Costa Rica Blog

 A visit to the Boruca Indian Indigenous Village

The Costa Rican government is developing plans to begin offsetting all of the country's carbon dioxide emissions, the news service La Nación. Environment and Energy Minister Roberto Dobles said Costa Rica aims to reach this goal using budgeting, laws, and incentives, including measures to promote biofuels, hybrid vehicles, and clean energy. Another key component of the national strategy will be a "C-Neutral" label to certify that tourism and certain industrial practices mitigate all of the carbon dioxide they emit. Under the new certification system, tourists and businesses will be charged a voluntary "tax" to offset their carbon emissions, with one ton of carbon valued at $10, according to La Nación. The money will be used to fund conservation, reforestation, and research in protected areas. To augment the development of C-Neutral, the country is cultivating a carbon certificate market that aims to not only boost carbon capture and storage in the nation's forests, but also help maintain their scenic beauty. In 2002, Costa Rica's carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels totaled 5.8 million metric tons, according to the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, ranking it 108th in the world. Delegates at a recent United Nations meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, noted that they were watching Costa Rica's initiative and hope to replicate it in other regions.

Health Tourism in Costa Rica seems to get a lot of interest from readers from the US as well as Canada. Background: Costa Rica has a nationalized health care system that is nearly free for all residents. Quality of care ranks #36 worldwide by the World Heath Organization (the US is #37) and yet the cost per capita of healthcare in Costa Rica is less than 1/10th the cost of comparable care in the US. Many procedures cost even less, in fact many procedures cost as little as a tenth the cost of comparable care in the US.

Bridge Update:  All the major bridges from Jaco to Dominical are now completed.  The new bridge is now open in Parrita though they still have it a bit constricted while they finish the striping and guard rails but you no longer have to wait at the one lane antiquated bridge to cross the river.  The bridge across the Sevegre River has now been fully widened to two lanes and only waits for center lane striping and reflectors.  The bridge across the Naranjo River just south of Quepos is now fully operational, two lanes wide and even has some break down space.  The only bridge left to be completed is the one lane bridge by the town of Hatillo, which was only installed a few years ago and is close to Dominical.  This is welcome news for the southern region since an antiquated hammock bridge recently collapsed in the central region on the Tarcoles River.  It also speeds the trip to Ojochal.

I traveled twice this week down the southern section of the Costanera Highway from Quepos and Manuel Antonio to Dominical and here is my update.  As many of you may know, the road has been a huge engineering project requiring not only hundreds of thousands of cubic tons of stone to build the road bed but also the construction of multiple bridges over the roughly 20 mile stretch that is now nearly complete.  The final finish coat of pavement is now being installed on most of the road and at this point only about 3 miles by the Hacienda Baru (just north of Dominical) remain unpaved.  Traffic has been shifted to the new road bed by the Hacienda Baru Reserve and the bypass around the small town (pueblito) of Hatillo is also now open so you don't have to drive through the center of Hatillo any more.  The drive time this week (November 2009) was less than an hour for the entire stretch.  The bypass behind Quepos is also now open with final coat pavement and the only thing missing seemed to be the curb stone along a few points of the sidewalks and the center line and yellow side line painting and reflectors. Much of the guard rail is already in place as well.  The paving was contracted to three companies and it is fairly obvious that two out of three have nearly completed their mission, while the third is not far behind.  I saw a big increase in tractor trailer traffic along the stretch since the Costanera is a much better alternative than the InterAmerican Highway over the stretch known as the Cerro De La Muerte (passage of death).  Truck traffic will increase along the coastal route as more drivers realize they avoid the climb to nearly 11,000 feet above sea level on the Cerro and also avoid having to pass through San Jose on thier trip north.  The new toll road from San Jose to Punteranas is also now open from Puntarenas all the way to Orotina.  The missing piece between Orotina and San Jose is expected to be completed by early 2010.  The toll booth is now open and the toll for automobiles is about 500 colones.