first animated movie produced in Costa Rica and directed by a Costa Rican,” he added.

Synchro Studio started developing the project two years ago. The movie was directed by the tico Thelvin Cabezas. The first of 10 modules of “Odyssey 2050″ was presented during the visit of Jeremy Browne, Foreign Affairs Minister and member of the British Parliament, last week.

Browne said that the British Government wants to closely collaborate with Costa Rica in the protection of the environment and the fight against climate change.

Luis Liberman, second vice-president; Enrique Castillo, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Sharon Campbell, British Ambassador in Costa Rica, also attended the activity and presented recognition certificates to a group of students who participated in a workshop destined to reflect on the importance of preserving the planet.

Costa Rica’s Juan Santamaría International Airport in San José has successfully completed a three-year restructuring and is preparing to more than double its passenger capacity after partnering with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC).

Last month, the IDB and OPIC disbursed $100 million in loans to Aeris Holding S.A., the airport’s operating company, owned by sponsors Brazil’s Andrade Gutierrez Concessões and ADC & HAS Finance Ltd.

Juan Santamaría International airport, Central America’s second biggest airport, receives 85 percent of all international arrivals in Costa Rica and 80 percent of all tourists that arrive into the country.

The restructuring and financing is the result of close work between the IDB, OPIC, the sponsors and the Costa Rican government to revamp the airport operations, complete all pending construction works under the first two phases of the expansion program, restructure existing debt and obtain additional financing to complete new expansion phases.

“This project has provided the financial structure and contractual stability for the airport to continue to expand and meet rising demand,’’ said Gian Franco Carassale, the project team leader at the IDB’s Structured and Corporate Finance Department. “With the completion of the first two phases of the expansion plan, the airport now has the capacity to better serve its passengers and airlines and become an important transportation hub in Central America.”

These works included a terminal extension to permanently house security, immigration and customs processing, additional hold rooms, renovation of existing and new boarding bridges, remote stands for buses and an additional remote parking positions, and reconstruction of the apron and one of the taxiways, among other investments.

Although activities that mess with local ecosystems to let humans experience nature usually seem intrusive, looking at the canopy face to face while slowly traveling in an aerial tram in the Costa Rican rainforest is a fairly respectful experience that’s great to understand the richness and importance of this habitat.

(CNN) — The rainy season is a good time to go to Costa Rica. It’s a lot cheaper and there are far fewer tourists. My visit was from July 22 to 31. Even if there is a lot of rain, chances are that it will come down during your afternoon nap and clear up just in time for cocktail hour at 5:30 p.m.

Getting in and around Costa Rica

The trip began with my flight into the San Jose area, which is where my Costa Rican host and friend, Jose, lives.

Another friend visiting from the States picked me up and immediately, on the short trip from the airport to their home, we were confronted by the strange, small, bad roads and terrible driving that would be a theme for the entire trip. Jose made us wonderful ceviche — also a theme — when we arrived, and we chatted about how Congress or President Obama would solve the debt deadline.

The next morning we set off. We rented a car for the week, a Toyota Yaris, which we immediately noted had pretty bad brakes and a clutch that seemed to have little life left in it.

We headed out of the city to Arenal Volcano, one of the country’s most popular tourist attractions for its activity and nearby hot springs. We stopped at La Cascada for lunch in the tourist town La Fortuna, which is at the base of the road around Arenal. Then we continued around Arenal.

The volcano, as it often is, was obscured by clouds. Usually at night one can see the glowing lava, which sounded pretty cool. We thought of stopping for the evening in one of the resorts lining the base of the volcano, some of which are luxurious, but we decided to push on to the west coast.

We stopped briefly at the seemingly out of place German/Swiss chalet Los Heroes, which is a hotel and fondue restaurant, but our timing was off for either lunch or dinner.

Experiencing the coast

We explored Coco Beach quickly but found it to be a little too noisy and busy. So we went one beach up to Hermosa and quickly found the Villa Acacia, which had clean, spacious villas, beautiful grounds and a nice small round pool.

It seemed to be frequented mostly by Costa Rican families. Hermosa Beach lived up to its namesake (beautiful) the next morning.

The water was calm, warm and clean. This was some of the best swimming we had the entire visit. Just swimming casually we saw a skate shark and a puffer fish.

Couple escapes it all for ‘paradise’ in Costa Rica

The next day we spent driving a considerable distance to Playa Carmen, on the southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula. This drive was not for the faint of heart and had it been rainy, it could have been a dangerous, life-threatening drive.

