Atlanta university student
missing in surf at Dominical


A university student from Atlanta, Georgia, is missing and presumed to be the victim of a riptide at a Pacific beach.

He is Erik L. Downes of Cape Coral, Florida, a junior at Oglethorpe University. A university statement said he

disappeared Tuesday evening. A search is being conducted. The university said that Oglethorpe students and faculty members are in Costa Rica for a short-term ecological study abroad trip.  Downes and others were swimming in the waters off Playa Dominical on the Pacific Coast when they were caught in the riptide, the university said. Dominical tides can be treacherous. A man who helped set up a lifeguard unit there said

Erik L. Downes

that persons can be caught in thigh-high water and could be swept out to sea. The rip tide develops when surf recedes through a narrow channel and all the force of the water is concentrated in a small area.

A pre-med major at the prestigious liberal arts school, Downes leads the Student Senate as vice president of the Student Government Association, said the university. He also is a resident assistant and active in the Center for Civic Engagement service projects, a statement said.  He attended Canterbury School in Fort Myers, Florida.

“The thoughts and prayers of the entire Oglethorpe community are with Erik and his family and many friends,” said Lawrence M. Schall, Oglethorpe University president. “In a close-knit community of 1,100 students, this is having an impact on everyone.” He was quoted in the university statement.

“We are continuing to reach out and communicate with our students, parents, faculty and broader community,” said Michelle Hall, dean of students. “We are standing by to provide counseling services to students as they come back to campus from winter break on Sunday.”

City talks to judiciary
over construction access


Representatives of the Municipalidad de San José and the executive director of the Poder Judicial have conferred on road work planned to start next Monday on Avenida 8.

The executive Director, Alfredo Jones León, complained earlier in the week that access to the judicial complex would be cut off by the work.

The municipality is improving the entire avenue, and this stage includes the area from Calle 13 to Calle 25.  That section runs along the south side of the buildings housing the Corte Suprema de Justicia, the Judicial Investigating Organization and the courts.

The municipality said Wednesday that municipal engineers and supervisors for the contractor, Cemex de Costa Rica, visited the area and have come to an agreement with the Poder Judicial over access when the work is going on.


$200 million plan starts
in impoverished Haiti


The United Nations this week launched a 20-year, $200-million environmental recovery program in southwest Haiti that aims to benefit more than 200,000 people and show that sustainable rural development, from fisheries to tourism, is indeed practical.

Lessons learned during the execution of the project, covering a land area of 780 square kilometers, about half the size of Greater London, and a marine area of 500 square kilometers, can be extended to the rest of Haiti, the poorest, least stable and most environmentally degraded country in the Western Hemisphere, the U.N. said.

“Restoring the region’s environmental services will be a key step towards restoring a real and long-lasting development path for its people and a stepping stone towards a green economy,” said Achim Steiner, U.N. Environment Programme executive director.

The Côte Sud Initiative, jointly sponsored by the Environment Programme and a consortium including the governments of Haiti and Norway, Catholic Relief Services, the Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York and a host of local non-governmental organizations, comes as Haiti marks the first anniversary of a devastating earthquake that killed 200,000 people and displaced some 1.3 million others. But the plan was designed a year before the disaster.

Severe poverty, food insecurity and disaster vulnerability – which are strongly interlinked with environmental issues such as deforestation, soil erosion and land and marine degradation – have profoundly affected local well-being for decades, and the initiative proposes a new approach.

Ten communes, with an estimated population of 205,000 people, will benefit directly from the program, which will include reforestation, erosion control, fisheries management, mangrove rehabilitation and small business and tourism development, as well as improved access to water and sanitation, health and education.

The broad-ranging initiative will involve between 50 and 100 projects over 20 years, at least 10 of them expected to last up to five years or more.

Rx for tranquil living:
Try to assimilate here

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

There has certainly been a lot of back and forth about living in Costa Rica lately. As a resident for 18 years I can’t resist throwing in my two cents worth.

Is today’s Costa Rica, the gentle, laid back, emerging-from-the-third-world country that I came to? Absolutely not! Petty crime has become violent crime, empty pothole-filled roads have become jammed packed roads, the cost of living has skyrocketed (wages for staff, goods at the supermarket) and the wide open admiration and interest in a foreigner has faded, especially among that group of Costa Rican businessmen and government officials who think they can do things as well as we can and resent what they now see as encroachment.

So how do I cope? First I learned early to speak Spanish. That ability makes dealing with bureaucracy much easier and less frustrating. The people I meet everyday understand that my ability and willingness to speak the language is a show of respect for them and their culture. I moved to a rural community where my neighbors are still interested in meeting the much rarer foreigner in their community, to share experiences, to get to know me and tell me about themselves and their lives. I hire my neighbors to do all my odd jobs, and I don’t yell and scream when they make a mistake. They charge me 10 percent of what the Canadian plumber, electrician, mechanic, gardener, maid would charge me.

I buy in my community at the hardware store, the co-op and not at the giant American-like superstores. I eat at the Soda with its chipped coffee cups and paper napkins and appreciate the personal attention and the incredibly low prices. And I don’t tell people everyday that it can/should be done differently. I want to and I get frustrated, but I try and go with the flow.

In short I have attempted to assimilate here, not try to make it like the country I left. So I still find peace and tranquility and smiling faces and kisses on the cheek and hearty handshakes.  When it gets to be too much, I check the weather at home to find it is -30 today, and I remember that the beach and a relaxing getaway is only an hour and a half away.

So stop complaining, embrace the differences and enjoy yourself. That’s why you retired here!

Find out what the papers said today in Spanish By the A.M. Costa Rica staff Here is the section where you can scan short summaries from the Spanish-language press. If you want to know more, just click on a link and you will see and longer summary and have the opportunity to read the entire news story on the page of the Spanish-language newspaper but translated into English. Translations may be a bit rough, but software is improving every day. When you see the Summary in English of news stories not covered today by A.M. Costa Rica, you will have a chance to comment. This is a new service of A.M. Costa Rica called Costa Rica Report. Editor is Daniel Woodall, and you can contact him HERE!

From the Costa Rican press News items posted Monday through Friday by 8 a.m. Click a story for the summary

Costa Rica news summaries are disabled on achived pages.

Have you seen these stories? From A.M. Costa Rica

Top story feeds are disabled on archived pages.

Ministerio de Gobernación, Policía y Seguirdad Públicas photo