All Entries in the "Eco" Category

Costa Rica’s 10 Most Unique Hotels

Costa Rica is a place where competition for travelers’ dollars is intense and hotel property owners work hard to be different.

How does a “Hobbit Hotel” or secluded resort of geodesic-dome “jungalows” sound? Here are some of the ‘most unique’ hotels from all corners of Costa Rica.

Is Costa Rica a Third World, Second World or Developed Country?

There is a multi-million-dollar mega-mall in Escazú, west of San José, which sports outlets of some of the world’s most exclusive stores. But, according to the State of the Nation report in November, at least 16,000 Costa Rican homes are “without basic services,” such as electricity and running water.

A constant feature of this disparity in the makeup of Costa Rica is that, while certain areas of the country are surging ahead, there are many areas in which the country is not keeping up or is, indeed, falling behind.

El Niño and Pathogen Killed Costa Rica Toad – Not Global Warming

The Monteverde golden toad, vanished from Costa Rica’s Pacific coastal-mountain cloud forest in the late 1980s. The role that climate change played in the toad’s demise has been fiercely debated in recent years.

According to a new study, global warming did not kill a Costa Rica amphibian often cited as an example of climate-triggered extinction.

Traveling with Kids in Costa Rica; an Age-by-Age Guide

Costa Rica is a near-perfect family vacation destination. Not only does it have exotic wildlife, jungles, and volcanoes, it’s easy to get to, warm, and safe for tourists —all in all a perfect entry-level adventure trip.
Thinking of venturing to Costa Rica with your family this year? Here’s a guide to the best kinds of trips [...]

Costa Rica’s “La Gloria” Guanacaste Wind Farm Now Online

Costa Rica in its quest to be the first carbon neutral country on Earth has reached new heights toward its goal with the completion of the Proyecto Eólico Guanacaste or “La Gloria” electric generating wind farm.
55 wind turbines located at a spectacular site near the Miravalle Volcano (Volcán Miravalle) in Cordillera de Guanacaste, in close [...]

The Ancient and Mysterious Stone Spheres of Costa Rica

In the 1930’s, the United Fruit Company (now Chiquita Brands International) was excavating the fertile, yet remote, farmlands of Costa Rica, near the Diquis Valley on the Pacific Ocean coast. United Fruit is the major importer of bananas and they became interested in this region of Costa Rica because of a blight that had killed [...]

Boosting Biodiversity and the Global Economy by Saving a Species

“Forty-nine”, a researcher whispers.
After counting the slimy, round white eggs just laid by a rare leatherback turtle in a hole dug in the sand under bright moonlight on Playa Grande beach in Costa Rica; researcher Tera Dornfeld marks the site of the eggs after the female turtle has filled in the hole with her giant [...]

The Agenda and Challenges of Costa Rica’s New President

Costa Rica’s first woman head of state, president-elect Laura Chinchilla, must now get to work.
For decades Costa Rica has been an oasis of stability in the troubled Central American isthmus. It is the only Latin American country to figure on a list of the world’s 22 “older democracies” compiled by Robert Dahl, an eminent political [...]

Spring Break Costa Rica – the Hemesphere’s Best Kept Secret

Spring break is greatly anticipated by most college students being as it indicates the end of winter, the opportunity to put down the books, take a break from studying and of course; do a little partying.
Students look forward to a change of scenery and day dream about places like Cancun and some of the beaches [...]

Costa Rica Remains an Environmental Index Leader as U.S. Falls

A new ranking of the world’s nations by environmental performance puts some of the globe’s largest economies far down the list, with the United States sinking to 61st and China to 121st.
In the 2008 version of the Environmental Performance Index, compiled every two years by a consortium between Yale University and Columbia University researchers; Costa [...]

Rutgers GREEN Team Students Studied Renewable Energy in Costa Rica

The dreams of Rutgers University’s Global Renewable Energy Education Network Team (GREEN Team) transformed into reality over winter break when their renewable energy program in Costa Rica launched its pilot session.
Students landed at the San Jose airport on January 5, 2010 and spent 12 days learning and applying renewable energy ideas, enjoying the environment and [...]

T. Rex Dinosaur “Sue” Revisits Costa Rica’s Jurassic Park

The Chicago Field Museum’s Tyrannosaurus Rex named “Sue” is visiting Costa Rica.
Which is kind of ironic; considering the famous Jurassic Park film centers on the fictional Isla Nublar (Spanish for “Cloudy Island”), 190 kilometers (120 miles) off the coast of Costa Rica – yet Sue was discovered in the U.S. State of North Dakota.
“The largest, [...]

Last-Ditch Leftwing Alliance to ‘Save’ Costa Rica from a Conservative Presidency

Political forces on the left in Costa Rica have formed a partial last-minute alliance to support Ottón Solís, the presidential candidate for the center-left Citizen’s Action Party (PAC, Partido Acción Ciudadana), in a bid to counter the conservative lead that the polls predict for the upcoming Feb. 7, 2010 national presidential election.
The governing National Liberation [...]

A Tale of Three Different Caribbean Countries

One of the happiest countries on the planet shows that protecting biodiversity has a lot to do with wellbeing
HAPPINESS IS a state of mind, but if it were a place, it might well be the central American republic of Costa Rica. Located just a few hundred miles west of the benighted Haiti, Costa Rica is [...]

EARTH University – Carbon Neutral, Sustainable and Bananas Over Paper

EARTH University in Costa Rica opened in 1990 as a private, non-profit international institution dedicated to education, research and the generation of value through production, transformation and commercialization activities centered around agricultural sciences and the rational management of natural resources.
Officially named Universidad E.A.R.T.H. (Escuela de Agricultura de la Region Tropical Humeda), EARTH University’s 990 acre [...]

Be Nude in Costa Rica … Mi Amor!

Tourism businesses have responded to the global economic crisis in different ways. Some have offered discounts and package deals, while others have worked hard to establish themselves as “green” or eco-friendly in arguably the most  heavily marketed eco-tourism destination in the world – Costa Rica.
For Buddy and Cindy Booker, the answer for their own hotel’s [...]

Thriving Sex Industry Bumps Costa Rica from List of Most Ethical Destinations

When travel magazines and sites come out with top ten “eco” lists they’re usually the top ten places who did a good job marketing themselves as green. Okay, maybe that’s too harsh. They are usually places that are actually doing things responsibly because no editor wants to get a stack of hate mail or a [...]

Break Me Off A Piece Of Costa Rica

Nicholas Kristof has a happy-go-lucky column yesterday in the New York Times about Costa Rica that reads as part tourism advertisement, part political common sense.
He goes on and on about how the country is consistently ranked high in “happiness” surveys. This is true. How, then, did they get that way?

What sets Costa Rica apart [...]

Costa Rica 2010 Tourism Forecast

Costa Rica is a premier point of destination for travelers and vacationers.  Despite worldwide declines in tourism due to fragile economies, Costa Rica has held its own due to many factors.
Forecast:  Costa Rica tourist numbers to increase in 2010 and grow to 3.5 million arrivals in 2014.
After increasing from 2.06 million tourists in 2006 to [...]

Costa Rica’s Indigenous Boruca Indian Tribe

The Boruca (also known as the Brunca or the Brunka) are a native American tribe of indigenous people living in Costa Rica.
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples. They are often also referred to as Native Americans.
The Boruca [...]