The meeting between the two first women heads of state in their respective countries also was the first official meeting between the countries since the 1970s.
Maduro would have addressed the annual U.N. General Assembly for the first time since becoming head of state following the death earlier this year of longtime President Hugo Chávez.
Organizers of the Planet, People and Peace Conference highlighted organic chocolatiers and an indigenous fair trade store as examples of environmentally-friendly and "sustainable" tourism.
Eleven years after a pact between the Costa Rican government and Sea Shepherd was scuttled following a high-seas incident near Guatemala, the conservation group is back with a new office in San José.
