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Two cold fronts will mark the beginning of February in Costa Rica, maintaining windy conditions, rainfall, and low temperatures. At the same time, the National Meteorological Institute (IMN) forecasts a month with above-average rainfall in some regions of the country. Costa Rica is currently under the influence of cold front No. 13, which arrived on Saturday. “The cold front will continue to influence weather conditions, with a gradual decrease beginning on Wednesday,” the IMN reported. Winds will remain strong, ranging between 70 and 100 km/h in northern Guanacaste during these days. According to experts, this is because the cold front system has reached southern Central America, and cold conditions will persist in the country, intensifying through Wednesday and Thursday. “Cold front No. 14 will begin to modulate weather conditions starting Thursday afternoon and will extend into the weekend,” the IMN stated. Due to this surge, strong winds are expected in the Central Valley, Guana...

Sunday’s election day brings good news for all of Costa Rica: voter abstention decreased. This means that more people decided to participate in these elections compared to previous years. According to data reported by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), voter participation in Sunday’s elections reached 70%, while abstention stood at 30%, with 85.4% of polling stations counted. These figures contrast with the 2022 election, when participation reached only 60% of the population and 40% chose not to go to the polls. In other words, abstention in this election dropped by 10%. In 1953, the electoral roll consisted of just 294,000 people. That year, 96,000 voters chose not to vote, raising abstention to 32.8%. In the 1958 elections, 35.3% of the electorate also stayed away from the polls. After that, the percentage declined and remained below or very close to 20% between 1958 and the 1994 elections. However, starting that year, abstention began to rise again, reaching 30%, a level it has...

After two hundred or so articles mostly focused on wildlife for the Tico Times, I’ve written about most of the more well-known species that are walking, swimming, and flying around in Costa Rica. Every time I pick a species to write about, I get to go through my video archives and pick out the very best clips to accompany the article. That’s all fine and good, but what happens when I record a particularly awesome video of an animal that I’ve already written about? I shared some interesting facts about Costa Rica’s pumas back in 2023. To go along with the article, I linked a video of some of my favorite puma clips that I had recorded to that point. Three years and many puma videos later, I have a backlog of puma awesomeness that’s too good not to share. I put a few of my favorites in the video below. Here’s the story that goes with each clip. Homerun Video Sometimes I place a camera at a location purely for the stunning background. Often times there is very little reason for wildlif...