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Dec
19
Education in Puerto Viejo and Cahuita
December 19, 2010 | Tags: Education, Site news | 2 Comments
Kindergarten class at the Colegio & Escuela Complementaria CahuitaPuerto Viejo Satellite has received many questions over the years inquiring about the schools and the educational choices in the area but the information available online has been very sparse. So we are very happy to announce a new page on the site, Education Options in and around Puerto Viejo and Cahuita.
Zöe Courtier has researched and spoken to parents, teachers and school administrators in the area to provide what will be a very valuable resource for parents who are considering moving to the area or spending a season or year here and want to know what the options for their kids will be.
Most parents moving to the area from foreign countries will choose one of the two main private schools in the area so that article includes lots of background and info for both the Colegio & Escuela Complementaria Cahuita (offering education for all grade levels) and the Centro Educativo Playa Chiquita – Punta Uva (offering primary education).
Comments can be left on the article and we do hope to keep the article current and accurate so please direct any corrections or omissions to info@puertoviejosatellite.com.
May
6
Video Tours Now on Puerto Viejo Satellite
May 6, 2010 | Tags: Site news | Comments Off
The newest feature on the Puerto Viejo Satellite website is video tours for those properties that have them.
Look for the video tour 
icon on the properties detailed listing page (such as Le Cameleon or Banana Azul) or you can see all the hotels with video tours for example on the hotels page by looking for the “See video tour” text.
This is a great way to really experience a place before you and see if it’s right for you.
You can also find all sorts of other videos shot about Puerto Viejo on the Photos, Blogs and Videos page.
If you know of a property which has a video and it is not already listed, please let us know at info@puertoviejosatellite.com. This option is available for all upgraded listings.
Apr
7
Caribbean Coast Attracting a New Kind of Traveler
April 7, 2010 | Tags: Site news, Tourism | 6 Comments
While the recession took it’s toll, the Caribbean Coast continues to be a bright spot in Costa Rica’s tourism industry with visitor interest growing.
A feature article in Sunday’s New York Times travel section has many locals and business owners talking optimistically about the future.
This article and others from publications which generally focus on higher end travelers such as Travel+Leisure Magazine, Condé Nast Traveler or USA Today also make official what we’ve all been seeing for some time now: Puerto Viejo isn’t just for backpackers and surfers anymore!
The number of visitors to the Puerto Viejo Satellite and Talamanca News sites also indicates a strong interest. There were more than 20,000 visitors to the sites each month for the first three months of 2010! Page views were 43,800 per month in this period (see the full traffic graph here).
Jan
3
Visitor interest in Puerto Viejo continues to grow
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
8
Nearby restaurants & shopping now shown on hotel listings
December 8, 2009 | Tags: Site news | Comments Off
The Puerto Viejo Satellite website is always improving, we’re proud to have the most up to date and complete site for Costa Rica’s South Caribbean.
One neat feature recently added shows the distance nearest restaurants, shopping and services to each hotel or vacation rental listing. Take a look at any of the detail pages for any of our accommodations listings to see how it works. This way you can know before you book what kinds of things are nearby — and not miss any of the hidden gems in the area which may just be around the corner from your hotel but which you hadn’t noticed.
Here’s our Puerto Viejo Top Pick accommodations — click on any of them to see what the nearby businesses listing feature looks like:
Nov
6
Check out our new shopping page
November 6, 2009 | Tags: Site news | Comments Off
We’ve created a shopping page on the Puerto Viejo Satellite site so you can easily find what you’re looking for. Head there to find out where to go, to get phone numbers, etc.
If your favorite place to shop isn’t listed, please feel free to add it.
Jun
18
Find Restaurant Menus Online!
June 18, 2009 | Tags: Site news | 3 Comments
Trying to find a place to eat? You can now explore restaurant menus online on Puerto Viejo Satellite.
Head to the Restaurants page and look for listings which have a View Menu shown.
Some menus you can see which we have so far are:
If you’re a restaurant owner or manager, email us a clear photo, PDF or Word document of your menu and we’ll get it posted.
