the journal edition # 198
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The Journal Edition # 198TRANSCRIPT
Vol. 3 • Edition 198 • Monthly • March, 2010 • Costa Rica, Central America •
business P.15
society P. 6
lead story P.4
tourism P.10
This year shows better results for the country that confirm the recovery in the shipment of Costa Rican products abroad. Accord-ing to statistical data from PRO-COMER, national exports reached an accumulated value of US$727.9 millions during the month of Janu-ary 2010. This signifies an incre-ment of US$133.5 millions (22%) if compared with the same month during 2009.
The Governments of Costa Rica and Japan carried out an exchange of notes prompting for the devel-opment of the “Project for the In-troduction of Clean Energy by a Solar Electricity Generation Sys-tem” proposed by ICE
Just 200 meters south of the Catalina Islands, Humpback whales were sighted blowing their spray and as the boat approached in their direction, an adult Humpback over 40 ft long breached complete-ly out of the water in front of the boat.
During the previous Thursday the 4th and Friday the 5th of Feb-ruary, the Department of Science and Technology (MICIT) inaugu-rated 8 new Intelligent Community Centers.
Save The Whales….or Just a Baby Humpback This Day?
Paragliding wins fans over in the country
An increase in national exports seen as 2010 begins
Project to produce more clean energy in Guanacaste is promoted
8 Intelligent Community Centers Inaugurated in Guanacaste
www.journalcr.com
Paragliding flights have become popular in the country, however participants must comply with strict security norms. Photo Sylvia Guardia M.
(InfoWeb Press) Paragliding is slowly becoming a diversion that national tourists practice to experience 100 percent pure adrenaline.
It was born at the end of the 20th century, by the inventiveness of mountaineers that wanted to descend by flying, using a parachute of course, from the tops of the mountains they had reached.
The paraglide is a flexible ultralight glider; unlike parachutes, these cannot be utilized to jump off planes. Instead they have acquired a true capacity for flight having very low levels of descent, excellent maneuver-ability and highly levels of security.
In the country, a paraglide flight can be experienced in Jaco, Caldera, Barranca, Dominical, Herradura, Es-cazu, and San Carlos, among others places.
There are even academies specialized in the teaching the gliding technique used in paragliding so that enjoy-ment of the activity is made safer. It is necessary to take a course given in a school by professional instruc-tors beforehand. To fly safely, a theoretical prepara-tion course is necessary to understand approximation, winds, piloting techniques, incidents that may arise and how to resolve them, as well as a technical prepara-tion course that is accomplished through many hours of “campa” (practicing on land, raising the paraglide as if it were a kite) and running over a smooth slope to simulate a flight.
Plus when paragliding, climatic conditions must be ideal during the day of practice in order prevent any dangerous situations from arising. Each flight, on aver-age, lasts some 20 minutes.
Edition 198 • March, 20102
P. 6 society
Country will push for communities for retirees(InfoWeb Press) Costa Rica prepares to unfold an industry of communi-
ties for foreign retired people, taking advantage of the competitive advan-tages in the areas of health, tourism, real estate development, security and transportation, among others.
The before mentioned news was announced via press conference by the National Program of Competitiveness and Regulatory Improvement (PRO-NACOMER by its acronyms in Spanish), the Department of foreign trade, the Department of Health, the Costa Rican Coalition of Initiatives for De-velopment (CINDE by its acronyms in Spanish) and the Association Coun-sel for the International Promotion of Costa Rican Medicine (PROMED by its acronyms in Spanish).
P. 10 tourism
Presidential Challenge brings more tourists to Samara Beach(InfoWeb Press) Tourists the world over came to Guanacaste to live to the
extreme their passion for sports fishing. The Presidential Challenge tourna-ment took place this past 5th, 6th and 7th of March at Samara.
The event was an important window of exposition for the tourism in Cos-ta Rica and a recovery for the local economy of the zone.
According to statistics of the Costa Rican Confederacy of Tourist Fishing (Fecopt by its acronyms in Spanish), last year sport fishing brought 85,636 tourists into the country. Said figures show a recovery of 12% in compari-son to 2008. Consequently this year´s call-out is not yet to be ruled out as a success.
P. 14 culture
An international focus on Greater Nicoya From time to time my articles for the Journal have been focused on in-
ternational meetings in which the results of scholarly research that high-light our knowledge of the prehistory of this area have been shared with the broader community. The photo that accompanies this article was from 1990; another meeting is coming around: Geoffrey McCafferty (U of Calgary, Canada) and Silvia Salgado (University of Costa Rica) have organized an electronic symposium organized for the 75th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2010, St. Louis, MO to be held from 14-18 April of this year. The symposium is titled Looking Back, Looking Forward: Seventy-Five Years of Archaeology in Pacific Central America and include presentations on the following themes of interest to readers of the Journal.
