For the first time ever, Jaco, Costa Rica will be celebrating the illuminating of their central park with Christmas lights. On December 8th, starting at 5pm, come to the“Illuminating the Christmas Spirit of Jaco” festivities! The whole park will be ablaze with twinkling, sparkling Christmas lights, and music will be supplied by the local students’ choral group from Falcon International, as well as by the Jaco municipal band.

Come to the “Illuminating the Christmas Spirt of Jaco” celebration and feel the warm and fuzzy feeling of Christmas in paradise. Please click here for a copy of the official poster for this event.

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Heading into the “Season of Cheer,” where we are forced into close proximity for extended periods of time with the one’s we love often causes an increase in our stress levels. Higher stress levels tend to lead to more headaches. A new study published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology concludes that, when you reach for that Tylenol bottle, taking tiny amounts over the recommended dose may kill you.

Too much Acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol and many other pain killers, over a period of a number of days are known as “staggered overdoses.” Deaths caused by liver damage due to staggered overdoses were higher, according to the researchers, than deaths due to deliberate suicides caused by a single overdose.

Staggered overdoses are difficult for your doctor to diagnose as the level of Acetaminophen in the blood stream is too low to trigger a warning when a blood test is done despite the fact that you are at at a high risk for liver failure and death. Add alchohol to the mix and the diagnosis becomes even more complex.

Johnson & Johnson, the maker of Tylenol, issued a lower dosing instruction for the painkiller in July 2011. The doctors say it’s extremely important that humans that take Tylenol or acetaminophen based drugs adhere to the recommended dosage.

Original and here is another link for those wanting to learn more. Finally, be aware here in Costa Rica paracetamol is the same thing just a different chemcial brand name for the same chemical acetaminophen.

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Jaco Segway Tours – Site Information

They state “While in Costa Rica stop by Jaco beach or Los Suenos and learn to ride the Segway.” They state the Jaco Segway tours are designed to be fun for the family. “Ride on Jaco Beach with our new Segway’s in total quiet.” They also offer in addition to Jaco Segway tours, they are offering Los Suenos Segway tour. We think this is a fabulous idea for real estate agents and developers to use to show their various properties using Jaco Segway tours. Imagine, clients feel a more intimate connection to their surrounding rather from the inside a air-conditioned SUV. I like the idea of Jaco Segway tours using their Segway PT’s to show clients around the Monterey Estates sustainable community project. Clients get to breath the fresh air, move around more rapidly to get a feel for their future home. Being on a Segway PT is a pedestrian experience and we all know the feeling of nature walks and that feeling is the same on a Segway PT, except that movement is assisted.

Jaco Segway Tours – Equipment

This is from Dean Kamen the genius inventor who developed the Segway PT when creating a more versatile wheelchair for handicapped people. Some of the biggest challenges for handicapped people using wheelchairs is navigating stairs, there are either ramps or elevators. Dean came up with a wheelchair that could walk up and down stairs. In addtion, ADL’s(these are Activities of Daily Living for those who do not know and it is a measure of a person’s independence based on the range of activities they can perform without help) are reduced for wheelchair bound people e.g. shopping in a grocery store a wheelchair person cannot reach the top shelf by themselves to browse or grab a product. Once again, Dean Kamen’s wheel chair employed gyroscopes to allow the chair to raise itself up while balancing the seated person. Fast forward many years and you have Jaco Segway tours using the child product of those gyroscope wheelchairs to transport tourists around Jaco beach and Los Suenos.

Word is getting around about these Segway Costa Rica tours, just passing in front of Jaco360.com a local tour reseller, they have a sign offering Jaco Segway tours but then you can walk 200 meters north and go directly to the Jaco Segway tours office.

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Gift of Happiness – Conditions

The “Gift of Happiness” campaign is based on Costa Rica being labeled as the happiest country on earth along with lots of free vacations. That’s right, Costa Rica or ICT Gift of Happiness program is giving away millions of dollars in a gifting promotion being managed by a Facebook fangate. Facebook fangating is an allowable trick to get people to “Like” a certain page or group. In order to see the content or enter the promotion for the Gift of Happiness, you must have a Facebook account and then allow them to have access to all of your friends and group information. Gift of Happiness fangating, sometimes referred as content lockers, requires an certain action such as a click on the “Like” button in order to see what is below it. ICT’s decision to use Gift of Happiness fangating as a marketing tool is majorly “expo facto” and if they actually consulted SEO people, and not SMO people they would have learned that promoting Gift of Happiness campaign via content lockers is over. Do not get me wrong, content lockers work but fangating is over.

Gift of Happiness launches as Facebook changes popularity values

To illustrate this point, Facebook has known such Gift of Happiness fangating schemes artificially inflates popularity and interest has created a new benchmark to assign value to Facebook pages or groups. This new benchmark is called “talking about this” is located just under your “Like” count and is intended to generate a more realistic popularity value. It is simple logic, if you “Like” a page or group, you should be talking about it e.g. talk about Gift of Happiness promo. If not, what is the point of “Liking” it thus what is the point of a “Like” value? The answer is none and fangating is more akin to the old link farming schemes.

