eco-tourism

Costa Rica's economy relies on tourism, and the country has worked hard to increase the flow of international visitors to the country.

Three beaches will display blue flags with the maximum of five stars for the next 12 months, all of them on the Pacific coast.

A total of 110 beaches along the Caribbean and Pacific coasts are displaying blue flags this week to let visitors know that their sands and waters are among the country's cleanest.

The Ecological Blue Flag program this year awarded three Pacific beaches with flags portraying the maximum five stars. Four beaches will display the blue flag for the first time this year, including two at Cocos Island.

Tourist Maciej Oskroba headed back to his home country of Germany on Thursday just nine days after being caught red-handed with more than 400 live animals in his luggage at the Juan Santamaría International Airport outside of San José. He received no jail time and no fine.

San José's Juan Santamaría International Airport is often busy, but it became a zoo on Tuesday when police discovered 170 live animals in the luggage of a passenger headed to Panama.

Search-and-rescue teams wrapped up a final operation on Monday to find U.S. hiker Cody Dial, who disappeared in Costa Rica in early July. Search teams focused their efforts on the rugged Corcovado National Park, where Dial was believed to be hiking, but failed to find any clues as to what happened to the 27-year-old Alaska-native.

PLAYA OSTIONAL, Guanacaste – Annual rainfall has decreased by 52 percent this year in the Guanacaste region, according to the National Meteorological Institute, affecting the hatching rates of turtles in Ostional, a mass nesting site on Costa Rica's Pacific coast for the olive ridley species.

Representatives from the U.S. Embassy are now in Puerto Jiménez, near the park's eastern entrance, to take over the search, accompanied by Dial's father, Roman Dial, a National Geographic explorer and well-known adventure sportsman.

A Red Cross rescue team is combing the jungles of Corcovado National Park in a final search Monday for missing U.S. hiker Cody Roman Dial.