Costa Rica Quotes

Do you remember Costa Rica?” [...] “How could I forget?” It was one of the happiest memories of my life. “You asked me if I'd ever been in love. I said no.” He pressed a soft kiss to my mouth. “Ask me again, princess.

In Costa Rica, you asked if I'd ever been in love, I said no." "Ask me again." "Have you ever been in love Mr. Larsen?" "Only once" "And you, Princess. Have you ever been in love?" "Only once

In Costa Rica, you asked if I'd ever been in love. I said no' I lowered my head until our foreheads touched and her lips were scant inches from mine. 'Ask me again'.

In Costa Rica, you asked if I’d ever been in love. I said no... Ask me again.” "Have you ever been in love, Mr. Larsen?” “Only once.” “And you, princess. Have you ever been in love?” “Only once,

No state had a child poverty rate higher than Mississippi’s, at roughly 28 percent, which is also the child poverty rate of Costa Rica.

In Costa Rica, you asked if I’d ever been in love. I said no.” I lowered my head until our foreheads touched and her lips were scant inches from mine. “Ask me again.” It was the same request I’d made at the hospital, but this time, Bridget didn’t break our gaze as she asked, “Have you ever been in love, Mr. Larsen?” “Only once.” I slid my hand up from her neck to the back of her head, cupping it. “And you, Princess. Have you ever been in love?” “Only once,” she whispered.

Why do so many today want to wander off to South Africa or Kenya or India or Russia or Honduras or Costa Rica or Peru to help with justice issues but not spend the same effort in their own neighborhood or community or state? Why do young suburbanites, say in Chicago, want to go to Kentucky or Tennessee to help people but not want to spend that same time to go to the inner city in their own area to help with justice issues? I asked this question to a mature student in my office one day, and he thought he had a partial explanation: 'Because my generation is searching for experiences, and the more exotic and extreme the better. Going down the street to help at a food shelter is good and it is just and some of us are doing that, but it's not an experience. We want experiences.

Shamu and I have arrived safely in Costa Rica. He was stopped by airport security because he carries enough artillery in his pants pockets to construct a sawed-off shotgun. Evidently, he thought we were headed to Iraq.

...stories break silence and nourish those who work, feel, and dream. From Costa Rica: A Traveler's Literary Companion

Similarly, though the United States is one of the world’s richest economies by per capita income, it ranks only around seventeenth in reported life satisfaction. It is superseded not only by the likely candidates of Finland, Norway, and Sweden, which all rank above the United States but also by less likely candidates such as Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. Indeed, one might surmise that it is health and longevity rather than income that give the biggest boost to reported life satisfaction. Since good health and longevity can be achieved at per capita income levels well below those of the United States, so too can life satisfaction. One marketing expert put it this way, with only slight exaggeration: Basic Survival goods are cheap, whereas narcissistic self-stimulation and social-display products are expensive. Living doesn’t cost much, but showing off does.

Do you remember Costa Rica?”... “How could I forget?” It was one of the happiest memories of my life. “You asked me if I'd ever been in love. I said no... Ask me again, princess.

The U.S. is the richest country in the world, yet even with trillions of dollars to spend it cannot match the life expectancy of a middle-income country like Costa Rica.

In the twentieth century per capita GDP was perhaps the supreme yardstick for evaluating national success. From this perspective, Singapore, each of whose citizens produces on average $56,000 worth of goods and services a year, is a more successful country than Costa Rica, whose citizens produce only $14,000 a year. But nowadays thinkers, politicians and even economists are calling to supplement or even replace GDP with GDH – gross domestic happiness. After all, what do people want? They don’t want to produce. They want to be happy. Production is important because it provides the material basis for happiness. But it is only the means, not the end. In one survey after another Costa Ricans report far higher levels of life satisfaction than Singaporeans. Would you rather be a highly productive but dissatisfied Singaporean, or a less productive but satisfied Costa Rican?

And I… Gwen, I need you. Like my next breath. It’s… I can’t breathe without you. If you leave for Costa Rica, I’m coming with you. Where you go, I’ll follow. I don’t care where we are as long as we’re together.

deaths by bullet per 100,000. In at number one is Colombia, with a whopping 51.8 whacks. Next is Paraguay with 7.4, then Guatemala, Zimbabwe, Mexico, Costa Rica, Belarus, Barbados, and the United States with 2.97—just ahead of Uruguay.

We—all of us—want to feel special. We want to feel the glory that shines on us when we reach beyond our boundaries to grab at something greater, to live a heroic life, if only for a day or a week or a moment. This simple yearning is in us all, hardly recognizable, often only the merest hint that there is something more to us. This is why we seek out new places...we want to remember a somewhere that gave us the space to expand ourselves, to become a little more of who we truly are.

My need to parent is so much bigger, sometimes, than my children’s need for parenting.

she’d dream idly about careers studying tree rings. Swimming with manta rays. Scouring Costa Rica to find out more about the scale-crested pygmy tyrant. Really,

Where’s that guy with the coffee?’ ‘I’m here.’ Mannix had appeared. ‘You went to Costa Rica for the beans?

I wondered if Rhys had left Eldorra yet, and if he'd remember us ten, twenty, thirty years from now. I wondered if, when he saw me on TV or in a magazine, he would think about Costa Rica and storms in a gazebo and lazy afternoons in a hotel room, or if he'd flip past with nothing more than a spark of nostalgia. I wondered if I would haunt him as much as he haunted me.

I care with the brightened curiosity of one who loves a subject for no rational reason, but who loves it nonetheless and prodigally. This is the ardor of the academic Austenologist who believes that if she looks beneath the floorboards of the right dusty attic, she will find the diary entry explaining why Jane Austen rejected her one marriage proposal the day after she'd accepted it; of the birder in Costa Rica tiptoeing through tails of biting ants and fer-de-lance serpents in hopes of glimpsing a rare hummingbird that no one has seen for fifteen years. I could list such loves forever, the sort that visit our imaginations on the cusp of the impossible but that we cannot erase from our minds. We follow the trail with whatever breadcrumbs we can gather, with hope, with love, with an almost magical combination of urgency and patience...

