Q COSTA RICA by Amanda Zúñiga, Vozdeguanacaste.com – Seven municipalities in Guanacaste offer recycling-collection services in some communities. The other four municipalities have recycling collection centers and some pickup campaigns.
Carrillo, which doesn’t have a special recycling-collection service, has the largest collection center in Guanacaste, located in downtown Filadelfia. The center was donated by the Government of Japan a year ago. The recycling center takes in over 700 tons of waste every year, including glass, cardboard, paper, plastics, batteries, electronics, heavy metals, and other materials, according to the municipality.
Nandayure also lacks recycling pickup services. According to the Environmental Management department, they do not have the resources to perform that service. However, the canton does have a transfer station for regular waste and another separate station for agricultural chemicals due to the careful management that these products require.
The chemical-processing site has been in operation for a year, and has processed between 15 and 17 tons thus far.
What happens next? The municipalities sell or donate recyclable materials to different recycling companies such as Grupo El Jobo S.A., Empaques Santa Ana (paper and cardboard), Florida Bebidas (tetrapak, plastic, aluminum cans) and VICESA (glass).
Article originally appeared on Vozdeguanacaste.com and is republished here is permission.
People from Ciudad Juarez protest against the politics of US President Donald Trump along the Rio Bravo, at the border between Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, Texas in February 2017 (AFP Photo/HERIKA MARTINEZ)
San José (AFP) – US President Donald Trump’s hardline anti-immigrant policies are likely to dominate a summit of leaders of Mexico, Central America and Colombia this week meant to focus on regional infrastructure, analysts said.
People from Ciudad Juarez protest against the politics of US President Donald Trump along the Rio Bravo, at the border between Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, Texas in February 2017 (AFP Photo/HERIKA MARTINEZ)
The gathering, officially the 16th Tuxtla Summit, named after the Mexican city where the first took place in 1991, will be held Wednesday in San Jose, Costa Rica’s capital city.
Foreign ministers of the 10-country group will hold a preparatory meeting today, Tuesday.
Mexican President Enrique Penas Nieto, whose country is directly impacted by Trump’s proposed border wall and renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), will be present at the summit.
Also attending is Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, whose country for the past 17 years has received billions in US funds to fight drug cartels and leftwing guerrillas. While drug production is said to have increased recently in Colombia, a peace deal with FARC rebels has been struck.
The official agenda speaks of public-private partnerships to spur road transport, communications and electricity networks in the region.
But the leaders will hold a closed-door, open-agenda meeting ahead of the formal sessions, in which they likely “will talk of other topics such as migration, security and the relationship with other important partners,” Costa Rican Foreign Minister Manuel Gonzalez said in a recent news conference.
Common position on Trump
Some, such as Santos, for instance, have scheduled bilateral meetings with other leaders.
Carlos Murillo, a political analyst at the University of Costa Rica, said: “There are issues that cannot be tackled only locally. They need regional policies, such as the position on the Trump administration.”
He added that there was little consensus, for example, between Mexico and Central America — especially Guatemala and Honduras — over migration.
Free-trade agreements with the United States were another source of divergence. Mexico comes under NAFTA, while Central America has its own, separate CAFTA pact that does not appear to be threatened.
With Central America supplying most of the migrants now illegally crossing the Mexico-US border, two presidents — Costa Rica’s Luis Guillermo Solis and Honduras’s Juan Orlando Hernandez — this month separately traveled to Washington to meet Trump’s Homeland Security chief, John Kelly.
On his return, Solis last week hinted at concerns about deported or thwarted migrants to the US turning to relatively prosperous Costa Rica as their next option.
“There are limits” to how many migrants his country can absorb, he said, singling out problematic flows from Venezuela and the poorer Central American countries — El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.
Hernandez in his meeting with Kelly highlighted progress made to improve security and employment opportunities in Honduras, according to a Department of Homeland Security statement.
Those goals are part of the conditions under a $750 million US fund called the Alliance for Prosperity Plan for Central America launched under former US president Barack Obama.
Some leaders unconfirmed
The Tuxtla summits over the years have broadened to include all Central American countries as well as the Caribbean nation of the Dominican Republic.
The leaders who have confirmed their attendance at the San Jose summit are presidents Pena Nieto of Mexico, Santos of Colombia, Hernandez of Honduras, Solis of Costa Rica, and Juan Carlos Varela of Panama.
El Salvador will be represented by its foreign minister, Hugo Martinez. It was not yet known what representation Nicaragua and Belize would send.
When is a 2018 car model a 2017? Photo Rafael Pacheco / La Nacion
When is a 2018 car model a 2017? Photo Rafael Pacheco / La Nacion
Q COSTA RICA – When is a 2018 model car year a 2017? When in Costa Rica and the new (2018) vehicle is stuck in customs.
On Friday (March 24) the Dirección General de Tributación (DGT) – Directorate General of Taxation – suspended the decree that prevented new car dealers and distributors from importing latest model vehicles prior to the month of September.
For example, 2018 models cannot be in the market before September, despite they being physically in the country.
The restriction on imports of 2018 models came into effect in October last year, when the Ministry of Finance issued Decree No. 39941-H.
“… The Taxation Department decided that decree 39941, issued on August 10, 2016, will not apply until the Constitutional Court resolves a constitutional motion filed against it. The government issued this rule to prevent the advance entry of latest model cars devaluing the rest of the vehicle fleet and by association also devaluing tax collections from sales, selective consumption and vehicle ownership.”
Nacion.com reports that “…The decision has now allowed a group of importers to nationalize (register in the national property registry) 81 vehicles that are 2018 models which had been left stranded in customs warehouses, but as if they were 2017 models.”
The concern of the DGT is that allowing the nationalization of 2018 vehicles prior to September it affects the ‘tax value’ of older models, in effect resulting in an over all lower collection of the annual property tax levied on every vehicle in the country, and collected through the Marchamo, payable by December 31 of each year.
La Nacion also reports that last week, the Deputy Minister of Revenue, Fernando Rodríguez, refused to provide an estimate of the figure of the State’s loss in taxe revenue resulting from the brake on late-model imports.
Although the fiscal (tax) value and real world or street value of a vehicle can be quite different, the two are many times related and keeping car values in the country high is good for the government: higher tax values that translate to higher street equate to higher tax revenues for the State coffers.
Q MONEY – In the last several weeks we’ve seen the Dollar exchange rate go from 545/558 colones to one US Dollar in December to 555/568 to the beginning of this month and then in the last few days drop to today’s 552/565.
But why, without asking why hasn’t the Colon/Dollar exchange shifter similar to the Colombian Peso or Canadian loony?
The answer lies in one word: intervention.
Costa Rica’s Central Bank (Banco Central de Costa Rica) has a policy of intervention to stabilize exchange Rate
Although the intervention is not always daily, last week, in one day, on Thursday, the Central Bank sold US$30.9 million on the wholesale foreign exchange market in order to moderate the upward trend that had been seen in the price of the dollar against the Colon.
The March 23 intervention was the highest of the year.
According to a report by ElFinanceriocr.com, the transaction was made in order to prevent sharp fluctuations in the exchange rate, which since the beginning of the year has shown an upward trend in the wholesale Monex market.
Screen capture from ElFinancierocr.com report
Elfinancierocr.com says, “…A higher figure was registered on December 27 last year, when the Central Bank sold more than US$45.5 million for the same reason. The amount corresponds to 67.5% of the total amount traded on Thursday in Monex ($45.7 million).”
“… Regarding figures on the intervention, with the amount traded on Thursday, the Bank’s intervention exceeds US$176 million in the nearly first three months of this year, 2017. After refining the analysis on the behavior of the average exchange Monex rate (colones per dollar), this went from ¢560.26, registered on March 22 , to ¢560.69, on Thursday, virtually unchanged.”
The Seleccion - Costa Rica's national team - practicing in Honduras on Monday, Photo Daniel Jiménez, La Nacion
The Seleccion – Costa Rica’s national team – practicing in Honduras on Monday, Photo Daniel Jiménez, La Nacion
Q SPORTS – Get ready for another say of soccer (futbol in Spanish) in paradise, as the national team, La Seleccion or Sele, take on Honduras in CONCACAF world cup qualifying.
Game time is at 3:00pm local time.
After a 2-0 loss to Mexico on Friday, Costa Rica slipped to second place, but still in good shape on their road to Russia in 2018.
Today’s game goes beyond the soccer field, as the Sele meets with its former coach, Jorge Luis Pinto, the man who took them only a few short years ago to a new high in FIFA play, to the quarter finals in the 2014 World Cup .
Jorge Luis Pinto, the current coach of the Hondruas national team, led the Ticos to their 2014 World Cup quarter ginals.
Honduras always tries to make its opponents as uncomfortable as possible when they visit San Pedro Sula.
High temperatures are expected to be in the 30s Celsius (90s F) with a humidity over 70%.
Then there’s the fact that the Sele has a record of winning only 17% of their games in Honduras in World Cup qualifying. That record is similar to its games in Mexico (16%) and the United States (18%).
There’s also Pinto’s acrimonious split from Costa Rica after 2014.
But, though the Ticos face a tough day, Pinto has to be the one on the hot seat.
A defeat today would keep Honduras in last place, with still to face Mexico and Panama. A win for Honduras and Pinto, would mean the Colombian born coach stays on to fight another battle. A loss could see him suffer the same fate by U.S. national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann let go after a lopsided defeat of 4-0 loss to Costa Rica.
