Puntarenas, on Costa Rica’s central Pacific, is the province most affected by climate change, with damages in the six-year period reaching $164.5 million.
Winning a World Cup berth could rally a nation rent by politics and religion, where more than 1,000 people have been killed since the military deposed an unpopular elected government on July 3.
Some 10,000 teachers have camped out in the capital's historic Zócalo square for the past two weeks, leading protests that have snarled traffic in the congested city.