There were times when the going was steep and rocky. There were times when the driver was screaming in terror.

The wear and tear on the car’s brakes and clutch were starting to make a lot of sense. Even traveling fairly short distances in Costa Rica should be considered carefully, because sometimes — and by sometimes, I mean often or always — there is a bridge out, necessitating a long, slow reroute. Sometimes potholes are so omnipresent that you have to travel at 10 mph for hours, even in a rental car. Unless you know the condition of a road, you can assume that you can make about 20 miles in an hour.

But the difficulty is worth it. Playa Carmen was beautiful and full of young, fun people from all over the world. There’s excellent surfing there. We saw the most amazing sunset from Carmen, one of those where the sun dips into the water at an alarming speed.

From Carmen we spent the next day traveling to Playa Samara, where we spent four nights in the wonderful and small Fenix Hotel, which had its own spot right on the beach. Innkeeper Bill was friendly without being intrusive or obsequious. He keeps a lame squirrel as a pet, so you know his heart is in the right place.

The six-unit hotel has a small pool, beach furniture and clean, comfortable suites with kitchens — including high-quality Osterizer blenders. They know what they’re doing there. Also, a highlight was the rare Mercedes Unimog that Bill has parked out front. We were very excited to see that and on the last day, Bill let us play with it.

Zip lines and hatching turtles

Another highlight was the amazing Wingnuts Canopy Tour, which I would highly recommend. We swept between peaks on zip lines to see views of the ocean. We heard a variety of birds and saw a blue-crowned motmot, one of the most amazing birds I’ve ever seen.

Our guides, brothers Manu and Yasha, were warm, smart people who loved nature. They also set us up with… see & read more

According to the Los Angeles County Department of Health, the mortality rate for cervical cancer stands at 3.3 per 100,000, which is higher than the national average of 2.4 per 100,000.  The disease is curable when caught early and preventable both by safe-sex practices and the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. A new study published online September 9 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute reported that two doses of HPV vaccine may be adequate for protection from cervical cancer. Aimée Kreimer, MD, from the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute and colleagues conducted a randomized vaccine trial in Costa Rica.

They found that about 20% of the enrolled participants received fewer than the three vaccine doses recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, primarily for unintentional reasons including pregnancy and colposcopy referrals. Thus, the researchers were able to examine protection against HPV infection achieved after administering only one or two doses of the vaccine.

The trial group was comprised of 7,466 women ranging in age from 18 to 25 years. The women were randomly assigned to receive either the HPV vaccine (HPV group) or a control hepatitis A vaccine (control group) at 0, 1, and 6 months. Women were observed annually during an average follow-up of 4.2 years. The full three vaccine doses were administered to 5,967 women; 802 women received two doses, and 384 women received… read more

A boy who was only 5 years old when he was taken in 1999 was reunited with his mother on Sunday for the first time in 12 years — thanks to Facebook.

In 1999, Kattia Liebers was mired in a bitter custody dispute with her husband in her native Costa Rica. And when her husband fled the country, he stole a part of Liebers’ life, she told Philadelphia’s Fox 29.

“He told me, ‘I’m going take your son away from you. I’m going to destroy you,’” Liebers told Fox 29′s Chris O’Connell. For years she searched for Jared, unsure where her husband had taken the boy.

“I was crying every day. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep,” she said.

More than a decade later, the wait is over — and her life has changed once again. This time, it came by way of a single message on Facebook.

“Hi, is this Kattia Chacon Sanchez by any chance?” the original message asked.

“Who is this?” the mother said she replied.

“I’m Jared Liebers,” came the reply.

“If you’re Jared Liebers, I’m your mom, and I love you very much,” Kattia wrote back.

Jared Liebers had found his mom.

Jared had been living with his father in Israel; on Sunday the 17-year-old moved back to the United States to be with his mother.

Through the years, Kattia kept all of Jared’s pictures and toys. And among Jared’s current possessions? A book of Spanish words his mother gave him.

Kattia Liebers actually kept her married name so her son would be able to find her after all these years, Fox 29 reported.

Today Jared Liebers is enrolled in North Penn High School in Towamencin Township, Pa. — and looks forward to catching up on half a lifetime.