CoStA RiCA BASiCSArea: 51,000 km2Population: 4,509,290 (Nov 2008)Capital: San JoseLanguage: SpanishTime Zone: UTC/GMT-6 hours
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Vol3•Edition198 March, 2010 Costa Rica, Central America OURTEAM
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ALSO INSIDE
P.04 Lead Story
P.06 Tourism
P.10 Society
P.14 Business
P.15 Business
Contents
COStA rICA tIDES ChArt Information for Pacific Coast
Page two
Day High Low High Low High
Sun 15 01:05 / 9.23 ft 07:24 / 0.27 ft 13:37 / 8.40 ft 19:34 / 0.71 ft
Mon 16 01:52 / 9.41 ft 08:11 / 0.04 ft 14:24 / 8.58 ft 20:20 / 0.64 ft
Tue 17 02:37 / 9.46 ft 08:54 / -0.07 ft 15:08 / 8.66 ft 21:04 / 0.68 ft
Wed 18 03:19 / 9.38 ft 09:35 / -0.06 ft 15:51 / 8.64 ft 21:46 / 0.81 ft
Thu 19 04:00 / 9.18 ft 10:15 / 0.07 ft 16:33 / 8.53 ft 22:28 / 1.02 ft
Fri 20 04:41 / 8.88 ft 10:55 / 0.30 ft 17:15 / 8.34 ft 23:10 / 1.30 ft
Sat 21 05:23 / 8.49 ft 11:35 / 0.61 ft 17:58 / 8.10 ft 23:53 / 1.60 ft
Sun 22 06:06 / 8.06 ft 12:17 / 0.97 ft 18:43 / 7.85 ft
Mon 23 00:39 / 1.90 ft 06:52 / 7.63 ft 13:00 / 1.34 ft 19:30 / 7.62 ft
Tue 24 01:28 / 2.14 ft 07:41 / 7.24 ft 13:47 / 1.68 ft 20:19 / 7.48 ft
Wed 25 02:22 / 2.29 ft 08:35 / 6.94 ft 14:37 / 1.95 ft 21:11 / 7.44 ft
Thu 26 03:19 / 2.29 ft 09:33 / 6.79 ft 15:30 / 2.09 ft 22:04 / 7.54 ft
Fri 27 04:17 / 2.12 ft 10:32 / 6.80 ft 16:24 / 2.08 ft 22:56 / 7.78 ft
Sat 28 05:12 / 1.80 ft 11:27 / 6.99 ft 17:17 / 1.93 ft 23:45 / 8.13 ft
Sun 29 06:03 / 1.37 ft 12:18 / 7.31 ft 18:07 / 1.65 ft
Mon 30 00:33 / 8.55 ft 06:51 / 0.88 ft 13:07 / 7.71 ft 18:57 / 1.29 ft
If you wish to move to Costa Ricayou don’t need to pay more for the best
Convertion tab
Edition 198 • March, 20104 lead STory
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(InfoWeb Press) During the previous Thursday the 4th and Friday the 5th of Febru-ary, the Department of Science and Technol-ogy (MICIT) inaugurated 8 new Intelligent Community Centers (CECIS by its acronyms in Spanish) in the province of Guanacaste.
The centers are located at the Santa Cruz Library, the school of Lorena, the Associa-tion of Development of Marbella, the Nosara Library, the Association of Development of Moracia, the Zapote school and at the Agri-cultural Center of Hojancha.
Each CECI has 6 computers, web cameras and free Internet access.
CECI Santa Cruz Library “It gives us a lot of pleasure to bring this
center to Santa Cruz. Now a days learning to use a computer and the internet is a necessity. Make the effort and come learn; computers don´t have secrets. I invite all of you to come because it is important that all Costa Ricans become familiarized with technology” stated the Minister Eugenia Flores.
The library is open from 9:30 am to 12 midday and from 1 to 5:30 pm.
“We feel very happy that today we have the best technology available to us. I am grateful to the MICIT for this opportunity alloted to us. I would like to invite all our neighbors to come learn and receive train-ing”, Mayor Jorge Chavarría stated.
CECI Lorena School (Santa Cruz)The community and over 150 Lorena
school students will benefit with the inaugu-ration of this Intelligent Community Center.
“It is an honor for me to be bestowed this opportunity. I infinitely give thanks for these computers that will help students and the community achieve greater benefits” ex-pressed Jeannette Huertas, Director of the School of Lorena.
Along with the CECI, thanks to the efforts put forth by the neighbors of the community; there are 4 additional computers available for use.
“We feel proud to see our communities prosper. We no longer have to travel long distances to use internet, we must take ad-vantage of these resources, they are a bless-ing, thanks to the efforts of the community”, stated Yanuribe Huertas, Regional Director of the Public Education Ministry of Santa Cruz.