Pinto’s exact salary has never come to light, but he said he turned down an offer to coach a Chinese team for US$250,000 per month after he took Costa Rica to the quarterfinals of the 2014 World Cup.
For the some of the Tico players, a win today could mean sweet revenge.
The Sele’s captain, Bryan Ruiz, “the bad taste of the mouth of the Mexico (2-0) defeat only with a victory against Pinto and his team.”
For others, like forward Marco Ureña, “we have to face Honduras the way it has to be, without complexes, although we know the atmosphere will be difficult, like the one lived in the Azteca (Mexico).”
Reynaldo Charles and Ezequiel Hudson talk with Eliécer Quesada (left to right) about the state of the breakwater on which they are standing. This is the part where the waves reach closest to the houses, and at high tide the water crosses over the new bicycle lane and the street and reaches the homes, in the town of Cienaguita on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast. Credit: Diego Arguedas/IPS
Q – CIENEGUITA, Costa Rica (IPS) – Two years have gone by since the new government initiative which subsidises community works changed the face with which the coastal town of Cienaguita, on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast, looks out to the sea.
Reynaldo Charles and Ezequiel Hudson talk with Eliécer Quesada (left to right) about the state of the breakwater on which they are standing. This is the part where the waves reach closest to the houses, and at high tide the water crosses over the new bicycle lane and the street and reaches the homes, in the town of Cienaguita on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast. Credit: Diego Arguedas/IPS
In place of a battered path between the beach and the first houses, the investment allowed the construction of a paved coastal street with a bicycle lane, playgrounds for children and a sports space where groups of young people exercise around mid-morning, since March 2015.
“The boulevard has brought about a 180-degree change in this part of the community,” 67-year-old community leader Ezequiel Hudson told IPS about the new recreational spaces available to the 5,400 inhabitants of this town next to the city of Puerto Limón, in the centre of the country’s Caribbean coast.
However, the US$2.5 million-dollar investment is threatened by coastal erosion and the rise in the level of water in the sea, which occasionally floods the new street.
“We have documented a rise in the sea level and in wind and wave speeds.” — Omar Lizano
Local residents of Cienaguita are worried about the effects that climate change may have on their town.
The most conservative estimates put the sea level rise between 20 and 60 centimetres by 2100, but new studies point to a still higher increase, which would irremediably damage the life of the whole town, whose inhabitants make a living fishing or working on the docks of Puerto Limón.
“A few days ago the sea rose, and covered the whole street,” said Reynaldo Charles, head of the town’s Association for Integral Development, on a mid-March tour through the area with IPS.
Community leaders and local residents are afraid that the waves will erode the foundations of the road and bicycle lane and end up destroying the new streeet, which everyone is so proud of. Charles and Hudson report that most of the almond trees that adorned the avenue have already disappeared.
The impact is uneven. In some places, the beach is full of sticks that the tide has washed up, and in the most critical areas, the waves have completely devoured the sand and stop just a dozen metres from the first houses.
It was not always like this. Local residents say that until a few years ago, the beach was 50 metres wide and children used to play there and adults would fish, in this town located 160 kilometres east of the capital, which is reached by a long, steep road which winds its way across the Cordillera Central mountains.
But now, the waves reach the doors of the houses at high tide and residents have to protect their homes with sandbags.
“This has to be solved now or in a matter of a few years, because this is a question of prevention,” 68-year-old retiree Eliécer Quesada told IPS, while looking at the breakwater that stops the Caribbean sea just a few steps from his house.
In front of him there is practically no beach, just the constant breaking of waves against the rocks placed there a few years ago by the state power utility, ICE, to protect underground cables.
However, ICE has moved the internet cables inland to protect them and local residents worry that they will receive no more help from the power company in the future.
“Go see what it’s like in the Netherlands or Belgium, with huge breakwaters and dikes which even have roads running along them,” said Quesada, who worked as a sailor his whole life and visited ports around the world.
“This phenomenon is happening all along our Caribbean coast and I suppose that the same thing will happen in Nicaragua, Panama and in the entire Caribbean region,” the expert in waves and ocean currents told IPS.
For several years, Lizano has been monitoring the beaches on the Caribbean and observing how the waves have gained metres and metres of sand.
This Central American country of 4.7 million people has coastline along the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean sea to the east.
“We have documented a rise in the sea level and in wind and wave speeds,” said the CIMAR expert.
In Costa Rica’s southern Caribbean coastal region, for example, the Cahuita National Park has lost dozens of metres of turtle nesting beach, which poses a threat to the turtle populations that spawn in the area.
A study published in 2014 by the Climate Change and Basins Programme of the Center for Tropical Agricultural Research and Education (CATIE) determined that the sea rises on average two millimetres per year along the coast of the eastern province of Limón, which covers the country’s entire Caribbean coast, and whose capital is Puerto Limón.
The report analysed the climate vulnerability of the coastal areas of Central America’s Caribbean region and concluded that the Costa Rican districts overlooking the sea have a high to very high adaptation capacity.
This is partly thanks to the level of community organisation, with groups such as the one headed by Charles, and the institutional support which translates into concrete actions, like the breakwater built by ICE and another one built nearby by the Council of Port Administration and Economic Development of the Atlantic Coast.
The people of Cienaguita are asking for more resources to design new protective structures, which could even be transformed into a seaside promenade for the community. Quesada advocates mitigating the erosion with tetrapods, a very stable tetrahedral concrete structure used as armour unit on breakwaters.
Lizano said the situation is not sustainable for much longer. Other countries can invest in infrastructure to protect their people, such as breakwaters or seawalls, or fill in the beaches to buy time, but this is not feasible for Costa Rica because of the high costs.
“If we can’t afford to do this, the only thing we can do is move to higher ground. This is our adaptation measure,” said the oceanographer.
Community leader Charles said he has asked for help from Puerto Limón municipal authorities and from national agencies, but they all claim that they do not have the necessary funds.
Costa Rica is in the initial stages of its National Adaptation Plan, a broad document that will define the path that the country will take to protect itself from the worst impacts of climate change, and urban settlements and coastal areas shall be priorities.
“I think we need to start to talk very seriously about the vulnerability of coastal communities like Cienaguita or Chacarita (on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast),” Pascal Girot, the head of climate change in the Ministry of Environment and Energy, told IPS.
This can lead to more concrete actions, he said. “They will be badly affected by the rise in the sea level,” said Girot, who will lead the national climate adaptation process.
La Nacion reporter Katherine Chavez took to wearing the eletronic monitoring device (ankle bracelet) for 92 hours. Photo JOHN DURAN / La Nacion
Q COSTA RICA – It started a month ago, with the first eight inmates, the project of outfitting convicts with electronic ankle bracelets (tobilleras electrónicas in Spanish) now is up to 100 inmates (11 of which are women), who are being monitored around the clock by 16 prison police officials, working out of monitoring centre, located in downtown San Jose.
The officials work in three shifts, according to Manuel Delgado, coordinator of the Unidad de Seguimiento y Vigilancia Electrónica del Ministerio de Justicia (electronic surveillance unit of the Ministry of Justice).
Downtown San Jose, in the Plaza de la Cultura. Photo JOHN DURAN / La Nacion
A report by La Nacion says, of the 86 inmates of which information is available, 45 were convicted for aggravated robbery and 15 for the sale of drugs. The others for smuggling, theft and bribery among others; the majority where between 18 and 30 years of age; and one, a 71-year-old woman.
The majority, 42, live in San Jose; 19 in Heredia; 9 in Alajuela; 8 in Cartago; 3 in Guanacaste and Puntarenas each; and 2 in Limon.
According to the Ministry of Justice figures, so far, seven convicts had “by accident”damaged their monitoring device.
Walking about in owntown San Jose. Photo JOHN DURAN / La Nacion
But how effective is the device and the monitoring?
La Nacion reporter Katherine Chaves set out to find out, taking to wearing the ankle bracelet for a total of 92 hours (last week) while moving about in downtown San Jose and Alajuela.
But, before she set out with her monitoring device, Delago did some explaining of the system. “Altough there has been a coordinated effort between the Justice Ministry and Fuerza Publica, including training of officials in the streets, there are lapses in the system,” said the official.
Some passers-by expressed fear when noticing the device. Photo JOHN DURAN / La Nacion
For example, explains Delgado, if an inmate is outfitted with the device on a Monday, it won’t be until the following day that he/she begins to be monitored by the system.
“The person (inmate), when he arrives, we put on the device and we send him home. We have an address that is not exact. Therefore,we follow them and when they arrive (home), they become included in the monitoring,” Delgado explained.
Another potential problem is traffic congestion, some 10 minutes are added to the monitoring to allow for the congestion. “…Costa Rica has a lot of traffic congestion, we always add ten minutes extra to avoid (false) alerts,” said Delgado.
In Alajuela. Photo JOHN DURAN / La Nacion
If an alert is reeived, the prison police activate a protocol. The first step is to send the device a vibrating alert, followed up by a phone call, followed up with a call to family and friends, and if no response is obtained, then a call to the police.
It will then be up to a judge to determine the reason for the alert and if the failed response is valid, such as an emergency visit to a hospital. If the fail is serious, the judge can revoke the benefit (send the convict back to prison) or issue a warning.
A dead battery results in an alert. The same if the convict somehow removes the device.
“In our experience so far, they (the inmates) have called us or tried to call us to justify themselves,” said Delgado. Nevertheless, a judge is notified and who will decide if action is warranted, explained the official.
