It is no secret that close ties between Costa Rica and United States have been creating certain cultural trends in the Central American nation over the years. The Halloween and Thanksgiving Day traditions come to mind, but the rise of consumer culture in Costa Rica is a better example. In this regard, some merchants in Costa Rica are poised to outdo their U.S. counterparts by augmenting the Black Friday shopping event with a Black November.

Black Friday in Costa Rica is mostly a 21^st century phenomenon. It closely follows the post-Thanksgiving Day shopping madness in the U.S. and it just happens to fall right after a period of inventory clearance and accounting reconciliation in Costa Rica. In the U.S., Black Friday has the connotation of kicking off the busy holiday shopping season, which prompts retailers to use black ink pens on their accounting ledgers to mark profits rather than red ink for losses.

Costa Rica also had a notorious Black Friday in 2011 that involved police raids on the offices of a few online poker firms that were targeted by the U.S. Department of Justice. That may have been a sad Black Friday for online poker enthusiasts and industry insiders, but not for Tico shoppers who set aside portions of their modest paychecks and load up on credit cards for the November shopping bash.

What happens is that retailers in Costa Rica try to mirror the deep discounts seen in the U.S. during Black Friday. The intention is the same: Take a chance on reducing margin per unit, but move more merchandise and increase store traffic. This has been a winning formula for Tico merchants, especially for those who sell home appliances, electronics, clothing, toys, perfumes, and even tires.

Black November in Golfito

For Tico consumers, the merchandise warehouses in the port of Golfito, province of Puntarenas, are a shopping mecca. This is where many imported items such as appliances, electronics and liquor arrive, and they are often offered at discount. Golfito is similar to a duty-free zone in Costa Rica, although all taxes are duly applied and collected here. The discounts are based on the fact that items purchased here do not enter the retail supply chain and thus do not incur transportation, distribution and marketing costs.

Instead of waiting for the Black Friday madness, retailers in Golfito have decided to turn the penultimate month of the year into Black November. According to a recent article by Patricia Leon of national newspaper La Nacion, Golfito is ready to welcome shoppers with reduced prices on November 1^st.

Expats in Costa Rica who often complain that life here is just too expensive are often seen flocking to Golfito. This year, they will have many transportation and lodging options. Most of them leave from San Jose and provide shoppers with a comfortable, air-conditioned bus equipped with a bathroom to minimize stops. Bus tickets plus overnight accommodation cost between $50 and $60. Domestic airline Sansa, known for providing excellent service and even rescuing wildlife in Costa Rica, will offer round-trip flights to Golfito for just $87.

Some enterprising drivers in Guanacaste are putting together packages for residents of Playas del Coco and other beaches in the Pacific Northwest of Costa Rica. This usually involves transportation to and from San Jose. Shoppers who purchase big items such as stoves, refrigerators, washers, dryers, etc., can negotiate delivery from Golfito to their homes, which is usually about 3 percent of the purchase price. Expats are known to travel to Golfito looking for deals on trusted brands such as Whirlpool, Maytag and GE.

Article by Costa Rica Star

Enjoy a completely different trip. During ExpoVino 2013, you can travel around more than 80 wine distributors and producers from all around the world. Try the different wine varieties and qualities and get to know their main cellars.

The 4th edition of ExpoVino is organized by Apetito, a magazine specialized on the hotel and restaurant business, from Thursday, October  24rd  to Friday, October 25th, 2013 from 3:00 pm to 9:00 pm at the Real Intercontinental & Club Tower Costa Rica.

Activities include expert oenologists and cellar representatives tutor wine tastings with the opportunity to travel “virtually” around world’s most renowned wine regions as well as tasting the wines. Visitors will receive an exhibit guide called the “Directorio”.

The tickets have a cost of $55.00 per day or $99 for the two days.

To purchase tickets contact  Karol Alvarez karol@ekaconsultores.com Tel: (506)4001-6736  Cel: (506)6068-3343 or online at the ExpoVino website.

Sometimes, Costa Rica surprises one by getting ahead of the game — the community of Santa Teresa de Cóbano is the first in the country to offer drills to evacuate people to high ground to prevent loss of life in the event of a tsunami, a huge wave set off by a seaquake.

On the Pacific Rim, tsunamis have taken the lives of thousands in Malaysia and Japan in recent years. Costa Rica has braced for the worst several times during alerts, but none have hit here. Rather than trust to luck, the Cóbano District Council in this Puntarenas canton town opted for prevention.

