A water leak in Bello Horizonte de Escazú, in January 2013. AyA says that scenes how are you will decrease thanks to an investment plan to seal leaks in coming years. | ADRIANA ARAYA.
The water leak in Bello Horizonte, Escazú, is typical of what occurs on many roads around the greater metropolitan area of San Jose. Photo Adriana Araya, La Nacion
QCOSTARICA – You’ve seen it. It may be even in front of your house. You can’t drive a street in San Jose and surrounding areas without seeing a watee leak or signs that a repair recently took place. Am I exaggerating? No.
According to an analysis by the Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos (Aresep) – regulator of public prices and services, has found that the state water and sewer utility, the Acueductos y Alcantarillados (AyA) loses between 47% and 67% of its water.
The water distribution network with the greatest losses in 2015 was in the Greater Metropolitan Area of San Jose (GAM), Chorotege and Brunca, with losses between 47% and 50%.
In the Central Pacific and Central East regions, the loss was between 50% and 57%. In the Huetar Atlantic region, the loss was as high as 67%.
The study reveals that the percentage of loss to leaks remains practically the same as in 2014.
In contrast, the ESPH (the water utility in Hereida) has a loss rate of 33%, a six point drop compared to 2014.
Sergio Núñez, AyA deputy manager of systems for the GAM admitted the leakage problem, but said improvements are underway. The official said the state utility has borrowed US$160 million dollars to finance a major project to seal most leaks and better control distribution resources to consumers. The project is a six year program.
The Aresep study also looked at water quality. The regulator said good water is coming out of pipes in Costa Rica, but stressed deficiencies in sewage and water treatment, the levels very similar to that of four years ago.
ARESEP expects improved results in 2016 with the start of operation of the new sewage treatment plant Los Tajos in La Uruca (San José).
Núñez said that plant is already treating 8% of the wastewater from the GAM and expects the level to rise to 20% within two years.
May 24, 2016 9:45pm eruption of the Turrialba volcano.
May 24, 2016 9:45pm eruption of the Turrialba volcano.
QCOSTARICA – Following 24 hours of relative calm, at 9:45pm Tuesday the Turrialba volcano blew its stack in what is being called a “violent” eruption lasting almost 30 minutes, spewing out a column of ash of some 3,500 metres (3.5 kilometres).
Coronado, Guadalupe, Heredia, Alajuela, Desamparados and San Jose are areas most affected by the ashfall, which is expected to reach the Central Pacific coast.
The Comisión Nacional de Emergencias (CNE) – national emergency commission – recommends wearing clothing that covers most of the skin, use respiratory protection such as masks, protect water for human and animal consumption, and not expose pets to ash.
The Turrialba volcano continues spewing gases and water vapor, but no ash since Monday night. Photo RSN
The Turrialba volcano continues spewing gases and water vapor, but no ash since Monday night. Photo RSN
QCOSTARICA (6:17pm May 24, 2016) – The Turrialba volcano has gone almost 24 hours without the constant ash emissions that continued non-stop since last Friday.
The Red Sismológica Nacional (RSN) reports the ash emissions stopped around 9:45pm Monday. However, experts believe this to be a temporary lull, the colossus at any moment could resume eruptive activity.
Meanwhile, the Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica (Ovsicori) at 9:30am Tuesday reported the volcano remains emanating gases and water vapor, sometimes reached 1,000 metres (one kilometre) above the crater.
While for the last few days the winds blew ash across the north and west of the volcano, affecting greatly higher altitude areas like Coronado and Tibas, the ash reached San Jose and further west to many area of Alajuela, including Naranjo and Atenas.
However, Monday’s winds blew the ash east to places like Guapiles, in the canton of Pococi, Limon.
Since Friday morning at 7:27am, the Turrialba spewed ash for some 86 continuous hours.
For now, there is a two kilometre perimeter restriction around the crater and five kilometres where access is only for those who work in the fields and duly authorized personnel are allowed.
Closed roads in Caracas come in response to domestic gas shortages. (Runrun.es)
(by By Ángel Oropeza Z. Panampost.com) Anyone paying attention to the news in Latin American can see that Venezuela’s Maduro–Cabello administration is soon to be no more, as it is headed down an irreversible path toward self-destruction.
But how sure can we be about this?
Reviewing the literature about the topic of failed regimes allows us to identify eight symptoms of a ruling party’s terminal phase of power:
A breakdown of the moral authority to govern.
A significant weakening of popular support.
A deteriorating international image and difficulty in achieving support and understanding for other countries.
The inability to guarantee public peace and the security of individuals
Symptoms of ungovernability (understood as the inability to control the economic or social trajectory of the country).
Internal fracturing.
Systematic violation of the Constitution to hold on to power and maintain privileges.
Recurring repression: threats and fear tactics as a last resort to keep society under control.
There is no doubt, upon reading through this list, that the Venezuelan government already qualifies. Even though the regime is in its death throes, that does not mean that an end to the crisis is certain or that it cannot keep itself alive artificially.
Yes, the Maduro-Cabello admnistration is in “terminal” phase, but the word conveys a set of conditions — the eight symptoms — rather than a point in time or a concrete result. The outcome will depend on the regime’s response to the crisis, and above all on the opposition’s response along with the people’s support of that political alternative.
In accordance with the last symptom, the ruling elite has just announced that the country will be entering into a “state of emergency” that is nothing more than a desperate attempt to take refuge within the last redoubt of power remaining to it: the ability to repress.
When a government resorts to repression and militarization, it’s usually a sign that none of the usual democratic mechanisms based on voluntary obedience and legitimate authority are functioning.
This strategy can certainly be effective with part of the population, who may wrongly believe that the barking threats are a demonstration of strength. But one must remember that dogs bark from fear, too.
The most important symptoms, and which we must continue to monitor, are the repression and the constant violation of the Constitution — the traits that currently define the Maduro-Cabello administration. These measures are being rejected not only by the ruling party’s grassroots, but by army officers and other members of the state bureaucracy.
Many of them resent having to play the role of the sad henchman and endure, like the rest of us, the tragedy brought upon by the ruling elite’s delusions of power.
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Ángel Oropeza Z. is a Venezuelan psychologist. He holds a PhD in Political Science and teaches at the Simón Bolivar University and at the Andrés Bello Catholic University in Caracas. Follow him on Twitter: @angeloropeza182. This article was originally published in El Nacional.
(Panampost.com) – Even with the collapse of the price of oil, Venezuela’s total export revenue this year will yield a similar amount to Peru’s total exports. Peru and Venezuela have the same population, and the world knows there are no food lines in Peru and no one is dying from a lack of medicines in that country.
Unfortunately, most reporting by the international press on Venezuela’s current crisis, while mentioning the Chavista regime’s mismanagement and corruption, also places the blame on the economic crisis that befell the country after oil prices collapsed in late 2014. These views are the product of the Venezuelan government’s continued success in hiding the true nature of the regime.
Venezuelan and multinational companies still operating in the country could easily supply all needs of the population in food and medicine if the government allowed them access to USD $7 billion in foreign exchange. Only ten years ago, Venezuela had some of the most modern supermarkets in the region and stores were overflowing with goods with an equivalent amount of foreign exchange allocated to these same companies.
Are Venezuelan Bond Holders the Only Culprits?
If the country has over USD $30 billion a year in foreign exchange income, what is causing the crisis? Evidently it is not a lack of funds. Moreover, food and medicine shortages began to appear in Venezuela in 2014, when the price of oil was still over $100 per barrel
Ricardo Hausmann, a highly respected Harvard professor who served as Venezuela’s Minister of Economic Planning two decades ago, has long mentioned one of the most frequently cited causes of the current economic crisis. For almost two years, Hausmann warned that Venezuela could not pay the service on its foreign debt and provide foreign exchange for the basic needs of its population at the same time.
In September 2014, Hausmann and fellow professor Miguel Angel Santos published a now famous article that explained in detail the hardships the Venezuelan population was facing due to shortages of basic goods as the government did not deliver on its promise to provide foreign exchange to private importers.