Back to Katherine.
Everyone was watching as I tried to remove my ankle bracelet, but no one chose to inform the Police. Photo: JOHN DURAN / La Nacion
She writes that in the 92 hours she wore the device it sent an alert on a couple of occasions, once when in Escazu and the other in La Sabana.
However, it did not when she visited several parks in Alajuela (outside the authorized area).
Delgado explained that they have been in contact with the Empresa de Servicios Públicos de Heredia (ESPH), the Heredia utility that has the contract for the project.
During the test, the reporter said she was followed by a pair of municipal police officials in Alajuela centre. They did not approach her; they just kept their eyes on her. Their attitude made her presence even more noticeable to passers-by, who seemed to react with fear.
Delgado explained that the Fuerza Publica has been trained so that they know how to react in the presence of an inmate with an ankle bracelet.
In the parque Juan Santamaria in Alajuela as two local police officials look on, but did not approach the reported. Photo JOHN DURAN / La Nacion
“The inmates are seen as normal citizens with a particular legal status. Just because you walk around with an ankle bracelet does not mean you a threat to society,” said Delgado.
The official stressed that before a convict enters the program he or she is vetted by a judge, who verifies that their sentence is not more than six years, and that they have not committed as serious crime(s).
Delgado added that, since the device does not emit a sound (only vibrates) during an alert, the police can verify if the person is being actively monitored by calling a special lien 800-ENLACEM. The number is monitored 24 hours a day.
The Ley Seca (Dry Law) in Costa Rica. While a small number of municipalities continue to apply the Dry Law, the majority keep their liquor, beer and wine flowing during the holidays
Q COSTA RICA – Semana Santa or Easter Week is around the corner and so are some local officials ready to keep their communities ‘dry’.
At least four municipalities – Belen and San Isidro, in Heredia; Leon Cortes, in San Jose and the Cartago centre – will apply the “Ley Seca” (dry law) for Samana Santa 2017.
The dry law will be in place on Thursday, April 13 and Friday, April 14.
So, far only the municipalities of San Carlos, Coto Brus, Escazú, Osa, Carrillo, Palmares, Moravia and Atenas has said they will allow the flow of alcohol, with more expected to make an announcement prior to the start of Semana Santa.
In the past, the Ley Seca was applied at a national level. A change to the legislation several years back gave municipalities the right to decide if liquor, wine and beer will flow within their jurisdictions on holidays and special events.
What does the Ley Seca mean?
In municipalities where the Ley Seca is applied all sales – in supermarkets, pulperias (corner stores), liquor stores, bars and restaurants and any other business that is licensed to sell liquor, cannot for the two days.
At supermarkets, for example, they close off the liquor aisle and beer coolers taped shut. Bars may close and restaurants, for example, will lock up the liquor or seal off the beer coolers and wine dispensers.
Local inspectors are on hand to ensure compliance.
Businesses who do not comply with the ‘dry law’ can be fined up to 10 base salaries and could see their businesses shut down and possibly have their licenses revoked.
Years back, when the Ley Seca applied nationally, the Fuerza Publica (national police force) would, on the even of the holiday, begin the process of ‘sealing’ up establishments. A special tape, with an official seal, would either be placed across the doors of a business, like a bar that only sold liquor or on coolers and storage areas in places like restaurants.
Although the Ley Seca would not be in effect until 12:01am of the day, in many cases police arrived early and the ‘dry law’ was in effect once they placed the tape.
The government of Venezuela confirmed soldiers who invaded neighboring territory were part of a group carrying out operations to combat supposed criminal acts by Colombians near the border. (Flickr)
TODAY VENEZUELA – Venezuela tried to downplay its illegal entry of troops into Colombia this week by claiming the constantly changing direction of a river near the border accidentally led the soldiers beyond their jurisdiction.
Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez said the Venezuelan soldiers entered Colombia’s eastern department of Arauca as a result of the Arauca River, which she said is constantly changing its flow and direction.
A diplomatic commission still has to clarify the incident, which is reportedly expected in the coming hours.
The government of Venezuela confirmed soldiers who invaded neighboring territory were part of a group carrying out operations to combat supposed criminal acts by Colombians near the border.
According to Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos, the issue was addressed during a phone conversation with Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro. Santos reportedly told him it was “unacceptable” for Venezuelan troops to enter another country and raise their flag — a gesture that could have been interpreted as a violation of Colombian sovereignty.
Maduro told Santos the troops had already left the area, and rejected versions of the incident allegedly distorting it into an “invasion” of Colombian territory, which generated considerable discomfort for the inhabitants of Arauca.
Venezuelan soldiers reportedly lowered their flag and were seen off by Colombian residents, who sang Colombia’s national anthem as they went.
This is not the first time such a military controversy has taken place between the two nations. Venezuelan soldiers have entered Colombia and been asked to return to their country on multiple occasions.
Maduro has recently fielded embarrassing questions on his TV program from hungry citizens (El Universal).
TODAY VENEZEULA – Television broadcasts of Nicolás Maduro are increasingly sinking him in Venezuelan public opinion. This is because the president has made it impossible to hide the humanitarian crisis facing the country even on his own television program.
First there was a student at a state school that asked to Maduro to improve the school’s infrastructure because the “ceiling was falling down”; at the same time, the girl took the opportunity to tell the president that the children in her school faint because they have no food in their homes or in the school cafeteria.
Then during another television broadcast, a single mother told Maduro that she has no way to feed her children, which the head of state decided to ignore, and then changed the subject by joking about the peculiar name of the woman in need.
According to a report from the Reuters news agency, Maduro’s unpredictable televised visits to clinics or schools, undertaken with the intention of softening his image, have only served to discredit him even more in the eyes of the Venezuelan people.
“Insofar as they try to hide reality, reality always comes out and reality hits them on live television,” said opposition leader Henrique Capriles in a recent speech to a local community.
Capriles also stated that the only one who has gained weight in Venezuela is Nicolás Maduro; “He no longer fits on the TV screen,” said the opposition leader.
It is said that in the South American country 93% of Venezuelans do not have the money to eat for an entire month, while 73% of them have lost weight in the past year.
“We are hungrier by day,” said the mother of two children who lost about 23 kilos (about 50 pounds) last year because she survives on a diet of rice, bananas, and corn cakes.
As hundreds of Venezuelans feed from the trash, Maduro jokes on television and comments about his culinary preferences. He recently commented how much he enjoyed chicken cooked in wine sauce.
Q BLOGS – Once again, Costa Ricans have been scammed by an unscrupulous promoter/travel agent, leaving 150 Costa Ricans stranded in Juan Santamaria Airport, when a promoter/travel agent didn’t pay the airline for their passage to Mexico City to attend the Costa Rica-Mexico soccer game tonight.
Similar circumstances to these are repeated over and over in Costa Rica, as Costa Ricans routinely fall victim to these virtually unregulated shysters.
I attended a Michael Bolton Concert in the Hotel International in Escazu, approximately two years ago. Fresh Market was an agent for the Concert Promoter (no blame attributed to Fresh Market) to sell the Concert tickets. I
attended at a Fresh Market location and was shown a seating plan for the Concert (theater-style), to choose my and my wife’s seats, which I did. On attendance at the Concert, the seating plan bore no resemblance to the one I had been shown previously, when I purchased the tickets. There were at least two to three times the number of seats in the same space I’d been shown, arranged around tables in groups of eight persons per table, nothing similar to theater seating.
What is your recourse at that point?
Virtually every large event run by a promoter ends-up in a similar fashion, with the promoter manipulating the offering to their own advantage to make more money.
This is largely allowed to happen, as a result of weak Consumer Protection legislation and even weaker policies of enforcement by the Government Agencies charged with such.
There is little in the way of legal recourse against these promoters for unscrupulous and fraudulent behavior after the fact.
Most of these promoters work from behind “shell companies” with no assets to claim against and rarely carry-on business from a fixed address.
Future Consumer Protection legislation in Costa Rica must require both the licensing and bonding of such promoters, to provide consumers with a reasonable level of assurance that they will not be scammed.
With the mandatory bonding of promoters, at least there will be fund available to reimburse those who fall prey to these unscrupulous and fraudulent activities.
Q24N (Insightcrime.org) A recent study of El Salvador’s gang phenomenon has shown that, while it is possible for gang members to abandon these groups, desistance depends on several factors, including the gangs’ own acquiescence.
A study carried out by Florida International University, shows that desistance from gangs in El Salvador is possible and takes place more often than it is usually believed.
In the short term, however, the report states that gang members’ successful exit depends on their commitment to leaving the criminal structure, and crucially, on the consent of the gang leaders themselves. The study concludes that abandoning a gang is a delicate and gradual process that must be constantly negotiated with the group one chooses to leave.
The study was based on a survey of 1,196 respondents and 32 in-depth interviews. Almost half of the interviewees belonged, or had belonged, to the MS13 gang, and a smaller percentage were affiliated with the Barrio 18 Sureños, the Barrio 18 Revolucionarios and other gangs.
The finding that gang desistance is possible and happens more often than is usually believed helps to debunk the belief that Salvadoran gangs are watertight groups, and no options are left for their members once they choose to join up.
Aspiring deserters undergo a long and gradual separation, first reducing their participation in gang activities and eventually devoting more time to religious activities and their families, according to the report. Nonetheless, the study also indicates that 58 percent of former gang members received threats for abandoning the gangs, and that the lack of job opportunities is one of the greatest challenges that Salvadorans face in attempting to leave organized crime groups.
