News from Costa Rica

Welcome to Hotel Paraiso Del Cocodrilo news

This page contains the latest news from Costa Rica. You can also find current information about the Paraiso Del Cocodrilo and the surrounding areas of Costa Rica including Samara, Guanacaste, and the region of the Peninsula of Nicoya. The following is a reference to the local arts, culture, and includes political projects and regional events in and around the area.

Fire in Palo Verde National Park deleted
Because of the rain and helping many firefighters, the fire in Palo Verde National Park deleted, but left many dead animals.

Avioneta in Carrillo, Guanacaste.
At the airport Samara Carrillo, on Sunday the 4 May, the police found a plane with Mexican registration, but the pilot is missing.

Better beaches roads in Guanacaste.
Announced of the Transport Minister Karla Gonzalez, the new route from Hojancha to Puerto Carrillo almost done. The new road is the development towards the beaches of Carrillo, Camaronal, Punta Islita and Samara. Later then in the villages on April 27, Las Delicias, Rio Seco, Paraiso, Junquillal environment and the street with asphalt completed.

Airport in Liberia with more tourists.
More tourists arrived in the first 3 months of the year at the international airport in Liberia Daniel Oduber Quirós of Costa Rica. Precisely 156028 tourists arrived. This represents an increase of 13% over the same period last year.

Vox film crew in the hotel.
A film crew from the Cannel Vox accompanied an volunteer, who makes an internship in the school of Esterones, Samara are guest at the hotel. The director Herbert Wohlfahrt and his sound engineer are Dominik Preisenhammer, and the senior editor Erkan Yilmaztuerk. The Scheduled broadcast date in early May 2008.

Hojancha Festival 2008
The parish of San Jose de Hojancha is pleased to be invited to the Celebration in honor of San Jose. Come and enjoy rich foods, beverages, dancing and activities.
The Feast of Hojancha near Nicoya takes place Saturday March 29 to Tuesday 01 April.

Change of the handy and telephone numbers
The change came into effect from midnight 20th March 2008 and covers 3.3 million telephone numbers in Costa Rica (1.5 million fixed-line phones and 1.8 million mobile).
The telephone numbers are now 8-digits in any landline phone must first create a 2-code, and the mobile phone is an 8 must be placed chooses. The change has no effect on the numbers 911, 113, 800 or 900th these remain unchanged.

Super concert with Malpais in Samara
On Sunday 02 March was held in beautiful weather on the football field in Samara a concert with the well-known group Malpais. Around 1500 people enjoyed the music and celebrated the day. Organiser was the cultural center Alegria. Moreover booths offered food, beverages, clothing and small art.

Cultural event
Another festival will be held on the Alegria again. The motto this time is cultural coexistence – Convincia de Culturas.
The event starts on Friday the 29th of February with a jam session, drums and fire dance and workshops.
A concert with dance will be held by Son Poeta on Saturday the 1st and in addition the will be various art acts.

On Sunday the 2nd the event will end with a market and a concert by Malpais on Samaras Football Ground.
If somebody is interested in offering a country typical dish or handcrafted arts, please feel free to contact Anette from the Alegria on +506-899-8986 or +506-656-8191.

Sunday the group Malpaís in Sámara
On the occasion of the Intercultural Festival Alegria 29.02 - 03.03.2008 plays on Sunday at 5 pm 02.03.08 on the football field in Sámara the popular Costa Rican rock group Malpaís. Furthermore are many other cultural highlights.

Dangers for tourists
Contrary to a widespread notion it are not the snakes and crocodiles in Costa Rica that are a great danger for tourists, but rather the marine currents. Are the seasides vacationers too careless or wanton in the waves, accidents can easily occur. If however, the swimmer recognizes the currents and takes those into account, a safe swimming pleasure is guaranteed any time.
Even a year ago, the newly introduced tourist police are having an impact. The crimes against tourists in the province of Guanacaste went down by 34% from 2006 to 2007. The troupe will be further growing this year to continue to further reduce thefts. The beach in the Samara region, including Playa Buena Vista and Barrigona is considered safe. Nevertheless, valuables should not be left visible.

Fiesta popular in Samara
The fiesta in Samara begins on December 27th and ends on January 1st 2008. This years program contains music, dance, bull rodeo and the horse parade.

Guanacaste and Costa Rica expect even more visitors.
240,000 tourists will visit Guanacaste and double expectations. The high season has officially started on December 01st. From that point on, until the next April the airport Daniel Oduber, Liberia has to handle about 60 flights per week. To meet the increased influx of visitors to be fair, the government is planning a $ 15 million investment for the construction of a new airport terminal. Completion is scheduled for January 2009.