They explained the dilemma facing the government. Either pay the importers or pay the bondholders:
The moral calculus becomes a bit more intricate when you cannot make good on all of your commitments and have to decide which to honor and which to avoid. To date, under former President Hugo Chávez and his successor, Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela has opted to service its foreign bonds, many of which are held by well-connected wealthy Venezuelans.
While Hausmann and Santos exposed the twisted logic of Chávez and Maduro, they did not elaborate on the reasons for the Venezuelan government’s decision to starve its own people.
It is true that the reason for not defaulting is the mere identity of the holders of Venezuelan bonds. It is no secret that Chavistas, their cronies in banking, and self-defined “brokerage houses” hold the lion’s share of Venezuela’s outstanding foreign debt.
They have made billions, yes, billions of dollars, buying Venezuelan bonds at deep discounts, profiting enormously as — to everyone’s surprise — the army generals who control Venezuela’s finances keep strict punctuality in payments. But while this insider trading of Venezuelan bonds does explain the reasons for Venezuela’s reluctance to default, using the lion’s share of the country’s foreign exchange income to service the debt still does not fully explain the war-like rationing and shortages currently suffered by the Venezuelan people.
Maduro’s Government Does Not Want to End Shortages
With relatively little amounts of additional money — probably less than USD $2 billion — the government could easily improve the current dire conditions significantly. This will be the case particularly if it allows private companies to return to their traditional role as importers of basic goods, instead of concentrating food and medicine imports in the hands of corrupt government agencies.
Why, then, doesn’t the Maduro government try this solution? The answer is: they are not looking for a solution.
The Maduro government in Venezuela is probably the most unpopular government on planet earth. 80% of Venezuelans have a negative opinion of Mr. Maduro, and these poll numbers arise in a country where people generally fear telling the truth to pollsters, as everyone is scared of possible government reprisals. In order to stay in power, Maduro needs a cowed populace.
The brutal repression tactics used by the Venezuelan military against even timid attempts at public protest are new to Venezuela, but familiar to anyone who lived behind the Iron Curtain. Torture and savage beatings on the streets have been widely documented by international institutions such as Human Rights Watch.
In addition to brutal raw repression, the other tool used to keep a population cowed and obedient is food rationing. Again, since the days of Lenin, this has been a widely used method of political repression in communist countries. If you are caught protesting, you lose your ration, your place in line, the milk for your children, the medicine for your mother.
Moreover, this is an effective method to keep the security forces on your side. If a police sergeant is lenient towards a protester, he loses the special privileges that allow his family to shop in special government shops, where food and medicine are plentiful.
The Minister of Food Supply in Venezuela is an army General who, until recently, served as Finance Minister. Army officers also control the supply of medicines and even raw materials for industry. Why have they not been fired in the face of the severe shortages of every kind? The answer is that they hold their posts with the purpose of ensuring the shortages do occur!
The International Press Has Been Conned
The foreign press has made the mistake of believing that the Chavista regime was at one point legitimate. They have failed to understand its true totalitarian nature, in part due to the mediocrity of the opposition leadership headed by Henrique Capriles, whose conciliatory stance has in the past helped to legitimize a regime born from stolen elections.
The current Venezuelan crisis has nothing to do with the price of oil. Food rationing began in Venezuela in 2014, when oil sold for over USD $100 per barrel. It also has nothing to do with Venezuela’s debt obligations. What the world is witnessing is what Chavez called “21st Century Socialism,” a communist totalitarian state designed to look like something else.
This is the first communist revolution designed for today’s consumers of mass media. Lenin would be so proud!
The Turrialba volcano as seen this morning (Tuesday) from the Telenoticias camera atop the Irazu volcano.
The Turrialba volcano as seen this morning (Tuesday) from the Telenoticias camera atop the Irazu volcano.
QCOSTARICA – Circulating in the social networks the last couple of days are unfounded reports of a natural disaster, including an earthquake will hit Costa Rica from the activity at the Turrialba volcano.
Volcanologists at the Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica (OVSICORI) says they have been busy doing their best to bring us best reports and for people to ignore what has been coming out of the social media in recent days.
The activity at the Turrialba has been given a lot of publicity around the world. Much of it is real (like what you read here), but on social media sites like Facebook, reports would have you believe the population should be preparing for an imminent natural disaster.
Some reports are saying the volcano will trigger an 8.5 magnitude earthquake with devastating consequences.
According to the OVISCORI, following Friday’s “important” eruption that continued to spew gas and asha for three consecutive days, on Monday the colossus had short periods (eruptions) without emission of gases and ash.
Ash concentrations are within expectations and not damage health
Ash concentrations are within expectations and not a risk to health, say experts
QCOSTARICA – For the concerned about the ash all around us especially during these past several days, experts says the quantity of ash must be very and high and be prolonged, to affect us.
Studies by the Laboratorio de Análisis Químico Atmosférico de la Universidad Nacional (UNA) – laboratory of atmospheric chemical analysis at the National University – have found that the ashfall from the last three weeks, caused by the Turrialba volcano is within ‘normal range’ and does not pose a chemical risk to the health of people.
The results were confirmed by pulmonary specialist at the Hospital San Juan de Dios in San Jose, Mario Sibaja, on the radio program “Nuestra Voz“, and denied that there is some kind of “alert” to possible health risks.
The expert noted that for this to happen the concentration of volcanic material would have to be abundant. He added that for risks of lung diseases, such exposure would have to be prolonged (for years) to happen.
For this reason, Sibaja urged people to remain calm and be informed not to generate unfounded fears.
According to the expert, those suffering from respiratory problems, allergies or asthma should take, for exposure to ash particles can affect them.
The wearing of masks is important. Experts say that regular masks available at Costa Rica pharmacies for only a few hundred colones are not adequate in this case, they recommend masks with filters.
On Thursday, May 12, the Turrialba voclano began a cycle of activity that has been maintained for nearly three weeks. The latest “important” eruption was last Friday, May 20, expelling gases and ash that has spread throughout the western part of the Central Valley, even in distant places (from the volcano) like Naranjo, Atenas and Grecia.
Most affected are areas like Coronado, Moravia, Tibas, San Jose and Pavas.
Since Friday, although airport operations have been normal, a number of airlines have cancelled or diverted flights due to “weather conditions” in Costa Rica. If you are travelling to or from Costa Rica, a check on Flightradar24.com or Fly2SanJose.com can be useful, best is to check with your airline for the status of your flight.
Penetration of mobile telephony in Costa Rica reached 156% in 2015.
QCOSTARICA – In the past decade, Costa Rica has seen an increase in the mobile telephony penetration rate, from 33% in 2006 when the state telecom, Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) was the only provider, to 156% in 2015, as three operators vie for market share.
The penetration last year was 5% more than in 2014, according to data published by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Telecommunications (Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología de Costa Rica – MICITT).
The information is based on information provided by the three major operators: ICE (Kolbi), Telefonica (Movistar) and America Movil (Claro); and resellers Cable Tica (Tuyo Movil) and RACSA (Fullmovil), a division of ICE.
According to International Telecommunication Union (ITU) data for 2014, only five Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries had higher mobile penetration rates than Costa Rica: Estonia, Italy, Austria, Luxembourg and Poland.
Among Latin American countries, Costa Rica is surpassed by Suriname, Uruguay, Argentina and Panama.
A specialized group of OIJ was responsible for the collection of objects. The work was done last Sunday. (OIJ for LN
QCOSTARICA – The passport and backpack were found Friday with skeletal remains believed to be of Cody Roman Dial, in the Parque Nacional de Corcovado (Corcovado National Park).
A specialized unit of the OIJ was responsible for the collection of objects found in the national park last Sunday. (Photo from OIJ)
In an email Monday, his father, Roman Dial, who was there at the site with investigators, said they had found numerous items he believes belong to his son, including “his passport, money, map and compass, shoes, backpack, stove, machete, tarp, sleeping pad, mosquito net and more.”