Most interviewed gang members had dropped out of school before completing their primary eduation, which appears to confirm the gangs’ tendency to recruit, at times even forcibly, under-educated minors, as they seem to attract less attention from authorities and are not punished as severely as adults if caught.
At the same time, the report stresses the importance of religious communities, as they provide a vital space for deserters to strengthen their ties with society and look for new opportunities away from the gangs’ threats. The importance of religion for Salvadoran gang members is well known, and the church has taken credit for brokering past truces between organized crime groups.
But the recent study also highlights that gangs often police the moral life of their former members. Thus, showing an absolute commitment to one’s faith and behaving in accordance with the values of a pious life is considered mandatory for all aspiring deserters.
Article originally appeared on Insightcrime.org and is republished here with permission. Read the full report here.
The Radial Lindora is by far one of the most congestion routes in the greater metropolitan area and contributes daily to countless hours of
The Radial de Lindora is by far one of the most congested routes in the greater metropolitan area and contributes daily nightmare faced by drivers.
Q COSTA RICA – The Radial de Lindora (ruta 147), the road between the Ruta 27 and the Virilla river, by far one of the worst in terms of traffic congestion may soon pass from a two lane road to five.
The two lane road has a traffic volume of some 32,000 vehicles daily.
At peak hours on weekdays it can take from 30 to 40 minutes or more to move from the Matra dealership to the paper plant, ahead of the Virilla river bridge.
Located on this short stretch of road are strip shopping centres, the Forum II business park that houses some of the more prestigious companies in the country, the newly built Terrazas Lindora mall, that includes cinemas and the Maserati dealership, and the Lindora gated housing developments.
Plans to expand the radial began several years ago.
On Friday, the CGR gave the green light for the project, giving its endorsement to the agreement between Consejo Nacional de Vialidad (Conavi) – National Road Council, and the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), for the design and construction of the expansion project, for a cost of US$8.5 million dollars.
The expansion of this road has been stagnated since 2014 due to delays first in the relocating of public services and then because the contract with UNOPS had not been endorsed by the Contraloría General de la República (CGR) – Comptroller General’s office.
Under the agreement, the UNOPS will be responsible for the hiring and supervising of the construction company to carry out the work on the project, that includes a two kilometre stretch between Santa Ana and San Antonio de Belen.
The project calls for a five lane road – two lanes in each direction with a centre lane for left turns and expansion work on the bridges over the Corrogres river on the south end and the Virilla river on the north. The latter is not part of the UNOPS contract, rather a secondary contract.
The project is expected to take 23 months (one year and 11 months) from the moment the Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes (MOPT) gives the order to start.
Last January, the CGR did not endorse the contract, saying that the Conavi did not have the necessary budget to sign the agreement with the UNOPS. At the time, the Conavi could only certify it had available only US$3.5 million dollars and the balance would be available at the completion of the project.
Costa Rican supporters wait for the beginning of their 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier football match against Mexico in Mexico City on March 24, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / RONALDO SCHEMIDTRONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP/Getty Images
Mexico’s Javier Hernandez celebrates after scoring against Costa Rica during their 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier football match in Mexico City on March 24, 2017. (Credit: AFP/Getty Images / ALFREDO ESTRELLA)
Q SPORTS – The pre-game hype said Mexico had to come out on the attack if they were to keep the Ticos (Costa Ricans) at bay in the CONCACAF World Cup qualifier in Mexico City on Friday night.
And that they did.
Mexico goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa spreads his arms during a 2018 Russia World Cup qualifying soccer match between Mexico and Costa Rica at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, Friday, March 24, 2017. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
The first goal came in the seventh minute, when Javier Hernandez got one past Costa Rica’s unstoppable (not so much last night) Keylor Navas, followed up by a second by Néstor Araújo at the 45 minute mark, as Mexico kicked their way to 2-0 win against Costa Rica.
Costa Rican supporters wait for the beginning of their 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier football match against Mexico in Mexico City on March 24, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / RONALDO SCHEMIDTRONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP/Getty Images
A fan of Costa Rica soccer team waves a national flag prior to a 2018 Russia World Cup qualifying soccer match between Mexico and Costa Rica at Azteca stadium in Mexico City, Friday, March 24, 2017.
The Ticos tried in the first half with couple of nail-biting attempts missed, like that by Joel Campbell (Costa Rica) from a left footed shot from the right side of the box is close, but misses to the left. Or Bryan Ruiz left footed shot from more than 35 yards is high and wide to the left.
Mexico’s Nestor Araujo, left, heads the ball as Costa Rica’s Joel Campbell pressures him during a 2018 Russia World Cup qualifying soccer match at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, Friday, March 24, 2017. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Going into the second half, the Ticos had lost steam, never recovering from the two goals in the previous half.
For most of the second half of the 90 minute play, the Costa Rican’s had a hard time getting past the middle field, the Mexicans almost like toying with their prey, passing ball up and down, from left to right, giving the Ticos the occasional taste of the ball.
Mexico’s Jurgen Damm, left, and Costa Rica’s Ronald Matarrita fight for the ball during a 2018 Russia World Cup qualifying soccer match between Mexico and Costa Rica at Azteca stadium in Mexico City, Friday, March 24, 2017. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
The win by Mexico drops Costa Rica to second place with six points (the same number they had going in), behind Mexico now with seven.
Mexican players wait for the beginning of their 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier football match against Costa Rica in Mexico City on March 24, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / RONALDO SCHEMIDTRONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP/Getty Images
In the CONCACAF World Cup qualifying, Panama is in third; the United States in fourth, after Friday night’s 6-0 win over Honduras, a big feat for the Americans considering their opponent was led the Colombian, JorgeLuis Pinto, the same coach to take Costa Rica to the World Cup 2014 quarter finals; Trinidad and Tobago in fifth; and Honduras in last place.
Players of Costa Rica national team, La Seleccion or Sele pose for pictures before the start of their 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier football match against Mexico in Mexico City on March 24, 2017.
The next CONCACAF game for the Sele is Tuesday (March 28) against Honduras, 3:05pm local time.
More photos of Friday night’s game available on Newsday.com
Q TRAVEL – The Four Seasons Costa Rica Resort, located in the Papagayo Peninsula in the province of Guanacaste, was awarded ‘Best Hotel in Central & South America’ in the 2016 Gallivanter’s Guide.
The Four Seasons Costa Rica is co-owned by Saudi businessman, Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal through his company Kingdom Holding Company (47.5%), Cascade Investments (47.5%) which is controlled by Bill Gates, and by Isadore Sharp (5%), a Canadian hotelier and founder and chairman of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.
In the Four Seasons press room page, the Four Seasons Resort Costa Rica and the Four Seasons Resort Dubai were both bamed the best resorts in their region.
In the 2016 Gallivanter’s Awards for Excellence, the Four Seasons was also recognised as the Best Hotel Group Worldwide.
Never heard of Gallivanter’s Guide?
The Gallivanter’s Guide, created in 1991 with aim of serving the world’s high-end hotel aficionados, tells it like it is. Over the years, earned them the respect of the world’s top travellers, hoteliers and travel advisors.
Today, The Gallivanter’s Guide is a glossy, privately published travel advisory; consisting of 8-16 pages, according to the number of hotels reviewed.
It takes no advertising and employs no journalists. Guide creators Lun Middlehurst and David Maslin personally review only the best hotels and resorts in the world. The only criteria is quality in all its guises, which means that sometimes, the sacred cows of the hotel world come in for quite a bit of criticism.
Only those hotels that the couple have personally assessed ‘from the guest’s point of view’ are included in The Gallivanter’s Guide.
The site of the planned city business park. The land was going to be used to build a cemetery.
Q COSTA RICA – While the growth of business parks has been mainly to the west of San Jose, in areas like Heredia and Alajuela, the mayor of San Jose is betting that he can lure tech companies to his city.
On Wednesday, Johnny Araya, unveiled plans to develop, in an area of 18,000 square meters in the center of the capital city, a building to house technology companies and two universities, the Universidad Técnica Nacional (UTN) and the Instituto Tecnológico (TEC).
The objective of the Municipality of San José is to attract foreign investment to the capital city with creation of the Agencia para el Desarrollo Económico Local (ADEL) – Agency for Local Economic Development – for the development of a business park dedicated to the technology sector.
Mayor Johnny Araya chairing the newly created Agency for Local Economic Development (ADEL). Photo Municipalidad de San José
The plan has the support of the Costa Rican Coalition for Development Initiatives (Cinde), the Ministry of Foreign Trade (Comex), the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce (MEIC) and the Ministry of Labor.
However, for the municipality to bring this project to reality, it requires the approval of a bill in the Legislature (Congress) to change the use of the 18,000 square meters lot. Previously, the land was going to be used to build a cemetery.
Companies that will set up in the technology park have not yet been defined, but Mayor Araya explained that “… an architectural firm offered to create a master plan for the development of the project.”
According to Araya, the municipality won’t be putting up the buildings, rather the companies themselves to build in the park or that real estate developers will set up the infrastructure and then sell them or rent them out, a concept used by private business parks around the Greater Metropolitan Area of San Jose (GAM)
Araya said,”the Municipality of San Jose has the power to attract companies in the technology sector.”