CECI El Llano School (Santa Cruz)This Guanacastecan school has 60 stu-
dents and has opened its doors to the world of technology.
“When I see the excitement in everyone, I can´t help but to feel happy given that chil-dren, youths, house wives, senior citizens and all of our neighbors alike may now be-come familiarized with technology and can communicate with people in any part of the world. I hope that all our neighbors decide to come learn and receive training”, comments Minister Flores.
CECI Marbella (Santa Cruz)With the warmth that characterizes this
community of Guanacaste, its neighbors welcomed the Minister of Science and Tech-nology to their new CECI.
“For me, it is an honor that our community will benefit from this technology, I thank the MICIT for these computers that they bring to us today” expressed Omar Varela, president of the Association for Development.
Minister Flores, gave a call-out to all com-munity neighbors encouraging them to learn to use the computer.
“Things have changed and now all infor-mation circulates over the Internet, thus it is a must to learn to use the computer which today is a machine used daily. Everyone can come to the CECI regardless of age. It is free and will is all that is needed to learn new things everyday. Over the Internet you can seek all kinds of information in seconds and communicate with people around the globe” declared the Minister.
CECI Nosara Library (Nicoya)Thanks to the efforts of community and of
a group of foreign volunteers, the public li-brary of Nosara “David Kitson” inaugurated a new Intelligent Community Center.
The center has computers offered by the CECI plus 4 other computers all available for community use.
“Thanks to the contribution of our neigh-bors and of the MICIT, we will offer comput-er courses soon, that will, without a doubt, be beneficial to Nosara asa whole” expressed Beverly Kitson, library spokesperson.
The library opened 14 years ago. At its start it rented different buildings, but with the efforts of the community it managed to acquire the building which it occupies today.
“Today we mark a difference for our youth. I thank everyone for the effort that has made it possible to have the center that we inaugurate today. Future generations will always be thankful for this” declared Antonio Méndez, alderman of Nicoya.
“Libraries are a great ally of the CECIS. Those who work in libraries have a spirit of service enticing all to learn. Thanks to all those who collaborate at this library because they impact the community with benefits” said the Minister.
Besides the training that will be offered at the CECI, the library offers art classes and has a reading club. In 2009, it received 8 thousand visitors.
CECI Moracia (Nicoya)The CECI of Moracia is located in the As-
sociation of Development of the Community building.
“It is pleasing to leave this CECI center inaugurated. These computers will help you study, you will be able to see very pretty things on the Internet. They will help you with work, you will be able to do homework with your children, and do banking proce-dures. We hope that everyone comes to learn and that the community as a whole propers from this. Enjoy it, it is yours” said Eugenia Flores.
CECI School of Zapote (Nicoya)This school and its 17 students will have
access to the marvelous world of technology.
“I feel pleased and very happy that they took us into account. We will take the most advantage and give the best fruits of our labor. We will offer the opportunity to the community of Zapote to come and learn” ex-pressed Odeth Díaz, Director of the school.
“It pleases us that people learn and open up new horizons, see the marvels of technol-ogy, and enjoy development. Do not be tim-id, because every day something is learned, and computers are just another apparatus to use. Learn the advantages of this century, learn to use the computer. Welcome to the 21st century” said the Minister of the MICIT.
In turn, Nicoya´s Mayor, Eduardo Gutiér-rez encouraged community neighbors to visit the CECI. “This will bring us privileges and a lot of knowledge. You can now investi-gate and enter into the marvelous world of technology. We will be eternally grateful. I am very happy because this is worth while. More than gratitude, knowledge will be the fruit of our labor” declared Gutiérrez.
CECI Agricultural Center of HojanchaThe inauguration of the CECI at the Ag-
ricultural Center of Hojancha makes for 80 cantons that now have an Intelligent Com-munity Center.
This center has been functioning for the past 31 years, it has 180 associates who from now on will be able access the marvelous world of technology.
“If the population does not have access to new technology the digital gap is enlarged. Today, with the inauguration in Hojancha, there are 80 cantons that have a CECI. I am deeply thankful because I know that you will be agents and will come to the center, pro-mote its use, and take care of it” declared the Minister.
The agricultural center is a service orient-ed organization, leader in prompting projects for sustainable social and economic develop-ment.
“Technology is a very important tool. Some years ago to speak of the Internet was unknown in these communities but today it is more common. Now a days it is fundamen-tal to know the diversity of themes and op-portunities that the internet offers. We want to train our comrades that work in the fields, so that we all become incorporated into the world of technology. Furthermore, we are going to help organized groups through-out Hojancha” expressed Marvin Méndez, Manager of the Agricultural Center, which is open from 7 am to 12 midday and from 1 to 4 pm.