On Friday, days ahead of the airing of the National Geographic Channel documentary, “Missing Dial,” (that began airing Sunday) Costa Rica’s judicial investigators, the Organismo de Investigacion Judicial (OIJ), in a press release, said the remains were found by a local man in a ravine in Quebrada Doctor, near the Negrito peak, a three-hour hike from Dos Brazos del Río Tigre, in Puerto Jiménez de Golfito.
The identification was the made separately by the dad (Roman Dial) on Sunday, and the mother (Peggy Dial) on Monday, confirmed Luis Angel Avila Espinoza, head of the OIJ delegation of Corredores, Puntarenas, the office leading the investigation of the case.
Avila said confirmation of identity will be possible once the DNA is extracted from the bones found. The DNA testing will be conducted in the laboratories of the Judicial Forensics Laboratory in San Joaquin de Flores, Heredia.
Cody Roman Dial, then 27, went missing in the park in July 2014.
According to investigators, Dial entered the park without a guide or a ranger and hasn’t been heard from since.
Much of the NatGeo documentary focuses on the theory that Cody Roman Dial’s disappearance was the result of foul play. Costa Rica authorities believe that such a theory was unlikely.
In a report by the Alaska Dispatch News, Roman Dial said he’s been dealing with an increase in media interest as a result of the timing of the documentary. Investigators insisted Friday that the timing of the finding of the remains had nothing to do with the airing of the documentary, but Dial wrote that it’s possible public relations involving the show motivated locals to find his son.
“Maybe a coincidence maybe not,” he wrote. “… I also hung Tibetan Buddhist prayer flags high across my yard, from tree top to tree top and changed my Facebook profile picture as well as told an Arctic Entries story the week we came down. Coincidence?”
President Luis Guillermo Solis is in London this week to promote investment in Costa Rica. Photo Casa Presidencial
President Luis Guillermo Solis is in London this week to promote investment in Costa Rica. Photo Casa Presidencial
QCOSTARICA – London is the third most important destination of Costa Rican exports to Europe. For that President Luis Guillermo Solis arrived there on Monday, where he is expected to meet with government officials and business executives to promote investment and trade.
In a post on Youtube, Solis answers the question, “Why are we in London?”
See the video (in Spanish).
According to the President, on Monday began an intense week of work in meetings with businessmen and investors in London as well as strengthen the strategic positioning of Costa Rica as a “hub” for commercial and logistical Americas.
On the list of meeting with government officials is British Trade Minister Lord Price. Meetings with executives from British companies with interests in Costa Rica, include Prima Fruit.
In an interview with EFE, among his wishes for his administration to strengthen bilateral trade with Britain, Solis touched on the subject of Britain’s plans to leave the European Union, saying, “it could have negative consequences.” Solis added that he ‘preferred’ that Britain remain in trade bloc.
“The opening of direct flights to Spain, France, London and connections, among others, is a very prominent point for entrepreneurs and investors to explore Costa Rica as a power market,” said Solis in a Facebook post.
Costa Rica has in the past year opened the skies to a number of new airlines with direct flights between Europe and Costa Rica.
via Panampost.com – Further developments in the Panama Papers reveal that officials of the Communist Party of Cuba used a Swiss lawyer to set up offshore companies to assist with their global businesses.
Over 11 million documents leaked from the Mossack Fonseca law firm in Panama have revealed the offshore activities of heads of state, government officials, and celebrities around the world — and some of those figures happen to be from Cuba, where the law does not include any specific legislation on offshore activities.
Albert-Louis Dupont Willemin, a Swiss lawyer and broker for more than 20 offshore companies, was linked to Cuba businesses.
Willemin also serves as honorary consul of Guatemala in Geneva. He created two offshore companies located in the British Virgin Islands through Mossack Fonseca: Curtdale Investments Limited and Ardpoint Company Inc.
Willemin declined to comment for this story.
Hernán Aguilar Parra, a member of the National Assembly of People’s Power, appeared in the Panama documents as a director for both companies. Parra stopped being a member of the Assembly in November 2015, one year after the 2014 general elections.
The tax havens are associated with the Business Group Tabacuba, a state-owned tobacco company, for which Parra also served as director until 2015.
“Members (of the Cuban Assembly) have restrictions,” a spokesman for the Center for Legal Information Cubalex said. “The role of congressman is ad honorem and cannot be used for personal gain … It wouldn’t be very well received if a state official, taking advantage of the function of his office, established trade relations with private companies.”
The former production manager of Tabacuba, Inocente Osvaldo Encarnacion, was also linked to the offshore Ardpoint Company Inc.
During a telephone interview, he confirmed Encarnacion was a shareholder of a company, but declined to name which one. He also declined to comment on its links with Ardpoint.
Mossack Fonseca’s records were obtained by the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared with journalists from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
Offshore Interests
Though the filtered data doesn’t indicate any specific crime or violation of the law, it does offer an intriguing perspective on relationship networks between Cuba and the outside world.
Pan American Corporation, based in Havana, is the entity responsible for providing Mossack Fonseca services to Cuban companies. According to the documents, the Cuban lawyer Punishable Katiuska Moreno has been the company’s legal representative.
In a brief telephone interview, Moreno said she “currently” has no links with Mossack Fonseca nor Pan American Corporation.
Moreno’s name appeared in the Panama Papers in connection with four offshore companies: Miramar Investment Corporation Ltd, Mercaria Trading, Caribbean Sugar Trader and Sanford Financial Management. Moreno appears as actual beneficiary, while Willemin appears as director.
Through Mossack Fonseca, Willemin founded Racuza S.A., a company that offers computers, peripherals, and software for the Cuban market.
The General Director of Foreign Investment of the Ministry of Foreign Trade Déborah Rivas Saavedra is also named in the Panama Papers as director of Racuza. She also appears as director of Miramar Investment Corporation Ltd and Caribbean Sugar Trader.
After two days of trying to reach out to Saavedra, her office forwarded the information requests to Roberto Berrier Castro, Director of the Center for the Promotion of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment. However, Berrier claimed that he had no information on the matter.
Among the deputy directors of Racuza are José Fernandez de Cossio, former Cuban Ambassador to Japan and Porfirio Medero Paiva and Hermes Vaillant, two Cuban lawyers working for Pan American. Paiva, Cossio, and Vaillant also appear as directors of Miramar Investment Corporation Ltd and Caribbean Sugar Trader. It was not possible to locate any of them for comment.
Legal agreements with the Cuban government
Legal Consulting International (CJI) is a Cuban law firm that provides legal assistance and advice to both individuals and businesses.
It is also a legal partner of Mossack Fonseca. The company became the main agent between the Cuban government and Mossack Fonseca.
When contacted, CJI referred information requests to lawyer René de Jesus Burguet Rodríguez, whose name also appears in an email exchange between CJI and Mossack Fonseca.
No response was received at the time of publication. The filtered data includes other links between officials and offshore companies.
The Union Research and Water Projects is a consulting service of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources (INRH), the government agency responsible for water networks and sewage on the island.
The union appears as a shareholder in Hydraulic Technology, an offshore company based in the British Virgin Islands and created through Pan American Corporation. The company owned a trading company called Technical Hydraulic INRH S.A., which operated until 2015, when it was liquidated.
CHI was responsible, according to a contract, for representing the legal affairs of offshore companies Hydraulic Technical S.A., which is managed by Mossack Fonseca.
The Panama Papers revealed that Wilfredo Leyva Armesto, also known as William Leyva, is the director of Hydraulic Technique. Leyva could not be reached for comment.
A spokesman for the Cuban parliament said he could not answer any questions related to the Panama Papers.
This work is a collaboration between the Czech Center for Investigative Journalism, Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Independent Cuban Journalists, CubaNet, and Diario de Cuba.
From pejibayes, a strange but addictive snack served with coffee, to artisan goat cheese and a seafood cocktail that’s also the world’s best hangover cure, here are eight Costa Rican foods you have to try.
QTRAVEL via Travel & Leisure – Costa Rica is well known for its lush rainforests, epic surf spots, and cuddly three-toed sloths, but its food scene is also worthy of attention.
Costa Rica’s rich culinary culture is strongly influenced by the dizzying array of fruits and veggies made possible by the same biodiversity and microclimates that make it a destination for nature lovers. The country’s modern food scene is also thriving. Here are the dishes not to miss when you visit.