By Adam Williams, Tico Times

The first entrant into the newly opened Costa Rican cellphone market begins operation this week. Known as FullMóvil, and promoting its services with an orange smiley face with teeth resembling cellphone coverage bars, the small startup will be the first company in national history to compete against the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) for mobile phone users.

The announcement of FullMóvil’s launch in Costa Rica took many by surprise. For months conversation about new cellphone companies focused on giants América Móvil (Claro) and Telefónica (Azules y Blancos). Though ICE’s telecommunications monopoly opened when the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the U.S. (CAFTA) came into effect on Jan. 1, 2009, nearly three years later, ICE remains the only national provider.

To circumvent the bureaucracy and infrastructure disputes impeding the entrance of other providers, FullMóvil took a different approach. Instead of being a traditional brick-and-mortar operation, FullMóvil is a virtual operator.

“We will offer cellular service that will be managed entirely through our website. There will be no physical locations, no waiting in lines, and everything can be handled online or by calling our call center,” said Sebastian Haedo, the company’s general manager. “We are trying to corner a niche market and hope to do so by offering a network that is easily accessible, flexible and with a better pricing strategy than our competitors.”

FullMóvil is known in the telecommunications world as a mobile virtual network operator, or MVNO. An MVNO is a cellular service provider just like its competitors, though without its own infrastructure. MVNOs do not construct their own cellular towers and instead use the antennas or infrastructure of an already existing company, such as ICE in the case of FullMóvil. Though the antennas are shared, the two companies operate entirely separate networks.

In the last 15 years, MVNOs have set up operations in many countries with varying results. The most successful MVNO, according to Haedo, is Virgin Mobile U.K. Using T-Mobile’s antennas and infrastructure, Virgin began offering cellphone service from its virtual online location in 1999. Within a few years, Virgin vaulted ahead of T-Mobile and became one of the most prominent providers in the U.K.

Few MVNOs experience similar successes. While there are about 650 virtual cellphone providers in the world, several have entered and exited markets without making so much as a peep.

Haedo and FullMóvil are confident they can carve out a niche in Costa Rica, particularly among younger users. FullMóvil offers only pre-paid plans, with more than 500 national activation points and 10,000 recharge locations. Management of each account is handled entirely online and service questions are routed to a call center of 125 FullMóvil employees. If users want to design their own telephone number, FullMóvil gives customers the option to choose the last six digits.

FullMóvil is a Costa Rican company that aims to be a “Tico operator for Tico customers.” ICE, which has operated in Costa Rica since 1949, also stakes that claim.

If FullMóvil is using ICE’s antennas, what’s the difference in service?

“We offer a completely different network and have entirely different operations than ICE. All of the systems we use were designed by our staff and are our property,” Haedo said.

To differentiate from ICE, as well as rivals Claro and Telefónica, Haedo said pricing will be vital to FullMóvil’s success. He claims that FullMóvil will offer some of the best and most competitive prices for calls, text messages and Internet access.

“We are going to be competing with a company that already has 100 percent market share and two other large multinational corporations,” Haedo said. “But if we can offer better service and better prices than them, we’re confident we can find a niche.”

original source

by Bill Knight, We love Costa Rica

For the past 10 months, expats and locals in Playa Samara have enjoyed getting together for a scheduled “FIRST FRIDAY” social gathering! It has proven to be an extremely popular event that everyone looks forward to, and attendance has been very consistent, even as the months and seasons change.

FIRST FRIDAY originator and organizer (and WLCR VIP Member) Bill Knight explains that he had enjoyed the same success with the same idea in Florida before he and his wife retired and moved to Samara in 2008.

“All it takes is a group of people that have something in common and want to come together to share an enjoyable afternoon, exchange information, meet old and new friends, and discuss their experiences – good or bad. In Florida, the common thread was that our event was held in a marina, and 90% of the folks were boaters and the other 10% either wanted to buy a boat or sell a boat.

Here, the common thread is that everyone is from somewhere else and is looking to make new friends and rekindle old acquaintances as our part-time residents come and go during the year.

It is not uncommon for folks to bring their visiting friends and family to these events, because it gives the resident a chance to introduce their visitors to our neighbors and our way of life. Several visitors have exclaimed that they had no idea how many friendly neighbors their hosts benefit from, and they start to understand how pleasant life in Costa Rica can be.”

“Likewise, our residents find and make new friends with other expats or locals that they share an interest with – maybe it is fishing, or gardening, or bridge, or dominoes, or chess, or golf …. whatever!

Many friendships and activities begin… read more