Everything you need to know that happened in the last 2 months in Costa Rica.

Each day we sift through hundreds of articles in English & Spanish to bring you the very best ones from Central America.

From investment indicators to new infrastructure projects. Adventure stories to politics. It’s all here.

Costa Rica March 2014.

AJ Doudt

Costa Rica Lifestyle

• These Top Three Countries Offer the World’s Best Benefits and Incentives for Retirees (Virtual Strategies) Costa Rica is one of the top three countries who are home to the worlds’ best benefits and incentives for retirees. Luring retiring foreigners with special visas and significant discounts on everything from airfare to health care.
• Playa Guiones, Costa Rica is Top World Travel Destination for Great Surf (Costa Rica Star) Want to live like a surfer?Playa Guiones might just be the world’s best surfing spot. Want to know a bit more, check out the inf at the 2014 Olympus National Surfing Circuit site.

Guy Buchanon

Costa Rica Investment

• Mel Gibson, others not happy as new route planned between Samara beaches (Inside Costa Rica) Mel Gibson doesn’t want a road in Samara Costa Rica to be built. Gibson’s Nicoya home is situated smack-dab in the middle of a planned beach access route. Municipality of Nicoya Plans to Open Route Between Samara Beaches (Costa Rica Star) Gibson and several other land owners are protesting the beach access point. But it appears the municipality is pushing forward with the project.
• New CR International Airport on the Horizon? (Costa Rican Times) Costa Rica has pushed aside once again its plans for a southern airport, instead Orotina is the new spot for a brand new international airport. It sits at sea level, is 30 minutes from San Jose, and is being billed as the perfect spot to build.

Taraji Blue

Costa Rica Tourism

• Eco-Escape: The Landscapes and Wildlife of Costa Rica (Weather Channel) According to the Weather Channel, the only way to avoid the next big polar freeze is with an eco-escape to Costa Rica.
• Chasing Snakes in Piedras Blancas National Park (The Expert Vagabond) The Central American nation’s natural beauty and richness is one of the reasons many travelers and travel-blogger photographer Matthew Karsten continue to return to Costa Rica.
• Costa Rica: Your family and other animals (Independent UK) Lonely Planet is in love with Costa Rica too. In its ‘Great Escape’, series the well-established traveler’s handbook once again shows travelers how to get the most out of the nation’s wildlife, beaches, and jungles.
• Costa Rica welcomed record number of tourists in 2013 (Fox News Latino) Costa Rica welcomed a record number of tourists in 2013, with just over two million tourists setting foot in the nation.
• Costa Rica Launches Tourism Campaign During the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics (The Costa Rica News) Even with posting those high numbers, Costa Rica went after an eveng reater U.S. audience, the approximately 1.5 million watching the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi.

Brad Coy

Costa Rica Real Estate

• BUDGET Analysits of Panama, Costa Rica, & Ecuador to date! (Lyman’s Journey) An interesting comparison of cost of living report by blogger Tricia Lyman (who made the decision to sell everything and go country shopping) shows that a comfortable expat life in Costa Rica can be cheaper than in Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, and even Nicaragua -as long as you don’t live in Tamarindo Beach.
  Find out why here (Costa Rica Star).
• Tourism, Wealth and Unemployment: Guanacaste in Costa Rica (Costa Rica Star) Real estate in Guanacaste, Costa Rica is booming. Lots of new commercial and residential construction is underway along with an influx of new faces, which has some experts are wondering if there is another real estate boom taking place on the coast? And why now? Learn more at here (Costa Rica Star) .
• Jaco Beach: Costa Rica’s Real Estate Hotspot (The Costa Rican Times) Those not flocking to Guanacaste are ending up in Jaco beach, another real estate hot spot in Costa Rica. This popular little beach town has a little over two miles of beach front with plenty of world renowned surfing, authentic local culture and a caliente nightlife.
• It’s a Buyer’s Market for Private Islands (New York Times) Island buying in Costa Rica continues to establish itself with affluent buyers, who are seeking out non-traditional (think the Caribbean and St. Barts) warm climates. Here affluent buyers are splurging on land in the emerging areas of Costa Rica’s Southern Zone.

Arturo Sotillo

Costa Rica Economy

• Costa Rica’s Economy Rebounding, Vice President Says (Bloomberg) Bloomberg says Costa Rica’s economy is waking up. Following the global financial crisis of 2008, exports and foreign direct investment are picking up and there is a lower unemployment rate.
• Starbucks steps up search for Latin America’s El Dorado (Seattle Times)Where do you find the best coffee in the world? Starbucks of course and now you can get Starbucks in Costa Rica who is betting Costa Rica, and other coffee-rich Latin American nations, will be a source not only of fine Arabica, but also middle class customers.

MD Verde

Costa Rica Environment

• Costa Rica Aims For Carbon Neutrality With Payments For Ecosystem Services (Ecosystem Marketplace) Costa Rica’s grandiose experiment with payments for ecosystem services has restored millions of hectares of forest. The nation continues to establish a domestic carbon market with plans to link it to international markets in the future; all as part of its plan to become carbon neutral by 2021.
• Environmental Performance Index: Costa Rica (Yale) Is Costa Rica really as green as it says it is? Not according to Yale’s Environmental Performance Index. Costa Rica fell from fifth place to 54th out of 178 other countries in the well regarded environmental index.

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