For the sake of furthering this editorial, the next question for those who live and breath tourism in Costa Rica as a means of financial support….”How do we become part of this promotion?” In other words, who are the hotels that will be converting those millions into actual stays in hotels? The simple answer is a 4 Star rating for your hotel. How many hotels in Costa Rica are going to be able to meet that criteria? I do not know any in Jaco area except Los Suneos. The majority of the tourists that visit Costa Rica do not stay in 4 Star hotels and are here for its natural beauty and wildlife. They are not coming here to sit in an all inclusive gated enclave fed meals and drinks that are the same food they eat back home.

Summing this up, what a great deal for top players who work closely with ICT and the Minister of Tourism but a real bad deal for the bread and butter, mom and pop, and B&B’s that make visiting Costa Rica a memorable experience.

Costa Rica is not alone in using state funds to promote free trips. Japan, has gotten into the game of giving away 10K free round trips tickets to boost tourism after the nuclear tragedy and you can read more about it here

Click here more about Jaco Costa Rica Travel News and Gift of Happiness

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Top Real Estate Brokers Merge

Today Lisle Head broker and owner of Coldwell Banker Jaco has announced he has joined forces with the Cutter brothers who own 2Costa Rica Real Estate real estate agency. This merger basically consolidates the 80% of all real estate transactions for the central pacific area of Costa Rica.

Coldwell Banker Jaco has been the leading real estate firm in the central pacific since 2008 and the top producing franchise in Costa Rica for many years. 2Costa Rica Real Estate was originally established in the central valley San Jose area and is the top real estate agency in their marketplace. In the last year or so, the Cutter bother’s, Tom and Scott, have expanded to move into areas along the central pacific into Jaco Beach and Manual Antonio.

Here is a copy of their press release:

An Exciting New Merger in Jaco Beach

Integrity, personal service, knowledge, excellence, these are all terms which describe the team at 2 Costa Rica Real Estate, and that team just got stronger.

Lisle Head formerly the broker/owner of Coldwell Banker Jaco Beach and his team of David Karr and Nikita Mohammed have now joined the 2 Costa Rica Real Estate family. “We are very excited that this new partnership will allow us to better serve our clients and allow us to work more closely with the San Jose and Manuel Antonio markets”, said Lisle Head who will now be managing the Jaco office. Founded by the entrepreneurial team of brothers Todd and Scott Cutter, the firm has earned a reputation as an industry leader due in large part to its focus on helping each client to establish a clear understanding of Costa Rica as a destination and investment environment.

Our office is loccated at Plaza Coral in downtown Jaco and we invite you to contact us if you have any questions about this change. 2 Costa Rica has three offices all of which operate under the brokerage and ownership of Todd and Scott Cutter, brokers of the 2 Costa Rica Real Estate Escazu and Manuel Antonio offices, respectively.

We look forward to serving you as clients and/or colleagues and look forward to great success and service in this coming season. We encourage you to visit us at our same site cb-jaco.com and we will continue to make changes and updates over the upcoming weeks.

Interested in living in Costa Rica, Lisle Head and the Cutter brothers can help you make it a reality. Call 866-403-1345 or visit any number of their Costa Rica Living or Costa Rica Real Estate websites online.

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One thing I am sure of regardless of politics, the USA has stood as a beacon of freedom from oppressive regimes. We are able to live in Jaco Costa Rica today because of the promise the USA made to Costa Rica during the birth of the second republic. This promise was made to Don Pepe Figueres and sworn with United States soldiers blood that should a foreign country invade, we, the United States would defend it. If the USA did not project its power, a promise like this would have been as worthy as piece of rice paper in a river.

We appreciate what the United States has done for Costa Rica even though many are ignorant and some spiteful for its gift. We live in relative peace and allowed to live a life of “pura vida” because Costa Ricans need not fear dictatorships to the north when the Somoza regime threatened its sovereignty with armed invasion. Costa Ricans have more teachers than soldiers because of the United States of America. Our Costa Rica children grow up here in Jaco with hope for a future that is unbounded only by their own potential and efforts.

We remember the 9/11 terrorist attacks ten year later’s and acknowledge the gift and sacrifice the United States has made for Costa Rica to be free and at peace.

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The action of the authorities began August 10, Wednesday morning at 9:10 am as part of an investigation into alleged irregular payments of some work not performed for work that supposedly occurred in 2008.

The mayor of Garabito, surname Elizondo Cordero and member of the National Liberation Party or PLN, was suspended by the Costa Rican Comptroller General when the Garabito mayor was found in a motel room during working hours along with a municipal vehicle servicing his personal rendevous in 2007. Later the following year in 2008, the Comptroller General called for a halt again because the mayor tested positive for driving under the influence of alcohol in a municipal vehicle. The Garabito mayor tested positive breath test at -1.03 mg / liter of alcohol in the blood.