8 Intelligent Community Centers Inaugurated in Guanacaste
Children at the CECI of the school of Zapote (Nicoya) during the inauguration of their computer lab. Photo MICIT
Edition 198 • March, 20106 SocieTy
WAREHOUSES • BODEGAS
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(InfoWeb Press) Costa Rica prepares to unfold an industry of communities for for-eign retired people, taking advantage of the competitive advantages in the areas of health, tourism, real estate development, se-curity and transportation, among others.
The before mentioned news was an-nounced via press conference by the National Program of Competitiveness and Regulatory Improvement (PRONACOMER by its acro-nyms in Spanish), the Department of foreign trade, the Department of Health, the Costa Rican Coalition of Initiatives for Develop-ment (CINDE by its acronyms in Spanish) and the Association Counsel for the Interna-tional Promotion of Costa Rican Medicine (PROMED by its acronyms in Spanish).
Retirement communities are residential projects for senior citizens that offer inte-gral services and personalized medical at-tention, domestic services, transportation and nursing, depending on the needs of its inhabitants. At the same time they prompt the development of other activities such as advanced research centers, high value recre-ational activities, theme parks, pharmaceuti-cal industry, etc.
The constant growth of the national medi-cal tourism industry, as well as the opportu-nity to invest in a novel field, generator of high incomes, motivates the country to dedi-cate efforts to consolidating a cluster or con-glomerate of retirees.
The initial target market would be com-posed of medium to medium-high class pro-fessionals, citizens of the United States of North America, Canada and Spain; places where the greatest quantity of expat retirees
is registered.According to Jorge Woodbridge, Minis-
ter of Competitiveness and Regulatory Im-provement, “Costa Rica possesses significant competitive advantages which position it as an important destination for retirees. A lower cost of living, the efficiency of its medical services, the proximity to many destina-tions and our symbolic natural beauty and excellent climatic conditions, as well as our commitment with the environment are some reasons of weight to become involved in the implementation of retirement villages”.
In turn Marco Vinicio Ruiz, Minister of foreign trade, commented that the politics of foreign trade include commercial promotion as well as attracting foreign investment. In regards to the establishment of retirement villages, this pertains to a novel activity, to which, the country is capable of offering im-mediate and high quality service. Catering to the sector of the foreign population who have purchasing power, Costa Rica offers them services, which would otherwise be very ex-pensive in their countries of origin, turning our country into an excellent option to come and receive the attention required.
The industry of retirement communities surpasses two to three times the incomes that the tourist sector generates, since this business does not conclude with the sale of properties but is expanded by monthly re-munerations, daily services provided and the creation of health cities, a more extensive concept, that incorporates medical and re-search centers.
It is estimated that the development of these cities dedicated to provinding health-
(InfoWeb Press) The Governments of Cos-ta Rica and Japan carried out an exchange of notes prompting for the development of the “Project for the Introduction of Clean Energy by a Solar Electricity Generation System” proposed by the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE by its acronyms in Spanish).
This exchange of notes represents the ap-proval of the first project, of a group of 14, that the Direction of International Coop-eration of the Department of Foreign Affairs presented to the Embassy of Japan in June of last year.
This project, with an estimated value of $9 million, will allow the country to have its first photovoltaic solar plant of importance. It is a matter of taking advantage of a renew-able energy source that is very abundant in our country, which furthermore does not pro-duce any emission contaminants.
The director of the Division of the Corpo-rate University of ICE, Róger Carvajal; the Chancellor of the Republic, Bruno Stagno; the Ambassador of Japan in Costa Rica, Hidekazu Yamaguchi and the minister of Planning, Roberto Gallardo participated in the ceremony, carried out at the Chancellery,
Foreign Relations minister, Bruno Stagno, emphasized that “this initiative adds to the efforts of the country to confront the climatic change placing special emphasis in adapta-tion and its mitigation, as well as in improv-ing access to clean energy”.
Furthermore he emphasized that currently 51% of the country´s forest cover has been reforested, also as part of the actions taken to fight the climatic change, an initiative start-ed over 20 years ago. He finished by thank-ing the government of Japan for contributing in helping to make this country carbon neu-tral by the year 2021 and to businesses like
ICE, for being pioneers in these efforts’’ A great congratulations to ICE for their com-mitment to the environment and renewable energies. This cooperation is a recognition not only for the country, but also for ICE’’, he manifested.
In turn, the Ambassador of Japan, Hideka-zu Yamaguchi, expressed that the program of donations of the Japanese government included various countries and businesses around the world and ICE was favored among the group selected.
“ICE deeply thanks the Japanese govern-ment for their donation that effectively col-laborates with the effort that the country is carrying out to be supplied 100% by renew-able energy sources in the near future” said Róger Carvajal.
He also added that hydroelectric, geother-mic and Aeolian energies dominate the elec-tric production of Costa Rica, thus achieving that 94.6% of the electricity of the country is being generated from clean energy sources.
