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Why Spending US Dollars in Costa Rica Can Be Surprisingly Difficult

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When money is the subject, I am as old school as anybody. Cash is king in my world. The thrill, the feel of a stack of banknotes will always beat looking at a set of digits on my phone screen. Like precious metals, classic cars and gemstones, paper currency is tangible; You can touch it, hold it, photograph it fanned out in your hand like some young dude on his way to the pawn shop to get his gold chain out of hock. When it comes to greenbacks– US dollars– I am clearly part of a vanishing breed. Only about ten percent of the US dollar supply is represented in cash and coins. The rest is numbers on a screen, digital transactions accessed in a few seconds, no counting of change needed. Our dominant method of payment is as common worldwide as locally. India, Brazil and China – three of the major BRICS countries– are also the top three in percent of digital transactions. As for Costa Rica, the number is around thirty percent of transactions still done with cash, which is the secto...
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How to watch Serena and Venus Williams play doubles in Costa Rica today

Serena and Venus Williams take the court together tonight at the Cincinnati Open, and if you want to watch it from Costa Rica, you have two realistic options.The match starts at 5 p.m. Costa Rica time on Grandstand Court. That is 7 p.m. on the U.S. East Coast, where the tournament is played. Doubles matches follow whatever is scheduled ahead of them, so treat that as the earliest possible start rather than a guarantee. If the preceding match runs long, yours starts late. Your first option is Disney+ on the Premium plan, which carries every match from the tournament in this region. Your second is ESPN, which picks up selected matches across its channels. Disney+ is the safer choice tonight. ESPN chooses which matches to televise, and a first-round doubles match is exactly the kind of thing that gets passed over for singles — even one with two of the most famous players in the sport’s history in it. Skip TennisTV. It is a common recommendation in tournament guides and it wi...
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Fernández Tours Flooded Limón as Pressure Builds for an Emergency Declaration

President Laura Fernández spent this morning touring flood-damaged communities in Limón province, as pressure built on her government to issue a formal emergency declaration for the Caribbean coast. Casa Presidencial released the itinerary last night and circulated an updated version at this morning The schedule ran from a shelter visit in Valle La Estrella through damaged areas in Limón, Matina and Guácimo, closing at a shelter in Guácimo in the late afternoon, and included a meeting with agency heads and the mayor of Limón. Its been reported the tour was to begin at 8:45 a.m., while the agenda circulated Monday morning listed the first stop at 9:20 a.m. The call for a declaration came yestarday afternoon from Mangell Mc Lean, a legislator with the opposition Partido Liberación Nacional who represents Limón. He said he had travelled through the province and described it as facing “a critical situation, with destroyed roads and isolated communities,” adding that he ...
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Family Demands Answers on Missing Political Prisoners in Nicaragua

Relatives of a retired military officer and his wife, who were detained a year ago in Nicaragua, demanded Saturday that the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo provide information about their whereabouts and health amid fears they could die in prison. Retired Colonel Carlos Brenes , 71, and his wife, Salvadora Martínez, 68, were detained last August, during police raids in the cities of Carazo and Masaya, in which several other people were also arrested, Thelma Brenes, the retired officer’s daughter, said. “They have a duty to tell us where they are, how they are doing and to return them to us alive,” Brenes said from exile. Human rights organizations and relatives of detainees who maintain a search mechanism say that as of the end of July, there were 60 political prisoners in Nicaragua, 23 of whom were considered victims of enforced disappearance. They warn that 15 are older adults, including Brenes and Martínez. Brenes’ daughter said the family fears a repeat of...
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General Cañas Highway Lane Closures Begin Monday in Costa Rica

Drivers using the General Cañas Highway between Alajuela and San José should prepare for additional congestion beginning Monday as crews carry out eight days of work along one of Costa Rica’s busiest roads. Partial closures will affect the inside lane in the Alajuela-to-San José direction from August 17 through August 24. The restrictions will be in place each day between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. The work could be particularly important for travelers arriving at Juan Santamaría International Airport and continuing toward San José, since the airport connects directly with the General Cañas corridor. Drivers heading from San José toward the airport will be traveling in the opposite direction from the scheduled lane closure, although congestion along the highway can affect traffic more broadly. The National Power and Light Company(CNFL), will use the closures to put in 90 patriotic light displays ahead of Costa Rica’s Independence Day celebrations on September 15. The decorations will i...
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Costa Rica’s Route 32 Reopens After a Morning Landslide Shuts the Highway

If you are driving to the Caribbean today, Route 32 is open. It was not open this morning, and the conditions that closed it have not gone anywhere. The Ministry of Public Works and Transportation shut the highway shortly after 9 a.m. this morning, when material came down onto the road. Crews cleared it and the ministry restored traffic at 1:39 p.m., about four hours later. No reopening time was given while the road was shut. That is standard, and it is not the authorities being cagey with you. Nobody can estimate a reopening until crews reach the site, see how much material came down and confirm the slope above it has stopped moving. If the next closure catches you, you have three ways around. Route 10, between Siquirres and Turrialba, takes any vehicle. So does the Bajos de Chilamate-Vuelta de Kooper corridor. Vara Blanca is open to light vehicles only, so leave the loaded pickup and the heavy SUV off it. All three add real time to the trip, and all three get crowded fas...
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The Panama Canal Opened 112 Years Ago Today

Twelve years of digging, an estimated 27,500 deaths and roughly $375 million ended quietly on the morning of August 15, 1914, when a single steamship slipped into a lock chamber on Panama’s Caribbean coast and began climbing a staircase of water. The SS Ancon, a cargo and passenger vessel of the Panama Railroad Company, left Cristóbal at Colón and reached the Pacific port of Balboa about nine hours later. It was the first official transit of the Panama Canal, and it joined the Atlantic and Pacific for the first time in human history. The ship covered roughly 80 kilometers (50 miles). Electric towing locomotives, still known as mules, guided it through the three chambers of the Gatún Locks, lifting it about 26 meters (85 feet) above sea level and into Gatún Lake. From there the Ancon crossed the lake and entered the Culebra Cut, the narrow slot carved through the continental divide and the deadliest, most unstable stretch of the entire project. Landslides had swallowe...
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