Last Wednesday, educator Emilio Duran led 11 first graders from a local school to a secure refuge. This is the fourth such drill since 2011. Duran exhorted his charges to, “Don’t run, just walk rapidly… Are we all here? …The quake was big and there can be a tsunami…”

In a country where people often wait until the worst happens in a vain hope that nothing will, the Cóbano plan is refreshing. But the community has an advantage — safe areas 40 meters (about 140 feet) above sea level exist within an easy walking distance of only 200 to 400 meters (yards) of the town.

The Council has taken pains to ensure that the residents all know the escape route to take. This contrasts with the short-sightedness of businessmen in Garabito canton who stopped a similar movement because they felt such negative preparedness was “bad for business.”

Gladys Morua and three other women of Santa Teresa led the movement in 2011, not long after a quake in Peru raised an alert for a tsunami that never happened. Morua also told the newspaper La Nacion that she heard of the possibility of a quake on the Nicoya Peninsula in 2005.

That quake in Nicoya did happen in 2012 but created no tsunami because it was under the peninsula land mass. During the Peru quake “the escape route from San Isidro became congested,” she said, and it occurred to the four women that no one knew what to do to flee disaster.

The effort was backed gladly by the National Emergency Committee and the Bonsai Program of the Japanese Cooperation Agency. After the heavy Nicoya  quake on Sept. 5, 2012, the movement was backed by the University of Costa Rica’s National Seismic Network.

It started with concern for the safety of the 215 school children in the village and then gradually passed to education of adults. Morua pointed out that if the tsunami developed as the result of a local quake, the quake itself would be alert enough.

However, if it develops far from the country’s western shore in the Pacific Ocean, radio would alert someone and then a police car would circulate, spreading the warning. The Pacific Ocean, because of its propensity for earth movement and seaquakes, has a network of advance warning triggers,

Comment: The town still probably needs a direct line to the seismic network and a siren. But the town is to be commended for its foresight and action. We might mention that not everyone in Garabito canton is asleep. The hotel Marriot Los Sueños in that area offers prominent placards on its walls instructing vacationers in escape routes.

The town that still is in the greatest danger is Puntarenas, a Pacific port city not only threatened by tsunami danger but also by rising ocean levels from global warming caused by melting of the polar icecaps. Not only does it have far more people to move in an emergency but higher ground is some distance away.

So far, the city has done nothing to protect its residents, probably through inertia, a fatalistic attitude or opposition by dim bulb businessmen. One is reminded of the movie Jaws where retailers and resort owners block efforts to save lives from shark attack because such a move would be “bad for business.”

Article by iNews.co.cr

In an effort to live the “American Dream” at all costs, many fall victim to hoaxters who make claim they can easily help arrange a work, residency or tourist visa to the United States.

However, the demand for the false documents has dropped. According to Costa Rica’s Attorney General the number of complaints has dropped from an average of 40 a year to only two so far for 2013.

The Fiscal Adjunto de Pérez Zeledón, Édgar Ramírez, told CRHoy.com, that there are several reasons for the decline, one has to do with the difficult economic situation in the United States and the impossibility of getting good jobs.

Ramirez added that the hoaxters are the usual group of individuals, known as “coyotes”, who are now forced to change their methods due to the lack of demand.

Fiscal Ramírez added that the majority of the complaints are from individuals coming back to Costa Rica after being detained in the U.S. with false documentation.

The Consular Section of the U.S. Embassy in San José travels to various parts of Costa Rica to offer information on the process of obtaining a U.S. visa.

The U.S. Embassy also publishes the information on its website, Facebook, webchat and video explaining the risk in obtaining (paying for) false visas from third parties.

Nicaragua this morning denied before the International Court of Justice in The Hague (ICJ) causing “irreparable damage” of the dispute border land known as Isla calero and accused Costa Rica for environmental damage cause with the building of the border road, La Trocha.

“Costa Rica has not provided any evidence to support his argument of irreparable harm,” said Nicaraguas’s legal counsel, U.S. attorney Paul S. Reicher to the ICJ.

Costa Rica and Nicaragua have been locked into a skirmish over the swampland since October 2010, both sides firing accusations of invasions and environmental damage to the area.

The case is before the ICJ, establishing measures on both sides while it rules on the filings.

The hearing that saw Costa Rica on Monday present it case against the court, is over alleged canals that Costa Rica says Nicaragua is building.

Nicaragua has denied any such canals, reiterarting that on Tuesday before the court.a

Costa Ric’s deputy Foreign Minister, Gioconda Ubeda, described today’s hearing at the International Court of Justice as a success.

The country’s legal team made their presentation to the court asking for further precuationay measures against Nicaragua over the alleged invasion of the Isla Calero.

Udeba said that a court decision could come in two weeks time.

On Tuesday, Nicaragua will present its case.