The project has two subdivisions. The first one, called Solar Project Miravalles, is located at the Geothermal Plant of Mira-valles, in Guanacaste. ICE will install a solar central microcomputer of 400 kw. there.
The second, called Solar Pilot Project Sa-vannah, of 3 kw, will be located in the area that occupies the main building of the ICE offices in North Sabana, San José. The pur-pose of this pilot plan is to show the residents of the Metropolitan Area the possibilities that solar energy offers.
Both the Miravalles and the microcom-puter project in La Sabana will have their systems directly connected to a network, thus both installations will be contributing their energy into the national electric system directly via such network.
Country will push for communities for retirees
Project to produce more clean energy in Guanacaste is promoted
care in our country would be able to gen-erate up to $340 million dollars annually. Likewise, the attention needed to properly run a 10,000 retiree village complex would produce some 40 thousand additional an-nual jobs; directly 10,000 in the areas of construction, architecture, engineering secu-rity, administration and health services, and indirectly opening 30 thousand jobs in com-merce, hotels, transportation, restaurants, manufacturing of medical and pharmaceuti-cal equipment; banks, cleaning and garden-ing, among others.
In Central America, Panama already has five retirement communities and 42 others
are presently in process of obtaining permits and beginning construction. In Costa Rica, projects in Liberia and in the northwest of the Central Valley have been registered.
During the press conference, the signing of a Declaration of National Public Interest regarding the retiree villages was carried out by the hierarchs of the participating institu-tions. Said declaration allows public institu-tions, inside the respective legal framework and in exercise of their competences, to des-tine resources and to develop alternatives of contribution with the private sector for the promoting the retirement villages.
Clean energy such as aeolian energy is being produced in Guanacaste. Photo Luis Castrillo SPG
Edition 198 • March, 201010 TouriSM
SHOPS • OFFICES • APARTMENTSLOCALES • OFICINAS • APARTAMENTOS
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(InfoWeb Press) Tourists the world over came to Guanacaste to live to the extreme their passion for sports fishing. The Presi-dential Challenge tournament took place this past 5th, 6th and 7th of March at Samara.
The event was an important window of ex-position for the tourism in Costa Rica and a recovery for the local economy of the zone.
According to statistics of the Costa Rican Confederacy of Tourist Fishing (Fecopt by its acronyms in Spanish), last year sport fish-ing brought 85,636 tourists into the country. Said figures show a recovery of 12% in com-parison to 2008. Consequently this year´s call-out is not yet to be ruled out as a success.
Mario Gutiérrez, one of the associate sponsors of the event, indicated that upon un-derstanding the significance of this activity, is was programed in such a way that it was carried out in a respectful manner to all ma-rine resources, the environment and paying close attention to the care of all participants.
“Is a very attractive event, where thou-sands of tourists interact with locals, further-more those who participated lived intensely the emotions that sport fishing provides. In this opportunity, the diversion of casting fish-ing lines out onto the open sea, reached Gua-nacaste”, declared Gutiérrez.
The Presidential Challenge is considered to be one of the most important tournaments worldwide, in its category. Each year the event gathers national sportsmen and foreign experts of sports fishing.
In our country, this sport is carried out using responsible practices. The organizers explained that once the capture of a fish is achieved, the fish should then be returned to the sea. The liberation fishing law “catch and be release” allows for the conservation of the species.
For this reason, the use of special baits and hooks especially designed to prevent injury to the fish is promoted.
“The Presidential Challenge positions Costa Rica, on a worldwide scale, as a tourist destination recognized for the healthy prac-tice of this sport”, added Gutiérrez.
Non-residents tourists that arrived to the country, exclusively to practice the sport, represented, in the 2009, 6.48% of total ar-rivals at the airports of Alajuela and Libe-ria. According to the Costa Rican Institute of Tourism, this type of visitors leave more dividends than the average tourist.
The Costa Rican Institute of Tourism or ICT, considers that the natural beauty of the beaches of the Pacific, and the conditions only offered by these waters, attract prac-titioners of this sport, who generally, form part of a segment of the population that has a high purchasing power and thus their expen-ditures are greater than that of the habitual tourist.
