●
Apr
28
Oscar Arias inaugurates new water system for area
April 28, 2009 | Tags: Government and Politics, Health | Comments Off
Oscar Arias and Roberto Sancho unveil a plaque for the new water system
Oscar Arias, the president of Costa Rica, was among the dignitaries in Hone Creek (just outside Puerto Viejo) on the weekend to open a new water system. The new system will also service the communities of Puerto Viejo, Carbón Uno, Comadre and Catarata. The executive chairman of Costa Rica’s water company AyA, Ricardo Sancho, said that the new service would benefit approximately 5,000 residents.
Sancho said that the project was to “install chlorination systems, construct new PVC and polyethylene pipes and distribution lines for each of the communities; also pressure valves to homes.”
The project involves pumping water from a well located near the community of Sand Box, to a storage tank located near Hone Creek. From here the water is gravity fed to the communities benefiting.
The old system often ran out of water during dry periods.
The new system was built with the financial help of the Institute for Agriculture (IDA) which contributed 25 million colones (approximately $44,000 US), and the Joint Social Welfare Institute (IMAS) which contributed ¢100 million (approximately $175,000 US).
Sancho said the residents may apply starting this week to connect to the new project.
However, comments from readers regarding the announcement indicate that the project isn’t really complete yet, but that the inauguration went ahead anyway as Arías was scheduled to attend and so they didn’t want to move the opening ceremony even though the completion of the work is “at least 2 weeks away”.
Source: Costa Rica Hoy: Hone Creek inaugura nuevo acueducto
Apr
21
Le Caméléon Opens – Adding a New Class of Accomodation to Puerto Viejo
April 21, 2009 | Tags: Local Business News, Tourism | 35 Comments
The new Le Caméléon Hotel has opened at Playa Cocles offering something that the laid-back, backpacker-haven of Puerto Viejo has never seen before – 5 star luxury accommodations.
With average $250 a night rates, its also in a price class by itself.
A member of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World association, they offer a pool, spa, rooms with lighting which can change with your mood, restaurant and bar.
You can make reservations inquiries here.
Pictures, as they say, are worth a thousand words, so here are a few:
Reception and Lobby
Room
Pool
Apr
12
Puerto Viejo Unwired
April 12, 2009 | Tags: Local Business News, Site news | Comments Off
There’s a new page on Puerto Viejo Satellite that shows you where you can stay connected in paradise — check out the new WiFi page listing area hotspots with wireless internet connectivity for your laptop.
The page is new so if you know of others in the area, please just email us at info@puertoviejosatellite.com. If the business isn’t listed yet, you can add them on the add listing page.
Apr
3
Interest in Puerto Viejo Continues to Grow
April 3, 2009 | Tags: Accidents and Natural Disasters, Crime & Punishment, Site news, Tourism | 2 Comments
In these challenging economic times, many local businesses seen a drop in business. But there is some good news too: interest in Puerto Viejo and the South Caribbean coast of Costa Rica remains very high. You can see this by looking at the growth of visitors to Puerto Viejo Satellite. In the quarter just finished, there were over 40,000 unique visitors to the website!
Traffic has grown at a very fast rate ever since the website has launched and the website is bigger and better than ever with:
• More listings than ever
• More features than ever like the recently added restaurant page or the listing detail pages (see this one for example)
• More complete information than ever – additional transport options for example added to the transport page as we find out about them
The area has also benefited from the marketing savvy of the owner one of the newer hotels in town, Banana Azul. Banana Azul was recently even mentioned on the Today show as a affordable vacation spot in these recessionary times. As more people find Banana Azul, they also discover the whole area as they discover the place that is a good fit for them or visit local restaurants and tour providers.
The growing tour company Gecko Trail Adventures has also contributed. Their Costa Rica tour packages have a strong emphasis on the Caribbean coast and so many people discover this area even if they don’t know Manzanillo from Montezuma.
All in all, we see great things ahead!
Apr
2
Hotel Taxes Down, Airline Taxes Up
April 2, 2009 | Tags: Government and Politics, Tourism | Comments Off
Costa Rica has eliminated the 3% ICT tax from hotel stays. ICT is the agency charged with promoting tourism in Costa Rica and the tax funded their operations. The tax has been replaced by a $15 tax on airline tickets into Costa Rica.
With this change, the nightly room tax for a room in Costa Rica will now be 13% instead of 16.39% so for most visitors the savings from the hotel tax should offset the $15 additional paid for their tickets.
The government is also hoping that the new airline tax will be easier to collect and less subject to evasion as well.
The airline ticket tax took effect on April 1st. The hotel tax change was effective as of Friday March 27 but many hotels are just now hearing about the change and making it effective. For those hotels which include taxes in their rates, it will be up to them whether to decrease their rates accordingly or just take a little extra profit.
More: La Nación: Aerolíneas advierten que cobro de $15 más en boletos afectará turismo
Update Apr 4: The new tax rate in this article was initially erroneously reported as 13.39%. It should be 13.00%. The old tax was 16.39% since the 13% sales tax was also applied to the 3% ICT tax.
|
|
| |
| |