Descendants of de Clieu's original plant were also proliferating in the region, in Haiti, Cuba, Costa Rica, and Venezuela. Ultimately, Brazil became the world's dominant coffee supplier, leaving Arabia far behind.

And so, at a December 1981 meeting, Contra leaders, whom Reagan referred to as the “moral equivalent of the Founding Fathers,” floated the idea that trafficking cocaine into California would provide enough profits to arm and train the anti-Sandinista guerrillas.108 With most of the network already established, the plan was rather straightforward: There were the Medellín and Cali cartels in Colombia; the airports and money laundering in Panama run by President Manuel Noriega; the well-known lack of radar detection that made landing strips in Costa Rica prime transport depots; and weapons and drug warehouses at Ilopango air base outside San Salvador. The problem had been U.S. law enforcement guarding key entry points into a lucrative market. But with the CIA and the National Security Council now ready to run interference and keep the FBI, the U.S. Customs Service,

Want to find your friends sitting under a tree for a picnic? Use a what3words address. Need to pin exactly where on a sidewalk you took that picture? Or find your Airbnb tree house in Costa Rica? What3words can help with that, too. The technology has more serious uses. The Rhino Refugee Camp in Uganda is using what3words to help people find their way to the camp’s churches, mosques, markets, and doctors’ office. The Mongolian postal service is using the addresses to send mail to nomadic families. And Dr. Louw now uses the three words to find patients in the townships of South Africa.

I’ve got Woody. He relies on me. Woody is all I want for now, all I need. I couldn’t possibly take him to Costa Rica. A trip to the barbershop emotionally exhausts him, and he needs days to recover from going to the dentist. I’m afraid you underestimate how a special-needs child changes your life.

deep-sea-fishing boat, which they would buy, man themselves, and rent to vacationers—this though neither had ever skippered a canoe or hooked a guppy. Then, too, there was quick money to be made chauffeuring stolen cars across South American borders. (“You get paid five hundred bucks a trip,” or so Perry had read somewhere.) But of the many replies he might have made, he chose to remind Dick of the fortune awaiting them on Cocos Island, a land speck off the coast of Costa Rica. “No fooling, Dick,” Perry said. “This is authentic. I’ve got a map. I’ve got the whole history. It was buried there back in 1821—Peruvian bullion, jewelry. Sixty million dollars—that’s what they

The greatest strength can be a weakness, if properly exploited.

هناك قصة خرافية تتناقل من الفم لفم: " أنه في ليلة ما جاء الحب للناس، وطرق الباب ولم يفتحوا له".

Sentarse en las playas del Refugio Gandoca es trascenderlo todo, incluso su propia arbitraria belleza, sus flores y sus algas, eternas, perfumadas putrescibles.

Humans are uniquely good throwers. No other species even comes close. Monkeys and apes can throw branches, rotten fruit, and excrement (I still remember an encounter with an irate troop of howler monkeys in Costa Rica . . .), but they do not use projectiles as lethal weapons in hunting or combat. Our closest relatives, chimpanzees, are quite pathetic at throwing.94 Imagine

Clearly, Valdez was an apologist for the industrialists and polluters, the big American companies that dominated Costa Rica and other Latin American countries. Not surprising to find such a person here, since the CIA had controlled Costa Rica for decades. This wasn’t a country; it was a subsidiary of American business interests. And American businesses did not give a damn for the environment.

Trees stand at the heart of ecology, and they must come to stand at the heart of human politics. Tagore said, Trees are the earth’s endless effort to speak to the listening heaven. But people—oh, my word—people! People could be the heaven that the Earth is trying to speak to. “If we could see green, we’d see a thing that keeps getting more interesting the closer we get. If we could see what green was doing, we’d never be lonely or bored. If we could understand green, we’d learn how to grow all the food we need in layers three deep, on a third of the ground we need right now, with plants that protected one another from pests and stress. If we knew what green wanted, we wouldn’t have to choose between the Earth’s interests and ours. They’d be the same!” One more click takes her to the next slide, a giant fluted trunk covered in red bark that ripples like muscle. “To see green is to grasp the Earth’s intentions. So consider this one. This tree grows from Colombia to Costa Rica. As a sapling, it looks like a piece of braided hemp. But if it finds a hole in the canopy, the sapling shoots up into a giant stem with flaring buttresses.” She turns to regard the image over her shoulder. It’s the bell of an enormous angel’s trumpet, plunged into the Earth. So many miracles, so much awful beauty. How can she leave so perfect a place? “Did you know that every broadleaf tree on Earth has flowers? Many mature species flower at least once a year. But this tree, Tachigali versicolor, this one flowers only once. Now, suppose you could have sex only once in your entire life. . . .” The room laughs now. She can’t hear, but she can smell their nerves. Her switchback trail through the woods is twisting again. They can’t tell where their guide is going. “How can a creature survive, by putting everything into a one-night stand? Tachigali versicolor’s act is so quick and decisive that it boggles me. You see, within a year of its only flowering, it dies.” She lifts her eyes. The room fills with wary smiles for the weirdness of this thing, nature. But her listeners can’t yet tie her rambling keynote to anything resembling home repair. “It turns out that a tree can give away more than its food and medicines. The rain forest canopy is thick, and wind-borne seeds never land very far from their parent. Tachigali’s once-in-a-lifetime offspring germinate right away, in the shadow of giants who have the sun locked up. They’re doomed, unless an old tree falls. The dying mother opens a hole in the canopy, and its rotting trunk enriches the soil for new seedlings. Call it the ultimate parental sacrifice. The common name for Tachigali versicolor is the suicide tree.

