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Mar
9
African drumming workshop
Posted by Editor | March 9, 2010 | Tags: Arts & Culture, Community Calendar | Leave a Comment
| March 24, 2010 |
Learn to play djembe and dunduns African drums at the workshop by M’Bembe Percusion y Danza.
The workshop will be held at the Centro Cultural Ecológico Gaia in Playa Chiquita from March 24 to 26.
Cost is 25,000 colones.
Reserve your space by contacting 2750 0385 or ololiuki.cr@gmail.com
Mar
6
Surviving A Massive Earthquake and Tsunami
Posted by Editor | March 6, 2010 | Tags: Accidents and Natural Disasters | Leave a Comment
With the recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, the topic of what to do in an earthquake has been very much on our minds.
Costa Rica is by no means exempt from quakes, with a number of fault lines criss-crossing the country and a history of earthquakes. Although as the experience in Chile has shown, a country with experience dealing with earthquakes is likely to fare much better than one where it is a rare event.
The Caribbean Coast could be particularly vulnerable. Not because it is on a particular fault line but because the connections to the rest of Costa Rica are so tenuous. There are many bridges to fail that could cut the South Caribbean off from Limon and the rest of the country, leaving residents and tourists trapped here and needing to provide for themselves possibly for many days. The coastal location also means that Tsunami are a threat.
In April 1991, a massive earthquake struck Costa Rica and Steve Casimiro who was in Puerto Viejo at the time has just written a haunting and very informative first person account of the quake and surviving the days after at The Adventure Life.
There are many informative guides online about what one should do to survive an earthquake such as this one at Geology.com. And it starts with being prepared now. Having basic supplies on hand and knowing what to do when the quake hits.
Mar
1
Costa Rica Comedy Fest
Posted by Editor | March 1, 2010 | Tags: Community Calendar | 1 Comment
| March 4, 2010 | ||
| 9:00 pm |
A comedy show is coming to Puerto Viejo!
Like to Laugh Productions is presenting NYC Comedians Mike Ennis (Law and Order & Discovery Channel), Josh Filipowski (Beatz106 & The Idiot’s Guide to Jokes), and Gabe Pacheco (NY Underground Comedy Fest).
  Comics Gabe Pacheco and Josh Filipowski |
They will venture to both coasts and in-between, exploring and performing, bringing stand-up to Costa Rica!
Mostly in English, with a little Spanish and Spanglish! Featuring gringo/tico collaborations with local artist Guillermo Ramos (Gringo Pinto), Alex Costa (Canal 7) and more!
The Puerto Viejo show is Thursday, March 4th, 9PM at Chile Rojo, Puerto Viejo.
Other Costa Rica show are:
Monday, March 1st, 8AM – Beatz106 Morning Show, San Jose
Tuesday, March 2nd, 9PM – Cafe Club, San Pedro
Friday, March 5th, 8PM – Lemon Zest Restaurant, Jaco Beach
Saturday, March 6th, 8PM – La Playa, Manuel Antonio
Sunday, March 7th, 7PM – Flutterby House, Uvita
Monday, March 8th, 8PM – Teatro Variedades, San Jose
Feb
24
Bus fares on the rise
Posted by Editor | February 24, 2010 | Tags: Transport | Leave a Comment
The regulator of bus fares has approved price increases for some 560 routes nationally averaging 5.1%
The fare between San Jose and Puerto Viejo will increase from 4,290 colones to 4,545 colones (that’s $8.30 at current exchange rates). Some other new rates are:
| Route | Fare |
| San Jose – Cahuita | 3,690 |
| San Jose – Sixaola | 5,265 |
| Puerto Viejo – Limon | 1,420 |
| Hone Creek – Limon | 1,195 |
| Cahuita – Limon | 950 |
The fare increases take effect next Tuesday, March 9.
More:
- La Nación: Tarifas de bus subirán 5% en promedio en todo el país
- Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos (Aresep)
Feb
19
CATCAS spells out priorities for new deputy for Limon province
Posted by Editor | February 19, 2010 | Tags: Government and Politics | Leave a Comment
The chamber of tourism for the South Caribbean (CATCAS) has sent a letter to the new deputy elected to represent Limon province, Rodrigo Pinto, offering their assistance in setting priorities and informing him of issues they’d like to see action on in Talamanca.
