Kathleen Cameron calls herself a birding enthusiast. Her fascination with avian creatures began when she agreed to accompany a friend on a birding trip while in Ohio.

“I thought birding was not very interesting and geeky, but I gave it a shot,” she said. “While driving to the birding destination, I wanted to stop and look at deer. We stopped, and I saw a sandhill crane, and I was really surprised.”

Read the entire article by SABINA DANA PLASSE here…

Luxury Living International Magazine leads-off it’s “Best of Paradise” series with The Best Spa Residences in the Caribbean, Latin and Central America.

In the past, the words “tropical” and “paradise” elicited visions of sea breezes rustling the palm trees along ivory white sand shorelines and pastel-blue waters, sailboats cruising by. Now, for most people, it still includes all of that…but may also include an amazing massage or exotic spa treatment on a pier over the azure blue water or herbal rainforest mud

bath. Could hours of relaxation and self-indulgent quiet time spent in a tranquil spa environment while receiving soul-renewing treatments really be yours for a lifetime? For those who love to be pampered at a world-class spa there are now more choices of second and vacation home communities offering spa facilities than ever before. Luxury Living International magazine shortens the list for you with its Top 10 Spa Residences in Paradise, the finest places at which to own property—and indulge— in a piece of the pampered life in the Caribbean or Latin America; from Costa Rica to Grand Cayman and Mexico to Antigua. The feature story is currently online at www.luxurylivingint.com part of its new “Best of Paradise” series.

Read the entire article here…

The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) said it will begin selling 3G cellular lines in the second week in December and away from its traditional practice, there will be no need to register before going to an ICE agency to get connected.

The announcement was made by Adolfo Arías, director of ICE’s División de Servicios.

To get the most out of the 3G service, a user has to have a 3G phone.

Retailers in Costa Rica are readying their stock of 3G phones to be connected to the 950.000 lines ICE will be making available.

A 3G phone is basically very similar to a GSM phone, using the same bands for transmission. Where it differs is in its ability to transmit large volumes of data and at high speed, which allows the sending and receiving of video files, video chat, photos and music, among many other features.

3G phones also include WiFi allowing connection to the internet and use “Windows Office” tools, as well as being great entertainment devices to play music, watch video, high resolution cameras for photos and videos and play video games.

Original from insidecostarica.com here….

Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) – Costa Rica’s foreign direct investment will return to 2008 levels after falling about 30 percent this year, boosted by tourism and investments in ports and telecommunications projects, said Marco Vinicio Ruiz, the country’s minister of foreign trade.

“I visit companies all the time,” Ruiz said in an interview at Bloomberg’s headquarters in New York. “They say they are ready to go to Costa Rica, they’re just waiting for the board to approve that.”

Ruiz, 55, is in New York for an event to attract money to the telephone industry, which opened to private investments this year. He will travel to Singapore on Nov. 7 to present bid opportunities for a concession of a port in the Caribbean Sea, which will be the country’s biggest.

Foreign direct investment will be about $2 billion next year, in line with 2008, after plunging this year as the global recession reduced tourism and spurred companies to halt spending plans, Ruiz said. The investment, which accounts for 7 percent of gross domestic product, is the main driver of the Costa Rican currency, he said.

Read the entire article by Fabiola Moura of www.bloomberg.com here…

ScienceDaily (Oct. 30, 2009) — Quality-of-life in nations is measured using an index of ‘Happy Life Years’, developed at Erasmus University Rotterdam in The Netherlands. This index combines average appreciation of life with average length of life. Costa Rica is on top with 66.7 and Zimbabwe at the bottom with only 12.5 happy life years. The USA rank in the sub-top with an average of 58 years lived happily. Canada outscored the U.S. with an average ranking of 64 years.

Rank lists are published periodically on the World Database of Happiness. The latest rank list counts 148 nations and covers more than 95% of the world’s population.

These findings are presented at the 3rd OECD World Forum, 27-30 October in Busan, South Korea. The focus of this conference is on measures of social progress other than GDP. This measure of Happy Life Years is such an alternative measure.

Detailed list of countries and their ‘Happy Life Year’ score.

Costa Rica featured at Medical Tourism Congress

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This year’s Medical Tourism Congress (Oct. 26 – 28 in Los Angeles) features Costa Rica in its portrait of the growing trend of going overseas for affordable care.

In the video, we see Bob (his last name is not provided) from Orlando, Florida as he flies to San Jose, Costa Rica, to have a double knee replacement at Clinica Biblica, one of the top rated facilities in a country known for its high-quality care.

Read the entire article by Erin Van Rheenen of examiner.com here…

I spoke with a real estate agent yesterday to see whether we have any realistic prospect of selling our house in this economy. I mentioned to her that we would be leaving the area, so of course she wanted to know our plans. “We can’t afford to retire here,” I explained, “so we’re looking at moving south of the border. We’re considering Mexico, Panama or Ecuador.”

There was a silence at the other end of the phone line. “Oh,” she said, “you’re about the fourth or fifth person who’s told me that in the last couple of months.”

The LAPT makes a welcome return to Costa Rica where in Season 1 Valdemar Kwaysser, a PokerStars qualifier from Budapest, Hungary, turned $200 into close to $280,000, when he took down the second Latin American Poker Tour event.

He bettered his previous highest win, a $133,634 score for third in the Sunday Million on PokerStars in May 2007, and did so with flair, aggression, humility and, by his own admission, the occasional moment of good fortune.

LAPT Playa Conchal Season 3 will be held at the Paradisius Playa Conchal Resort from November 19 – 22, 2009. The buy-in will be $2,500+$200 with the field capped at 350 participants.

Source: www.lapt.com

The last couple of months have been very busy in Costa Rica, Sol Property Group and The Village of San Buenas. I’ll highlight a few events that were very memorable.

August Back in August I spent a day with Rodrigo Arias (Costa Rican Secretary of State), Jorge Eduardo Sanchez (Deputado or “Senator”), Rosibel Madrigal (Mayor of San Isidro) and Hanz Cruz (Deputy Mayor of San Isidro). I spent the day taking photos, attending a private lunch with 50 business owners and executives from some of the country’s largest banks and largest companies. The event was to announce government loans for farmers of mora, coffee and sugar cane in the area.