En México, a pesar de que el 80% de la población son trabajadores, solo el 10% de los legisladores alguna vez lo fueron.23 Esta desproporción en el perfil de los legisladores mexicanos es más grande que en muchos otros países de América Latina. México es el cuarto país con peor representación de trabajadores de la región, solo por debajo de Ecuador, Costa Rica y Paraguay.24 En general, en México el poder económico y el político están anormalmente concentrados y entrelazados.25

A recent study of common frogs living near Ithaca, New York, for example, found that four out of six species were calling—which is to say, mating—at least ten days earlier than they used to, while at the Arnold Arboretum, in Boston, the date of peak blooming for spring-flowering shrubs has advanced, on average, by eight days. In Costa Rica, birds like the keel-billed toucan (Ramphastos sulfuratus), once confined to the lowlands, have started to nest on mountain slopes; in the Alps, plants like purple saxifrage (Saxifraga oppositifolia) and Austrian draba (Draba fladnizensis) have been creeping up toward the summits; and in the Sierra Nevada of California, the average Edith’s Checkerspot butterfly (Euphydryas editha) can now be found at an elevation three hundred feet higher than it was a hundred years ago. Any one of these changes could, potentially, be a response to purely local conditions—shifts, say, in regional weather patterns or in patterns of land use. The only explanation that anyone has proposed that makes sense of them all, though, is global warming.

In the twentieth century per capita GDP was perhaps the supreme yardstick for evaluating national success. From this perspective, Singapore, each of whose citizens produces on average $56,000 worth of goods and services a year, is a more successful country than Costa Rica, whose citizens produce only $14,000 a year. But nowadays thinkers, politicians and even economists are calling to supplement or even replace GDP with GDH – gross domestic happiness. After all, what do people want? They don’t want to produce. They want to be happy.

It’s incredible how much we can mean for somebody else, the influence we can have in somebody else’s life, somebody so different, what it means to have a million miles away a twin soul, that somewhere, on the other side of the world there’s somebody who truly loves you.

Travel is just as much a journey inward as it is a journey out. As we soar the skies and sail the waters and crack the virgin soils of the earth, we too delve into our own caverns, peek around the corners of our dreams, tremble before our fire-breathing terrors, axe to splinters our biases and judgments and beliefs, and discover the uncharted wonders of our psyches and our hearts.

There is in me an insatiable thirst for a quest. For discovering things greater than ourselves. Beyond that is a murky darkness which beckons me to its call. I seek movement for movement's sake. There is no destination except the verb of motion...I seek to dive into the unknown and allow its wisdom to take me away. And when it is finished with me, it will bring me back and things will never be the same again.

Some people live longer than they ought to by any known measures. As Jo Marchant notes in her book Cure, Costa Ricans have only about one-fifth the personal wealth of Americans, and have poorer health care, but live longer. Moreover, people in one of the poorest regions of Costa Rica, the Nicoya Peninsula, live longest of all, even though they have much higher rates of obesity and hypertension. They also have longer telomeres. The theory is that they benefit from closer social bonds and family relationships. Curiously, it was found that if they live alone or don’t see a child at least once a week, the telomere length advantage vanishes. It is an extraordinary fact that having good and loving relationships physically alters your DNA. Conversely, a 2010 U.S. study found, not having such relationships doubles your risk of dying from any cause.

And so I suppose now, my Fellow Reader, comes the moment I assume you've all been waiting for - the Magnum Opus of this merry tale of absurd and inflammatory nonsense in which our Holy Protagonist sets out for adventure to find himself and seek a moment of astounding enlightenment amid daring trials and tribulations and perils and dangers and gallant quests and encounters with fascinating people and enlightening conversations and unforgettable sights and upon return from this great and wild journey a new discovery of himself and the world around him and an opportunity for you Oh Holy Noble Reader to live vicariously through these incredible experiences and to dream of YOUR one day when YOU will have the courage to undertake such a journey yourself. So sit back and enjoy the ride because Costa Rica has been one zany insaney psychobrainy fuck of a holy trip.

You should give him a picture of you to keep him company, if you know what I mean.” She frowns at me. “Do you know what I mean?” “Like, a sexy picture? No way!” I start backing away from her. “Look, I’ve gotta go to class.” The last thing I want to do is think about Peter and random girls. I’m still trying to get used to the idea that we won’t be together at UVA this fall. Chris rolls her eyes. “Calm down. I’m not talking about a nudie. I would never suggest that for you of all people. What I’m talking about is a pinup-girl shot, but not, like, cheesy. Sexy. Something Kavinsky can hang up in his dorm room.” “Why would I want him to hang up a sexy picture of me in his dorm room for all the world to see?” Chris reaches out and flicks me on the forehead. “Ow!” I shove her away from me and rub the spot where she flicked me. “That hurt!” “You deserved it for asking such a dumb question.” She sighs. “I’m talking about preventative measures. A picture of you on his wall is a way for you to mark your territory. Kavinsky’s hot. And he’s an athlete. Do you think other girls will respect the fact that he’s in a long-distance relationship?” She lowers her voice and adds, “With a Virgin Mary girlfriend?” I gasp and then look around to see if anyone heard. “Chris!” I hiss. “Can you please not?” “I’m just trying to help you! You have to protect what’s yours, Lara Jean. If I met some hot guy in Costa Rica with a long-distance gf who he wasn’t even sleeping with? I don’t think I’d take it very seriously.” She gives me a shrug and a sorry-not-sorry look. “You should definitely frame the picture too, so people know you’re not someone to mess with. A frame says permanence. A picture taped on a wall says here today, gone tomorrow.” I chew on my bottom lip thoughtfully. “So maybe a picture of me baking, in an apron--” “With nothing underneath?” Chris cackles, and I flick her forehead lightning quick. “Ow!” “Get serious then!

