SATURDAY, AUGUST 14^th at JACO TACO

There will be live music by the CHUPACABRAS,silent auction and raffles.

The door opens at 5.00 pm

The $20.00 contribution includes free dinner and a Margarita, dancing and a lot of fun!

ALL PROCEEDS GO TO THE RESCUE AND REHABILITATION OF HOMELESS ANIMALS.

For Tickets in advance please contact Katja at 2-643-4012

Or stop by at the vet clinic in Jaco, Plaza Boulevard or

Herradura Plaza Caravan.

“GOOD FOOD, GOOD FUN AND ALL FOR A GREAT CAUSE”.

===================================================

McKee Jaco le invita cordialmente a nuestra próxima fiesta de recaudación de fondos

SÁBADO, 14 DE AGOSTO, EN EL RESTAURANTE JACO TACO.

Vamos a tener música con CHUPACABRAS, una subasta silenciosa y rifas.

Comenzamos a las 5.00 pm con la subasta.

La contribución de $20 incluye una cena y una margarita,

baile y mucha diversión!

TODA LA RECAUDACIÓN SE USARÁ PARA RESCATAR Y REHABILITAR ANIMALES CALLEJEROS.

Para reservar las entradas favor llamar a Katia al 2-643-4012

o visitar la clínica veterinaria Plaza Boulevard en Jaco o

Plaza Caravan en Herradura.

“BUENA COMIDA, BUENA DIVERSIÓN Y TODO PARA UNA GRAN RAZÓN”

Sponsors for the silent auction – patrocinadores de la subasta:

PURA VIDA GARDENS

RESTAURANT ECLYPSE @ Doce Lunas

LOS AMIGOS SPORTSBAR & GRILL

COCAL HOTEL & CASINO

SACA GOMAS @ CANCIONES DEL MAR

CALICHE’S WISHBONE

CAFÉ DEL MAR

BIG BAMBOO

JUNGLE SURF CAFÉ

RESTAURANT JACO TACO

COFFEE SHOP

LOS SUENOS CANOPY

DISCOVERY HORSEBACK TOURS

HORSE TOURS JACO

HENRY KANTROWITZ

MICHAL’S THERAPY CENTER

KAYAK JACO

OSH ABITBUL

ACHE SPA

RESTAURANT @ HOTEL POSEIDON

MOJITOS RESTAURANT @ HOTEL ESTRELLAMAR

TCBY

HERRADURA DIVERS

LINDA LOOK

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The IX Poetry Festival will hold its opening ceremony in the Central Park of Jaco, Costa Rica on Friday April 23rd at 7pm. The event, sponsored by the Costa Rica Poetry House Foundation and sponsored by the Cultural Commission of the Municipality of Garabito, brings together around 59 artists from Costa Rica and the world. Venezuela, Korea, Spain, Cuba, Egypt, Mexico, Italy, Palestine, USA, UAE, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Morocco and Panama are the countries confirmed to participate. This festival is unique in offices located throughout all provinces of the country, promoting reading and poetic creation in schools, prisons, hospitals, etc.

As part of this mechanism Jacó should also function as host, after the regional launch, with the presence of renowned poet Taha Adnan from Morocco on April 27th to 30th. During the inauguration will be on sale, at cost price, books which can be obtained with the signature of the author. The activity is associated with the program Agendarte Garabito 2010, promoted by the Culture Committee of the local Municipality, which stimulates the realization of cultural events in the canton. The closing of the event is scheduled for Friday April 30th at 7pm at the Institute Mexico.

For more information please visit www.culturagarabito.com
Original Post

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There is not a new law. This is an old law that the government is now enforcing on pets coming in on their own ticket or airway bill. The customs officials at the airport were not aware that Continental pets were not coming in as excess baggage until a very important woman (wife of someone high up in the government)threw her weight around on the 18th of April and flashed her airway bill at the customs officials demanding her pets.
This upset the customs officials and brought to their attention the fact that Continental was allowing pets to come through the passenger terminal with an airway bill when they should go directly to the cargo facility like all other pets arriving as manifest cargo with their own tickets.

