Is it a stand-in for ugly American? A warmhearted nickname? A slanderous sobriquet? There are few things expats come across here that can set off such impassioned debates over the word's weight.
BUENOS AIRES, Puntarenas – As government mediators return to San José and peace slowly returns to the Salitre indigenous reserve in Costa Rica’s southeastern region, the charred skeleton of a makeshift home remains as the only visible vestige of an intense conflict earlier this week.
With the death of Paul -- the "psychic" octopus who correctly predicted all six of Germany's 2010 World Cup games and the tournament final between the Netherlands and Spain -- sports fans all over the world have been scrambling to find another clairvoyant creature to take his place.
As Costa Ricans obsessively tracked the arrival of their national men's team, La Sele, after its historic run at the 2014 World Cup – many rushing to Juan Santamaría International Airport to catch a glimpse of the players – thousands of visitors to Costa Rica were trying to reach the airport.
Police arrested 17 Tuesday during the celebrations in Paseo Colón, where as many as 200,000 fans converged to welcome home the National Soccer Team, La Sele.
In a print industry marked by downsizing because of the Internet, one small newspaper in Costa Rica seems to be hitting its stride, thanks to a largely untapped readership base and content that helps meet the needs of a large immigrant community.
Dutch student Boyan Slat is only 19 years old, but he already has 100 people working on his revolutionary plan to scoop thousands of tons of damaging plastics from the oceans. The world's "plastic soup," much of it swirling around in five main gyres or rotating oceanic currents, costs billions of dollars to the fishing and tourism sectors every year.
