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If you have a Guanacaste trip on the calendar, the update that landed yesterday changes what you pack, not whether you go. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention refreshed its Costa Rica chikungunya notice on July 30, keeping it in place and describing an outbreak in northwest Costa Rica. The advice attached to it is one line long: protect yourself by preventing mosquito bites. The designation itself has not moved. It has been at Level 2 since the U.S. Embassy issued its own alert in mid-July, and it is still there. What a refresh signals is that the agency looked again and left the rung where it was. Understanding that rung is the useful part, because the number does a lot of work in headlines and almost none in practice. Level 2 is what the agency labels Practice Enhanced Precautions. It is the second rung on a four-step ladder. Level 3 asks travelers to reconsider nonessential trips. Level 4 tells them to stay away. Level 2 does neither. It does not restrict t...

A shell picked up on a beach walk, a piece of coral, a seed pod, a carved trinket bought from a roadside stand — any of them can stop you at the airport and, in some cases, put your name into a criminal file before you fly home. Costa Rican authorities have started a public information campaign, “What You Carry,” aimed squarely at travelers who pack natural objects without realizing the law treats them as protected wildlife. The campaign is being run by the Judiciary, with the Prosecutor’s Office, forensic specialists from the Judicial Investigation Agency ( OIJ ) and airport operator Aeris taking part. Campaign material is set to appear at airports, at tourist destinations around the country and online. According to the Judiciary, foreign visitors are regularly stopped on their way out of Costa Rica carrying flora or fauna they did not know was restricted. The list is broader than most people expect. Shells, snail shells, coral, sand dollars, starfish, beach...

More than 500 people and organizations, among them three former presidents of Costa Rica and Panama, have signed a public statement demanding that the Costa Rican state guarantee decent living, working and social protection conditions for the Ngäbe-Buglé workers who pick coffee each year. The Kioscos Socioambientales program at the University of Costa Rica, which coordinated the effort, reported 512 signatures in all. They include roughly a hundred Indigenous, labor, community, feminist, coastal, environmental and social organizations from Costa Rica and Panama, along with academics, artists and professionals. Former Costa Rican presidents Abel Pacheco de la Espriella and Laura Chinchilla Miranda signed, as did former Panamanian president Ricardo de la Espriella Toral, who governed from 1982 to 1984. Writer Ana Cristina Rossi Lara, musician Manuel Obregón López and the bands Malpaís, Sonámbulo Psicotropical and Un Rojo Reggae Band are also among the signatories. The state...

Costa Rica’s Central Bank has lowered its economic growth forecast for 2026 as weaker exports, slower household demand and the expected effects of El Niño increase pressure on agriculture, electricity generation and consumer prices. The bank now expects the Costa Rican economy to grow 3.4% this year, down from the 3.5% forecast issued in April and the 3.8% projected in January. Growth is expected to reach 3.5% in 2027, also one-tenth of a percentage point below the previous estimate. The revision does not point to a recession, but it confirms that the economy is losing momentum after expanding 4.6% in 2025. Economic growth slowed from 4% during the first quarter of this year to 3.4% in the second quarter. Household spending and construction remain the main sources of support. Household consumption is forecast to grow 2.9% in 2026, while investment in buildings, equipment and other fixed assets is expected to rise 5.3%. Construction grew 8.9% year over year during the second ...

Boston Scientific has confirmed that its Costa Rican operation forms part of a global restructuring program that sets aside as much as $300 million for employee termination benefits, though the company has not disclosed how many workers it will cut in Costa Rica, in which of its local sites, or on what timeline. The medical device manufacturer’s board of directors approved the plan, which the company calls its 2026 Restructuring Plan, on July 21. It was disclosed publicly six days later in a Form 8-K filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing estimates total pre-tax charges of between $700 million and $800 million, broken down into $300 million to $350 million to move production lines between facilities, $275 million to $300 million in employee termination benefits, and $125 million to $150 million in other costs including consulting fees, contract cancellations, program management and asset write-offs. Between $600 million and $700 milli...

If you need to move between San José and Cartago this weekend, the train just became the easiest way to do it, and the highway is about to become the hardest. Passenger service on the Cartago line will run without a break for 27 hours, starting at 9 a.m. on Saturday, August 1, and ending at midday on Sunday, August 2. Trains leave both ends of the line — the central station in Cartago and the Atlántico station in San José — once an hour from 9 a.m. until 7 p.m. After 8 p.m. the frequency tightens to every 35 minutes and stays there all night and through Sunday morning. The last train in each direction leaves at 11:50 a.m. on Sunday, and nothing runs after that, so if you are relying on the train to get home Sunday, treat late morning as your deadline rather than your cushion. The overnight frequency is the point of the whole operation. Pilgrims walk to the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles through the night and finish at all hours, and almost none of them want to walk ...