Several meetings took place over the following days and the result of these meetings were that for now, only Continental would be affected by this ruling since all of the other airlines were already following this protocol. All pets arriving on Continental as quickpak on their own ticket (airway bill) will go directly to the cargo facility rather than be released in the passenger terminal as previously allowed.

Now you must acquire an import permit prior to arrival in order for your pet to be released when you arrive. This should be applied for at least 4 days prior to your arrival in Costa Rica through a broker so that your pet does not sit in the customs warehouse for many unnecessary hours unattended.

There will be taxes and customs duties charged as well as fees charged now that were never charged before as a result of the pets coming in through the cargo warehouse. The tax rate is 24.30% of the adjusted value. Pets are automatically insured at $50.00 above the amount shown on the AWB. Value is set at $50-$60 above the amount shown on the AWB and the taxes and costs are based on this amount.

You still must have a current rabies under one year and vaccinations (for a cat FVRCP, for a dog DHLPP) current within one year. Tick and tapeworm treatment prior to arrival as well. All of this must be documented on the APHIS 7001 International Health Certificate and it must be endorsed by the USDA within 10 days of arrival in Costa Rica.

I hope this information helps clear up some of the confusion that is out there about what is now necessary to bring your dog or cat into Costa Rica.

Originally posted here

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When a caller asked what he will do it healthcare reform passes Rush said “I don’t know. I’ll just tell you this, if this passes and it’s five years from now and all that stuff gets implemented — I am leaving the country. I’ll go to Costa Rica.”

I’m sure there are a lot of people whose motivation to pass health care reform just doubled. But, really, there’s no need for Limbaugh to go anywhere. If he likes the Costa Rican health care system so much, he should advocate for its implementation. Of course, he’d be advocating for the implementation of government-run, universal health care:

Costa Rica has universal health care, one of the best health systems in Latin America. As always with nationalized health care, expect red tape and long waits, but the quality of Costa Rica’s health care is excellent. Private health care is also available, very affordable, and high quality. Many doctors speak English and have received training in Europe, Canada, or the U.S. There are three large, private hospitals that most expatriates use: CIMA hospital in Escazú, Clinica Biblica in San José, and Clinica Católica in San José-Guadalupe.

Statistics from the World Health Organization frequently place Costa Rica in the top country rankings in the world for long life expectancy, often even ahead of Great Britain and the United States, even though the per-capita income of Costa Ricans is about one-tenth that of the U.S. and the U.K. Arguably, one reason for this is the slower pace of living in Costa Rica. And, of course, the healthy, fresh, non-preservative-laden foods found there, and the welcoming tropical climate. Costa Rica just seems to be a healthy place to live.

A commenter on the news aggregator service Huffington Post said:

Having spent a week in Clinica Biblica a few years ago, I can attest to the excellent care. It was a totally positive experience with one exception…….some of the nurses wear bejeweled pins indicating their training at a prestigious institution and had a rather cool attitude bordering on arrogant. Not the other staff though. There was no waiting anywhere for seeing a doctor or getting tests. The hospital food was as good as one could expect and was of high quality and appealing. Since I was a tourist, I got the detailed bills and submitted them to Kaiser. They were ridiculously low compared to here(USA) and Kaiser(Insurance company) had no problem paying them. It saved them money. I think they would like to send a lot of their patients there for treatment if they could to save bundles.

Costa Ricans have no fear of socialism and are proud of their health and education systems where everyone is covered for basic care and education. They are also proud that they have no standing army. It’s forbidden by their Constitution. They give that as the reason they can afford to take care of their people. Very few people immigrate here from Costa Rica.

Rush knows a good thing when he sees it. He just keeps lying to his audience. We deserve Rush, the Costa Ricans don’t. They have their own blustery buffoons whom they mostly make fun of.

Pura vida!

Original Post

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Laura Chinchilla Miranda, the presidential elect of the Partido Liberación Nacional of Costa Rica has made history being the first female president in Costa Rica and in Central America. Laura Chinchilla was born on March 28, 1959 in San Jose, Costa Rica, the daughter of Rafael Angel Chinchilla Fallas, Comptroller General of Costa Rica during two administrations (1972-1987) and Emilce Miranda Castillo. Since 2000 she has been married to Jose Maria Rico Cueto and they have a son, José María Rico Chinchilla.