Krista Simmons
Casado
In Costa Rica, rice and beans go hand in hand, nowhere more so than in its most popular menu option, a casado, which, fittingly, translates to “married” in English. Casados are complete lunches composed of black beans, rice, and a choice of protein. You can find these dishes at humble Costa Rican sodas (family-run stands, sort of like a diner) or gussied up at some of the fancier hotels, but the folks at Santa Juana Lodge do a fantastic casado with tilapia that they raise on the property’s sustainable fish farm. On the Caribbean side of the country, you’ll find a similar, Jamaican-inspired dish called “rice and beans,” whose name is said in English rather than Spanish, prepared using coconut milk and oil. Another rice-and-beans dish is gallo pinto, a typical breakfast that’s made with black beans and rice cooked together and flavored with cilantro and bell pepper.
Krista Simmons
Arreglados
Sandwiches served on rolls made with masa, arreglados are stuffed with all sorts of goodies, depending on the chef, but they always contain cheese. The sisters at family-owned Soda Tapia at the Mercado Central in San José have been making their version for 121 years. There, the family offers other typical dishes, too, like the aforementioned casado and gallo pinto, as well as chan, a health drink made with chia seeds that’s popular among native Costa Ricans.
Krista Simmons
Pejibayes
One staple of daily culture in Costa Rica is pejibayes (peach palm fruit), a slightly savory, almost artichoke-tasting fruit from a palm tree that’s traditionally boiled with a bit of salt, topped with a smattering of mayonnaise, and snacked on alongside a cup of coffee. New restaurants are also putting a modern spin on the orange-colored pejibayes, whipping them into purées with cream as they do at the fine-dining restaurant Chateau 1525 in San Jose, or blending the cooked fruit into a silken soup.
Krista Simmons
Café
Costa Ricans take their coffee very seriously; in fact, the only varietal of coffee that can be grown legally is arabica—its lower-quality cousin, robusta, is strictly forbidden. You’ll find chorreadores, a wooden pour-over apparatus, in every home, and even the simplest bars and restaurants have properly maintained espresso machines. Taza Amarilla, an excellent local roaster and cafe that can be found at San Jose’s Feria Verde farmers’ market, serves shoppers organic coffee made from beans grown on small farms in some of the country’s best regions, like Terrazu and Alajuela.
Krista Simmons
Gallitos de Picadillo
Gallitos are corn tortillas served with various toppings, such as a small brunoise of local vegetables like chayote squash, arracache (a root vegetable), or green beans, or picadillo, ground beef sautéed with onions and peppers. On weekend mornings at the aforementioned Feria Verde, local twenty-somethings cure their hangovers with orders of gallitos de picadillo topped with a fried farm egg and spicy red salsa.
Krista Simmons
Quesos Artesanales
In addition to the many traditional artisans in Costa Rica, there’s been a new wave of specialty producers, including craft beer brewers and small-batch artisan cheese makers like the farmsteaders at Monte Azul, who blend traditional goat cheesemaking techniques with their own Costa Rican spin. One of the best spots to get a taste of is at San Jose’s Furca, a farm-to-table restaurant where chef Marco Leiva serves a cornucopia of local cheeses on a massive slate smattered with nuts and preserves.
Krista Simmons
Vuelve a la Vida
The name of the dish vuelve a la vida, a Costa Rican seafood cocktail, translates “returning to life,” which is what locals believe the ceviche helps them do after a night of drinking too much guaro, a sugar cane liquor that is Costa Rica’s national spirit. At Studio Hotel, vuelve a la vida is presented as a trio of octopus, shrimp, and snapper combined with red bell pepper, citrus juices, and chiles (thankfully, the Tico tradition of adding a splash of Sprite is not observed here), and served alongside crisp, lightly salted yucca and plantain chips.
Krista Simmons
Helados de Sorbetera
You’ll find tropical-fruit flavored paletas (popsicles) and batidos (shakes) all over Costa Rica, but one thing not to be missed is the helados de sorbetera, a custard-style ice cream that’s spiked with warm spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves and somewhat reminiscent of creme brûlée. The folks at La Sorbetera de Lolo Mora have been making their killer version since 1901, but beware: you’re going to want seconds.
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Krista Simmons is a culinary travel writer and native Angeleno; she covers the Southern California beat for Travel + Leisure. You can follow her adventures bite-by-bite on Instagram.
QTRAVEL – You really don’t need a scientific study to tell you a beach vacation is relaxing, but just in case you do, a new study by Michigan State University revealed that living in a location where you have the chance to see a lot of blue spaces, like a body of water, leads to lower levels of “psychological distress.”
Although the research focused on the city of Wellington in New Zealand, and looked at the correlation between whether or not people could see the ocean and the country’s health records, Costa Rica beaches can work just as well and are much closer.
In the research, they even took into account other factors like age, sex, and wealth, and living by the sea still improved people’s mental health.
The reason? According to one of the co-authors, Amber Pearson, that brain can process natural backdrops better. “[That] reduces sensory stimuli and promotes mental relaxation,” she told Lonely Planet. “Surely mental relaxation is part of the purpose of travel and holidays.”
While the study didn’t examine the effects of shorter time periods spent by water, many travelers might argue the sounds, smells, and sight of an ocean certainly evoke that feeling of “island time.” Pearson admitted there’s more research to be done to see if those other senses come into play (such as hearing the rhythm of the waves) in regards to the healing effects of a body of water.
Interestingly, the study found that those looking at “green space” like parks or recreation fields didn’t receive the same mental health boost. But, last month a Harvard study found the opposite.
(Q24N) A sugar shortage has forced Coca-Cola to stop producing soft drinks in Venezuela amid an escalating food and energy shortage.
Mexican multinational beverage company Coca-Cola Femsa (KOF) said that suppliers in Venezuela will “temporarily cease operations due to a lack of raw materials”.
The announcement comes after the country’s biggest beer brewer, Empresas Polar, closed plants due to a barley shortage.
Venezuela’s economy has contracted sharply as oil prices plunge.
Despite this situation, the company, which employs over 7,000 people in Venezuela, does not expect to shut down operations in the country, Efe reported.
A Coca-Cola spokesperson said the company would continue producing sugarless drinks such as Coca-Cola Light (Diet Coke).
“We are engaging with suppliers, government authorities and our associates to take the necessary actions for a prompt solution,” she said.
Sugarcane production has been falling as the cost of production has risen and it has become more difficult to obtain foreign currency.
The economic problems have forced many consumers to queue for hours to buy basic foodstuffs.
Caracas (AFP) – If a visitor to Venezuela is unfortunate enough to pay for anything with a foreign credit card, the eye-watering cost might suggest they were in a city pricier than Tokyo or Zurich.
A hamburger sold for 1,700 Venezuelan bolivares is $170, or a 69,000-bolivar hotel room is $6,900 a night, based on the official rate of 10 bolivares for $1.
But of course no merchant is pricing at the official rate imposed under currency controls. It’s the black market rate of 1,000 bolivares per dollar that’s applied.
But for Venezuelans paid in hyperinflation-hit bolivares, and living in an economy relying on mostly imported goods or raw materials, conditions are unthinkably expensive.
Even for the middle class, most of it sliding into poverty, hamburgers and hotels are out-of-reach excesses.
“Everybody is knocked low,” Michael Leal, a 34-year-old manager of an eyewear store in Caracas, told AFP. “We can’t breathe.”
An employee of a butcher shop waits during a power cut in Santa Teresa, Venezuela on April 25, 2016 An employee of a butcher shop waits during a power cut in Santa Teresa, Venezuela on April 25, 2016 (AFP Photo/Federico Parra)
Shuttered stores
In Chacao, a middle-class neighborhood in the capital, office workers lined up outside a nut store to buy the cheapest lunch they could afford. Nearby restaurants were all but empty.
Superficially it looked like the center of any other major Latin American city: skyscrapers, dense traffic, pedestrians in short sleeves bustling along the sidewalks.