A new push of Saharan dust is expected to spread across Costa Rica this week, bringing hazy skies, reduced visibility and poorer air quality, with Thursday and Friday forecast to be the most difficult days. The dust will affect nearly all of Costa Rica, although higher concentrations are expected in Alajuela, western parts of the Central Valley and some areas of Cartago. Residents may notice a pale or milky appearance in the sky known as calima, caused by fine particles suspended in the atmosphere. Visibility over mountains and other distant landmarks could also become noticeably worse. The conditions are expected to become more apparent beginning Wednesday before reaching their strongest point on Thursday, July 30, and Friday, July 31. Air quality should begin improving Saturday as the dust moves north toward other parts of Central America and Mexico. People with asthma, allergies and other respiratory conditions face the greatest risk. Children and older adults should also r...

Panama has been ranked the best country in the world for people living abroad for the third consecutive year, according to the Expat Insider 2026 survey published by InterNations, and the results point to a country that has quietly built its reputation on retirees. The Munich-based expat network, which says it has more than six million members, released the findings on July 23. The 2026 edition draws on responses from 7,786 people representing 162 nationalities, collected between February 1 and March 31 of this year. Participants rated up to 53 aspects of life abroad across five indices covering work, money, quality of life, the practical business of getting settled, and the friendliness of the welcome they received. Only destinations with at least 50 respondents were ranked, which left 31 countries in the final table, down from 46 the year before. Panama finished first overall and took the top spot in both the Working Abroad and Personal Finance indices. It placed second for...

Costa Rica’s latest national jabiru count recorded nine active nests and 19 chicks during the 2026 breeding season, offering cautious hope for one of the most threatened wetland birds here. The monitoring also produced a minimum population estimate of 148 jabirus in Costa Rica. Researchers reached that figure by inspecting historic nesting locations and conducting simultaneous counts across the Tempisque and Frío river basins, the species’ two principal habitats. The jabiru (Jabiru mycteria) is Costa Rica’s largest stork. Its white body, black head and neck, and distinctive red throat make it one of the most recognizable birds found in the wetlands of Guanacaste and the Northern Zone. The new numbers suggest that Costa Rica continues to support an active breeding population. However, the count represents a minimum estimate rather than a complete population total, and researchers have not described the results as evidence that the species is out of danger. The findings form...

Costa Rica’s tourism industry is preparing for a more difficult second half of 2026 after international arrivals by air declined in June, ending eight consecutive months of growth. The country received 214,518 visitors by air during June, a 1.2% drop from the 217,120 recorded in the same month last year. It was the first negative month of 2026 and represented 2,602 fewer arrivals. The decline contrasts sharply with Costa Rica’s strong performance during the first half of the year. From January through June, 1,605,360 international visitors entered the country by air, an increase of 7.8% compared with the same period in 2025. When land and sea arrivals are included, Costa Rica received 1,733,596 international visitors during the first six months of 2026. About 92% arrived by air. The positive six-month total, however, may not fully reflect the conditions tourism businesses are facing now. Much of the growth was recorded during the high season, while June’s decline came as we moved...

A Costa Rican court has ordered three months and 22 days of preventive detention for a man surnamed Arias, known by the alias “Diablo,” in a resolution issued yesterday. The term runs from the date of his detention on July 24 to November 16, 2026. In the same resolution, the court imposed five months and 26 days on a co-defendant surnamed Pérez, alias “Tan,” a period that expires on December 27, 2026. The numbers were read by much of us as an anticlimax, and the criticism reached the top of the executive branch. Before the Public Ministry issued its explanation, President Laura Fernández said publicly that a three-month term would be the greatest embarrassment the judiciary could produce. Legislator Kattia Calvo separately questioned the result. Neither reaction accounted for what the Public Ministry set out hours later, which is that the terms are a statutory ceiling rather than a measure of how seriously the court treats the case. Under ordinary crimin...

President Laura Fernández asked lawmakers on Monday to widen the narrow list of crimes for which Costa Rica may hand its own citizens over to foreign courts, proposing a constitutional amendment that would add money laundering , human trafficking , arms trafficking, contract killing and cybercrime to the two grounds that exist today. The president arrived at the Legislative Assembly mid-morning accompanied by her cabinet, police directors and members of the unit the government calls Fuerza Élite, and delivered a second package of six security bills. The extradition proposal was the centerpiece of her presentation but was not among the files formally handed over, because legislative procedure does not allow constitutional reforms to be processed during extraordinary sessions. The government said it will file that text on Monday, August 3. Costa Rica has permitted the extradition of its nationals only since 2025, and only for international drug trafficking and terrorism. Fernán...

Costa Rican investigators examined whether money from an alleged international cocaine-trafficking organization was invested in Puerto Golfito F.C., a former second-division soccer club based in the country’s Southern Zone. The allegations form part of the Distrito organized-crime case, which is scheduled to go to trial on August 3. The proceedings are expected to continue through late 2027, as prosecutors present telephone recordings, surveillance reports, photographs and extensive financial records. One of the main defendants is businessman Rehan Fraile Pérez, known as “Rey.” Investigators allege that Fraile received money connected to the criminal organization and moved it into businesses and sports projects, including Puerto Golfito F.C. and a soccer training operation called Premier Academy CR. Fraile is accused alongside Hilary Walker Fowlker, known as “Hilario,” whom investigators identified as the suspected leader of the organization. A confidential Judicial Investigat...