Sports fishing is an activity that combines skill, patience and the satisfaction of getting rewarded for your effort during hot shifts amidst the sizzling summer weather, in the
The Las Brisas charter boat was fishing a half day out of Flamingo last Saturday morning, Feb 6th, Just 200 meters south of the Catalina Islands, Humpback whales were sighted blowing their spray and as the boat approached in their direction, an adult Humpback over 40 ft long breached com-pletely out of the water in front of the boat. An amazing sight to see so close. After the water settled, a newborn baby was spotted dragging approx. 40 meters of gill net, line and floats wrapped around it’s head. Adult whale breaching normally means communi-cation for distress….this was no exception. After that, Capt. Pat Franklin on the Las Bri-sas boat went into a rescue situation to get the baby freed up. All the anglers on board were eager to assist even though their safety was going to be at risk. The baby was circled by the boat to get close enough to secure the ropes and net. The two adult whales also stood by circling close by, as they seemed to know an attempt to help their infant whale. Marine radio and cell phones from shore were used to summon help from nearby dive boats after trying to reel in the baby and nets to the boat, only causing crying from this baby whale. The rope and net were then released from the boat. Even then, the two parents still stood by vigilantly, confirming there was a rescue in progress for their young baby . Mother whales are extremely protec-tive of their calves, and have been known to ram boats than even get between them and their young. This day was certainly different. After an hour and fifteen minutes the Pacific Coast Dive boat arrived from Capt. Pat’s re-quest for assistance. He had still managed to keep the baby close by keeping in front of the baby and circling around, along with the help of the parents. It was an amazing dis-play of nature and higher animal instincts witnessed. The captain of Pacific Coast’s Golden Huntress, positioned his 54 ft. boat perfectly, allowing the two dive masters, Roy Mora Cordova, and Emelio Lopez Bus-tos, who, risking life and limb, immediately jumped off the bow of the dive boat into the waters in reach of the distressed baby whale. They had their dive knives prepared to cut free the ropes and netting entangled around it’s head. The first diver grabbed onto the back of the baby and fearlessly rode it as the whale ran, and then it submerged knock-ing the diver’s mask completely off render-ing him out of commission. The other diver caught the tail end of the net and climbed up along it while the whale was running scared. It was quite a site to witness this according to
all the divers and anglers on the two boats. The diver was relentless, and caught up close to the baby’s head, and made his cuts on the line….success!! About 40 meters of rope and nets were freed from the baby. Cheers of joy were heard from both boats. A great deed was done by all. The three whales immedi-ately headed out to sea at a fast pace. Cer-tainly thanks enough to see them unharmed. The baby whale would have certainly died caught in this gill net! The captain put the 27’ sport fishing boat closer to these whales than anyone would suggest was safe, and these divers took quite a risk of injury get-ting so close to these huge barnacle covered animals. It was an exhausting group rescue that took over two hours, but the divers and captain from the “Golden Huntress” get extra cudos. Thanks to Capt. Pat Franklin of Playa Potrero, and his Las Brisas anglers, Jesse Fox and Terry Wright from Alberta,Canada, along with Helen and Richard Fox of White-horse, Yukon, and all the fotos they man-aged to take to document this amazing half day fishing trip, no one will forget too soon. Great job guys! The real sad news that comes from this story is how many sea creatures are caught in these death traps called gill nets. They are banned in many parts of the world, but still used extensively and illegally, caus-ing useless killing and trashing the world’s sea life. If it swims, it will die in a gill net. Turtles, sharks, dolphins, whales, just to name a few. This story ended happily, but how many we cannot imagine do not. The gill net has to be banned within our waters, and this law enforced with massive fines and jail terms. Let’s hope just this one story can make a difference. Supporting the conserva-tion efforts around the world is a good start.Written by: Capt.tom Haydu oWner of Las brisas fisHing CHarters feb. 14tH. 2010
Presidential Challenge brings more tourists to Samara Beachmiddle of sun and sea.
Participants see their efforts crowned when they manage to find the fish with the greatest measures, which, once registered in the data of the competitors or by camera, is then returned to its marine waters as a means of avoiding negative impacts brought upon its habitat.
Sports fishing heads the list of tourist sports in our country, since the marine biodi-versity we boast about creates an ideal habi-tat capable of harboring high concentrations of billfish during the entire year.
Save The Whales….or Just a Baby Humpback This Day?
The event attracted a large quantity of port fishing followers who ventured into Guanacaste´s ocean waters. Photo Silvia Alfaro
Rescuers of the small whale in the region of the Catalina Islands. Photo Captain Tom Haydu
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Edition 198 • March, 201014 Edition 198 • March, 2010 15culTure
Each column, row and box must contain each number from 1 to 9. There is only one solution, wich is shown here.
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The deadline for each edition is the Wednesday preceding publication.
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Frederick W. Lange, PhD*From time to time my articles for the
Journal have been focused on international meetings in which the results of scholarly research that highlight our knowledge of the prehistory of this area have been shared with the broader community. The photo that accompanies this article was from 1990; another meeting is coming around: Geof-frey McCafferty (U of Calgary, Canada) and Silvia Salgado (University of Costa Rica) have organized an electronic symposium or-ganized for the 75th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2010, St. Louis, MO to be held from 14-18 April of this year. The symposium is titled Looking Back, Looking Forward: Seventy-Five Years of Archaeology in Pacific Central America and include presentations on the following themes of interest to readers of the Journal.