Phone and Internet working again.
By the robbery of 500 meters of phone cable in Garza, Guanacaste all phones were dead in Barco Quebrado and in Esterones de Samara. After 3 days of Reparation by the ICE the phones working again. At the moment the company Condutel by order the ICE puts the quick lines which should working in January.

Turtle day with culture
30 de Noviembre-2 de December 2007 in the Alegria Playa Samara on Buena Vista.
Art auction to raise money for the turtle project at the Buena Vista beach to collect.
Music, dance and program for children.
Mehr Information bei Anette Nierhoff Tel: 00506 - 656 8191 + 899 8986.

The hotel season of Costa Rica is starting
For many hotels in Costa Rica the summer season starts December 1. Everywhere preparations are met, some of the streets got repaired and the beaches are clean. Most of the hotels on the coast of Guanacaste already have many reservation inquiries. Guanacaste is very attractive for foreign tourists; there are more visitors every year. The reason may be the still lonesome beaches and untouched nature.
The weather has changed as well. Most rivers are accessible again and the cool north wind with strong blasts of wind and night temperatures about 22 degrees has started.
The height of season will be Christmas time as every year where many Ticos visit the beaches in Guanacaste for some days. The beaches of Jaco, Tamarindo and Samara will be crowded between Christmas and January and many tourists are happy if they find an outlying spot to stay at. On the 2nd of January almost all Ticos go back home and the situation returns to normal up to Easter holidays, the second height of the season where the beaches are full again for some days.

Music in the hotel
Since some time there have been regular music sessions at the weekends in the hotel Paraiso del Cocodrilo. Next Sunday , the 25th of November in the evening there will be the next one. We expect for example Dr. Freddy Soto, doctor from Sámara with his guitar, Paul from Junquillal brings the Drums and the componist Heinrich Neukirch.
All interested people should call 656 8055.
Eventually a music group might be established later, too. Every kind of music instrument as well as nice voices are invited.

More tourists again
The costarican Chamber of National Tourism (CANATUR) informed about an increase of the amount of visitors of 11,3%. Especially in Guanacaste, at the airport Daniel Oduber in Liberia arrived 16,3% more visitors than in the previous year.

In Guanacaste the sun is shining again
The strong poring rains in October have destroyed approx. 7,000 km of the streets in Cost Rica. According to the traffic authority (MOPT) it will take a year to completely repair the damages.
In the region of Guanacaste especially the streets around Nicoya are affected. The coach societies try hard to reach all the villages, however, the street conditions still are that bad in some areas that it is difficult to pass. Indeed, in some places they started to repair the streets temporary to make them drivable.
At least, the rain has stopped beginning of November, the situation stabilizes and some rivers are passable again. The bigger tourist places in Guanacaste can be reached by bus and the guests enjoy the wonderful beaches again.

Celebrities discover Guanacaste
After Costa Rica belonged to the favorite places of fames like Elisabeth Taylor last century, Mel Gibson, US actor and director, has recently bought a 163 hectares large property in our neighborhood. The purchase price is supposed to be 25.8 million dollars, how the newspapers of 27th May report. He wants to use the property privately and for some of his next movies. He also plans to establish a nature protection zone on the beach Barrigona and on the neighbour beach Buena Vista. Pretty welcome.
Mel Gibson also met Costa Rica’s president Oscar Arias Sanchez on Monday, 9 July to talk about making a donation for the Indians in Costa Rica. He intends to support the countries foremost organizations financially to help the native population of Central America.
Also Michael Owen has recently become an owner of a property in Nosara. Even Paris Hilton is supposed to share in an estate in the Four Seasons hotel on golfo de Papagayo and a few weeks ago the prince of Saudiarabien Al-Waleed bin Talal decided to build six other hotels in Costa Rica.
According to the German magazine Bunte Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi now want to invest in a 580 millions expensive hotel project that is supervised by the American multimillionaire Steve Case.

Stars in the hotel:
Not Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie,and their three children, who celebrated New Years Eve in the exclusive Four Seasons Resort in Guanacaste, according to American medium reports, but Hollywood film producer Klaus Menzel with girlfriend Sandra Haewsky visited us again on Eastern and enjoyed the beautiful beaches.

Dr. Jutta Herring Winckler,
lawyer and notary and 1. Chairman of the Richard Wagner federation Minden, tries to bring the opera Lohengrin, composed by Richard Wagner to the Teatro Nacional in San Jose by 2009.

Artists
Regarding to the Turtle day in the “Alegria“, members of the bands “Mal Pais” und ‚”Ghandi” stayed in the “Paraiso del Cocodrilo”. During the event they entertained the audience with their unique jam sessions.
The famous Canadian Cartoonist and artist Claude Laviolette and his wife enjoyed their vacation in the hotel. During the turtle day he painted local children and their parents. Thankful for the joyfully stay, he also painted the owner of the hotel and his employees.

