The best surfers in Costa Rica gather today and tomorrow (May 26 and 27) at Playa Bejuco in Parrita for the fifth date of the Kolbi Surf Tournament: Copa Los 40 (The 40’s Cup).
The last time the tournament had a stop at Bejuco Beach was back in 2016, an event that saw Anthony Fillingim and Emily Gussoni take the first place positions.
The organization of the event confirmed it has received one of the highest registrations so far this year, a result of the amazing waves offered by this surf break in the Central Pacific and the closeness to Jaco Beach (25 minutes), beach town that hosts one of the biggest surfing communities in the country. Unfortunately, though, some important figures will not be taking part in this date due to their participation in the Word Surf League events.
So far, Jordan Hernandez from Limon, has managed to maintain the first place of the tournament by taking the first place in two of the four stops. Figures such as Malakai Martinez and Andre Chacon will also be present.


In the female category, Rubiana Brownwell who took first place in the fourth date in Santa Teresa, Coral Wiggins, Zulay Martinez and Lisbeth Vindas will be battling for the first position in the ranking.
Action begins at 7 a.m. and concludes at 5 p.m. today, while on Sunday the competition kicks off at 7 a.m. and it’s expected to close by 3 p.m.
In addition to great surfing the Kolbi National Surf Tournament will offer live music, balance board, playlist in video, beautiful models, games and products by sponsors.
The event can also be seen live on www.surfingcr.net

The Turrialba Volcano in Costa Rica has been in a period of relative calm throughout the past weeks with the constant emission of gas as vapor.
​On Sunday afternoon, however, the volcano had another eruption of importance with emission of ash and a column that reached 500 meters above the crater (3,800 meters above sea level).
Another eruption was registered at 9 a.m. of Monday morning, with an important column of ash that could not be adequately measured due to the cloudy conditions in the area at the time, but estimated in 600 meters above sea level. The ash is being carried to the North by the wind.
“The Turrialba Volcano maintains a continued degasification with frequent ash emissions. The seismic activity in the past 24 hours has remained in a low level. The National Meteorological Institute’s station indicates variable dispersion between the north and west. Smell of sulfur is reported in Turrialba, Barva and Aquiares”, describes the report by the National University’s Volcanology and Seismology Research Institute ( OVSICORI)

A group of tourists found a baby sloth alone in Playa Cocles, Puerto Viejo, Limon, and brought him to the Jaguar Rescue Center, where the personnel and volunteers took on the task of searching for the mother. The baby sloth weighed only 400 grams.
They recorded the baby sloth’s cry and went into the forest armed with speakers playing the recording over and over. It took them two days but they finally found the mother who after hearing the cry slowly started to come down from the tree she was on.
The Jaguar Rescue Center posted the video of the beautiful moment on Facebook and commented: “We are happy to say that we were able to reunite this mother and baby 3 toed sloths (Bradypus variegatus). The baby was brought to us late Tuesday afternoon. We spent two days looking for the mother along the beach. Yesterday, she finally came down after hearing the recording of her baby crying through a speaker!”
This is not the first time personnel at the Jaguar Rescue Center use this technique to reunite sloth families.
The Jaguar Rescue Center opened doors in 2008 and it’s a temporary or permanent home for ill, injured and orphaned animals. The center tries to reintroduce rescued animals to their natural habitat whenever possible.
They offer guided visits Monday through Saturday at 9:30 a.m. and at 11:30 a.m. and they also offer private tours at 2 p.m. by reservation only.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the population in the American continent has won 16 years of life in average in the last 45 years; today, life expectancy in this region is of 75 years.
BBC launched a calculator that shows a person’s life expectancy based on the country you were born in, and using this tool and analyzing the results for Latin America, Costa Rica is in the first place, which means, it is the country with highest life expectancy in the region; globally it takes position 14 with 80.98 years according to the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016 generated by the WHO.
The higher life expectancy in Costa Rica is associated with several elements, including security, health and education.
A study published by The Lancet Global Health in 2015 has Costa Rica ranked in position 26 among 187 countries when it comes to the number of healthy foods that are included in the diet. 
High coverage of health and social security and adequate sanitary conditions are also part of the reason Costa Rica takes this privileged spot.

Low-cost airline Volaris inaugurated its new route San Jose, Costa Rica to Washington D.C. via El Salvador this Wednesday, May 16.
The flights will travel from San Jose twice a week on Monday and Wednesdays at 1:30 p.m. arriving in Washington D.C. at 11:35 p.m. While from the U.S. capital to Costa Rica the flights are scheduled from Dulles Airport on Tuesdays and Thursdays leaving at 1:52 a.m. and arriving in Costa Rica at 7:35 a.m.
“The carrier’s model provides a new, low-price option for people traveling to El Salvador and Costa Rica, particularly entrepreneurs and those visiting friends and relatives,” Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority officials said.
“We are very pleased to inaugurate another route from Central America this year as we had announced. Having the presence of Volaris Costa Rica in the capital of the United States opens new horizons and strengthens our commitment to offer competitive rates to new destinations”, commented Fernando Naranjo, General Manager of Volaris Costa Rica.
This is the third route inaugurated by the low-cost airline connecting Costa Rica to the United States; the carrier flies also to New York and Los Angeles.
Just for today, Volaris is offering a 40% discount in this new route, tickets must be purchased May 17 to travel between June 1 and August 31, 2018. For additional information go to: https://flights.volaris.com/es-us/vuelos-a-washington and get your promotional code.