But look closely and you can see the economic malaise. Many stores, particularly those that sold electronics, were shuttered.
“It’s horrible now,” said Marta Gonzalez, the 69-year-old manager of a corner beauty products store.
“Nobody is buying anything really. Just food,” she said as a male customer used a debit card to pay for a couple of razor blades.
A sign above the register said “We don’t accept credit cards.”
People line up to buy groceries outside a store in Caracas on May 17, 2016 (AFP Photo/Federico Parra)
Lines for necessities
An upmarket shopping center nearby boasted a leafy rooftop terrace, a spacious Hard Rock cafe, chain stores for Zara, Swarovski and Armani Exchange.
They were all virtually deserted except for bored sales staff.
Instead a line of around 200 people was waiting patiently in front of a pharmacy.
They didn’t know what for, exactly, just that the routine now was to line up for daily deliveries of one subsidized personal hygiene product or another — toothpaste, for instance — and grab their rationed amount before it ran out, usually within a couple of minutes.
“We do this every week. And we don’t know what we’re trying to buy,” said Kevin Jaimes, a 21-year-old auto parts salesman waiting with his family.
“What’s frustrating is when you get into a gigantic line but they run out before you get any.”
The alternative then is to turn to black market merchants who sell goods at grossly inflated rates, often 100 times more than the subsidized price tag.
Jaimes lives with his family of seven, and tries to get by on a monthly salary of 35,000 bolivares — in reality, around $35.
That sum is too paltry for him to even think about dropping into the cinema upstairs in the center, where tickets are 8,800 bolivares.
If somehow he could, he’d find the same sort of entertainment being shown in American multiplexes: “The Jungle Book,” “Captain America: Civil War,” and “Angry Birds.”
But motion pictures and popcorn, while maybe an enticing diversion, are luxuries Venezuelans these days can ill afford.
Burger King restaurants will soon reappear in Costa Rica.
QCOSTARICA – The Burger King brand will soon return to Costa Rica, reports La Republica, confirming confidential sources that the new business group acquiring the brand has recalled some employees of the previous operator that closed last year.
La Republica says the new company is working on training seminars for the reintegration of employees.
The company is also in the process of renovating the Novacentro location. Some of the former Burger King stores were acquired by other fast food companies, like Popeye’s and KFC, while others, like the Sabana norte location is now an Avis car rental office.
In October last year, following a break down of negotiations between the parent company in the U.S. and local franchisee, the Burger King brand disappeared in Costa Rica, closing 29 restaurants and the layoff of 434 people.
Source: Larepublica.net
The Costa Rica brand "Pops" is now part of the Colombian group, Nutresa
The Costa Rica brand “Pops” is now part of the Colombian food conglomorate Grupo Nutresa.
QCOSTARICA – Being part of a large multinational chain can be beneficial to national brands, giving them exposure to foreign markets.
The now “internationalized” brands born in Costa Rica are Lizano, the salsa company bought out by Unilever; TicoFrut, the fruit exporter is now part of Nicaragua’s Grupo Pellas; Gallito, the cookie company acquired was by Mondelēz, the American multinational confectionery, food, and beverage conglomerate based in Illinois; Atlas appliances are now part of Mexico’s Mabe; and Pozuelo and Pops, which are now owned by Colombia’s Grupo Nutresa, the food processing conglomerate headquartered in Medellín, Colombia.
Pipasa and Cinta Azul are now owned by Cargill, the U.S. company that provides food, agriculture, financial and industrial products and services to the world. And Durman Esquivel, specializing in PVC piping is now owned by the Belgian company, Aliaxis.
For some, like Pozuelo, the internationalization has meant an increase in 15% in sales and the addition of the Tosh brand at its La Uruca manufacturing plant. Salsa Lizano now reaches the U.S. market, Panama and other South American countries.
However, not all acquisitions benefited the country. In the case of Gallito, the Mondeléz company will be closing its plant in Costa Rica starting in July, though it says it will keep a marketing and services centre in the country.
The Atlas brand disappeared with the purchase by Made, as did the manufacturing. The Mexican company last December moved the refrigerator line production away from Costa Rica.
A bald tire like in the photo will not pass the Riteve vehicular inspection. So what is a driver to do? In Costa Rica there is always the option of renting for a few hours to pass the inspection, then...
A bald tire like in the photo will not pass the Riteve vehicular inspection. So what is a driver to do? In Costa Rica there is always the option of renting for a few hours to pass the inspection, then…
QCOSTARICA – Renting tires to pass the vehicular inspection has become more common, to the point where the Riteve vehicular inspection service has noted a concern in its 2015 report to transport authorities.
Following this, the Consejo de Seguridad Vial (Cosevi) – Roads Safety Council – has made the decision to take tougher action on drivers during routine roadside inspections.
The Policia de Transito (Traffic Police), working with Riteve will be able to inspect items such as tires and emissions. This is a practice that has been carried out at times, but not to any great extent.
Through spotchecks, the Traffic Police can carry out a mini vehicular inspection to verify the safety of the vehicles.
How does tire rentals work?
Simple, you know the tires on your vehicles are bad. You have several choices: one, undergo the vehicular inspection in the hopes of passing; tow, buy new tires; or three, rent.
Renters of tires typically locate themselves near a Riteve inspection station, with ample signage to let would be customers know of their service.
One, two, three or four tires, in exchange for payment, are mounted on the vehicle to be inspected. After the inspection, you go back to get your “old” tires mounted back on your vehicle.
You now have a driveable car until the next inspection or an accident where you bald tires failed, whichever comes first.
Combating the tire rental problem
Transport authorities have proposed several mechanisms to combat tire rental, including each tire sold in Costa Rica come with a serial number or the permanent etching of the license plate number on each tire. The latter has caused controversy, given that the tires then become useless if the vehicle they are to be used on becomes a junker, even though the tires still have plenty of life. With the former, it would be a matter of convincing Costa Rica tire manufacturers to comply. What about all the imported tires?
Boyaca, a province in central Colombia, is set to be the first in the country to begin production of medical marijuana, according to local media.
The Government of Boyaca, Canadian laboratory Canavida and the Pedagogical and Technological University of Colombia (UPTC) has been promoting the project that seeks to grow marijuana in several greenhouses across the department
The project aims to further drug research, particularly in relation to curing epilepsy and cancer.
“The idea is that the project begins to walk in the second half of this year. Initially it would be experimental, but if it works the idea is to expand the number of hectares planted, in such a way that this process could be brought forward with associations of duly organized peasants, ” said Jorge Ivan Londoño, the agriculture secretary of Boyaca.
According to Londoño, “there is a possibility that this Canadian company build a laboratory in Boyaca.”
The experimental program in Boyaca comes after President Juan Manuel Santos signed a decree in December last year legalizing the growth and sale of marijuana for medical purposes.
Santos claimed that the new legislation would “put Colombia at the vanguard and forefront of the fight against illnesses.”
Successful production of medical marijuana would allow Colombia to lead the line in the fight against diseases such as epilepsy and cancer.
Londoño confirmed that the lab has already bought 10 hectares in the department and was in the process of legalizing the agreements before research into plant production can begin.
“What they are interested in is the flower of the plant, that is where you extract the inputs that would be exported, because these are the ones that are required to produce drugs for the treatment of diseases such as cancer and epilepsy that this firm currently market in Canada,” said the official.
The Boyaca official explained the delicate nature of the project in that “the requirement is that they are one hundred percent organic crops, and cannot contain traces of agro-chemicals and may not be contaminated by any substance,” he said.
Londoño said the goal is to make marijuana a more productive chain than potatoes and coffee in the department.
Santos has long been an advocate of reforming international drug policy.
A number of countries in Latin America have decriminalized or legalized marijuana use in recent years, as have US states such as Colorado, Oregon and Washington.
Uruguay fully legalized the production, sale and recreational use of marijuana in 2013.
(Q24N) Millennials have surpassed Baby Boomers as the nation’s largest living generation, according to population estimates released this month by the U.S. Census Bureau. Millennials, whom we define as those ages 18-34 in 2015, now number 75.4 million, surpassing the 74.9 million Baby Boomers (ages 51-69). And Generation X (ages 35-50 in 2015) is projected to pass the Boomers in population by 2028.