A Conspiracy Theory that took hold was introduced by Anthony “Tony” Summers, the respected author of The Kennedy Conspiracy, published in 1980 and again in 1998 as “Not in Your Lifetime.” He believes that anti-Castro activists, funded by Mafia mobsters who had been ousted from Cuba, killed Kennedy. Summers believes that members of the CIA took part in this conspiracy and named the people he suspected. Summers also stated in an article published in the National Enquirer magazine, on October 25, 2013, that Lee Harvey Oswald didn’t act alone. The National Enquirer stated that Herminio Diaz, born in Cuba in 1923, had, in 1948, shot Pipi Hernandez, who was a Dominican exile employed at the naval base at Guantanamo. This killing took place at the Cuban Consulate in Mexico. In 1957, he was involved with an assassination attempt against President José Figueres of Costa Rica, who incidentally was a trained Army Ranger and a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. According to JFKFacts published on May 27, 2014, General Fabián Escalante, the historian of Cuban State Security and Castro’s former bodyguard, said that the assassin Herminio Diaz, along with Eladio del Valle and three American mobsters: Richard Gaines, Lenny Patrick, and Dave Yara, were the shooters at Dealey Plaza.

¿QUIÉN DESATÓ LA VIOLENCIA EN GUATEMALA?   En 1944, Ubico cayó de su pedestal, barrido por los vientos de una revolución de sello liberal que encabezaron algunos jóvenes oficiales y universitarios de la clase media. Juan José Arévalo, elegido presidente, puso en marcha un vigoroso plan de educación y dictó un nuevo Código del Trabajo para proteger a los obreros del campo y de las ciudades. Nacieron varios sindicatos; la United Fruit Co., dueña de vastas tierras, el ferrocarril y el puerto, virtualmente exonerada de impuestos y libre de controles, dejó de ser omnipotente en sus propiedades. En 1951, en su discurso de despedida, Arévalo reveló que había debido sortear treinta y dos conspiraciones financiadas por la empresa. El gobierno de Jacobo Arbenz continuó y profundizó el ciclo de reformas. Las carreteras y el nuevo puerto de San José rompían el monopolio de la frutera sobre los transportes y la exportación. Con capital nacional, y sin tender la mano ante ningún banco extranjero, se pusieron en marcha diversos proyectos de desarrollo que conducían a la conquista de la independencia. En junio de 1952, se aprobó la reforma agraria, que llegó a beneficiar a más de cien mil familias, aunque sólo afectaba a las tierras improductivas y pagaba indemnización, en bonos, a los propietarios expropiados. La United Fruit sólo cultivaba el ocho por ciento de sus tierras, extendidas entre ambos océanos. La reforma agraria se proponía «desarrollar la economía capitalista campesina y la economía capitalista de la agricultura en general», pero una furiosa campaña de propaganda internacional se desencadenó contra Guatemala: «La cortina de hierro está descendiendo sobre Guatemala», vociferaban las radios, los diarios y los próceres de la OEA[97]. El coronel Castillo Armas, graduado en Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, abatió sobre su propio país las tropas entrenadas y pertrechadas, al efecto, en los Estados Unidos. El bombardeo de los F-47, con aviadores norteamericanos, respaldó la invasión. «Tuvimos que deshacernos de un gobierno comunista que había asumido el poder», diría, nueve años más tarde, Dwight Eisenhower[98]. Las declaraciones del embajador norteamericano en Honduras ante una subcomisión del Senado de los Estados Unidos, revelaron el 27 de julio de 1961 que la operación libertadora de 1954 había sido realizada por un equipo del que formaban parte, además de él mismo, los embajadores ante Guatemala, Costa Rica y Nicaragua. Allen Dulles, que en aquella época era el hombre número uno de la CIA, les había enviado telegramas de felicitación por la faena cumplida. Anteriormente, el bueno de Allen había integrado el directorio de la United Fruit Co. Su sillón fue ocupado, un año después de la invasión, por otro directivo de la CIA, el general Walter Bedell Smith. Foster Dulles, hermano de Allen, se había encendido de impaciencia en la conferencia de la OEA que dio el visto bueno a la expedición militar contra Guatemala. Casualmente, en sus escritorios de abogado habían sido redactados, en tiempos del dictador Ubico, los borradores de los contratos de la United Fruit. La caída de Arbenz marcó a fuego

Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto. by Keith Schengili-Roberts Stuffed heath hen specimen at Boston Museum of Scienceby C. Horwitz Barbary lion from Algeria. Photographed by Sir Alfred Edward Pease. Thylacine in Washington D.C. National Zoo, c. 1904 author E.J. Keller, Baker Wake Island rail by W. S. Grooch Tecopa pupfish by Phil Pister Department of Fish and Game, State of California Caspian Tiger at Berlin Zoo, 1899 by unknown author (retouched) Golden toad of Costa Rica by Charles H. Smith U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Imperial woodpecker reconstruction at Museum Wiesbaden by Fritz Geller-Grimm

Because the girl in love with the stars in Costa Rica, brokenly wishes he had never left, that we had stayed on that beach forever. But the one that had fallen in love with the brilliance of the sun.... she was eternally grateful that he had.

Because the girl in love with the stars in Costa Rica, brokenly wishes he had never left, that he had stayed on that beach forever. But the one that had fallen in love with the brilliance of the sun... she was eternally grateful that he had.

Because the girl in love with the stars in Costa Rica, brokenly wishes he had never left, that we had stayed on that beach forever. But the one that had fallen in love with the brilliance of the sun... she was eternally grateful that he had.

In Costa Rica, you asked if I'd ever been in love. I said no." I lowered my head until our foreheads touched and her lips were scant inches from mine. "Ask me again."..."Have you ever been in love, Mr. Larson?" "Only once.

In Costa Rica, you asked if I’d ever been in love. I said no.” I lowered my head until our foreheads touched and her lips were scant inches from mine. “Ask me again.

