Check out the new decor and new furnishings in beautiful Villa Vigia!

http://www.4tulemar.com/villavigia.html

Manuel Antonio National Park is one of the most visited national parks in Costa Rica with over 150,000 visitors every year.

Over the next two years the Área de Conservación del Pacífico Central (Acopac) plans to construct 5 kilometers of additional paths inside the National Park for tourists to see and enjoy more of the park’s beauty.

The new paths will lead to Playa El Rey, Pan de Azúcar, and Punta Catedral; one of the most stunning points in the park.

El Sistema Nacional de Áreas de Conservación (Sinac) and Ministerio de Ambiente y Telecomunicaciones (Minaet) will invest 3,000 milliones de colones (about $6,000) into the construction of the new trails.

As of right now the National Park has a capacity of 650 people per day, and they hope that with the new paths more tourists will be able to visit the park without harming the natural ecosystem.

The extension in Manuel Antonio National Park will be 3,000 hectares of land and over 50,000 hectares of sea.

Retired  Costa Rican astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz, who made his seventh flight into space in June 2002, was confirmed as one of the three 2012 honorees by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, which oversees the Hall of Fame’s annual selections. They will be added to the list of 79 astronauts enshrined in the Astronaut Hall of Fame since 1990, including all of NASA’s Mercury, Gemini and Apollo program pioneers.

Selected by NASA in May 1980, Dr. Chang Díaz became an astronaut in August 1981. A veteran of seven space flights, , he has logged over 1,601 hours in space, including 19 hours and 31 minutes in three spacewalks. He is also the  inventor of the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) and other advanced propulsion technologies, and he founded the Ad Astra Rocket Company (AARC) in 2005, after 25 years of service as a NASA astronaut. AARC is dedicated to the development and comercialization of the VASIMR and related technologies.

Thank you Franklin to honor Costa Rica again!

We hope everyone had a great New Years!

We have been very busy in Tulemar; lots of people and we opened our new office!

On December 19th we opened the doors to our new rental sales and real estate office, located under one of our favorite restaurants – Agua Azul.

We offer information on our rentals, real estate properties, and can even book you tours and activities!

Feel free to stop by our new office, look at our beautiful view, and say hi to Julien and Emily.

Our hours are 11:30 am – 8:00 pm.. Closed Wednesdays

We would love to see you!

Holiday shoppers looking for authentic Costa Rican gifts need not look through your typical souvenir store. There are a variety of unique Costa Rican gifts and products that make shopping for your loved ones an easy and fun experience.

Casa 927 in San Jose’s Barrio Amon district has more than 30 local artesians that sell beautifully hand-crafted  100 percent Costa Rican-made products.

One of the store’s newest collections is Rainforest Oasis Costa Rica, a line of 100 percent Costa Rican lotions and perfumes. The majority of the products are made from the guaria morado orchid; which is Costa Rica’s national flower.

Another group of artisans, Galvez Bijoux, creates jewelry and belts made of Costa Rican leather and original photographs of the country covered with resin. The result is a collection of unique, colorful and modern pieces of wearable art that showcase Costa Rican images like butterfly wings, beautiful San José buildings and traditional oxcart designs.

Other interesting gift items at Casa 927 are lamps made by Rolo Design ($70-$90). The colorful lamps are made out of calabash gourds with tiny holes cut into them, filled with beads and crystals to create colored light. Every lamp is one of a kind, making them truly original gifts for your loved ones.

Casa 927 is at Calle 3, Avenida 11, in Barrio Amón. The store also has an excellent café to provide nourishment for hungry shoppers. For information, call 2221-2302, email casa927@racsa.co.cr or find Casa 927 on Facebook.

For gift items with real Costa Rican sayings, check out Arteria. They have t-shirts, bags, umbrellas, stickers, mugs ,hats, pillows and even umbrellas flaunting designs of Costa Rican slang. Expressions like, “Pura Vida,” “Mae,” “Tuanis,” and “Tenga Paz” are shown along with the definition of the word in both Spanish and English. These items make for fun gifts with an educational flair. Arteria also carries traditonal Costa Rican masks or mascaradas, each hand made by local designers.  Arteria has two locations, one in downtown San José on the south side of the Supreme Elections Tribunal (2257-1446), and another in Heredia, 50 meters east of the justice court (2267-0433). They hope to expand with a third location in downtown Quepos in the near future.