First Vice President of the Republic of Costa Rica and Minister of Justice in the administration of Óscar Arias Sánchez (2006-2010). Although she left office on October 8, 2008, to pursue further her political career and created the Laura Chinchilla campaign for the presidency of Costa Rica with the Partido Liberación Nacional.

Since 1990 she has worked as a consultant in Latin America and Africa for various international agencies in the area of institutional reform, with special emphasis on judicial reform and public security reform. Some consultancy led her to conduct assessments of the justice sector for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the coordination of studies and projects on judicial reform for the United Nations Program for Development ( UNDP) and assessments and advice on police reform to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

Laura Chinchilla has been a speaker at various international forums on matters of public security and police reform. She has served on various reform initiatives that promote citizen security and human rights throughout Latin America, such as the Project Advisory Committee of Civil Society and Public Safety for the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), the Central American Dialogue Foundation Arias for Peace and Human Progress, and the Foundation for Peace and Democracy (FUNPADEM).  During this period Laura Chinchilla has published in both Spanish and English – books, monographs and articles on subjects relating to the administration of justice, public security and police reform. Career highlights of Laura include working in the public sector management as Deputy Minister of Public Security (1994 – 1996) and Minister of Public Safety (1996 to 1998). She was also Chairman of the Joint Drug Intelligence Center, Chair of the National Immigration Council, member of the National Drug Council, National Security Council and the Academic Council of the National Police Academy.

In the Costa Rica Legislature, she has worked in areas of judicial reform, public safety (police, drug trafficking, organized crime, etc..) Political and institutional reform (reform of the state and electoral reform), trade, technology, and children and youth programs.

Laura Chinchilla Biography during the last administration

After a bitter campaign, Laura Chinchilla managed to become vice president with the Partido Liberación Nacional and Oscar Arias Sanchez as the presidential candidate. She and Kevin Casas Zamora remained as first and second vice presidents respectively, and the cabinet was led by Dr. Oscar Arias Sanchez in the post of Minister of Justice. The Second Vice President Kevin Casas Zamora resigned on September 22, 2007 because of ethical questions. Laura Chinchilla campaign for Costa Rica president was born on October 8, 2008 driven by a citizen initiative that has pushed her to becoming the first female president of Costa Rica.

Laura Chinchilla Campaign

On Saturday, 10 October 2008, and after the Supreme Electoral Tribunal formally withdrew her credentials as Vice-President of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla announced to the media of her legitimate desire to run for the presidency of Costa Rica, and for her pre-candidacy Partido Liberación Naciona which needed to still vote for a leader of their ticket.

Voting for the ticket in the Partido Liberación Naciona was held on 7 June 2009, and declared Laura a winner by a margin greater than 15%, and was chosen by the Partido Liberación Naciona of Costa Rica to be the official candidate for presidency in 2010.

Laura Chinchilla’s campaigns main rival is Otto Guevara the candidate running on the ticket for Partido Movimiento Libertario. During the past year her rivals have personally attacked Laura with innuendos of poor character and as being a puppet for the President of the Republic Oscar Arias Sanchez and the PLN.  According to recent surveys, 45% of voters for Laura Chinchilla  has kept her in the lead followed by the candidate Guevara, who has experienced a surge in support from the electorate in the remaining months running up to the Feb. 7th elections. There is a third candidate Otton Solis who mostly dilutes the voter pool for Laura since she needs to win a clear 40% of the vote in order to win the elections. If it is less, even though she won amongst the other candidates, there will be a run off elections to determine the winner.

Originally Posted Here

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Laura Chinchilla’s win was apparent within a few hours of the closing of the voting, as rivals Ottón Solís and Otto Guevara declared defeat, not even waiting for the vote count to reach the half way mark.

Solís was the first to accept that Laura Chinchilla won, congratulating President Chinchilla and promising that this would be his last campaign, moving on to others things, paving the way for the others.