The 3-rd meeting for a Refugio in Buena Vista
took place on 10th August in the bar Coyote. Inhabitants of Buena Vista, the environment protection ministry MINAE and the ASVO (Asociación de Voluntarios para el servicio en read areas protegidas) were present. Unfortunately, the representatives of the Municipalidad did not appear again. The biologist Evelin Umaña Ramirez of the ASVO gave a lecture about the results of the Estudio de la Avifauna which included the number of the animals and plants and the results of the ground analysis that was done in 2006 by her. All things considered, the area around the Playa Buena Vista seems to be suitably to become a nature protection area.
The appointment for the next meeting will be announced on time.

Artist's union and Alegria apply for cultural support
The artist's union Guanacaste met in the cultural centre Alegria, some feet away from the hotel Paraiso del Cocodrilo, on the beach Buena Vista and has applied for financial support of the cultural stock which the Ministry of Culture has made available to promote other cultural and art activities like cultural festivals, music arrangements, ect.

Change in the Municipalidad Nicoya
At the middle of June Eduardo Gutierrez Rosales was used as a mayor in the Municipalidad Nicoya after Lorenzo Rosales Vargas had become ill. Lic. Juan Carlos Oviedo accepted the office as lawyer for the zona marítimo-terrestre (ZMT) for the forthcoming two months. The mayor has arranged that the street of Nosara to Samara will be treated with new grit, and the garbage disposal will be improved.
After his recovery Lorenzo Rosales Vargas has now taken up his office as a mayor of Nicoya again. Whether Lic. Juan Carlos Oviedo will furthermore conduct the office of the lawyer for the zona marítimo-terrestre is still unclear.

New date for meeting, protectorate at the beach Buena Vista
The meeting with MINAE, Municipalidad, ASVO and inhabitants on 26th June did not take place because the MINAE canceled on short notice. A new meeting is scheduled for 10th August at three o·clock at the bar Coyote in Sámara Esterones.
New Refugio supposed to originate
In 2006 the government (at that time under Abel Pacheco de la Espriella) gave more power to the ministry of the environment MINAE (Ministerio del ambience y Energía) and the SINAC, responsible for the national protective area system. Since than they try to counteract the trend of the building development on the beaches in Costa Rica. Jaco and Tamarindo are prime examples for bulding development on the Pacific side. This is the reason why more and more nature protection zones are developed which are supposed to limit the constructions. The indigenous people try to establish a nature protection zone together with MINAE and the Municipalidad on the beach Buena Vista in Sámara, on which a turtle protective project of the ASVO is already based. Conversations have also taken place about the refugio on Playa Barrigona.

New studies about safety in Costa Rica
Newest studies of the control-risks-institute found out, that in Costa Rica there is just small political and security risk for travellers and investors.

Turtle day
On the 3rd of February 2007 the second Turtle day at the “Alegria” on Playa Buenvista took place. The whole afternoon there had been many events and workshops for almost 150 children and their parents. A lot of creative children activities and a theatre workshop formed the entertainment for the whole day, so that everybody was delighted. The musical highlight for 300 people was the 3 hour jam session of the Costa Rican bands “Mal Pais” and “Ghandi” in the evening. National and international artists supported the Benefit auction with their art objects and pictures. They collected more than $600 for the turtle project. This money will help to improve the working conditions and the life quality of the Voluntaries in the camp.

The turtle-nature-project on Playa Buena Vista
The turtle-nature-project Buena Vista tries to find new precautions against the risks for turtles. The project is about 4 km north of Sámara and was established on 1st September, 2005.
The project was started to secure eggs of the few turtle species. Four different kinds of turtle species come to the beach Buena Vista to leave their eggs there. In the last year they collected 30.000 eggs and the babies were brought back to the sea.
For continuing the project the ASVO (Asociación de Voluntarios para el Servicio en las Areas Protegidas) needs voluntary workers from May to March.
Voluntaries work in shifts, so that there is 24 hours support for the turtles. Their duties are for example to mark parts of the beach, collect eggs, watch the turtle babies and bring them to the sea.
Although the project does not get any public support, it is supported by private donations. We neighbours of the Playa Buena Vista will continue to support and donate for the nature project „Proyecto de Conservación de Tortugas Marinas Playa Buena Vista“.
There are a lot of similar nature projects in the Refugio “Silvestro Ostional”, in the nationalpark “Barra Honda” and the “Reserva Nacional Absoluta Cabo Blanco”.
For further information please contact the organisation ASVO.
If you want to see the turtles visit us in our Hotel „Paraiso del Cocodrilo” next to the Playa Buena Vista.

Guanacaste affected area from the phenomenon El Niño
Less rain in Guanacaste. According to information of the press agencies the rain decreased by around 28% in the year 2007. Compared to 2006 it is a little bit less. In the Caricic there were 16% less.