Some of the things that CATCAS says should be priorities for the new deputy are:
- Repair of the road between Hone Creek and Manzanillo and the principal streets of Puerto Viejo and Cahuita
- Sewage and water treatment
- Garbage collection
- Security and crime
- The possibility of a small airport in the Hone Creek area
- Review of the municipal taxes and fees (which are exorbitant and unequally applied)
- The promotion of the local culture
- The Puerto Viejo school
CATCAS has asked for a meeting with the new deputy to discuss their proposals.
You can view the full letter (in Spanish) here.
Feb
16
CATCAS General Assembly Mar 14
Posted by Editor | February 16, 2010 | Tags: Community Calendar, Community News | Leave a Comment
| March 14, 2010 | ||
| 2:30 pm |
The tourism association of the South Caribbean (CATCAS) will hold their annual general assembly on Sunday Mar 14 at the Casa de la Cultura in Puerto Viejo starting at 2:30 pm.
The agenda will include reports from the president and treasurer and election of officers for the coming year.
CATCAS is involved in many community projects and lobbying for the community. The participation of the community is important so CATCAS can move forward with their plans and initiatives that are of benefit to the whole canton.
Feb
12
ReciCaribe’s Announces New Pickup Schedule
Posted by Editor | February 12, 2010 | Tags: Community News, Environment | Leave a Comment
 The Recycling Center. Photo courtesy of Pachamama |
Courtesy of the folks over at Greencoast, here is the new schedule for recycling pickup:
Monday:
From Playa Negra to Cahuita
Tuesday:
From Manzanillo to Rockin’ J’s
Wednesday:
Puerto Viejo
Thursday:
A day to catch up on routes that were too big to finish on the other day’s of the week.
Friday:
The first and third Friday’s of the month to BriBri
Please recycle your
- squished aluminum cans,
- clean and squished #1 and #2 plastics and
- clean topless glass
Contacts:
Tirza: Cocotir2@hotmail.com
Noemi: zequynoe@hotmail.com
Sonia: soniet4@hotmail.com
ReciCaribe provides a valuable service and cannot survive without community support.
Please Support Recycling in Talamanca by making a donation:
Asociación de Reciclaje del Caribe Ced. Jur. 3-002-356594
Banco Costa Rica colones AHORRO (Savings): 399-638-6
Feb
12
Talamanca Mayor Arrested on Suspicion of Corruption
Posted by Editor | February 12, 2010 | Tags: Crime & Punishment | 13 Comments
 An agent stands guard outside the mayor’s house. Photo by Róger Amoretty, courtesy of La Nación |
The municipal mayor of Talamanca, Rugeli Morales Rodriguez, 45, was arrested yesterday morning by agents of the Office of Judicial Investigation (OIJ).
According to information from prosecutors, the mayor is under investigation, along with other local government officials, for the alleged diversion of municipal funds to personal accounts of ¢ 350 million ($640,000 US).
The Limon Deputy Attorney and OIJ agents raided the Municipality of Talamanca and the houses of the mayor and his mother. They seized documents and other evidence in the case.
The authorities also detained other men, one named Barrantes and another named Cortes. Both are employees of the municipality.
These individuals, along with the Mayor, are suspected of crimes of aggravated corruption of public officials and embezzlement and negotiations incompatible with elected office.
Authorities also apprehended several other individuals in the case, one with the surname Bastos, and another named Morales.
Mayor Morales was arrested at 4 a. m. while driving in the area of Vizcaya, some 60 miles from Bribrí.
The police officers approached him and he tried to flee, so a chase ensued until they managed to capture him.
However, his family denied he was running away and said that was heading to the Ministry of Public Works in San Jose, where he had a meeting at 8 a. m. They said he tried to flee when stopped because he thought he was being assaulted by thieves.
The Mayor was then taken to his home, which the authorities had already secured, and subsequently to the municipality to be a witness to the seizure of evidence.
More: La Nación: Alcalde de Talamanca preso por sospecha de corrupción
Feb
7
CATCAS and UNICEF present “Guest of the Heart” program in Puerto Viejo and Cahuita
Posted by Editor | February 7, 2010 | Tags: Community Calendar, Helping Out | Leave a Comment
| February 13, 2010 | ||
| 11:00 am | ||
| February 14, 2010 | ||
| 11:00 am |
Local hotel and tourism operators are invited to the launch of this program presented by our local business association CATCAS and UNICEF (the United Nations Children’s Fund).
The “Guest of the Heart” strategy is aimed at helping children with problems or abandoned children.
The meeting for hoteliers from Puerto Viejo, Cocles, Punta Uva and Manzanillo is Saturday Feb 13 at 11 am at the Hotel Punta Cocles.