Guevara, moments later announced defeat but with a triumphant voice, claiming victory for a party that won more than 20% of the vote, a big win over the 9% support of 2006 and vowed the party to the presidency in 2014.

“With a lot of respect, we accept the reality,” said Solis, who was just 1 percent of votes away from a victory in 2006 elections.

President Chinchilla told her supporters gathered at the Crowne Plaza Corobici as the country’s next president, who would keep all the promises she made during the campaign.

“We don’t receive a bounced cheque from the people. To the contrary, we have shouldered solemn obligations to hold dialogues with all parties and social sectors,” she said.

Laura Chinchilla’s campaign platform included improvement of the country’s infrastructure, creation of a progressive income tax and new jobs with “green jobs” initiative.

She also has promised to create more job opportunities, better living conditions for children and senior citizens, as well as to combat crimes and drug trafficking.

Laura became the first female ministra de Seguridad from 1996 to 1998 and held the post of first vice-president in the Arias administration from 2006 to 2009, resigning to run for the presidency.

Voting began at 6am sharp, as all the 6.000 voting centres were in syncronized time with the Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones (TSE) and closed promptly at 6pm. At 8:15pm, Luis Antonio Sobrado, president of the TSE, announced the first voting results, showing Chinchilla with a firm lead, with more votes than her two main rivals combined.

Costa Rica is the only Latin American country which in 60 years has enjoyed democratic elections without interruption, said Emma Maria Mejia, chief of an observer mission from the Organization of American States (OAS).

Originally published here

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Local news is covering the regional locations where supporters of Laura Chinchilla for President have swamped and with good cheer. The lines at some voting stations are very long but the weather in Costa Rica today is mild which helps keep the crowds relaxed. Costa Ricans have a long history of this type of voting since Don “Pepe” Figueres restored Costa Rica to the people and created the second republic in 1948.

Local television has also been setting up stations outside voting locations with a traditional Speak Out or what the Costa Ricans call “QUEJESE” where voters walk up to a microphone being recorded by the television station. Most of the comments are in good spirits but many are complaining that promises made my politicians are not being kept and that they hope things will change. Prostitution and street drugs were raised a number of times by serious voters while the surrounding crowds laughed or belittled the speaker as someone who is a complainer.

Another issue for voters is the format in which Costa Rica sets up qualifications for voting. Where the voter registers or grows up is the location where they are only allowed to vote. Therefore, the political parties arrange for car pools and volunteers to shuttle voters to their voting booths. This requirement is also an opportunity for news reporters to stake out locations where known celebrities must show up to vote. Singers and actresses are among the Costa Rican interviewed. Finally, another nice touch that the TSE has implemented is using Anti Bacteria alcohol washes prior to voters handling ink pens to prevent the spread of infection at the stations.

Otherwise, this is a historic day in Costa Rica as voters elect the first female president into office. This is also the first time that a female has been on the ticket for any political party. Laura Chinchilla’s campaign has been long in the making and is finally over. We will provide continuing coverage as news comes in.

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President Laura Chinchilla?

There is still a risk of not receiving the required 40% margin to become president of costa rica. In that event, the voters still believe that Laura Chinchilla would win a run off election. For Laura Chinchilla’s campaign a post election run off would be viewed as a temporary hurdle to assuming the presidency of Costa Rica. While the rival candidates simply hope to dilute Laura Chinchilla’s required 40% in the hope that Otto Guevara could sneak into the presidency by a post election run off.

This scenario is very unlikely as even the opposing candidates have all but accepted the inevitable victory of Partido Liberación Nacional’s candidate and Oscar Arias hand picked successor Laura Chinchilla Miranda the first female president of Costa Rica.

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Costa Rica: Safety, Security and Prosperity

Our country cannot stop, we must continue to go forward. My proposal is to continue building a Costa Rica with Security and Prosperity.

Security
Insecurity affects all of us today, it is a complex problem which we must seriously consider. Insecurity has deep roots and requires action in two areas: Social Security and Public Safety.

Social Security
With the growth of our country we need to ensure working mothers and fathers that their families will have social security and welfare. We will do this by developing a national network which would focus on our children, of preschool age, and provide them with care and early education. Mothers and fathers should feel confident that while they work, their children will have the best of care our country can provide.