Photo for illustrative purposes, from http://perdidosencostarica.blogspot.com
Photo for illustrative purposes, from http://perdidosencostarica.blogspot.com
Q BUSINESS – PriceSmart, the largest operator of membership warehouse clubs in Central America and the Caribbean, says it will invest more than US$12 million dollars in its new point of sale to be located in Santa Ana.
The new store, the 7th in Costa Rica and 40th globally, to be located about on the Ruta 27 (San Jose – Caldera), 1.5 kilometres west of Forum 1 (at south side of the Hacienda Real intersection), is expected to open by the fourth quarter of 2017.
The new store, designed under the “Green Club” concept, will generate 200 direct jobs and 150 indirect during the construction process.
“We are committed to providing our new partners with a comfortable and modern environment that characterizes us, with a wide variety of quality products at competitive prices, but also, we have worked hard to build a building that allows us to reduce our energy consumption,” explained Marco Torres, manager of PriceSmart Costa Rica.
The new store will sit on 24,000 square metres (258,000 square feet), of which 16,000 square meters will be building and 8,000 green areas and parking for 306 vehicles.
The “Green Club” concept is based on architecture that includes an intelligent system of air conditioning and lighting that will reduce the consumption of electric power, LED lights for the refrigerator doors and skylights, allowing the maximum use of natural light.
In Costa Rica, Pricesmart stores are located in: Alajuela, Escazú, Heredia, Llorente de Tibás, Zapote and Tres Rios.
PriceSmart is headquartered in San Diego, California operating in 12 countries and one U.S. territory (U.S. Virgin Islands), with more than 770,000 membership accounts and 1 million cardholders. It also offers online shopping in all countries where PriceSmart operates.
With the entry of a new brand produced by Costa Rica Florida Ice and Farm in the US, there will be an increase in the supply of beer in a competitive and growing market.
Q COSTA RICA – Costa Rica’s Florida Ice & Farm Co (FIFCO) has started selling the Genesee beer brand in the country, which is produced in the U.S. by North American Breweries (NAB).
NAB, headquartered in Rochester, New York was formed in 2009 and since 2012 is owned by FIFCO. NAB owns and operates four U.S. breweries and four retail locations in New York, Vermont, Oregon and Washington.
In Costa Rica, among the FIFCO holdings is the Cerveceria Costa Rica (Costa Rica Brewery) that brews and markets brands such as Imperial, Pilsen, Bavaria and Heineken (under license); and imports & distributes brands such as Corona (Mexico), Budweiser (U.S.), Labatt Blue, (Canada), Paulaner (Germany) and Toña (Nicaragua), among others
Genesee, the latest in the growing list of beer brands available in Costa Rica
FIFCO brands in Costa Rica also includes Pepsi products, Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff Ice, Cuba Libre, Bliss, Cristal (water), Tropical, Tampico, Kern’s, and Maxxx Energy. The company is also into milk products and recently added the Musmanni chain of retail stores.
And now Genesee.
Beer imports rose by 63% from 2011 to 2015 and, according to the importers, this positive trend will continue. Other significant importers in the domestic market, in addition to FIFCO, are Grupo Pampa and Auto Mercado.
Grupo Pampa imports the brands Sol, Carta Blanca, Tecate, Dos X and La Trappe. While Auto Mercado had a portfolio of about 150 imported beers, including Bitburger, Blue Moon, De Koninck, Miller, Warsteiner and Chouffe.
Regionally, data from the Business Intelligence Unit at CentralAmericaData shows that in the first nine months of 2016 the Central American countries as a whole imported US$203 million worth of alcoholic beverages, the largest buying country was Panama with US$51 million, followed by Guatemala with US$50 million and Costa Rica with US$47 million.”
At the Juan Santamaria (San Jose) airport some 60 people, a steps to boarding, were told the airline had not been paid and they would be flying. Photo by Gonzalo Chacón, one of the travelers, published by La Nacion
Q COSTA RICA – We’ve all fallen into a ‘deal to real to believe’. That was the case of a group of Costa Rican soccer fans who at the gates of the Juan Santamaria (San Jose) airport, ready to board, were told, the deal was off.
At the Juan Santamaria (San Jose) airport some 60 people, a steps to boarding, were told the airline had not been paid and they would be flying. Photo by Gonzalo Chacón, one of the travelers, published by La Nacion
They were the lucky ones.
It was Wednesday morning, around 5:30am, when the illusion of this group of 60 Costa Ricans to be in Mexico to see the ‘Sele’ – national soccer team – play in the World Cup qualifying with Mexico quickly turned to a nightmare.
The group had paid Continental Travel, based in Grecia, US$1,024 dollars (¢575,000 colones) for a couple. It was an unbelievable price, basically a 2 for 1 that included airfare, transfers, lodging, breakfast and entrance to the stadium for the Friday night game.
A few steps from boarding they were told that the airline had not been paid by the travel agency. A representative of the Continental Travel told the group, now stranded, that the payment to the airline would be happening in 20 minutes.
But it never happened.
On Thursday, the travel agency doors were closed. Witnesses say they had been closed since the day before.
For another group who had purchased the same travel package, their travel problems began the night before at the airline counter, at the San Jose airport, when they learned that the airport tax, which they had been told was included in the price of the ticket, was not.
The problems continued with delays with the flight, after more than fours hours of waiting they were able to fly out of Costa Rica, which as it turns out, was the best part of their story of a dream trip that quickly fell apart once they reached Mexico.
The group had arrived at the Toluca airport. They had to endure a six-hour bus ride to Mexico City, where, they had to get off the bus, with luggage in hand, to wait now for another bus that took them close to their hotel, leaving them to walk the last kilometre.
The group that did get to travel had to endure a nightmare once in Mexico. In the photo by María José Gómez for La Nacion, the group had to walk the last kilometre, with bags in hand, to get to their hotel
By now it was Wednesday morning. Tired and hungry they learned that the breakfast was not included, having to fork out (no pun intended) an additional US$100 for the meals, some of the passengers reported.
Many had also now begun to really worry. The reason they were on this trip was for the game on Friday and given everything so far, there was still uncertainty they would be able to attend.
On Thursday afternoon they finally got the promised tickets.
Back in Costa Rica, the group that could not fly have vowed to file complaints against the travel agency.
A report by Telenoticias says the travel agency is not registered with the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo (ICT) or Tourism Board.
An ICT spokesperson explained that they will have to file a complaint with the Ministry of the Economy.
The moral of the story is always be careful when buying ‘a deal’. Do your due diligence, don’t get hooked by the low price.
The suspected international terrorsit is being held at the Hatillo immigration detention center. Photo Ministerio de Seguridad Publica
The suspected international terrorsit is being held at the Hatillo immigration detention center. Photo Ministerio de Seguridad Publica
Q COSTA RICA – Fingerprinting of African migrants daily entering Costa Rica at the Panama border helped detect the arrival to country of a suspected ‘international terrorist’.
The man, a Somali national, identified as Mohamed Ibrahim Qoordheen, 25, was detained Wednesday night after the Ministerio de Seguridad Publica (MSP) received an alert from the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) international operations office in Panama.
HSI’s International Operations Division is the Department of Homeland Security’s largest investigative presence overseas. that includes operations and activities in Central America, South America and the Caribbean.
Suspected terrorist was in La Cruz shelter for three days before ICE issued the alert
According to the Minister of Security, Gustavo Mata, the suspected terrorist entered the country on Monday by way of the Paso Canaos border with Panama together with a group of African migrants and was transferred to the Centro de Atención Temporal a Migrantes (Catem) – the temporary attention center for migrants – located in Santa Cecilia, in La Cruz de Guanacaste (near the Nicaragua border).
From Nacion.com
On that day, immigration officials took fingerprints and cross checked with ICE, which returned the alert some 36 hours later.
“They (ICE) confirmed that this is a person allegedly linked to an international terrorist organizations and requested his immediate arrest to initiate investigations into the case,” said Mata.
The minister said, for the time being, they do not know the details of the foreigner’s link to terrorism or the terrorist group.
Mata explained the some 50 African migrants who enter the country each week use Costa Rica as a ‘transit country’ to their final destination, the United States.
“Costa Rica is not, nor has been a destination for Cubans, Somalis or an Iraqi, their dream is America, they are looking to reach the United States,” said Mata.
Q SPORTS, CUERNAVACA, Mexico – Costa Ricans are euphoric as the national team, the Seleccion Nacional or “Sele” readies to face Mexico, in a World Cup qualifying match today in Mexico City.
Photo AFP
As these top two teams in the CONCACAF’s Hexagonal table square off, the home team is expecting a strong showing from the visitors.
Mexico coach Juan Carlos Osorio is asking for home supporters to be patient and unconditionally back the team against Costa Rica in Estadio Azteca.
The Sele go into the game in first position, while Mexico is desperate for a victory in at a venue that hasn’t been all too friendly to them.
In the Hexagonal qualification for Brazil 2014, Mexico only managed to win one of its five home games.
In a press interview Thursday night, some of the Sele’s key players repeated the same message, “I intelligence will be very important because Mexico wants to win.”
Bryan Ruiz told the press in Costa Rica earlier in the week. “From the start it’ll be a testing game, but we have the quality to steer through those minutes and control the match.
Mexico is expected to try to take control early, while being cautious of the damage Costa Rica can cause on the counter-attack from likes of Ruiz, Joel Campbell, Christian Bolaños and Celso Borges.
Games in recent years between Mexico and Costa Rica have been very close, no one has won by more than one goal and the majority have been draws. Over the last five games between the two each team has one win, with three draws.