Cristina Aguilar ([email protected])
Social practices at La Cascabel, a village dated 900-1350 A.D., at Bay of Culebra NW Costa Rica
Excavations at the site showed that productive and funerary activities, as well as consumption of products, were conducted in domestic units, however, there were also rit-ualistic activities carried out in public spaces. We discuss the social practices of the inhabit-ants in three different moments, clearly de-fined by the stratigraphy, where continuity as well as change can be noted. The social group developed a mixed economy, although the strong skeletal development indicates a high intake of animal protein. The social practices denote the presence, not only of lo-cal practices, but also of those derived from northern traditions.
Alex Geurds (University of Leiden; [email protected])
Regionality and monumental sculpture in Pacific and Central Nicaragua
This paper discusses the study of cultural interaction and its retaining of the archaeological culture concept in relation to Pacific and Central Nicaragua. First, I pro-vide an overview of the continuous use of both concepts and their accompanying ques-tions for the better part of the last seventy-five years. In the second part, I challenge some of the assumptions embodied by these concepts by using a case study of monumen-tal sculpture in Central Nicaragua. I outline an alternative of shifting focus to the cultural practices developed by communities at the local and regional level rather than looking for stylistically comparable traits.
Eugenia Ibarra ([email protected])An ethnohistorical interpretation of the
Mesoamerican Impact on the rio San Juan and Western Central Valley of Costa Rica surroundings in the 16th century
History and archaeology have fo-cused mainly on the Mesoamerican presence in Pacific Central America. This is under-standable when the ethnohistorical sources and the archaeological records offer more and clearer descriptions of that area. How-ever, recent research on warfare and pris-oner capturing in Lower Central America undertaken by the author posits new inter-pretations on the expanding activities of the Mesoamerican descendent people in the 16th century.
Fred Lange ([email protected])
Looking Back, Looking Forward: Forty-Five Years of Archaeology in Greater Nicoya
This paper draws its themes from the chapter I was asked to prepare for a vol-ume to be published by the University of Costa Rica. For that chapter I divided part of the text into Part I: Initiatives and Results (Ecological Orientation, Cultural Resources Management, Guanacaste Archaic, Deep-ening the Chronology, Geomorphological Studies, Coastal-Inland Relationships, INAA Studies of Ceramics and Jade) and Part II: Projects That Would Grab My Attention If I Were Starting Over Again (Plate Tectonics and Coastal Archaeology, Early Occupation of Off-Shore Islands, Protohistoric Disease Vectors, Broadening Opportunities for Local Archaeologists).
Geoffrey McCafferty and Carrie Den-nett (University of Calgary; [email protected])
Evaluating the ‘Out of Mexico’ Migration Theory: New Light on the Bagaces/Sapoa Transition in Pacific Nicaragua
The Greater Nicoya region of Low-er Central America has long been identified with Mesoamerica. This has been particu-larly acute for the ‘Postclassic’ period based on ethnohistorical accounts, and supported by polychrome pottery with Mexican ico-nography. Excavations along Lake Nica-ragua have specifically targeted the ethnic-ity of cultural groups dating to the Bagaces and Sapoa periods, with interest in cultural changes and continuities. This paper pres-ents results of these investigations as they relate to the ‘Out of Mexico’ theory, con-cluding that while some evidence suggests ideological affiliation there is also conflicting evidence to suggest a more complex process of culture change.
Silvia Salgado and Elisa Fernandez Leon (University of Costa Rica; [email protected])
Questioning the historical sources from a linguistic and archaeological perspective in Lower Central America
In 16th century Pacific Nicaragua, languages from the Mesoamerican and Isth-mo-Columbian linguistic areas were spoken. We believe the stories regarding migration have a strong historical basis; however, there hasn’t been an agreement among the archae-ologists regarding the fact that these histori-cal descriptions reflect the actual reality of the archaeological societies or if what Kirch-hoff once suggested about Pacific Nicaragua being a part of Mesoamerica is true. Here we conduct a conceptual exercise, using already documented cases from Northeastern Costa Rica and Pacific Nicaragua, to present an in-terpretative model of how this process could have taken place.
Felipe Solis and Anayensy Herrera ([email protected])
Mesoamericans at the Jicaro site, Bay of Culebra, NW Costa Rica
Archaeological research carried out at the Jicaro site over the last four years, yielded a total of 16 radiocarbon dates indi-cating it was inhabited from 1000 to 1350 A.D. by a population whose sociocultural practices and physical characteristics ties it to the Mesoamerican migrants mentioned in the XVI century`s etnohistorical documents. The findings are compared to those of others at the Bay of Culebra to establish similari-ties and differences amongst the coetaneous populations in the region, in order to discuss changes wrought by the Mesoamerican in-migrants as well as continuities product of interaction among populations of different historical identities.