El laboratorio de Coldeportes perdió su certificación a causa de irregularidades, y lo que más me entristece es ver que somos el segundo país del mundo con la mayor cantidad de casos positivos detrás de Costa Rica. Es

The five generally accepted blue zones are the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica, the island of Sardinia in Italy, Ikaria in Greece, Okinawa in Japan, and Loma Linda, California, in the United States.

Con sus cuarenta y dos suspendidos por dopaje, entre ellos ocho con carácter preventivo, Colombia ocupó en 2019 el segundo puesto mundial en ese ámbito, justo detrás de Costa Rica.

I personally like the Roth flavor for a few reasons. The first: it’s like giving sixty-five-year-old me a little gift: “Here’s this lump sum of money that I already paid taxes on; go take Hot Luca on a trip to Costa Rica.” I also have no idea what the fuck tax rates are going to be when I retire. I’d rather pay them now than leave it up to chance. Also, most people’s salaries grow throughout their careers; I expect (hope!) that you’ll be making more in twenty years than you do today, so you could contribute and pay less in taxes now, when you’re in a lower tax bracket. In

JoAnn Bechtold, the seasoned accountant, effortlessly balances the books for various clients in the agricultural industry. With over 40 years of accounting expertise, she excels in implementing and supporting Microsoft Dynamics GP. She enjoys dancing to country music and exploring exotic destinations like Rome and Costa Rica when not crunching numbers.

In Costa Rica you asked if I'd ever been in love. I said no. (...) Ask me again. Have you ever been in love, Mr.Larsen? Only once.

sleep. New York City decided to protect the Catskill Mountains rather than pay for a man-made water purification plant. The millions of mossy mandalas in the Catskills were cheaper than a technological “solution.” In some watersheds in Costa Rica, downstream water users pay upstream forest owners for the service provided by the forested land. Thus the human economy becomes modeled on the reality of the natural economy, and the incentive to tear up the forest is reduced.

McGrigor le explicó que en Costa Rica las fincas de los negros eran baldíos porque la República no quería propietarios africanos. Orlandus le explicó que él no era africano, que él era británico, súbdito de la Corona, y para demostrarlo enseñó sus documentos. El Vicecónsul ni siquiera los quiso mirar y le repitió que saltaba a la vista que él era africano, al menos para las autoridades de Costa Rica.

Mi fermai, fissando lo schermo incredulo. Un euro valeva più o meno settecento colones. Con i miei “miseri” seimila euro sul conto, avevo la bellezza di 4.3 milioni di colones costaricensi. Scoppiai a ridere e presi a girare in tondo sullo stretto marciapiede, le mani tra i capelli. Sembravo uno che ha appena vinto la lotteria: in Costa Rica ero, a tutti gli effetti, un milionario.

Osservare tutte quelle linee tracciate in Costa Rica, tutte quelle cose da fare che finalmente erano state fatte, mi dava un’ immensa soddisfazione. Era la dimostrazione concreta di un’avventura che mi aveva cambiato, forse salvato, certamente guarito. E se in qualche modo ero riuscito a completare anche l’obiettivo più irrealizzabile - diventare un milionario -, ed ero abbastanza sicuro che avrei completato anche la voce numero quattordici - scrivere un libro -, restavano fuori solo un paio di obiettivi.

E riprese a parlare con entusiasmo di quanto fosse meravigliosa la sua Costa Rica, gesticolando con calma e scandendo con calma ogni parola in modo tale che il suo spagnolo mi fosse chiaro. Io lo avevo studiato sia al liceo, sia all’università. Prima di partire ero riuscito anche a leggere Cent’anni di solitudine in lingua originale, e speravo bastasse per cavarmela in Costa Rica. Ma lui lo parlava con una tale lentezza che lo avrebbe capito chiunque conoscesse anche solo l’italiano.

Parlava in spagnolo, ma lo capivo a stento, aveva una pronuncia strana: pizzicava fortemente la erre e faceva sibilare le esse.

Bridget sucked in an audible breath. “In Costa Rica, you asked if I’d ever been in love. I said no.” I lowered my head until our foreheads touched and her lips were scant inches from mine. “Ask me again.” It was the same request I’d made at the hospital, but this time, Bridget didn’t break our gaze as she asked, “Have you ever been in love, Mr. Larsen?” “Only once.” I slid my hand up from her neck to the back of her head, cupping it. “And you, Princess. Have you ever been in love?

Escuela de flamenco, danza clasica, salsa y bachata, danza contemporanea.

States aren’t required to spend all of their TANF dollars each year, and many don’t, carrying over the unused money into the next year. In 2020, states had in their possession almost $6 billion in unspent welfare funds. Nebraska was sitting on $91 million. Hawaii had $380 million, enough to provide every poor child in the state with $10,000. Tennessee topped the list with $790 million. That year only nine states in the Union had a higher child poverty rate than Tennessee. No state had a child poverty rate higher than Mississippi’s, at roughly 28 percent, which is also the child poverty rate of Costa Rica.[16]

And then again, Lucignana, Costa Rica, here, there, inside, outside – these are abstractions. It’s all a matter of perspective. That’s what I should answer to those who ask what possessed me to open a bookshop in the middle of nowhere. The thing is, Lucignana doesn’t know it’s in the middle of nowhere; as far as I’m concerned New York is in the middle of nowhere.

He then questioned the peaceful transfer of power, a hallmark of American democracy, and attempted to overturn the results of the election. This led to America’s polity score dropping from a + 7 to a + 5, the lowest score since 1800. The United States became an anocracy for the first time in more than two hundred years. Let that sink in. We are no longer the world’s oldest continuous democracy. That honor is now held by Switzerland, followed by New Zealand, and then Canada. We are no longer a peer to nations like Canada, Costa Rica, and Japan, which are all rated a + 10 on the polity index.