If you think that Costa Rica making the quarterfinals of a World Cup was a big shock, then you haven’t been paying attention to them very long. For some time now, after Mexico, Costa Rica is the most in the region.
For Costa Rica, tonight’s game could prove an important point in time, they have already won at the Azteca before. As FMF State of Mind puts it, “if they were to do it a second time, it would only make the obvious more obvious. Costa Rica is a really good team.”
The Costa Rica – Mexico game kicks off at 7:50pm (Costa Rica time).
In Costa Rica the game will be broadcast live on TDN – Channel 7.
In Mexico and Central America on Univision, Canal 5, Imagen TV.
In the United States, the game is being carried on Univision and Fox Sports.
The little girl told her sister what had happened to her while at her father's house for the holidays. Image for illustrative purposes.
The little girl told her sister what had happened to her while at her father’s house for the holidays. Image for illustrative purposes.
Q COSTA RICA – A man has been arrested on suspicion of raping his own 8-year-old daughter, Organismo de Investigacion Judicial (OIJ) agents making the capture Wednesday in Bajo Los Anonos, Escazú/
As reported by the press office of the Fiscalia (Prosecutor’s Office), the events that led to arrest of the suspect, identified by his last names Valverde Sanchez, occurred between December 23 and 25, 2016, when the victim spent a few day’s vacation at her father’s house.
Allegedly, on December 25 the girl’s father took her to a medical centre, because she had a urinary tract infection. The girl was given a date of December 30 for a visit with a doctor; nevertheless, he did not take her.
“He apparently threatened the child to not say anything…he told her if shed did, he would kill her by cutting her with a chainsaw,” the Prosecutor’s Office said.
Subsequently, on January 5, 2017, the mother picked up her daughter to take her home. Despite the threat, on January 28 the little girl told her sister, who immediately told her mother and grandmother.
They filed a charges.
The Fiscalia reported it will be asking for a six month preventive detention while it continues to investigate the case.
Q COSTA RICA – In the ‘hard to believe but true’ department, in a report by Elguardian.cr, the driver of white SUV involved in a collision with a train on Tuesday, in the area of Rio Segundo, in Alajuela said, “the train didn’t stop”.
The driver manifested the made the stop, though very close to the train tracks, but the train didn’t stop.
Photo Elguardian.cr
Fortunately the incident didn’t result in any serious injury in what could have been another fatality involving the commuter train.
Authorities report that the only person who suffered any injury refused to be transferred to a medical centre.
Kayla Reid is returning to Canada from Costa Rica, just days after saying she would not. (Facebook)
Kayla Reid says she did not expect her story to generate what she called negative media attention, and she’s going back to Newfoundland because she didn’t want anyone getting into trouble because of her. (Facebook)
Q COSTA RICA – Kayla Jean Reid went missing in February, a possible victim of a “cult” in Costa Rica, says the mother of the 21-year-old from Corner Brook, Newfoundland.
In an article published by CBC.ca on Friday, March 17, 2017, the family says Kayla has been seen in Costa Rica in a video posted by Eligio Bishop, also known as Natureboy.
Kayla Reid is returning to Canada from Costa Rica, just days after saying she would not. (Facebook)
Tammy Reid told CBC that she’s worried for the safety of her daughter, and believes she is being “brainwashed” by the man — who, through Facebook and YouTube, preaches that the sun manifested itself on earth to create black women, tells his followers not to trust their senses, and suggests that all people share one consciousness and identity.
“I think he lured her to come down,” Reid told CBC Radio’s Corner Brook Morning Show on Friday. “I more or less think he has her brainwashed.”
Mrs. Reid said her daughter left for St. John’s around Feb. 23 on the pretense of going to a church retreat and was told by one of her daughter’s friends that she actually left to go to the St. John’s airport early on Feb. 26.
A few days later, when Mrs. Reid realized that her daughter was not coming home, she contacted police. “Kayla was talking before about going down to another country with a group,” she said. “I tried to talk to her about it but she didn’t want to hear it … she had to be talking to this Natureboy.”
The video, posted by Eligio Bishop a.k.a Nature Boy on March 3, talks directly about the Kalya or “Sun Ray”.
In the video, Bishop said Kayla is an example of someone who has a “mutation” in her “hardware.”
“This hardware that you are now looking at, this hardware is a mutation hardware from the archetype,” Bishop said. “Hardware that are lower self, with the consciousness, the software of the higher self.”
The Corner Brook family of Kayla Jean Reid, right, say Eligio Bishop, a.k.a Nature Boy, left, is working with them to return her safely to Newfoundland. (Eligio NatureboyTv/YouTube)
In the same video Bishop addresses accusations that he is a cult leader.
“I am the cult leader to them. To whoever watches that doesn’t know who they are or what they are or what one is, for I am them,” he said. “They are not conscious. One is not conscious of the fact that I am them. So in their unconsciousness, they see Natureboy and separate me from them …. and this is how you know these are demons. Or one’s lower self. Because I am the only thing in existence.”
The CBC.ca report says the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary – the Newfoundland provincial police – is “no longer investigating this missing persons file.”
But the story doesn’t end there.
In a follow-up video, Bishop speaks with a CBC reporter about Kayla Reid, who has joined his group in Costa Rica.
Bishop says the media tried to portray him as ‘someone that had stolen their white daughter’.
The March 21, 2017 CBC article says Kayla is going back to Newfoundland to avoid anyone getting in trouble.
On Tuesday, Bishop and Kayla hosted a Facebook Live video that lasted about 50 minutes, talking about her decision to leave.
“I don’t want anybody getting hurt because I’m here,” Kayla Reid said during a live video broadcast from Costa Rica.
Also on Tuesday, posted on Facebook is a photo of Kayla being “officially been dropped off at the San Jose Airport”.
“I came here to be free … I didn’t want any contact with them anymore. They are still being possessive over me,” Kayla said.
Kayla herself said this trip to Costa Rica wasn’t the first time she wanted to leave Canada and her family in Corner Brook. “I just felt like I belonged here. That’s why I came here. My heart just felt like this is my family so that’s why I came here,” she said.
“I had plans to leave [Canada] even before, and then they tried to be possessive over me so I got put on pills because I wanted to leave.”
‘We’re not really a cult’
Bishop explains in the video, “They’re trying to depict me in the media as they always do when they’re trying to kill someone, as someone that is dangerous, someone that had stolen their white daughter and controlling her mind.”
Because of the recent news coverage surrounding Kayla Reid, Bishop added he’s no longer welcoming new people to join him in Costa Rica.
Instead, he advised others to “start your own tribe” and become “your own Natureboy.”
The Costa Rican Techonlogical Institute made the announcement Wednesday that it had all the funding to start assembling the first Costa Rica satellite that will be launched next year from the International Space Station under an agreement signed with Japan.
Q COSTA RICA – The donations made by more than 800 people to the Proyecto Irazú (Irazú Project) has helped in the purchase of components for the first Costa Rican satellite.
The donations amounted to US$80,000 dollars, which added to the sponsorship of five private companies, each donating between US$30,000 and US$60,000, will make the dream of launching a Costa Rican satellite a reality.
The sponsoring companies include: EY, Grupo Purdy Motor, Comunicación Corporativa Ketchum (CCK), Zona Franca Coyol and MOOG Medical.
The assembly of the Tico Cubesat (small, light and low cost) satellite,which aims to apply space technology to monitor climate change, which is expected to take about six months, is being done at a Coyol de Alajuela plant.
The frame of the Proyecto Irazú satellite, the first Costa Rican satellite that will be monitoring climate change from space. Photo Rafael Murillo, La Nacion
The launch of the satellite is scheduled for 2018 from the International Space Station (IEE), under an agreement signed with the Kyushu Technological Institute in Japan.
On Wednesday, the Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica (ITCR) – Costa Rican Technological Institute- received the components from the Asociación Centroamericana de Aeronáutica y del Espacio (ACAE) – the Central American Aeronautics and Space Association.
Project manager Luis Diego Monge said that now begins one of the most complex and crucial stages of the project.
“Whenever we talk about technology, we tend to associate it with science fiction or former (Costa Rican) astronaut Franklin Chang. Now many Costa Ricans will see in the Irazú project that many things are possible and can be achieved.”
Monge said that through the cooperation of individuals, private companies and academia, the world is shown that Costa Rica is ready to assume a leading role.
The satellite components include an on-board Computer, communication system, power system, solar panels, a secondary computer, and the housing created by the Instituto Nacional de Aprendizaje (INA) – Costa Rica’s National Institute of Learning.
Monge explained that following the assembly, the satellite will be sent to the Space Station in Japan where it will be inspected and later put into orbit.
The representative of ACAE, Carolina Fernandez said that this is the result of seven years of hard work. “It is demonstrating to the world that Costa Rica has the talent with the technical level to participate in the value chain of the global aerospace industry”
This project has a cost that exceeds half a million dollars.
Q COSTA RICA – In spite of the terrorist attack on Wednesday in front of the London Parliament, that resulted in the death of two passers-by, a policeman and the perpetrator of the attack, Costa Rican’s in that city said they feel calm and do not report any type serious affect on the Costa Rican nationals in that country.
This was confirmed by Ameliarueda.com in a telephone interview of three Costa Ricans living or working near Westminster.
“The people are calm, what is known that a guy stabbed a policeman and a car ran over several people … the security measures that have been taken have been for the people of Parliament who are in lockdown,” Grettel Rodríguez reported.