Larry Steinbrenner (Red Deer College; [email protected])
The Pacific Nicaragua Potting Tradition, AD 800-1350
More than eighty years after Lothrop’s watershed Pottery of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, archaeologists working in Greater Nicoya continue to struggle with problems of ceramic taxonomy. Decades of research have led to the identification of a bewildering array of ceramic types, but little discussion of the interrelationships between these types. This paper argues that most of the Sapoá Period polychrome types previous-ly identified in Pacific Nicaragua—including those usually treated as markers of different immigrant Mesoamerican groups—are more alike than unalike, and are best understood as the products of a common potting tradition with a Central American origin.
In May or June I will follow up with a summary of the presentations as they were received and try to highlight some of the main points of the discussion for readers of the Journal.
AninternationalfocusonGreaterNicoya
*Dr. Frederick W. Lange has a doc-toral degree in anthropology, award-ed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1971. He is the author of the recently published book BEFORE GUANACASTE, a popular account of the first 10,000 years of this wonder-ful place. BG is available at the Jaime Peligro Book Store in Tamarindo, the Café Britt Book Store at Peninsula de Papagayo, and in Libreria Inter-nacional bookstores in San Jose and throughout Costa Rica.
(InfoWeb Press) This year shows better re-sults for the country that confirm the recov-ery in the shipment of Costa Rican products abroad. According to statistical data from PROCOMER (by its acronyms in Spanish), national exports reached an accumulated val-ue of US$727.9 millions during the month of January 2010. This signifies an increment of US$133.5 millions (22%) if compared with the same month during 2009.
Within this behavior the industrial seg-ment presents the best performance totaling US$535.58 millions, which represents an in-crease of the 27%. Likewise, this sector also highlights an evolution in the food industry, which registered an accumulated value of US$99.28 millions; in other words a rise of 57%. Additionally, the exports of electronic components such as microprocessors ob-tained an accumulated value of US$183 mil-lion, constituting a 40% increase.
Regarding the agricultural sector, exports registered a total of US$174.20 millions, a figure that shows a n increase of US$19.1 millions (12.3%), thus demonstrating favor-able growth in products such as the coffee (8%), melon (69.3%) and pineapple (28.6%).
The Minister of foreign trade, Marco Vinicio Ruiz, declared his complacency by the recovery reached by the banana plan-tation industry during the last quarter of 2009. Precisely due to the reactivation of the hectares that were affected by floods that oc-curred in November of the previous year.
“With this fact the possibilities for growth that the banana industry presents facilitates the entrance to new markets such as the Mid-dle East. These results permit us to continue with the projections established in the com-mercial agenda, which favor the growth of exports and the incursion into new markets”, added Ruiz.
The livestock and fishing sectors in turn show positive performances in products such as milk in its diverse presentations. Whole milk increased by 173% in its un-con-centrated version by 543%. In general terms, this sector reached, during January of 2010, an accumulated value of US$17.2 millions, representing an increase of 12.7%.
“The current performance of national ex-ports reflects the positive tendency, which began during the last months of the previ-ous year, that the sale of products abroad has shown. This thanks to the diversified char-acter and robustness of our export portfolio, which allows Costa Rican businessmen to find new market diversification alternatives,
increase competitiveness and attract greater sources of investment, in events such as the international Costa Rica Investment World, which is to be held during April of the pres-ent year by PROCOMER”, points out Em-manuel Hess, General Manager of PRO-COMER.
The diversification of markets for the placement of national products played an important role in lessening the impact that the world recession had on Costa Rican sales abroad. As of January of 2010 North America, Asia and the European Union are confirmed as the main commercial associates of Costa Rica, with percentages of participa-tion of 39.7%, 19% and 17,4% respectively.
Amongst the most dynamic markets, clas-sified by region, Mexico stands out in North America with an increment of 181%, El Sal-vador in Central America whose shipments increased by 57%, the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean (126%), the United King-dom in the European Union (37%) and China in Asia with 76%.
Likewise, the United States continues to be the main destination to export to with 33% of the total being sent abroad. Exports to this country, during the month of January, reached a value of US$238.4 millions, show-ing an increase of 6,0% in comparison to the same month in 2009.
The European Union presented an increase of a mere 10,9% in comparison to what the month of January of 2009 had presented, this due to the favorable behavior of markets such as Holland (24.5%), Belgium (20.4%) and France (15.4%).
In the Central American market national exports reached, in absolute terms, a value of US$90 million; that is to say, an increase of 20.1% in comparison to the same period during 2009.
An increase in national exports seen as 2010 begins
Activity participants in the Caujiniquil community. Photo Frederick W. Lange
Banana exports were amongst those that showed the largest increase during the the last quarter of 2009. Photo Getty Images/royalty free
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