My heart rate is slowing, because even just being this close to her is calming. Cat is a trip to Costa Rica. She’s the break from working full time. She is our small island at sunset on my family’s cove. She’s wholesome and good.

The fact that Costa Rica comes top of the HPI is both surprising and interesting. The data tells us just how well they are doing. Average life expectancy is 78.5 years; this is higher than the US, where it is only 77.9 years. Its ecological footprint is only 2.3 gHa, less than half that of the UK and a quarter that of the US, and only just over its global fair share which would be 2.1gHa. Meanwhile, largely unnoticed, Costa Ricans actually have the highest life satisfaction score globally, according to the 2008 Gallup World Poll, at 8.5 out of 10.0. What are they doing right in Costa Rica? Why are they so satisfied with life? A full answer is worth a book of its own, but here some clues: – They have one of the most developed welfare systems outside of Scandinavia, with clean water and adult literacy almost universal. – The army was abolished in 1949 and the monies freed up are spent on social programs. – There is a strong “core economy” of social networks of family, friends, and neighborhoods made possible by a sensible work/life balance and equal treatment of women. – It is a beautiful country with rich, protected, natural capital. There is clearly much we can learn from Costa Rica, and that is before we consider its environmental credentials: 99% of electricity is from renewable resources (mainly hydro); there is a carbon tax on emissions; and deforestation has been dramatically reversed in the last 20 years.

Should we then regret the fact that Latin America has not seen more violence over the past two centuries, either in the form of massive interstate wars or social revolutions? It goes without saying that the social revolutions that occurred in Europe and Asia were purchased at enormous cost: tens of millions of people killed in purges, executions, and military conflict, and hundreds of millions more displaced, incarcerated, starved to death, or tortured. Political violence, moreover, oftentimes begets only more political violence rather than progressive social change. We would not want to “give war a chance” in Latin America any more than in other parts of the world. These observations should not blind us, however, to the fact that just outcomes in the present are often the result, as Machiavelli noted, of crimes committed in the past.   18 THE CLEAN SLATE Exceptions to the materialist account of institutions in Latin America; why Costa Rica didn’t become a “banana republic”; why Argentina should have looked

I studied myself in the mirror. Not bad. Moderately attractive at thirty-five with some good years left. But the signs were there. One day the stress would take its toll and I wouldn't be able to do this any more. Aunt Carmen kept sending me photos of her hotel on the beach in Costa Rica. Uncle Klaus and his Rover, sun-drenched sands, brilliant blue water, and schools of fish hovering above underwater reefs. She said come down and relax for a few weeks. I felt like answering how about a few months, or a few years?

All women, come to the Republic of Costa Rica, where you will be cared for as the mothers of a new civilization.

Leave nothing but footprints, take nothing but memories, kill nothing but time.

When we think of foreign direct investment, most of us think about Intel building a new microchip factory in Costa Rica or Volkswagen laying down a new assembly line in China-this is known as 'green-field' investment. But a lot of foreign direct investment is made by foreigners buying into an existing local company- or 'brownfield' investment. Brownfield investment has accounted for over half of total world FDI since the 1990s, although the share is lower for developing countries, for the obvious reason that they have relatively fewer firms that foreigners want to take over. At its height in 2001, it accounted for as much as 80% of total world FDI.

we passed Costa Rica, and were near land. We had a most gorgeous sunset, and a full moon at night; besides, the water was all aglow with brilliant phosphorescence, which looked like great fiery serpents playing about the steamer

Mesmo que não possamos adivinhar o tempo que virá, temos ao menos o direito de imaginar o que queremos que seja. As Nações Unidas tem proclamado extensas listas de Direitos Humanos, mas a imensa maioria da humanidade não tem mais que os direitos de: ver, ouvir, calar. Que tal começarmos a exercer o jamais proclamado direito de sonhar? Que tal se delirarmos por um momentinho? Ao fim do milênio vamos fixar os olhos mais para lá da infâmia para adivinhar outro mundo possível. O ar vai estar limpo de todo veneno que não venha dos medos humanos e das paixões humanas. As pessoas não serão dirigidas pelo automóvel, nem serão programadas pelo computador, nem serão compradas pelo supermercado, nem serão assistidas pela televisão. A televisão deixará de ser o membro mais importante da família. As pessoas trabalharão para viver em lugar de viver para trabalhar. Se incorporará aos Códigos Penais o delito de estupidez que cometem os que vivem por ter ou ganhar ao invés de viver por viver somente, como canta o pássaro sem saber que canta e como brinca a criança sem saber que brinca. Em nenhum país serão presos os rapazes que se neguem a cumprir serviço militar, mas sim os que queiram cumprir. Os economistas não chamarão de nível de vida o nível de consumo, nem chamarão qualidade de vida à quantidade de coisas. Os cozinheiros não pensarão que as lagostas gostam de ser fervidas vivas. Os historiadores não acreditarão que os países adoram ser invadidos. O mundo já não estará em guerra contra os pobres, mas sim contra a pobreza. E a indústria militar não terá outro remédio senão declarar-se quebrada. A comida não será uma mercadoria nem a comunicação um negócio, porque a comida e a comunicação são direitos humanos. Ninguém morrerá de fome, porque ninguém morrerá de indigestão. As crianças de rua não serão tratadas como se fossem lixo, porque não haverá crianças de rua. As crianças ricas não serão tratadas como se fossem dinheiro, porque não haverá crianças ricas. A educação não será um privilégio de quem possa pagá-la e a polícia não será a maldição de quem não possa comprá-la. A justiça e a liberdade, irmãs siamesas, condenadas a viver separadas, voltarão a juntar-se, voltarão a juntar-se bem de perto, costas com costas. Na Argentina, as loucas da Praça de Maio serão um exemplo de saúde mental, porque elas se negaram a esquecer nos tempos de amnésia obrigatória. A perfeição seguirá sendo o privilégio tedioso dos deuses, mas neste mundo, neste mundo avacalhado e maldito, cada noite será vivida como se fosse a última e cada dia como se fosse o primeiro.