Grettel Rodríguez. Photo from Facebook
Rodríguez, a student at the Queen Mary University of London and works at Argus Media, a telecommunications company, explained that the streets surrounding the scene of the attack was closed as well as the subway system.
Diana Núñez Robles is another Costa Rican in London. She was close to the scene of the incident, her company felt it was better to wait a suitable time before allowing employees to leave work.
“At the moment, where I am, everything is quiet…,” said the Costa Rican.
Karen Hernandez is another Costa Rican living in Bedford, east pf London. She commented that “there is no panic over this.”
A coca farmer in Columbia with his crop. Photo Phil Chan/Flickr
TODAY COLOMBIA – InSight Crime takes a closer look at shifts in coca cultivation trends in 19 of Colombia’s departments based on the most recent US estimates, shedding light on the different dynamics on the ground as the country’s cocaine production hits a historic high.
New US government figures obtained by InSight Crime place Colombia’s embattled Pacific department of Nariño as the number one coca crop cultivator in all of Colombia, taking over the top spot from the department of Norte de Santander on the Venezuelan border.
Nariño, which was the third-largest cultivator in 2015, saw a 52 percent increase in estimated coca hectares in 2016 to a total of 39,500 hectares. This represents 21 percent of the national total, which itself increased by almost a fifth in 2016 to over 188,000 hectares.
The top cocaine producer in 2016, however, is Cauca, Nariño’s neighbour on the Pacific coast. Together, these two Pacific departments alone produced an estimated 300 metric tons of cocaine, or over 40 percent of the national total.
This historic peak in Colombia’s cocaine trade has responded to the individual realities of the country’s diverse regions. But this development will pose similar obstacles to building peace on the ground as the nation transitions into a new phase of its decades-long armed conflict.
The past year has seen Colombia’s top coca-producing department, Nariño, plunge into an all-out battle over its extremely valuable drug real estate. Aside from its abundant coca fields, the region’s intricate network of rivers, hundreds of drug production laboratories and long stretch of Pacific coastline contribute to its role as a launch pad for drugs heading to the United States.
These factors have made Nariño prize territory for criminal groups looking to expand their influence and earnings. While for years this area and its criminal economies were under the tight control of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – FARC), the withdrawal of the rebels following the signing of a historic peace deal with the Colombian government has left much of this strategic turf up for grabs. Powerful national organizations as well as newer groups, some of which have defected from the FARC, are now taking advantage of the guerrillas’ demobilization to take power.
One of the factors pushing up coca production in places like Nariño and neighboring Cauca is that criminal actors have been pressuring coca farmers to plant more crops. In the case of the FARC, it has been speculated that the guerrillas encouraged ramping up cultivation in order to accumulate funds in anticipation of their eventual demobilization.
A steep drop in both aerial and manual eradication nationwide — from a peak of 230,000 hectares in 2008 to less than 18,000 hectares in 2016 — has also reduced the perceived risk by farmers, increasing the incentive to grow.
Another crucial issue facilitating drug proliferation in places like Nariño and Cauca is the fact that a huge amount of crops are located in protected territories such as indigenous reserves. Here, forced eradication is harder as authorities face a greater number of obstacles to operate.
One region with many attractive characteristics for drug trafficking that surprisingly has not seen coca production surge as much as in other departments is Valle del Cauca.
Also on the Pacific, it has similar qualities as Nariño and is home to one of the busiest ports in the country. That Valle has not seen an explosion in coca could be at least partly explained by the fact that the area where most of the drug crop is concentrated — Buenaventura municipality — has not been prioritized for “post-conflict” development projects. These will aim to create new economic opportunities in places historically affected by the conflict, and it has been suggested that armed groups have been encouraging farmers to plant more coca in order to receive such benefits. Yet, in the absence of such promises, this is less likely to be a factor.
In Chocó, the control of armed actors in rural communities has perhaps had a more inhibitory effect on the coca industry, and cultivation estimates decreased slightly in 2016 despite a 44 percent rise the year before. Parts of this department are currently in the grip of a heavy dispute between illegal groups looking to expand. This has possibly destabilized the drug trade enough to halt a growth in crop farming, the seeds for which are often provided by the local armed actors themselves.
As InSight Crime has noted, Colombia’s Pacific coast may be gaining importance in the international drug trade, a trend that will likely be fuelled by the overall growth in coca production.
A somewhat different trend can be seen in Antioquia, where coca dynamics have been closely linked to the gold industry. The region saw many coca farmers turn to mining as international gold prices soared after 2008, while the state focused more on battling the illegal drug trade. Now, the process has been reversed, with the region seeing an increasingly steep rise in coca since the gold market plummeted in value and the state began an intense crack down on informal mining.
Another area to keep an eye on is the Eastern Plains, which include the Meta, Arauca, Casanare and Vichada departments, all of which saw big increases in estimated coca production, according to the United States. In contrast, 2015 data from the United Nations — which is used by the Colombian government — shows that this region has experienced a significant downward trend in cultivations over the past several years. The Urabeños organization appears to be making a greater push into this coveted drug trafficking hub, which is home to several criminal networks.
It should be noted that the US estimates appear to contain some discrepancies. Cauca, for example, produces more cocaine than other departments with more coca crops, while Putumayo saw estimated cocaine production increase despite a drop in coca cultivations in the same year, according to the US data.
One possible reason for this is the differing levels of crop maturity in each region. Plants produce more cocaine when they have more time to grow. Thus it is possible that the US figures were adjusted to account for this. The United States may be also taking into account techniques implemented by drug producers to boost the cocaine yield of coca leaves.
Indeed, Colombian criminals have become so adept at optimizing productivity that they may even be sharing such strategies with other Andean countries.
Article originally appeared on Insightcrime.org and is repubished here with permission.
TODAY VENEZUELA (Paris, France) – Reporters Without Borders (RWB), or Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) has called on President Nicolas Maduro’s government to stop blocking the international media’s reporting in Venezuela. In recent months, the obstruction has included expulsions, the seizure of material and equipment, and outright censorship.
The latest victims include two Brazilian journalists – Record TV reporter Leandro Stoliar and cameraman Gilzon Souza de Oliveira – who were deported last month while investigating an offshoot of Brazil’s Petrobras scandal – suspected corruption involving the Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht and state agencies in Venezuela.
They were quickly arrested by the Servicio Bolivariano de Inteligencia (SEBIN), the Venezuelan government’s intelligence and counter-espionage agency, were held for ten hours and were subjected to several heavy-handed interrogation sessions in which they were called “state terrorists” and were threatened with being imprisoned “forever.”
“I felt like a prisoner, like a criminal,” Stoliar later said, after their material had been seized and they had been sent back to Brazil, via Peru.
Journalists turned back on arrival
More than 20 journalists and media workers of at least nine different nationalities have been denied entry at Maiquetía international airport (20 km north of Caracas) since last August. The official grounds have been violation of immigration regulations and other bureaucratic pretexts.
Most of these expulsions have occurred in the days preceding the major street demonstrations that the opposition has been organizing in Caracas.
In the run-up to a big protest on 1 September, five Al Jazeera TV journalists, including Teresa Bo, Lagmi Chávez and John Holman, were expelled the day after they arrived. Marie-Eve Detoeuf, a reporter for the French daily Le Monde, was told that she was “non-admissible” because she did not comply with immigration rules.
Colombian journalists César Moreno of Radio Caracol and Dora Glottman of Caracol TV, and US reporters John Otis of NPR and Jim Wyss of the Miami Herald also suffered the same fate.
Three Peruvian journalists working for the Mexican TV channel Televisa – Ricardo Burgos, Leonidas Chávez and Armando Muñoz – were sent home shortly arriving on 26 October with the aim of covering a major anti-government demonstration.
Rodrigo Abd, an Argentine photographer with the Associated Press, was also denied entry the same day.
Joshua Partlow, a reporter with US and Canadian dual nationality working for the Washington Post, was denied entry a few days later on the grounds that his work visa was not in order, although he had visited Venezuela repeatedly during the preceding months.
When Bernard de la Villardière, a French reporter for the M6 TV channel, arrived on 11 December with a five-member crew (four French journalists and a Swiss cameraman) to do a report on daily life in Caracas, they were escorted back to their plane without explanation. As their press visa applications had been refused, they had come on tourist visas.
Finally, Aitor Sáez, a Spanish journalist working for German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle, was expelled on 22 January without any explanation.
“We find it hard to believe that all these foreign journalists were expelled simply because they failed to comply with the bureaucratic requirements,” said Emmanuel Colombié, the head of RSF’s Latin America bureau.
“The lack of grounds or inconsistency of the reasons given by immigration officials for denying access creates a climate of uncertainty and constitutes a threat to freedom of information. In the grave economic and political crisis that Venezuela has been experiencing for more than a year, the work of journalists, and especially foreign journalists, is vital and should not be blocked by the Venezuelan authorities on any pretext.”
Humberto Márquez, the head of the Foreign Press Association (APEX), told RSF that airport officials often act “in a discretionary manner.” Sometimes they object to the lack of receipts for professional equipment. At other times, they say that Venezuela’s ministry of communication and information (MINCI) was not notified by the consulate of the journalist’s country. All official information about foreign journalist accreditation is available on the MINCI website.
