TBT: Costa Rica at the turn of the decade (2010-19)

January 1 marked not only a new year, but a new decade for Costa Rica and our planet Earth.

While it’s always exciting to look ahead to what the future might bring, once a week, we like to remember the past in our Throwback Thursday series. As Costa Rican band Malpaís once said: Se que a veces miro para atrás. Pero es para saber de donde vengo.

“I know that sometimes I look back. But it’s to know from where I come from.”

Here’s what Costa Rica was talking about in early 2010:

• Laura Chinchilla was elected President of Costa Rica. She was sworn in in May, becoming Costa Rica’s first female president.
• The tourism outlook was tenuous following the 2007-8 global financial crisis. The number of international visitors to Costa Rica had fallen 8% from 2008 to 2009, and many business-owners were concerned a rebound would take years.
• Costa Rica was responding to cases of influenza A (H1N1), which ultimately caused tens of thousands of deaths worldwide. President Oscar Arias was among those infected in late 2009.
• More than 30 years after it was designed, Ruta 27 (from San José to Caldera) was finally inaugurated.
• And, of course, millions were preparing for the 2010 FIFA World Cup — but not Costa Rica, which had been eliminated from qualifying by Uruguay. (La Sele got its revenge in 2014.)