The Millennial generation continues to grow as young immigrants expand its ranks. Boomers – whose generation was defined by the boom in U.S. births following World War II – are older and their numbers shrinking as the number of deaths among them exceeds the number of older immigrants arriving in the country.
Generations are analytical constructs, and developing a popular and expert consensus on what marks the boundaries between one generation and the next takes time. Pew Research Center has established that the oldest “Millennial” was born in 1981. The Center continues to assess demographic, attitudinal and other evidence on habits and culture that will help to establish when the youngest Millennial was born or even when a new generation begins. To distill the implications of the census numbers for generational heft, this analysis assumes that the youngest Millennial was born in 1997.
Here’s a look at some generational projections:
Millennials
With immigration adding more numbers to its group than any other, the Millennial population is projected to peak in 2036 at 81.1 million. Thereafter the oldest Millennial will be at least 56 years of age and mortality is projected to outweigh net immigration. By 2050 there will be a projected 79.2 million Millennials.
Generation X
For a few more years, Gen Xers are projected to remain the “middle child” of generations – caught between two larger generations of the Millennials and the Boomers. They are smaller than Millennials because the generational span of Gen X (16 years) is shorter than the Millennials (17 years). Also, the Gen Xers were born during a period when Americans were having fewer children than later decades. When Gen Xers were born, births averaged around 3.4 million per year, compared with the 3.9 million annual rate during the 1980s and 1990s when Millennials were born.
Though the oldest Gen Xer is now 50, the Gen X population will still grow for a few more years. The Gen X population is projected to outnumber the Boomers in 2028 when there will be 64.6 million Gen Xers and 63.7 million Boomers. The Census Bureau projects that the Gen X population will peak at 65.8 million in 2018.
Baby Boomers
Baby Boomers have always had an outsized presence compared with other generations. They were the largest generation and peaked at 78.8 million in 1999.
There were an estimated 74.9 million Boomers in 2015. By midcentury, the Boomer population will dwindle to 16.6 million.
This post was originally published on Jan. 16, 2015, and updated on April 25, 2016, to indicate that Millennials have officially surpassed Baby Boomers in population.
The Turrialba volcano now in its fourth day of spewing ash, gases and pyroplastic material
The Turrialba volcano now in its fourth day of spewing ash, gases and pyroplastic material
QCOSTARICA San Jose, May 23, 5:35am – Today Monday is the fourth consecutive day of Turrialba volcano spewing ash, gases and pyroplastic materials. The volcano has not stopped since Friday.
The experts at the Red Sismológica Nacional (RSN) – National Seismological Network, say the there is a great amount of pressure in the interior of the colossus, the magnitude is not known.
Most of the time the volcano’s behaviour has been passive without explosions, however, experts says the odds are that the activity will increase.
From the first hours of the eruption communities, mainly in the northeast side of San Jose, like Coronado and Moravia were the most affected.
The ashfall has continued west to areas of Pavas, Santa Ana, Belen in Heredia and Alajuela. Some reports say ashfall has reached the Central Pacific coast.
On Sunday. added to the list of affected areas are San Gerardo de Irazú in Oreamuno and Picada and la Silvia, in the area of Santa Cruz de Turrialba nearest the colossus, within 2 kilometres of the crater. San Gerardo is about 5 kilometres.
The Comisión Nacional de Emergencia (CNE) – National Emergency Commission and the mayor of Oreamuno, Catalina Coghi Ulloa, says there is concern for the some 50 families living in the area, the six students at the local school, the 20 dairy farms and almost 2,000 cows. The mayor added that milk production has dropped some 15% due to the constant ashfall.
Although airport operations at San Jose’s Juan Santamaria International (SJO), many airlines (local, regional and international) have cancelled flights since Friday. Please check your airline before leaving for the airport. Flight information is also available at FligthRadar24.com and Fly2SanJose.com (the official airport website)
The thickness of ash in some points from the top is up to four centimeters. (Joshua Hernandez)
The thickness of ash in some points from the top is up to four centimeters (1.5 inches). Photo Joshua Hernandez, La Nacion
QCOSTARICA – The Turrialba volcano is now in its third day of constantly spewing ash, gas and rock. The colossus made an “important” eruption Friday morning, the third since 2014 when it began its current cycle of activity. The Comisión Nacional de Emergencias (CNE) – national emergency commission – reports nothing has changed since and passive emissions of ash continues.
On Friday, the eruptions reached 3,000 metres (3 kilometres or 1.9 miles) above the crater. The CNE reports the current emissions reaching heights of 1.000 metres (1 kilometre), spreading ash in many areas of the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM).
On Saturday, though the San Jose’s Juan Santamaria International airport (SJO) remained in operation, many airlines, in particular American and Canadian airlines, cancelled flights to Costa Rica. Saturday night, the San Jose airport was “solo”, a Spanish term for nobody there.
The thickness of ash in some places has been reported up to four centimetres (1.5 inches).
According to the CNE, the fine ash dust has even reached the central Pacific, according to reports they have received.
Late Saturday afternoon, the weather conditions over the Central Valley remained very cloudy. It was unclear (no pun intended) if the clouds were normal clouds or ash clouds. Areas like Coronado, one of the higher points in San Jose’s northeast, was the most affected.
According to reports by scientists at the CNE, the activity is likely to continue.
Orlando Luna, a park ranger with seven years at the Turrialba National Park, told La Nacion that the recent eruptions have changed compared to others and is now afraid to be in the Central Valley.
“You can see blocks that look like coal pieces spewing out and falling out of the mountain, the gas eruptions reached some 200 metres to the ranger station,” said Luna. Since Friday, park rangers have stopped climbing to what was the old ranger guard-house of the volcano.
CNE authorities are recommend caution and the population be alert to information issued by official bodies such as the CNE or other scientific-technical agencies that oversee the colossus and not pay attention to information from unscrupulous individuals looking to create panic.
Editor’s note:
Being in Piedades de Santa Ana, west of San Jose, I am still cleaning up ash from the cars and walks. This morning I can see the wind blowing out ash collected on my roof. On my trip to Pavas Saturday morning, I could feel in my eyes and throat the severity of the ash fall: very strong compared to Santa Ana, which is in lower ground. My first thoughts is I have to buy a mask. In fact, several of the security guards at Plaza Rohrmoser were wearing them. I can only imagine what people are going through in places like Coronado.
Use the comments section below to share your story. If you want to share photos send to rico@theqmeida.com or post to our Facebook page.
With Google translate and your smartphone's camera translate anything instantly, on or offline.
With Google translate and your smartphone’s camera translate text instantly in 29 languages, on or offline.
QTECH – When travelling to Costa Rica or in any foreign country, simply hold your smartphone camera up anything – a sign, a menu, a document, etc., even your computer screen – and it will be instantly translated.
And the best part: it’s free, thanks to Google.
A few years back, a company called Quest Visual debuted a little app called World Lens. Now Google has bought it, made it part of Google Translate and made it available to everyone for free.
With the app, free at the Apple and Google stores, users can translate the world, App can translate between 103 languages by typing, 52 languages when you have no internet. Smartphone users, using the camera can translate text instantly in 29 languages.
The app isn’t perfect, it does make some mistakes, however, most of the time it will get the point across.
This is a screenshot of this story instantly translated on my iPhone 7SE.
Because it isn’t known how long the app will remain for free on the stores, recommend that you pick it up as soon as possible, particularly if you travel internationally.
From the internet
See the video in 2010 by Quest Visual 2010 introducing World Lens
Roman Dial, left, and his family have been searching for Cody, right, for more than two years.
Photograph courtesy of Dial family
For twelve days in July 2014, search and rescuer teams searched in different sectors of the park to find the Cody Roman Dial, but found not a single trace of the missing adventurer. Archive photo from Cruz Roja (Red Cross)
(Q24N) Human remains found in the Costa Rican jungle are believed to belong to missing adventurer Cody Roman Dial, who disappeared more than two years ago.