The lack of a receipt was used to expel Kay Guerrero, a US-based Venezuelan journalist working as a producer for CNN, when she arrived with her cameraman, Peter Kavanagh, on 28 August, just three days before the big protest on 1 September. Their equipment was seized on arrival at the airport and the only way for them to recover it was to leave immediately.
CNN stripped of local signal
A chain reaction from the Venezuelan authorities ensued when CNN en Español broadcast a major report on 6 February about an alleged passport-for-cash racket operated out of the Venezuelan embassy in Baghdad that implicated Venezuelan Vice-President Tareck El Aissami.
Maduro publicly accused CNN on 12 February of “manipulating” the facts and of waging a propaganda war against his country. He added: “CNN, get out of Venezuela, get out!”
CONATEL, the state telecommunications agency, complied three days later, on 15 February, by suspending CNN’s local signal without warning, putting an end to the news channel’s broadcasting in Venezuela.
This act of censorship was widely condemned by the Venezuelan media. It was also criticized by the Organization of American States, which called it an attack on freedom of expression, democracy and the Venezuelan people’s right to information.
RSF points out that, back in December 2015, foreign reporters who wanted to cover that month’s parliamentary elections had to sign a good conduct pledge to avoid the withdrawal of their accreditation.
Venezuela is ranked 139th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2016 World Press Freedom Index.
Two young boys in rural Nicaragua, photographed by Australian photojournalist Josh Mcdonald. The sugarcane-growing community in which they live is blighted by a renal disease whose cause remains unclear. Photograph: 2017 Wellcome Image Awards
TODAY NICARAGUA (Theguardian.com) – Two brothers stand in a dusty alley in the town of Chichigalpa in Nicaragua. They stare with suspicion at Australian photographer Josh Mcdonald, who has just captured their image – a picture that won a Wellcome Image award last week for its depiction of the impact of a medical condition that has been devastating the male population of Central America.
The illness is described as “chronic kidney disease of undetermined cause” and it is responsible for 75% of deaths of young and middle-aged men in Nicaragua. Workers in the sugarcane industry are worst affected, and the disease has been destroying families and communities for 20 years. Yet the cause remains unknown.
In the case of Mcdonald’s picture, the two boys are known to have lost uncles and cousins to the disease, although their mother still works as a sugarcane cutter. However, the boys were reluctant to speak to the photographer – perhaps because they thought their contact with someone from the developed world might jeopardise their chances of working in the fields themselves.
“It was early in the morning and I had walked out the backyard of the house where I was staying and into a back alley,” said Mcdonald.
“I saw the two standing there. They had arrived to buy flour, which was handed over the fence to them. They were not keen on talking to me, as you can see from their expressions. I managed to capture just the two images, this one and one where the boy on the right is reaching up to grab the bag of flour being handed down over the fence.”
Mcdonald later found out – after speaking to neighbours – that the boys had recently lost their uncles and cousins. Neither was receiving an education, and it is likely they will end up working in the sugarcane industry.
Their prospects are therefore grim. At least 20,000 people – most of them young agricultural workers – have died from chronic kidney disease in Nicaragua since it first came to the notice of doctors in the late 1990s.
Other countries in Central America – such as Costa Rica – are also badly affected. “In the west, chronic kidney disease affects between 5% and 10% of people, most of them elderly or affected by diabetes,” said kidney expert Ben Caplin of University College London. “Less than 1% of people aged around 30 have chronic kidney disease in the UK. By contrast, in parts of Nicaragua that figure is 20% to 30% for people in the same age group.”
Caplin said that the only treatment for the condition was dialysis, but few machines are accessible to the poor in central America. Prevention remains the main hope for countering the condition. However, this prospect is limited by the fact that the cause of the spread of the disease through the young male population of Nicaragua is unknown.
“There is probably an occupational element,” said Caplin. “Conditions for sugarcane workers are absolutely brutal. They have to work in incredible heat – more than 40 Celsius– and they have limited personal protection against the toxic agents being used in fields. The sugarcane is also burned before being gathered and that releases all sorts of things into the air and the soil. So heat stress or pollution are possible agents.
“In addition, infectious diseases could be involved. There are a huge range of potential causes but until we find out what they are, we cannot hope to halt these deaths.”
The tragedy, said Caplin, is that the disease has been known about for more than a decade yet no effective action to counter it has been taken. “I think it is an indictment of public and occupational health across the world that we have not sorted this out. If this was happening in the west it would have been dealt with long ago,” said Caplin, who is working on a long-term project – with the Autonomous University of Nicaragua and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine – to reveal the roots of the condition.
Caplin said a similar pattern of illness was now being observed in south Asia, although he stressed the experts were not sure yet if it was the same disease.
The prospect is extremely worrying. As Mcdonald told the Observer, he spent much of his time in Nicaragua living in an area of Chichigalpa that is known as “the island of widows” – a name that reflects that devastating rate of male deaths there. “The lady I lived with had lost her husband, two sons and many friends to chronic kidney disease,” he said. “Life is really, really grim there.”
Hotel Yemaya Island Hideaway and Spa en Little Corn Island.
TODAY NICARAGUA – Companies in the tourismt sector expect to generate US$660 million in revenue this year, mainly driven by an increase in visitor spending.
In addition to an increase in the number of visitors to the country, the tourism industry also expect a rise in the average daily spending tourists, which at the close of the third quarter saw an increase of 8.5% compared to the previous quarter.
The former president of the National Chamber of Tourism of Nicaragua (Canatur), Silvia de Levy, told Elnuevodiario.com.ni “…’We are seeing that average spending is growing a little bit and that tourists are extending their stay in the country. We are diversifying, all tourism entrepreneurs are being asked to diversify their products, to see what other activities can be done. For example, in Managua there are more things to do because of all of the investments that have been made’.”
For his part, “…Leonardo Torres, president of the Nicaraguan Chamber of Small and Medium Tourist Enterprises, projected a 16% increase in foreign exchange earnings from tourism for in 2017.”
To boost tourism, the International Tourism Fair will take place on June 9 and 10, when local tourism businesses will be meeting with 50 wholesalers from the United States, Europe and South America, to explore business opportunities.
“… Among the companies taking part are hotels, restaurants, tour operators and providers of specialized tourist services. Valenti said the five previous fairs have been a resounding success, allowing Nicaragua to be positioned at the international level,” Lucy Valenti, president of Canatur, told Elnuevodiario.com.ni.
Gabriella Giambanco everyone should travel alone at least once in their lifetime.
Gabriella Giambanco everyone should travel alone at least once in their lifetime. Image for illustrative purposes.
Q TRAVEL – This past summer I had the amazing opportunity to travel to Costa Rica to do volunteer work. Through this journey I was able to experience what it is like to travel alone.
During the month I spent in Costa Rica I gained many experiences and discovered so much about myself in the process.
I believe that everyone should travel alone at least once in their lifetime. If you need some convincing I have created a list for some of the many reason I believe that you should travel alone.
1. You can make new friends.
Traveling alone means that you can be as social or as antisocial as you want to be. Whatever works best for you. This is your time. However don’t let the fear of feeling lonely keep you from traveling because there are always places and ways to connect with locals or even other travelers.
If you stay in a hostel that’s a great way to make friends with people from around the world or you can simply look up some of the local hotspots.
Truth be told, the people you meet when you travel are bound to be interesting. Trying a new activity like cooking classes or visiting a museum can be a great way to meet people. You may be traveling alone but you are never alone.
2. You are in charge of your schedule.
When you a planning a trip with other people you often have to make compromises and negotiations. There is all of this hassle and tends to be more stressful.
What if you don’t get to do everything you wanted to do?
Don’t get me wrong traveling with other people can be very rewarding but why not make the most of your time and money by doing the things you actually want to do without worrying about pleasing everyone?
Everything is totally your call. You can eat wherever and whatever you want, you can sleep in as much or as little as you desire. If you want to go on a hike or visit all the art galleries in the city it is totally up to you, you are the boss. You are free to do whatever your heart desires, it is totally your choice.
Traveling is meant to be a relaxing experience and there is no better way than being in charge of your own schedule.
3. You challenge yourself to leave your comfort zone.
By staying in your comfort zone you are doing yourself a disservice yet leaving your comfort zone can be quite scary.
But you will never gain experiences if you don’t leave your comfort zone once and awhile. Traveling alone is the perfect way to challenge yourself to leave your comfort zone and you’ll be so thankful that you did.
The experiences you will have when you make that decision to leave your comfort zone are the best ones.
When you challenge yourself you become more confident and more empowered to take on other challenges.
4. You learn you are enough.
During the hustle and bustle of daily life, you realize that you don’t spend enough time with yourself.
When you travel alone, you are your own travel companion and you might be shocked at how enjoyable you are. During your trip you spend quality time with yourself and you should use this time to develop a thoughtful, introspective experience.
Use your solo trip to invest in some much needed “me time” and get to know yourself better.
You don’t need anyone else to travel with, you are enough.
5. It is wildly empowering.
Traveling alone allows you to find freedom from the mundane routine of daily life. When you are traveling alone you are bound to do something that scares you whether that’s ziplining in Costa Rica or trying a new cuisine, once you do whatever it is that scares you, you will feel a strong sense of empowerment. Taking the plunge into a solo trip can help you become more confident and empowered by knowing that you tackled challenges.
I know that traveling alone can seem daunting at first but it is so worth it and you’ll soon realize that the best travel partner you can have is yourself.
Article by Gabriella Giambanco originally appeared on Thoughtcatalog.com. Read original here.