Those involved are being investigated for embezzlement, illicit enrichment, misrepresentation and fraud. The Press Office of the Public Ministry reported that once the raid was completed the suspects would be transferred to San Jose to be investigated.

The above was translated from this article in the Nacion

This blog is saddened by this situation as we are big supporters of the Garabito Mayor and what he has fought, to make Jaco a better place to live. Putting a finger on this mayor, is payback for something or someone as you only need to look in each municipalities back yard to see this is going on all over the country. This is not news to anyone and as the democratic machine’s bulldog, the late Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago showed politics needs greasing to get things done. It is done in business why not government?

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Clinica Jaco in the news

The clinica Jaco beach hours change according to Diario Extra, weekdays night shift medical staff are absent from 10pm to 6am and on the weekends there is no medical attention from 8pm to 8am. Many local Jaco beach residents are outraged given the amount of tourism and investment dollars that have flooded Puntarenas in the past 7 years.  Some Central Pacific residents organized a Clinica Jaco protest march a few days ago demanding the Jaco Ebais director explain where all the money is.

Clinica Jaco in Facebook

Posted on the Los Amigos facebook about the clinica Jaco changes, “Spread the word…..the Jaco clinic (CCSS) is now closed at 10pm every night and CLOSED on weekends…..there is NO EMERGENCY center open in Jaco during these times. People will need to drive to Puntarenas hospital for ALL emergencies. It’s a LONG way to drive if you or your children are fighting for your lives!”

Some officials have privately said that the clinica Jaco changes is a major inconvenience for residents and need not occur. They explained that the Quepos hospital with lesser services will see an increase in visits since it is actually closer to drive to the Quepos hospital than to Puntarenas from Jaco. The result means a shift in resource consumption in an area that is already underfunded and increase the costs of ambulance operations for Cruz Rojo which would need to transport every case requiring medical attention to a distant location.  Each ambulance incident would require multiple hours just in transport for each case.

The changes in the clinica Jaco CCSS have various Facebook pages swarming with comments from locals and expats in agreement.

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Check back weekly for updated Jaco Rays scores and game information. If you want to subscribe to our Jaco Rays scores and game information update newsletter, signup is to your right or here for a direct link

Jaco Rays Game Results – Scores & Schedule

If you want to sponsor a week/month of the Jaco Rays Soccer Scores and Jaco Rays Schedule page here at The Jaco Blog, use our contact form here and let us know you are interested. Limited space is available.

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Jaco Beach Cinema – Printing Money

The Jaco Beach cinema is one of those no-brainers for those who have Jaco Beach investment money seemed to miss out on. Just like the person who opens the first McDonalds in Jaco Beach will rake in major returns on their investment. For years Plaza Coral was built with the promise of a movie theater in Jaco Beach but nothing ever was built. The space remained vacant for years and investors in the adjacent stores suffered losses as the Jaco Beach cinema faded from their memories. One store located next to the promised Jaco Beach cinema could not even donate its space away to a local meeting group here in Jaco. “There was a emptiness and isolation which frightened many group members” says a member of the local group who requested anonymity. This was contrary to other members who thought the location was great given the ample parking that Plaza Coral offered.

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Movies at the Jaco Beach Cinema

Now that the Jaco movie theater is officially opened and passed into its second weekend tonight it is clear that the local Costa Rican population is going to support it. The Jaco cinema is drawing its customers from the surrounding communities of the Jaco Beach cinema metro area. Groups of high school age kids are coming in on the bus from Orotina to go to the Jaco Beach cinema. What would normally be a mundane Saturday night for the local teenage population looking for things to do, the Jaco Beach cinema bringing major movies is a great diversion.

The Jaco movie theater opened with 4 movies on their massive screens: King Fu Panda 2, Pirates of the Caribbean 24(okay it might be 4 or the 5th but it seems like 24), Pixar Cars 2, and Fast & Furious 5. In a country that wholly respects copyright laws like Costa Rica, the movies at the Jaco Beach cinema are being seen for the first time ever by its populace and of course, are not available in DVD at the local video rental.

Jaco Beach cinema gives Plaza Coral store owners a new life

Plaza Coral which has two anchor clients Mega Super and KFC/Quiznos since its opening, has suffered a rotation of stores opening and closing. For the early years, renters never got the foot traffic needed to stay in business. The Jaco Beach cinema turns that experience on its head. Plaza Coral is jammed packed with cars whereas a month ago guards spent time gossiping amongst themselves, now are serious traffic enforcers.

The same holds true for stores such as Pizza Pata which held its own for almost a year and located in the abandoned elevator shaft in front of Mega Super and below the new Jaco Beach cinema which is called CC Citi Cinemas. If you plan on visiting the Jaco movies, plan ahead as tickets sell fast and with 4 theaters they are still selling out.

You can visit the Jaco Beach Cinema website to get movie times and which movies are featured here. To get information about movies times at the Jaco Beach cinema call 2643-2100.

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