He pulled the headphones off and set them aside. “I think I can confirm that Anton is in Argentina.” Lance smiled at the news. “Why is that?” “Because I just heard someone I think is Anton on a short call with Congressman Pepper. Anton uses throwaway cell phones, so that makes my tracking him extremely difficult unless I know one side of the conversation. I was able to capture a comment about the SNAFU in Costa Rica and that he had another one to deal with in Argentina. The Argentinian government just changed hands and he was going to have to meet with a few politicians he hadn’t had conversations with so far. Apparently, he had expected the female incumbent to win.

direct bus to San José via the Paquera ferry departs at 7:30am and 3:30pm (US$13, six hours). Local buses to Cóbano (US$2, 45 minutes) depart at 7am and noon.

To think, when I was working I thought that owning possessions was a reflection of success. Little did I realize that I was happier with less stuff. In college I was enjoying some of the best moments of my life, and the things that mattered the most were the experiences and interactions that were shaping my future. And it's these new experiences that keep your life exciting. Maybe it's the reason people lose inspiration as they grow older: living a life with fewer surprises. I believe travel can take you back to that intoxicating place. The place where tasting a strange fruit or looking out at a remarkable vista makes you feel energized once again.

I’m learning it is still possible to have the life you always dreamed of, and there are still people out there who are waiting (and willing) to be your friend.

If you are willing to let some things go, you'll be pleasantly surprised by the incredible gifts that will take their place.

By eliminating the clutter from my life, I was able to make more room for new experiences. I became more appreciative of the beauty right in front of me and less stuck on old habits of accumulating useless items. I also became much more aware of how much I take from this world. It's nice to recognize how little I really need to be happy. Sometimes you need to strip apart your life to uncover what was there all along.

Someone once said that time is God's currency. If that's the case, then Costa Rica may be one of the richest countries in the world.

give weight to all the great experiences and let the unpleasant ones roll away like coconuts down an embankment.

The air is full of happiness molecules

I was overreacting. I tend to do that when imagining someone wearing my skin as a cape.

Epílogo. El Honorable Qui Long se casó en Juan Viñas con una joven muy agraciada que vivía en dicho pueblo. Para lograr el permiso eclesiástico, el cura escribió que Qui Long era hijo de unos padres gentiles provenientes de la China.  Con esa dispensa se casó y vivió por muchos años al lado de su esposa y su familia.  Ya había logrado formar su propia dinastía.  En ocasiones se sorprendía al pensar en lo extraño de las vueltas de la vida. A pesar de venir desde tan lejos y de pueblos tan diferentes a los nuestros, prefirió siempre radicar cerca del lugar donde había trabajado y muerto su amado y honorable padre. Se mudó a la nueva ciudad de Turrialba y con el tiempo fundó un restaurante que funcionó exitosamente por muchos años. Se volvió muy famoso, porque casualmente fue él quien inventó el arroz cantonés. Si uno viaja a Cantón o Macao en la China de hoy y pregunta por un arroz cantonés no le van a entender, porque el arroz cantonés es el producto de la combinación de dos culturas, la china y la costarricense. Fue el Honorable Qui quien lo transformó en algo muy típico de la cultura china en Costa Rica, gracias a lo que había aprendido en las cocinas de la empresa que construyó la línea de nuestro apreciado e importante ferrocarril.

illicit drugs are prohibited.

The diet consists largely of rice and beans.

DENGUE FEVER (BREAKBONE FEVER) Dengue fever is a viral infection found throughout Central America. In Costa Rica outbreaks involving thousands of people occur every year. Dengue is transmitted by aedes mosquitoes, which often bite during the daytime and are usually found close to human habitations, often indoors. They breed primarily in artificial water containers such as jars, barrels, cans, plastic containers and discarded tires. Dengue is especially common in densely populated, urban environments. Dengue usually causes flulike symptoms including fever, muscle aches, joint pains, headaches, nausea and vomiting, often followed by a rash. Most cases resolve uneventfully in a few days. Severe cases usually occur in children under the age of 15 who are experiencing their second dengue infection. There is no treatment for dengue fever except taking analgesics such as acetaminophen/paracetamol (Tylenol) and drinking plenty of fluids. Severe cases may require hospitalization for intravenous fluids and supportive care. There is no vaccine. The key to prevention is taking insect-protection measures. HEPATITIS A Hepatitis A is the second-most-common travel-related infection (after traveler’s diarrhea). It’s a viral infection of the liver that is usually acquired by ingestion of contaminated water, food or ice, though it may also be acquired by direct contact with infected persons. Symptoms may include fever, malaise, jaundice, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. Most cases resolve without complications, though hepatitis A occasionally causes severe liver damage. There is no treatment. The vaccine for hepatitis A is extremely safe and highly effective. You should get vaccinated before you go to Costa Rica. Because the safety of hepatitis A vaccine has not been established for pregnant women or children under the age of two, they should instead be given a gammaglobulin injection. LEISHMANIASIS Leishmaniasis occurs in the mountains and jungles of all Central American countries. The infection is transmitted by sand flies, which are about one-third the size of mosquitoes. Most cases occur in newly cleared forest or areas of secondary growth. The highest incidence is in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca. It causes slow-growing ulcers over exposed parts of the body There is no vaccine. RABIES Rabies is a viral infection of the brain and spinal cord that is almost always fatal. The rabies virus is carried in the saliva of infected animals and is typically transmitted through an animal bite, though contamination of any break in the skin with infected saliva may result in rabies. Rabies occurs in all Central American countries. However, in Costa Rica only two cases have been reported over the last 30 years. TYPHOID Typhoid fever is caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated by a species of salmonella known as Salmonella typhi . Fever occurs in virtually all cases. Other symptoms may include headache, malaise, muscle aches, dizziness, loss of appetite, nausea and abdominal pain. A pretrip vaccination for typoid is recommended, but not required. It’s usually given orally, and is also available as an injection. TRAVELER’S DIARRHEA Tap water is safe and of a high quality in Costa Rica, but when you’re far off the beaten path it’s best to avoid tap water unless it has been boiled, filtered or chemically disinfected (iodine tablets). To prevent diarrhea, be wary of dairy products that might contain unpasteurized milk; and be highly selective when eating food from street vendors.