The 27-year-old Alaskan had embarked on an odyssey through Central America in early 2014, climbing the region’s highest peak in Guatemala, surfing in Nicaragua, and finally hacking his way through the notorious rain forest of Corcovado National Park in Costa Rica.
Roman Dial, left, and his family have been searching for Cody, right, for more than two years. Photograph courtesy of Dial family
Cody’s father Roman Dial, a biologist, famed outdoorsman, and National Geographic Explorer, last heard from him in July 2014, when he emailed from an Internet café in the small town of Puerto Jiménez, Costa Rica. A few days later, following a plan to go off the main trails without the legally required guide, Cody entered the rain forest with only his backpack and a map printed off the Internet.
Then he disappeared.
Now, after searching for two years, Roman and his wife Peggy finally have some closure.
“It is with profound sadness and incredibly mixed emotions that I can say my son’s remains have likely been found,” Roman said in a statement. The pair are on their way to Costa Rica to identify the body.
A local man found the remains and equipment under a tree in the Corcovado jungle. The site is about a three- to five-hour trek from the town of Dos Brazos, where Cody was last seen, says Aengus James, director and executive producer of six-part true-crime series Missing Dial, premiering on the National Geographic Channel on Sunday, May 22.
The FBI briefed Roman and Peggy on Thursday morning and, from pictures, the pair were able to identify the shoes found near the remains as likely belonging to Cody.
That area of the jungle has been searched before, so it’s unclear whether the remains have been there the whole time or were moved recently. A team of Costa Rican law enforcement officials and experts are en route to the scene.
Missing Dial Trailer National Geographic launches a covert investigation into the disappearance of adventurer Cody Dial. See story here.
Click here for the La Nacion story (in Spanish) of the discovery.
Following the Trail
When Dial first went missing, Costa Rican search-and-rescue teams scoured the jungle for 12 days. Roman flew down to assist and even snuck into the jungle to conduct his own off-the-books search.
Once Costa Rican authorities suspended their operations, Roman continued on his own. He called in a team from an Anchorage wilderness survival school, but they found no trace of his missing son.
Roman has returned to Costa Rica many times to continue his search, which was documented in Missing Dial.
Reporter Damon Tabor spoke to Roman for National Geographic earlier this month about his search.
“I came to the conclusion that Cody wasn’t lost in the jungle,” Roman told Tabor. He called in a former DEA agent and a retired Air Force pararescue jumper to aid his investigations. “I needed someone who could go around and ask questions and know what kind of questions to ask.”
It turns out that Cody hadn’t been swallowed by the jungle—at least not at first. Apparently the U.S. embassy had been holding on to Cody’s backpack, which had been at a hostel in Puerto Jiménez. That proved the missing adventurer had come back out of the wilderness.
The investigation is now centered around a trip Cody apparently took after he left the jungle. He traveled with a man named Pata de Loro (“Parrot’s Foot”) to Dos Brazos, a gold mining town at the edge of Corcovado. The area is notorious for drawing outlaw gold miners, cocaine traffickers, and other criminals. In January, Roman found Cody’s foam sleeping mat in a miner’s tent. That was one of the only pieces of physical evidence—until now.
“We know that Cody was murdered, and we know that there is a suspect,” Roman told National Geographic. When asked how he knows, he said he’d prefer not to answer until the show airs or an arrest is made.
For now, the FBI and the Oganismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ), Costa Rica’s federal investigation agency, are continuing their investigations, and no arrests have been made.
Complete article by By Rachael Bale can be found at National Geopgraphic. This story was updated at 3:29 p.m. on May 21, 2015. Damon Tabor contributed to this story.
May 21, 7:13pm – video by the Red Sismológica Nacional (RSN) – National Seismological Network – show the magnitude of the 7:20am Friday morning eruption of the Turrialba volcano.
The event lasted for six minutes and sent up a column of material to almost 3.000 metres (3 kilometres) above the crater.
Saturday afternoon the colossus continued, at a lower intensity, to spew ash and gas. Many area of northeast and west of San Jose have been affected by the ashfall.
San Jose Juan Santamaria International airport (SJO) terminal. From photo archives
San Jose Juan Santamaria International airport (SJO) terminal. From photo archives
QCOSTARICA – Hundreds of passengers were affected Saturday with the decision of two U.S. airlines, American and United, to suspend a number of flights between Costa Rica and the United States, confirmed Ennio Cubillo, director of Civil Aviation.
Despite airport operations at the Juan Santamaria (San Jose) airport are normal, the two airlines said the suspension was safety measure due to weather conditions in Costa Rican territory due to the ashfall from the Turrialba Volcano.
Cubillo added that Alaska Airlines decided to divert their flight to the Daniel Oduber airport in Liberia, Guanacaste.
You can check flights arrivals and departures at the San Jose Juan Santamaria international airport on Flighradar24.com and the Aeris website, Fly2sanjose.com. Passengers should also contact their airline to check on flights before leaving for the airport.
Activity at the Turrialba intensified on Friday, with at least three strong eruptions. During Saturday morning emanation of ash continued, but to a lesser extent that the previous day, according to the statement by both the National Seismological Network (RSN) and by the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (OVSICORI).
QCOSTARICA BLOGS – The First Award Goes to: -Taxing ATM withdrawals. That is right, the executive branch has proposed to the assembly to put a 0.02% tax on every ATM withdrawal of 100 colones or more.
So for us expats, and Ticos, who have offshore business deposits or retirement funds in a foreign bank and want to take out much-needed cash, it will cost a .0.002% tax.
For lack of trust, many, or even most, foreigners have business and retirement funds directly deposited to their U.S. banks and then a portion, as needed, transferred to a Costa Rican bank by use of an ATM machine.
Now, the proposal is that ATM’s charge a fee, the foreign bank charges a fee and our never tireless tax collector may also charge a fee.
In my case of Bac San Jose the fee to use an ATM that is not theirs is $4.75, Wells Fargo USA, for the transaction, is $2.50 + the 2% CR tax.
*If you use the BCR there is no foreign transaction fee on their end. However, the maximum withdrawal is one hundred USD.
Is there any way you cannot be taxed in Pura Vida land?
The Second Award Goes to. President Sólis .
Stand up a take a bow, Mr. President!
As we, the country fight off a fiscal collapse, you have decided to take a 12 day trip to the U.S. and Europe as well as a stop and see the Vatican.
The reason?
Well, he never said the reason except to promote CR globalization, whatever that means. Somebody needs to inform the president that we are in a crisis, we are losing business, the people are angry and his own legislator does not support him.
Meeting the Pope is indeed an honor, but unless it leads to one of the Vatican banks coming to Costa Rica, it is best to skip this itinerary which will certainly focus on the old standby, “We are a democracy, we have no army and a Central American leader in education.”
Then comes, “If the Vatican Bank has any left over funds, we sure can us them to build roads!
The Fourth Award Goes to: Who and the hell decided we will subsidize electric cars?
The proposal is If you import an electric plug-in car, you will receive a dramatic 1% duty, no marchamo, preferred parking, and driving plus a lot more benefits.
While perhaps well-meaning there are a lot more issues, who and the hell will plug-in their hybrid using the ICE electricity at a cost of double gasoline?
Outside of our homes, there are no electric chargers despite a proclamation that service stations and hotels will make them available.
Much like seeing the government reduce its spending, I really want to see it use electric or hybrid plug-in cars! In short, you go first.
Expers recommend the use of face masks for those with respiratory problems and skin allergies.
Coronado reports selling 1.000 face masks in less than 2 hours Friday morning.
QCOSTARICA – A pharmacy in Coronado, one of the areas most affected by the ashfall from the eruption of the Turrialba volcano Friday morning, reports selling more than 1,000 face masks in less than two hours.
The El Pilar, located by the Coronado park, said it call its supplier for more stock.
Coronado and Guadalupe on the northeast side of San Jose are two areas most affected by the ash fall driven by winds from the colossus.