The meeting for hoteliers from Cahuita is Sunday Feb 14 at Restaurante Relax in Cahuita.
This is a great opportunity for Caribe Sur tourism operators to help and join to be part of this program, the first time that UNICEF has partnered with a chamber of tourism in Central America.
More information on the “Guest of the Heart” program can be found on the UNICEF Costa Rica website.
For more information on the local meetings or the involvement of CATCAS, contact Rolando Soto at turismocaribesur@yahoo.com.
Jan
14
Local community reaches out to Haiti
Posted by Editor | January 14, 2010 | Tags: Accidents and Natural Disasters, Helping Out | 1 Comment
Costa Rica has had it’s share of natural disasters and is no stranger to earthquakes.
So many in the local community have been profoundly touched by the pictures coming out of Port-au-Prince, knowing that it could’ve just as easily been San Jose or some other part of Costa Rica.
The department of immigration puts the official Haitian population of Costa Rica at only 215 residents but the actual number is probably much higher. Many of them work as mobile vendors in San José. Those interviewed on Teletica last night were anxiously waiting news from home as to whether their families were okay.
A number of local businesses we spoke to have already sent donations:
- Puerto Viejo Satellite $100
- Gecko Trail Adventures $200
Donations within Costa Rica can be sent to the Banco de Costa Rica or Banco Nacional accounts set up for this. International organizations which are collecting donations include Doctors without Borders who have worked extensively in Haiti for many years (Their US, Canadian and other national offices all accept online donations) and and the International Red Cross.
Jan
9
The Hidden Majority
Posted by Barry | January 9, 2010 | Tags: Community News | 8 Comments
 Willi helps with jungle laundry. Photo © Maisie Crow. |
Puerto Viejo is a global melting pot. Getting to know people from all over the world is a really enjoyable part of the Puerto Viejo experience.
Estimates of the permanent population that I’ve heard have been around 2,500. It’s hard to pin down by just looking around the streets, where a mixture of blacks, whites, and ticos are easily seen, along with a relatively small number of indigenous Bribri. The number of Bribri is usually so small it’s easy to assume there are only a small number of them in the area.
 Daniel & Alejandro. Photo © Maisie Crow. |
We were given a copy of a study done in 2003 by the Ministerio de Salud (Health Ministry). They wanted to understand the health conditions of the indigenous, and the delivery of services to that segment of the population. They counted heads by province. The two provinces that affect us here in Puerto are Talamanca and Limon, and the total population of indigenous they counted in those two provinces was 20,121. The indigenous in these provinces are largely Bribri, who have a total tribal population in Costa Rica of about 35,000. Piecing together data in the report, there were about 11,500 Bribri within service range of the Hone Creek Clinic, which serves Puerto Viejo, and draws from both Talamanca and Limon provinces.
In the Puerto Viejo area, the indigenous living areas aren’t easily visible. Look toward the hills behind Puerto, where it is difficult or impossible to reach with a motor vehicle. Some of the indigenous “Bridge Kids” we put in school are on top of that hill, and even though they are relatively close to Puerto, they walk nearly two hours each way to go to and from school. There are other walking trails out of the Reserve, one of which goes right past my house.
 Timoteo and his daughter show Daniel Leonhard, of the California firm Earth Source Organics, Cacao seeds in the process of being made into Chocolate. |
What does this mean as a practical matter? The Bribri are a voting majority in Puerto Viejo. This most recently came to light during the angry debates over the marina that was being touted for Puerto Viejo. I witnessed one exchange between Timoteo Jackson, a tribal elder, and the Alcalde of Talamanca, a Bribri, in which Timo went nose to nose with the Alcalde and said something like “if you let that marina in, you’re out!” He said a lot more, but my Spanish isn’t that good. The Bribri have voting control, and they are beginning to think of how and when that control can and should be applied. One of the Bribri beliefs is that they are here to protect the environment. I have a feeling they will be less and less of a Hidden Majority.
 Article by Barry Stevens. Barry, along with his wife Nanci Wright, are the team behind El Puente-The Bridge. El Puente provides educational assistance, food support, and microloans to mainly indigenous people in Costa Rica to help them help themselves to self-sufficiency. More information is available at www.elpuente-thebridge.org. |
Jan
8
What was the weather really like in 2009?
Posted by Editor | January 8, 2010 | Tags: Community News | 2 Comments
The folks over at Greencoast have updated their weather charts with the 2009 data collected by Playa Negra resident Charlotte who has been measuring rainfall since 2002.
