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Every mid-year school break, the same scene plays out on Ruta 1: thousands of families pointing their cars toward Guanacaste’s beaches, and a drive that should take a few hours stretching to eight or more. When accidents or protests close the highway, that figure can climb toward twelve. For travelers who would rather not spend a vacation day stuck in line at Cañas, there is a faster option that covers the same ground in well under an hour — a domestic flight from San José. Three carriers currently serve the route between the capital and the northwestern part of Costa Rica, according to a recent review, which priced fares directly through the airlines’ booking platforms for a sample late-July trip. Sansa and Green Airways both run scheduled service, while Aerocaribe focuses on private, on-demand charters tailored to a passenger’s schedule. Flights from San Jose’s Juan Santamaría International Airport reach Guanacaste destinations in roughly 30 to 50 minutes...

Nine Democratic members of the U.S. Congress sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio asking him to press for the immediate release of Salvadoran human rights lawyer Ruth López. The lawmakers called on Rubio to advocate actively for her freedom. They also asked him to direct a U.S. embassy representative in El Salvador to visit her in detention and to apply human rights sanctions to bar entry to the United States for officials responsible for her arrest and continued imprisonment. López, 48, heads the anti-corruption and justice unit at Cristosal, a regional human rights organization. Salvadoran authorities arrested her at her home in San Salvador on May 18, 2025. They initially charged her with embezzlement linked to her past advisory work with government institutions and later shifted the case to allegations of illicit enrichment. The proceedings remain under judicial seal. She has spent more than 400 days in pretrial detention as of late June 2026. An initial six...

In his own recorded telling, it played out like a doting grandfather’s anecdote. Edwin López Vega — the alleged narcotrafficking kingpin known across the South Caribbean as “Pecho de Rata” — narrates a clip investigators describe in the style of a social-media “Story Time,” recounting how he told his four-year-old grandson to grab a banded stack of bills as a birthday present. He meant the green bundles, each worth about US$2,000. The boy, López says with evident pride, reached instead for an orange-banded stack — roughly ₡10 million, or close to US$20,000. “What can I do?” he asks his unseen audience, as if the child’s instinct for the bigger pile were a family virtue. That scene, drawn from the orden de allanamiento in the case Costa Rican authorities have code-named Riverside , has become the most-shared detail of an investigation already remarkable for its scale. It lands precisely because it is small: a single domestic moment...

Drivers heading from San José toward Costa Rica’s central Pacific will pay slightly less on Route 27 starting July 1, when new toll rates take effect across the main highway linking the Central Valley with the coast. The reductions will range from ₡10 to ₡160, depending on the type of vehicle and the toll booth, according to reports citing Globalvía, the company that operates the San José-Caldera highway. For light vehicles, including most rental cars and private vehicles used by tourists and residents, tolls will drop by ₡10 to ₡30 at all booths along the route. Heavy vehicles will see larger reductions, between ₡40 and ₡160. The new rates take effect at midnight on July 1. The change comes from the ordinary quarterly toll adjustment for Route 27 and is tied mainly to movement in the dollar exchange rate. Costa Rica’s strong colón has lowered some dollar-linked costs in recent months, and Route 27 tolls are among the prices that can shift under the road’s concession formula. ...

Costa Rica’s First Chamber of the Supreme Court has upheld construction regulations for the buffer zone around the Ostional National Wildlife Refuge, reinforcing local rules meant to protect sea turtles, aquifers and wildlife corridors in one of Guanacaste’s fastest-growing coastal communities. In Resolution No. 000725-F-S1-2026, issued on June 4, the court rejected an appeal filed by JBR Capital Ventures S.R.L. against the Municipality of Nicoya. The decision confirms a previous ruling by the Administrative and Civil Tax Court, which had upheld the municipality’s Temporary Regulation for the Issuance of Construction Permits in the buffer zone of the Ostional National Wildlife Refuge. The ruling is significant for Nosara , Playa Guiones and Playa Pelada, where real estate growth has brought steady pressure on water resources, coastal habitat and the refuge’s surrounding ecosystems. Ostional is internationally known for the mass nesting of olive ridley sea turtles, and the refu...

Costa Rica’s Traffic Police have begun enforcing license and registration rules for “bicimotos,” the small motorized two-wheel vehicles that have become common on city streets and delivery routes across the country. The move follows an internal Traffic Police instruction sent June 11 to national and regional traffic chiefs. The 16-page document tells officers how to apply existing traffic rules to motorcycles with pedals and similar vehicles, ending the perception that many of these units can circulate like regular bicycles. The first focused operation took place Monday near Plaza González Víquez in San José, where authorities seized six bicimotos. Officials said enforcement will be gradual, rather than through permanent checkpoints aimed only at bicimotos, but drivers are now expected to bring the vehicles into compliance. Under the instruction, a vehicle is not considered a bicycle if it has an electric, combustion or hybrid motor that can move it without direct and cont...