We will invest in education, healthcare and public transportation. We will develop a program of housing and urban development. Collectively we will create methods to improve the living conditions of the needy. For the first time, we will create a network of day care for seniors.

In short, we want everyone to have a better education, better employment opportunities and a respectable retirement.

Public Safety
We will commit anew to strengthen, empower and widen our law enforcement to help them combat crime more effectively.

We will organize to protect our communities and our schools while we will vigorously engage in the fight against drug traffickers.

We will offer more opportunities for our young people so that they can choose to develop a healthy lifestyle and stay away from dangerous activities.

We will enforce the laws so that those who commit crimes, are punished.

Prosperity
Costa Rica has all of the elements we need to achieve higher levels of development and welfare; The intelligence of our people, the ecological wealth of our country and the spirit of solidarity amongst our citizens.

Intelligence
The abilities of our people is crucial because collectively our knowledge plays an increasingly important role in the prosperity of nations. We will emphasize the areas of education and training, productivity and innovation, and science and technology.

Along this endeavor of strengthening our people we must ensure that it is built upon values of solidarity, respect, honesty and personal responsibility. We want a highly knowledgeable citizenship who thrive in a democratic culture that is tolerant and inclusive.

Ecology
We are the heirs of a unique natural wealth and know that our future is tied to environmentally sustainable economies and not those that destroy their own wealth.

We are in a position to become one of the leading economies that is built upon our government’s environmental responsibility. Costa Rica leads in the generation of clean energy, leads in environmentally friendly tourism which is in harmony with nature, and our high technology industries that have low environmental impact.

Let’s us lead in the care of our water, in the development of transportation networks and practices for managing solid waste and wastewater, so that we can achieve better environmentally sound development.

Solidarity
The prosperity we seek is for everyones benefit where equal opportunity allows everyone to participate which increases our standard of living. Democracies are stronger when its people share fairly the fruits of development. And we know that a secure society is where all its citizens have access to a decent life and future prosperity

To read the Spanish version click here

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Jaco Beach in front of DayStar's La Paloma Blanca

Jaco Costa Rica is clean and not polluted according to AyA labs results which were released a few days ago.  AyA is the Costa Rican ministry that is responsible for drinking water and water treatment and they sample beaches around Costa Rica as part of the Blue Flag program.  However, the AyA lab results just release showed that 6 other Costa Rican Beaches are still contaminated.

Before stepping foot in the water, best to be sure that the beach or river is not on the AyA list of the contaminated, following the findings by the water and sewer utility high contaminations of fecal matter in at least six beaches in Costa Rica. Testing by the Laboratorio Nacional de Aguas de Acueductos y Alcantarillados (AyA) shows that the beaches of Los Baños, Portete and Cieneguita, in the province of Limón; the Tárcoles, Giacalillo and Quepos beaches in the province of Puntarenas, have a high level of contamination of fecal coliforms. These AyA lab results indicate that the above beaches are not fit for swimming.

In the meantime, Jaco Beach and Tamarindo passed the lab test after three years of water of very publicized water pollution problems. There was a huge effort by the business community spearheaded by management at DayStar along with the Canton of Garabito to clean up the water problems in Jaco. The result is Jaco is no longer on any of the polluted beach lists and continues to pass water tests. DayStar Properties in Jaco Beach has built many condos which brought many resident/owners to the clean up effort, who were concerned about Jaco Beach water pollution. Jaco Beach clean water lab results proves a community effort of engaged residents and business leaders can make the difference.

The accepted level in Costa Rica of coliform in the water is 240 coliforms per 100.000 milliliters of water. Some results to highlight where beaches are still polluted are Portete beach which the lab results showed 10.000 coliforms & Los Baños tested at 7.500 coliforms which are very elevated. Other moderate polluted beaches are Cieneguita beach tested at 700 coliforms, Tárcoles 850, Gucalillo 500, and Quepos 400.

One of the problems faced by these communities is the lack of local organizations to work in correcting the problems. The AyA tests the water quality of the beaches around the country as part of their “Bandera Azul Ecológica” program.

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