2009 brought us 189.5 inches. The average for the past 8 years was about 150 inches. February was the wettest month, with 36.2 inches. September was the driest with only 6.8. For those of you who where here in November 2008, you’ll see in the graph below that the records confirm how exceptional that month was.
Click the image for a larger version.
Jan
6
Playa Cocles Lifeguard Program Launches Website
Posted by Editor | January 6, 2010 | Tags: Helping Out | Comments Off
In order to highlight the work they do and to acknowledge publicly their supporters, the Playa Cocles Lifeguard program has launched a website www.Cocles.org.
The website goals are to:
- Provide a place for residents and visitors alike to find out more information about the program
- Provide a place to acknowledge the supporters in the community who’s regular support keeps the program alive and saving lives
- Provide an online place for donations to be collected
The program would like to hear your stories of how the Cocles Lifeguards have affected (or saved!) your life. Send them to info@cocles.org.
A number of individuals were involved in getting the website launched:
- Doug Dosdall of Puerto Viejo Satellite who is donating the hosting and domain name and did much of the website layout,
- Bethany Hope of Code 3 Design for the graphic design and website layout,
- Zöe Courtier of Geckoes Lodge for writing the backgrounder article that appears on the site, and
- Eddie Ryan of La Costa de Papito for providing the history and records for the program and shepherding it all these years!
Those businesses who were regular supporters of the program at a minimum donation level of 5,000 colones per month are thanked and acknowledge with a link on the site. “Lifesavers”, the businesses supporting the program at a monthly level of at least 20,000 colones per month, are especially thanked.
Businesses who wish to start a regular donation should contact Eddie Ryan to make arrangements and let info@cocles.org know so their donation can be acknowledged.
Business supporters are also encourage to add a link to their website like “We support the Playa Cocles lifeguard program” with a link to www.Cocles.org.
Individuals who wish to make a one time donation can do so by following the Make a Donation link on the website.
Jan
3
Visitor interest in Puerto Viejo continues to grow
Posted by Editor | January 3, 2010 | Tags: Site news, Tourism | 3 Comments
While most hotels and other businesses reported a slow 3rd and 4th quarter of 2009, the end of the year brought high occupancy rates and growing visitor interest to Puerto Viejo. A walk through center of town during the Christmas Holidays showed a very bustling town full of Ticos and foreigners.
 Downtown Puerto Viejo, Dec 19, 2009. Photo by drewdomkus. |
The Costa Rica Chamber of Hotels surveyed hotels around the country and the Caribbean hotels surveyed had a 100% occupancy rate. Other beach areas also reported very strong occupancy numbers although San Jose results were less positive.
Here at Puerto Viejo Satellite, the year also ended very strong with more visitors to the site than ever before: December ended with a record 15,735 different visitors coming to the website (32% over last Dec) and over 34,000 page views (37% over last Dec)! That indicates a lot of potential visitors researching the area for the future vacation planning. Of the visitors about 40% surfed the site from the United States, 10% from Canada, 26% from within Costa Rica and the remainder from the rest of the world.
The site also hit a new high ranking on the Alexa web tracking service; steadily rising through the rankings to break through into the world’s top 500,000 websites and is currently ranked 455,390. This is substantially higher traffic than any of the other Puerto Viejo area websites.
Why are these numbers significant? Vacations always start with research and planning. Bigger numbers can indicate more people are looking to plan their vacation on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. An informal survey shows that much of Puerto Viejo’s popularity has come at the expense of the traditional Pacific vacation crowd. Despite decreased travelers overall due to economic slowdown, there continues to be a growing interest in the South Caribbean of Costa Rica.
We attribute this to our great community of users who over the year have left 100’s of comments on listings and on news articles and have helped us keep all our information current. There are now 204 places listed on the map: hotels, restaurants, stores, services, tours and more. The site has also had a lot of new features added over the last year to keep up with the growing interest in the area and make one comprehensive place where visitors can find out everything they need to know about Puerto Viejo.
Here’s to a prosperous and safe 2010 for residents and visitors alike!
Dec
19
Missing professor found murdered
Posted by Editor | December 19, 2009 | Tags: Crime & Punishment | Comments Off
The body of Alexander Obando Campos was found today by police investigators. The professor had been missing since Tuesday.
The motive of the murder seems to be robbery according to police. Obando’s laptop and several personal items were taken along with his car.
Authorities confirmed that it appears that the killers were known to the victim.
Several witnesses told the OIJ that in the hours before his death they saw the educator in his car accompanied by some people who are now considered suspects.
More: La Nación: Profesor universitario aparece asesinado
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