Friday morning in the areas of Coronado and Guadalupe, northeast side of San Jose, following the latest eruption of the Turrialba volcano
In downtown San Jose Friday night, cars parked all day were covered with a fine layer of ash and the smell of sulfur was in the air.
For their part, the water utility, Acueductos y Alcantarillados (AyA) reports that the drinking water is not affected by the ashfall. The power and light company, the Compañía Nacional de Fuerza y Luz (CNFL), reports minor damage to its electrical network from the accumulation of ash. The CNFL says it will on Monday start a cleaning process of its equipment, starting in Coronado.
Experts recommend the use of face masks for those with respiratory problems and cover up for people with skin allergies.
Medical experts recommend the use of face masks given that the volcanic ash can cause asthma. According to the experts, visits to hospitals and clinics have increased as a result of the activity of the volcano.
QCOSTARICA – Last night Casa Presidencial was dressed in the colour pink, so was the Movistar offices in Escazu, in celebration of a historic day for country and cyclist Andrey Amador, who become the first rider from Costa Rica to wear the Giro d’Itlia pink race leader’s jersey.
“It’s a special day for me and it’s a historic day for Costa Rican cycling. I’m really happy to be in pink after 13 hard stages and be up with the favourites to win the Giro d’Italia,” Amador said with pride.
“Even though we’re a small country there’s a cycling tradition in Costa Rica. Former riders like Federico Ramirez and Adrian Bonilla helped me climb the mountain in the world of professional cycling and helped me race in Spain. We’re trying to develop cycling and grow internationally. I know that people at home are there supporting me through the good and bard times, I know they’re to help me.”
Casa Presidencial in Zapote Friday night
Amador fought hard to stay with the select lead group of overall contenders on the little-known but steep climbs in the Julian Alps of northern Friuli. He was dropped on the final climb but chased back and took the pink jersey from Bob Jungels (Etixx-QuickStep), who also fought all day but finished 50 seconds back. Amador pulled on the maglia rosa and now leads the talented Luxembourg rider by 26 seconds.
Telefonica (Movistar) offices in Escazu Friday night.
Amador leads Alejandro Valverde by 43 seconds as the overall contenders are set to tackle the queen stage of the Giro d’Italia in the spectacular Dolomites on Saturday. Amador finished fourth in the 2015 Giro d’Italia but put aside his personal ambitions and vowed loyalty to Valverde and the Movistar team.
“We came to the Giro d’Italia with Alejandro as the undisputed leader. We know the phenomenal rider that he is and that the team is in great shape,” he said.
“We’ve still got to think about tomorrow yet but I hope that Alejandro is my grand successor in the pink jersey. I know who I am and where I come from, so I have no problem dedicating myself to help Alejandro. I’ll give him 100% support and help him to achieve our goal of having the pink jersey on stage 21 in Turin. We’ve got it on the 13th stage and that is a great start.”
What Happened to My Son? National Geographic explorer Roman Dial is determined to find out what happened to his son, Cody Roman Dial, on a solo expedition through the Corcovado National Park in Costa Rica. “We’re going to dig in our heels and stay until we get the answers we need.” Photo from National Geographic website.
QCOSTARICA via Examiner.com – National Geographic posted on May 19 to their Facebook page a preview clip of “Missing Dial, along with a caption stating that Roman Dial’s bond with his son flourished, stemming from their mutual love for the wilderness and for exploration. The two explored the world together prior to Cody’s mysterious disappearance.
Now Roman is leaving no stone unturned in order to find his son.
MISSING DIAL TRAILER. National Geographic launches a covert investigation into the disappearance of adventurer Cody Dial.
In 2014, 27-year-old Cody Dial disappeared in the Corcovado National Park in Costa Rica. Since then, no one has seen or heard from him. Cody is the son of National Geographic Alaskan adventurer, Roman Dial. Roman states in the preview that he has spent his life as a teacher, a scientist and an explorer. From an early age, Cody followed in his father’s footsteps, and the pair traveled the world together.
Before leaving for Costa Rica, Cody told his parents that he was opting to go alone without a guide to help him traverse the 160-square miles of the park. He wanted to go by himself so he could trek through the trails that tourists aren’t allowed access to. Everyone was confident that he would be fine, after all this was his second visit. The first time he was accompanied by his father, so they both knew about and were familiar with the risks in the area. Although knowledgeable about the park, Cody still had to stay safety conscious and always be aware of the snakes, thick foliage and harsh terrain that surrounded him.
On July 24, 2014, Roman and Peggy Dial reported that their son was missing somewhere on the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica. He had sent an email outlining his plans, the route he planned to take and even included a link to a map, so at least Roman had those clues to go on in his search for his beloved son. Since then, the Dial’s have been tirelessly searching for Cody, even setting up a GoFundMe account in order to raise the funds to continue the search.
According to Entertainment Weekly, after unsuccessfully searching the Costa Rican jungle, which is also riddled with illegal gold-mining and other criminal activities, Roman decided to enlist the aid of two private investigators. Carson Ulrich is a retired DEA agent who worked in Latin America for 25 years, and the fact that he speaks Spanish is a definite plus. Kenneth Fornier is a retired Air Force para-rescue jumper and wilderness expert.
For over eight long months, they tracked down eyewitnesses and traveled throughout the jungle. Along the way, they also used hidden cameras and fake identities to uncover any clues as to what happened to Cody. According to Real Screen, National Geographic stated that there would be, “surprising clues and a shocking plot twist that rivals that of a blockbuster movie.”
“Missing Dial” is more than just a true-crime series where filmmakers look back at past cases,” said Tim Pastore, National Geographic’s president of original programming and production.
“National Geographic not only captured the sensitive and personal journey of the Dials, but also exposed in real time the nuances of this intricate and delicate missing person investigation as clues and leads were being unearthed.”
The six-part, true crime series will be available on Hulu and other VOD (video on demand) platforms the day after the premiere. “Missing Dial” airs on Sunday, May 22 at 10 p.m. ET on the National Geographic Channel.
Photo of the Turrialba volcano Friday by Blas Enrique Sánchez, official at the CNE, the national emergency commission.
QCOSTARICA – The 7:21am Friday morning eruption of the Turrialba volcano, lasting six minutes, is the third most important of the eruptive cycle that began in 2014. Experts do not rule out more powerful eruptions.
On Friday, the volcano spewed out rocks, gas and ash some three kilometres above the crater. Experts believe future eruptions could hit up to five kilometres.
Central Valley population reacts to the ashfall after Friday morning’s eruptions. Photo La Nacion Facebook page
Javier Pacheco, the Seismological and Volcanological Observatory of Costa Rica (OVSICORI), explained that after the May 12 eruption, the internal passages of the colossus cleared, that now allows constant escape and unhindered magmatic gases and ashes.
The following is a time-lapse of the Turrialba volcano eruption Friday, May 20, 2016 by Novum Films
He added that in the latest eruptions, rocks fell about 800 metres from crater.
After the eruption yesterday, the fine ashfall was reported in places like Coronado, San Pedro, Heredia, Santa Ana, Escazú and as far as Palmares.
Despite all this activity, during a press conference of the National Emergency Commission (CNE), in Pavas, interim President (President Luis Guillermo Solis is on an away trip), Ana Helena Chacon, called for calm.
Chacon, however, asked residents near the Turrialba volcano that in the event of a major emergency, they should comply with evacuation orders.
Ivan Brenes, president of the CNE, said that both the Juan Santamaria (San Jose) airport in Alajuela, and Tobias Bolaños in Pavas, remained open.
Mauricio Mora, volcanologist of the National Seismological Network (RSN), explained that the magma chamber of the volcano, located about four kilometres deep, is connected with the surface by means of many fissures through which magma can rise.
Wearing masks in San Jose following the Friday morning Turrialba volcano eruption. Photo La Nacion Facebook page.
He added that the level of magma rises each time a little more to the surface and that upon reaching the groundwater, it generates explosions and eruptions opening ducts, which would facilitate the release of material.
For the time being, the CNE and other technical and advisory bodies have taken the decision, for safety reasons, not to allow staff to reach the top of the volcano.
San Jose Firday afternoon. Photos from La Nacion Facebook page.