ANIMAL BITES Do not attempt to pet, handle or feed any animal, with the exception of domestic animals known to be free of any infectious disease. Most animal injuries are directly related to a person’s attempt to touch or feed the animal. Treat any bite or scratch by a mammal (including bats) promptly by thoroughly cleansing with large amounts of soap and water, followed by application of an antiseptic such as iodine or alcohol, and contact a local health authority.

Se habla de progreso al que mora en un rancho paupérrimo. Se habla de cultura al hombre que abandonó la escuela a los nueve años, porque a esa edad ya tenía que trabajar para vivir. Se habla de libertad al peón de las haciendas, cuyo destino casi siempre es el de morir entre las astas de un toro, sin más lauro que el de un brindis de aguardiente.

El mundo no es de los que sueñan. Allí en los cementerios ha guardado la muerte la frustración de muchos sueños. Allí en las tumbas sin cruz, sin flores y sin nombre descansan generales sin espada y sin ejército; sacerdotes sin hábito ni templo; navegantes sin barcos y sin mar; escritores de renombre sin papel y sin pluma. Son los pobres diablos que soñaron riquezas y murieron ignorados; que soñaron con la dicha y solamente tuvieron el dolor de la miseria.

asiáticos obtienen los mejores puntajes a nivel mundial en todas las categorías de la prueba. En matemáticas, los jóvenes de Shanghái, en China, obtienen el primer puesto, seguidos por los de Singapur, Hong Kong, Taipéi, Corea del Sur y Japón. Más abajo en la lista están Suiza (9), Finlandia (12), Alemania (16), España (33), Rusia (34), Estados Unidos (36), Suecia (38), Chile (51), México (53), Uruguay (55), Costa Rica (56), Brasil (58), Argentina (59), Colombia (62) y Perú (65). Los resultados en ciencias y comprensión de lectura fueron similares.39

Costa Rica Craft Cerveza Artisanal beers are gaining momentum in Costa Rica, a development that doubtless will thrill visiting beer aficionados. Over the last several years, craft breweries have popped up in various hot spots, bringing creative birras (beers) to palates thirsting for something more complex than the ubiquitous Imperial. Imagine sipping a locally brewed pineapple Hefeweizen, red ale or cacao stout at sunset – it brings a hoppy tear to our eye (Click here).

Un nicaragüense no se siente verdaderamente nicaragüense si no ha viajado. Aunque sea a Costa Rica. El nicaragüense adquiere su verdadera nacionalidad hasta que ha viajado”.

¿Nunca iremos a Costa Rica?

2008, Corea del Sur registró 80 000 patentes a nivel mundial, contra 582 de Brasil, 325 de México, 79 de Argentina, 87 de Cuba, 12 de Colombia, 9 de Costa Rica, 7 de Perú, y 2 de Ecuador.21

In 1917, Milton Hershey began work on a sugar mill town outside the city of Santa Cruz, Cuba, which he named Hershey and which, when finished, included American-style bungalows, luxurious houses for staff, schools, a hospital, a baseball diamond, and a number of movie theaters. At the height of the banana boom of the 1920s, one could tour Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras, Cuba, and Colombia and not for a moment leave United Fruit Company property, traveling on its trains and ships, passing through its ports, staying in its many towns, with their tree-lined streets and modern amenities, in a company hotel or guest house, playing golf on its links, taking in a Hollywood movie in one of its theaters, and being tended to in its hospital if sick.

Sometimes you have to leave to discover that you left everything you needed back home. Is our life back home perfect? Hell no. But I have finally learned that I am not going to be perfectly happy anywhere. If I live by the water, I will miss the suburbs. If I live in the mountains, I will miss the water. If I watch House Hunters International, I will miss Costa Rica. And I’ve never even been to Costa Rica.

The omnipotence of God makes no sense if it requires the all-causingness of God. Good people quit God altogether at this point, and throw out the baby with the bath, perhaps because they last looked into God in their childhoods, and have not changed their views of divinity since. It is not the tooth fairy. In fact, even Aquinas dissolved the fatal problem of natural, physical evil by tinkering with God’s omnipotence. Again, Paul writes to the Christians in Rome: “In all things God works for the good of those who love him.” When was that? I missed it. In China, in Israel, in the Yemen, in the Ecuadoran Andes and the Amazon basin, in Greenland, Iceland, and Baffin Island, in Europe, on the shore of the Beaufort Sea inside the Arctic Circle, and in Costa Rica, in the Marquesas Islands and the Tuamotus, and in the United States, I have seen the rich sit secure on their thrones and send the hungry away empty. If God’s escape clause is that he gives only spiritual things, then we might hope that the poor and suffering are rich in spiritual gifts, as some certainly are, but as some of the comfortable are too. Maybe “all your actions show your wisdom and love” means that the precious few things we know that God did, and does, are in fact unambiguous in wisdom and love, and all other events derive not from God but only from blind chance, just as they seem to. What, then, of the bird-headed dwarfs? It need not craze us, I think, to know we are evolving, like other living forms, according to physical processes. Statistical probability describes the mechanism of evolution—chance operating on large numbers— That is, evolution’s “every success is necessarily paid for by a large percentage of failures.” In order to live at all, we pay “a mysterious tribute of tears, blood, and sin.