Costa Rican sprinter Sherman Güity matched the men’s 100-meter T64 world record with a time of 10.61 seconds at the World Para Athletics Grand Prix in Tlaxcala, Mexico. Güity won the race on July 23, equaling the record set by American Richard Browne at the 2015 World Para Athletics Championships in Doha. Browne’s mark had stood alone for nearly 11 years. The performance lowered Güity’s previous personal best of 10.65 seconds, which he recorded while winning the Paralympic gold medal at Paris 2024. It also completed a sprint double for the 29-year-old Costa Rican, who had already won the 200 meters T64 earlier in the competition. Güity crossed the line in the 200 meters in 20.81 seconds, faster than Browne’s world record of 21.27. However, the wind reading was measured at +5.3 meters per second, well above the +2.0 limit for record recognition. The favorable wind meant the time could not be approved as a world record, although it was the fastest 200-meter performance of Güity’...

Costa Rican security officials have given conflicting accounts of whether the daughter of alleged crime boss Alejandro Arias Monge, alias “Diablo,” was formally detained after police intercepted her outside La Reforma prison . The woman, identified by authorities by the surnames Arias Fonseca, was stopped Saturday near the prison’s main entrance in San Rafael de Alajuela. She was carrying a firearm and traveling in a fully armored Toyota Prado, according to officials. An initial account described the intervention as a detention carried out by the Directorate of Intelligence and National Security, known as the DIS, in coordination with the Fuerza Pública and the Penitentiary Police. A later account from the Public Security Ministry said Arias Fonseca was identified and removed from the area but was not detained because she held a valid permit to carry a firearm. The ministry said she was subsequently allowed to leave. The ministry has not clarified whether officers briefly held her...

Nicaragua’s government will brief foreign diplomats on a proposed reform aimed at excluding opposition parties from election s, co-president Rosario Murillo said Friday, following criticism from several countries and international organizations. The National Assembly and electoral authorities, both controlled by the government, are preparing legislation requested by President Daniel Ortega to prevent “traitors” and “coup plotters” serving the interests of the United States from taking part in elections, terms he commonly uses to describe his opponents. Congress announced Friday that the proposed constitutional reforms will be submitted to the presidential couple “for review and authorization,” with a “broad consultation process” set to begin next week. A vote on the proposal is expected in early August. “Consultations will be held with business leaders, investors and ambassadors. We are going to provide information but also consult with all sectors of our blessed homeland...

A forensic technique Brazilian federal police are using to trace illegally mined Amazon gold points to a capability Costa Rica has conspicuously lacked in its own long-running fight over Crucitas, where prosecutors have struggled for years to prove in court where seized gold actually came from. Inside Brazil’s National Institute of Criminalistics in Brasília, federal police have built what they call a gold lab, where forensic experts analyze samples collected in raids across the country. Gold flakes are stored in small coin-shaped vessels, and their value to investigators lies not in the metal but in the data it carries. As gold forms inside rock or a riverbed, it absorbs trace particles from the surrounding geology, including silver and copper, leaving each speck with a distinct chemical signature. That signature can be compared against stored geological data from protected areas, allowing investigators to determine whether a seized sample came from the mine its owner cl...

Since moving to Costa Rica in 1990, I have not missed a World Cup final. I’ve watched them from a bar, from a friend’s house, and from the comfort of my own home. For 2026, I planned on something different. I took the trip over the mountain to San José, ready to attend the huge public party at La Sabana Park. It seemed the perfect way to watch the match, surrounded by thousands of enthusiastic fans in an atmosphere of pure fiesta de fútbol. When I got to San José and informed my friend Roberto of my plans, he immediately set out to change my mind. The park would be packed with rowdy drunks and screaming kids, he said, and an older dude like myself would feel alone and out of place amid the throngs. So I didn’t go to the big party. Instead, I joined my friend at one of his favorite San José dive bars. It was a casual, unpretentious, open-air place on a narrow street in a downtown barrio, with a 12-seat bar and several tables and chairs in an area next to the ba...

Every July 25, Costa Rica marks one of the defining moments in our history. Two hundred and two years ago, a decision taken in a small colonial town on the Pacific coast redrew our country’s map, expanded its economy and permanently enriched its cultural identity. The date is commonly called the “ Annexation of Guanacaste ,” but historians at the University of Costa Rica and elsewhere note that the historically accurate term is the Annexation of the Partido de Nicoya, the colonial administrative district that voluntarily chose to join Costa Rica in 1824. On July 25 of that year, the municipal council of Nicoya convened a cabildo abierto, an open town meeting, at which the communities of Nicoya and Santa Cruz voted to become part of the newly independent State of Costa Rica. Unlike most territorial changes in nineteenth-century Latin America, the decision was not the product of war, military conquest or an imposed treaty. It reflected the expressed will of the loca...