OHMCR The Best Costa Rica Travel Guide

The Costa Rican National Museum will hold a temporary exhibit starting August 26th at which visitors will be able to learn about the history behind the museum’s building.

The building which today houses the National Museum used to be a military fort in the early 1900’s until the Costa Rican army was abolished in 1948.  One of the museum’s representatives mentioned that the exhibit will be quite simple as for the building itself is the main exhibition.

However, the museum will open what used to be the dungeons to the public.  The dungeons have been kept off limits to visitors until now.  The recent announcement made by the museum stated that visitors will be able to see were prisoners of war were once imprisoned as well as were misbehaved soldiers were disciplined.

The statement mentioned that half century old graffiti remains intact on the dungeon walls which will allow for a closer encounter and feel to the early 1900’s military and prisoner environment.

The exhibition has been dubbed “From Fort to Museum” and will also include a chronological set of photographs of the military Bellavista Fort as well as its transition to museum as we know it today.

The “From Fort to Museum” exhibition will open on August 26th and will be open from Tuesday through Sunday from 8:30am to 4:30pm.  The National Museum is located in downtown San Jose on 17th Street between Central and Second Avenue.

written by fernando \\ tags: Costa Rica Army Abolished, Costa Rican National Museum

Representatives of the Nicaraguan private and public tourism industry approached Costa Rican equals in order to discuss the possibility of joining forces to attract tourism towards the border region of both countries.

Nicaraguan congress members as well as several business owners from the area recently invited the Mayors of Liberia and La Cruz from Guanacaste as well as local Tourism Chamber members to a meeting in order to strengthen ties between nations.  The Nicaraguan representatives seek to unite with the Costa Rican tourism industry and offer the tourists a bi-nation tour offer in which tourists will have a more unrestricted option to visit Costa Rican and Nicaraguan attractions.

Members from the Nicaraguan Parliament pointed out that this action would benefit the tourist as they would avoid the legal paperwork required when crossing the border from Costa Rica to Nicaragua and vice versa.

Although the first approach has taken place, several aspects need to be carefully planned as for Costa Rica has invested a considerable amount of money in marketing which has clearly turned into a positive income.

Nicaragua’s income generated from tourism in 2007 was of $280 million while Costa Rica’s income for 2007 was of $1.9 billion.  This major difference has made it clear for Costa Rican authorities to set clear and just limitations to the collaboration.

The Costa Rican Minister of Tourism, Carlos Ricardo Benavidez, successfully met with Panama’s Minister of Tourism, Ruben Blades, to discuss a joint marketing of both countries to the European market.

Currently, at least 54% of tourists to Costa Rica are from the United States alone which is why Panama and Costa Rica want to strongly promote both nations to the European market.

written by fernando \\ tags: Carlos Ricardo Benavidez, Costa Rican Minister of Tourism

The most important marine port in Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast will soon be fully operational after almost 5 years.

Currently, the Port of Caldera has quite a limited capability as to ship sizes it can cater to.  Technically, the port needs to be dredged at least every four years in order to assure that large ships won’t get stuck when docking at the port.

The last time Caldera was dredged was back in 1999 and since has had sediment built up of at least 16 feet.  This has caused a number of setbacks and extra money to several companies.  Due to the area’s depth, ships have to wait for the tide to go up in order to enter the port.  This also means that several companies have to pay a fine for every hour they fall behind.

Other shipping companies have opted to hire smaller vessels to transport their cargo from the open sea to the port.  This option also means that companies have to incur in extra expenses since most of the time the smaller vessels have to make several trips back and forth.

The port hadn’t been dredged in the last 9 years due to postponement by the Costa Rican Institute of Pacific Ports as they waited for the Caldera Port concessionaire to take responsibility.

The current concession holder has been in charge since 2006 and has announced that works will commence next week.  An approximate investment of $5 million has been revealed and the task will be carried out by a Colombian company.  The dredging of the Caldera Port will restore the port’s original 36 foot depth.

written by fernando \\ tags: Costa Rican Institute of Pacific Ports, INCOP, Port of Caldera, Ports of Costa Rica