If you have chocolate lovers to buy for, then why not give them certified organic, delicious chocolate made in Costa Rica! Sibú Chocolate can provide you with crowd pleasing chocolate bonbons infused with exotic flavors such as, cardamom, nutmeg, chili pepper, caramel, ginger, coconut and mountain blackberry to name a few. The bonbons come in boxes of 1,9, and 16 ($2, $14 or $24 respectively). During the Christmas holidays, Sibú is offering a special on chocolate tamales. These delicious organic chocolate treats come in packs of two, wrapped in a banana leaf just like traditional Costa Rican holiday tamales. The packaging makes them a perfectly Costa Rican gift. For more information and to find out where to buy Sibú Chocolate, visit www.sibuchocolate.com.

Another great option for holiday gift shopping in Costa Rica is San José’s 7th Street Books, specializing in English-language books on Costa Rica-related subjects. The store offers a wide variety of coffee-table books full of beautiful photos of Costa Rican national parks, wildlife and craftsmanship. Books range in price from $9 to $50.

This store also has a number of Costa Rican cookbooks available. The most popular cook book is ” The Best Recipes in Costa Rica.” It is full of great traditional cooking ideas as well as beautiful photos. The store is on Calle 7, between Avenidas Central and 1, 50 meters north of Hotel Balmoral. For information, call 2256-8251.

For gifts of beauty and health the Raw Botanicals skin care line provides organic, natural products made in Costa Rica. They have products for everything from hair care to organic insect repellent. These wonderful products are made from a variety of natural ingredients such as, sea algae, coconut, papaya, hibiscus, ylang ylang, and much more! These products can be found for sale for numerous resorts and spas around the country, as well as purchased online. For a complete list of the products and participating vendors, go to www.rawbotanicals.com.

No matter who you are shopping for, you are sure to find a perfect, unique present hand-made in beautiful Costa Rica!

Tommorrow, the city of San Jose will not only be the capital of Costa Rica, but also of the cinema from Central America.

From Friday the 28th of October to Monday the 7th of November, about 8 different countries will be competing in 17 different categories, showing their audiovisuals works.

The event will take place in the Cultural Complexe of La Antigua Duana  and in the Costa Rican Cinema Production center.

A part from that, this festival will also include conferences, castings for short films and film workshops. People who are interested in knowing more about it will be able to find the program here: www.festivaldecinesanjose.com

Two days ago, the most famous crocodile of Costa Rica gave his last show to the world. Pocho was a 5 meter (16½ feet) and 450 kilo (992 pounds) crocodile, domesticated by Gilberto “Chito” Sheedan.

In 1989, Chito found the crocodile on the shore of a river in Limon, with a shot in his left eye, and decided to save him. About ten years passed, when a worker of the Finca Las Tilapias saw Chito swimming by Pocho. In the year 2000, the extraordinary couple had became the biggest attraction of the small town of Siquirres, with their own show where you could see the crocodile winking, rolling and even opening his giant mouth to let Chito put his head in it.

Pocho, who was approaching 60 years old, died of natural causes on October the 16th, and was given a funeral and nice tribute by all the people in the little town of Siquirres.

Adios, Pocho! Thanks for the entertaining memories!

On October the 6th, Costa rica Tourism Board started his new campaign called “Costa Rica’s Million Dollar Gift of Happiness”, giving away $1 million worth of week-long Costa Rican vacations , that in order to lure more tourists from Canada and United States to the country. It will be the largest advertising campaign aimed specifically at North American in 16 years.

The gift will be divided in 5 differents tour themes like romance, adventure travel, wildlife and nature, extreme sports or cultural activities. Until February the 5th of 2012, the hopefuls can participate by registering on Visit Costa Rica’s Facebook page, which will serve as the hub of the campaign. There, they will be able to preview five videos corresponding to each trip experience.

This campaign, inspired by Costa Rica’s recognition as one of the happiest places in the world, will be promoted by a funny three toed talking sloth, make sure to watch it here on youtube.