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Costa Rica’s highest point is hard to reach, and for the past half-century that difficulty has been the policy. A proposal now circulating in the Legislative Assembly would change it. Álvaro Ramírez Bogantes, head of the National Liberation Party caucus and the deputy elected first on the party’s San José slate, said this week that he is evaluating a project to build a cable car to Cerro Chirripó , the 3,820-meter (12,533-foot) summit that crowns the Cordillera de Talamanca. Ramírez said the idea is to widen access to the peak for more people, including those with different physical conditions, and that he has presented it to the Grupo de Acción Territorial de Pérez Zeledón, a civic organization headed by Antonio Mora. He described a group of business owners and community leaders with whom he has been discussing the concept, and said he has begun conversations with other legislative caucuses about it. Beyond that, almost nothing about the proposal exists yet. There...

Costa Rica’s Finance Ministry has increased the selective consumption tax applied to electric vehicles, a change Finance Minister Rodrigo Chaves announced Wednesday evening and which the country’s electric mobility industry says was already mandated by legislation approved four years ago. Chaves, who also serves as Minister of the Presidency, said in a television interview that he had signed the decree that day. He gave two figures in the course of his remarks. He said electric vehicles had been paying a 6% rate and that the government intends to bring that figure to 30%, and he said separately that the rate applied immediately is 7.5%. The minister defended the measure on the grounds that Costa Rica’s potential contribution to combating climate change is minimal. He questioned the electric vehicle incentive policies pursued by previous administrations and said the country should concentrate its resources on measures that produce direct benefits. Silvia Ro...

Costa Rica’s emergency services are urging residents and visitors to download the official 911 application before the August 2 Romería, highlighting features that can locate people in real time and allow them to request help without speaking. The Emergencias 9-1-1 CR app connects users with emergency operators through a standard voice call or an interactive text chat. When either option is activated, the application automatically sends the user’s location to the 911 system. The location feature can be especially useful during the Romería, when hundreds of thousands of pilgrims travel on foot toward the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles in Cartago. Someone suffering an injury, medical problem or security threat may not know the name of the road or community where they are located. Instead of requiring the caller to describe an unfamiliar location, the application allows emergency operators to receive that information directly from the phone. The location continues to u...

Latin American tennis will field one of its deepest contingents of the season at the 2026 Cincinnati Open, with 14 players from six countries currently listed across the ATP and WTA singles fields. The group includes 12 men and two women, led by Argentina’s Francisco Cerúndolo, Brazil’s João Fonseca, Peru’s Ignacio Buse, Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo, and — in the women’s draw — Colombia’s Camila Osorio and Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia. Argentina accounts for eight of the entrants, giving the country by far the largest Latin American delegation at the combined ATP and WTA 1000 tournament. The published lists remain subject to withdrawals and other changes before the draws are completed. Rankings attached to the entries are entry-list positions, not finalized tournament seeds. Cerúndolo arrives as Latin America’s highest-ranked entrant, listed at No. 22 after producing one of the strongest seasons of his career. The 27-year-old won th...

Costa Rica’s national railway institute is pushing to link the country’s trains, buses, and taxis into a single coordinated network, a plan its backers say could finally give commuters in the capital region a faster alternative to sitting in traffic. The Instituto Costarricense de Ferrocarriles ( Incofer ) is promoting what it calls an intermodal public transport system, designed so that different modes of travel connect smoothly rather than competing for the same passengers. The aim is to shorten travel times and improve mobility across the Greater Metropolitan Area, the densely populated ring of cities spanning San José, Alajuela, Heredia, and Cartago where most of the chronic congestion is concentrated. Incofer is developing the scheme alongside the Cámara Nacional de Transportes (Canatrans), the national transport chamber that represents the country’s bus operators. The plan is built around the Tren Eléctrico de Pasajeros, the electric passenger train that...

If you are heading to Guanacaste this month, pack insect repellent and treat mosquito bites as a real risk rather than a minor annoyance. The U.S. Embassy in San José has told American travelers to take active precautions against chikungunya after health officials confirmed the mosquito-borne virus is now spreading within the local mosquito population along part of the province’s coast. The warning, issued on July 13, centers on Playa Langosta and the wider Santa Cruz area — the same beach community near Tamarindo where Costa Rica’s Ministry of Health declared an outbreak on July 1 . Of 45 suspected cases investigated at that point, four were laboratory-confirmed and 17 were classified as probable, and those infected included both Costa Ricans and foreign visitors. What has changed since then is the scale. The Health Ministry’s most recent count puts the national total at 21 chikungunya cases for 2026, up from the 16 reported when the embassy first published ...

Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly has approved a reform that frees the state fuel company to work with energy sources other than oil for the first time, though drivers should not expect any immediate change in what they pay at the pump. Lawmakers gave final approval on July 16, to the Law to Promote the Energy Transition in the Fuel Sector, passing it in second debate with 54 votes in favor, none against and three legislators absent. The bill had cleared its first debate two days earlier, capping an effort that had stalled repeatedly in the Assembly over more than a decade. It now goes to the executive branch for the president’s signature and publication before it can take effect. The reform rewrites the 1981 law governing the Refinadora Costarricense de Petróleo, or Recope , which until now was limited by statute to refining, transporting and selling petroleum and its derivatives. Under the new framework, Recope keeps every one of those responsibilities but gains a...