The Costa Rica Classic, stop on the PGA Tour Latin America, came to an end after four days of competition; it was Tyson Alexander from the United States that took the first place in the international tournament.
In fact, Alexander, Chris Killmer and Eric Steger all three from the United States, finished the competition in a tie (-18); in order to define who the winner of the event was, they had to play an additional hole and whoever did best would take the title; this did not help since it took all three competitors the same number of plays (4) to conclude. A second tie-break was necessary, and this time it was Alexander who got the best score and won the hole; Steger came in second place and Killmer in third.
“Alexander poured the putt in the middle for eagle, essentially ending the tournament, the former University of Florida golfer capturing his first PGA TOUR Latinoamérica title. With a victory and a runner-up performance in his last two starts, Alexander moved from ninth to the top spot on the Order of Merit”, states the release by Pgatour.com
Alexander showed a great game during the entire tournament, with rounds of 68,67,65 and 66.
“I want to thank the Costa Rican government and authorities for supporting the event, as well as the Costa Rica Golf Federation for organizing this tournament and Reserva Conchal for their hospitality”, stated Alexander.
The fourth and fifth places of the competition were taken by Brazilians Rafael Becher and Rodrigo Lee.
Alexander took home a prize of $31,500.00.
The second edition of the Costa Rica Classic had the participation of over 140 athletes who flew to Costa Rica from countries such as Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico, Canada, Chile, Finland, Netherlands, England, Spain, Peru, Norway, South Africa, among others.

Prestigious tourism magazine Condé Nast Traveler Spain named Costa Rica the international tourist destination of 2018.
Costa Rica received the award, part of the Gold List Traveler Awards 2018, in a gala celebrated in Casino de Madrid in Spain, this event is celebrating its tenth anniversary.
Costa Rica was voted initially by readers and followers of the site among 25 destinations, and then it made the top 10 along with other beautiful destinations such as Ciudad del Cabo in Mexico, Scotland, Hawaii, Nicaragua, Kerala in India, Puglia in Italy and Samana in Dominican Republic.
Costa Rica was recognized as being a destination rich in biodiversity and for the variety of tourist attractions as well as its constant innovation in sustainable tourism.
​Maria Amalia Revelo, who was recently named Minister of Tourism, stated that this award is a result that validates the efforts and development of strategies of promotion that have been carried out in the last years geared towards the European market, where the number of direct flights has increased considerably and the visitation has also seen a constant growth.

The National Theater of Costa Rica which was recently declared a National Symbol of Historic Architectural Heritage and Cultural Liberty will open its doors to national and foreign tourists this weekend to offer a unique tour of the theater, where visitors will get so see some rooms and areas of the building usually not accessible to the public.
This Saturday, May 12 and Sunday, May 13 from 10 a.m. and through 5 p.m. the public will be able to enter the theater, visit its gardens, take a close look at the different sculptures and appreciate how the floor of the main room is lifted through a mechanic system to be at the same level as the stage; the National Theater is one of few theater in the world to have this system which was designed by renown Italian engineer Cesare Saldini (1848-1922).
Lyrical live music, live statues and artists will be receiving visitors and offering them information on this magnificent architectural jewel.
One of the main attractions will be the recreation in a size of 3 x 7 meters of the allegory “Comercio y la Agricultura de Costa Rica” which will include the possibility for visitors to interact with the painting and take photos with some of the characters that will be brought to life by professional actors.
In January 2014, the USA Today declared the allegory “Comercio y la Agricultura de Costa Rica” (Commerce and Agriculture of Costa Rica) located in the National Theater as one of 10 most beautiful murals in the world. This work of art of created by muralist Aleardo Villa in 1897, and it was used to illustrate the five colones bill back when it circulated between 1968 and 1992.
​The entrance is free but tours will be offered in small groups as people arrive.
The theater, which celebrated 120 years last October is filled with impressive paintings, among them Alegoría de las Artes (The Arts Allegory) by Roberto Fontana and valued in over US$1 million; 17 sculptures such as Triunfo de la música (The Triumph of Music), popularly known as “La Fama”; lamps, furniture, theater stage curtains, original beautiful decorations, and in total 600 works of art of great historic value. Statues of the 17th century Spanish playwright Pedro Calderón de la Barca and famous German composer Ludwig van Beethoven are featured in the theater’s façade.

Many tourists choose Costa Rica as their vacation destination because of the variety of options that the country offers, beautiful beaches, relaxation, wellness retreats, eco-tourism and of course adventure.   23% of the tourists that visit the country said they did so with the purpose of experiencing adventure tourism according to statistics by the Costa Rica Tourism Board (ICT).
Canyoning is a practice that continues to gain more and more fans, the combination of exercise, adventure and adrenaline make this an attractive tour option for national and international tourists.
Canyoning involves different activities such as rappelling, hiking, climbing and jumping, along a natural canyon.
The tours can take anywhere from three to four hours depending on the area and the number of people in a group.
Canyoning experiences in Costa Rica usually include waterfalls, canopy and hanging bridges, tours are usually created according to the level of expertise of the group.
Canyons in Costa Rica are classified from class one to six depending on their difficulty.
Costa Rica is one of the few places where adventurers can experience waterfall rappelling.
It is important to hire a reputable tour company with experienced guides that offer all the security measures required. Canyoning equipment includes ropes, pulleys, helmets and harnesses, make sure they are all in good conditions.
Some of the most popular places to practice canyoning in Costa Rica are Arenal in La Fortuna; Rio Perdido in Guanacaste; Turrialba; Uvita and Monteverde.