Jun
15
What happened to the forum?
June 15, 2009 | Tags: Site news | 2 Comments
 Don’t all look so glum. There’s still a place online to talk about Puerto Viejo. Photo courtesy Tropical Adventures. |
A number of people have commented that the forum has disappeared from Puerto Viejo Satellite and they missed it. Sorry to all you fans but I had to remove it.
The forum unfortunately kept getting attacked by spammers and the forum software made it very laborious to delete these spammers. I tried making it harder to register and then people had trouble getting registered but the spammers still found their way through. So with all the hassles…that was the end of it.
But you may have noticed I recently added the ability to comment on any place listed on the site, for example here’s the page for Cocles Beach. For other places and businesses: go to the map page, open the listing you’re interested in from the links on the left or below the map and then click view full listing. So that’s a great place to rave (or rant) about a good meal you’ve had for example.
And of course, you’ve always been able to post comments about our news stories here on the Talamanca News as the lively discussions about the marina, Le Cameleon and the jailed rapist has shown.
But what if you need a place to post your car for sale, to look for a good electrician or to find people interested in starting a ukulele trio?
Don’t despair. You can use the discussion threads on our facebook page.
The link to go directly to the discussion area is here and I’ve also added it to the Discuss menu from the main site. Don’t forget to “become a fan” of Puerto Viejo while you’re there if you’re a facebook user and share photos etc.
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!
Feb
15
If you live in Puerto Viejo or you run a business there, chances are you get the same questions asked over and over again about money issues.
“What’s the currency?” “Are US dollars accepted?” “What kind of money should I bring?” “Is there an ATM?”
Well I’ve gotten many of these questions over the years and have finally compiled them into a Money Matters page on Puerto Viejo Satellite. You can get the full list of questions and answers here or if you’re replying to an email, just send them to www.puertoviejosatellite.com/money.php.
If you’ve got more or better suggestions for people on how to deal with money matters, feel free to comment on the article. Feedback is definitely appreciated.
Costa Rica Colones
Nov
16
Coming from Arenal?
November 16, 2008 | Tags: Site news | Comments Off
We’re always updating the useful area info on Puerto Viejo Satellite and I don’t announce every update but just wanted to mention that the transport page has been updated with additional information on getting to Puerto Viejo from Arenal.
Driving instructions can be found here in English and aqui en español.
Shuttle schedules and information can be found here in English and aqui en español.
Keep these links handy so you can send them to your visitors who are coming from Arenal!
Oct
24
Looking to buy your own piece of paradise?
Check out our new real estate page.
It lists all the companies operating in the area along with more information on them.
We’re also planning at some point to add real estate listings – by agencies and for sale by owner – to the site so stay tuned for that. Our own Multiple Listing Service for Puerto Viejo!
Aug
11
#1 on Google!
August 11, 2008 | Tags: Site news | 6 Comments
July was a great month for Puerto Viejo Satellite — not only did we hit a record for number of visitors, surpassing 10,000 visitors in one month for the first time, and a record number of page views, over 22,000, but we are now #1 when you search for Puerto Viejo on Google.
Of course, you’ve known we’ve been the most comprehensive and up to date site for Puerto Viejo for a long time but Google just took a little while to catch up.
If your business still isn’t listed on the Puerto Viejo Satellite map, you’re missing a lot of potential customers. You can add it in a few minutes on the List Business page.
If you’re already listed, you can upgrade your listing to include a weblink to your website for just $75 a year. You can upgrade here. Upgraded listings not only get a weblink to their site but have lots of other benefits.
Jun
20
Informacion de tours y actividades ya esta disponsible en español
June 20, 2008 | Tags: Site news | Comments Off
Yes, our tours page is now available in Spanish! It joins the map page and the transport page as fully bilingual pages. So we’re well on our way to providing a fully bilingual site! Thanks to the great translation services provided by Agustin at Hotel Banana Azul.
Ver la pagina de tours y actividades en español | See the tours and activities page in Spanish
Now you can read about all the tours and activities we recommend in either English or Spanish — and you can book them right online too!
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