Daniel Madrigal sent me this update:
Christine Bork from “Pets y Mas” just informed that there is yet another change in the inauguration date of the Monumento a los Perros de la Calle. It will be Tuesday, October 20 at 9:00 am.
Thanks Daniel!
Publicado: 30 September 2009 0 ComentariosCosta Rican sculptor Francisco Mungéa is working on a series of six sculptures that pay tribute to the many stray dogs that wander the streets of San Josí. The sculptures will be up beginning Octuber 17th on the south side of the Mercado Central in downtown San Josí.
I’m looking forward to seeing this new exhibition of public art. Street dogs, called zaguates here in Costa Rica, are possibly the most marginalized animal in the country. They also may be the most ubiquitous. You’ll find packs of mutts trotting throughout Costa Rica’s cities, towns and countryside. Refuse and rejection become their daily bread. The fact that Munguéa has decided to commit the canine’s plight to iron should give passersby pause. Additionally, this work will form part of an interesting pattern of statues and sculptures downtown. Wheresa many cities place generals, presidents and conquerors on pedestals, pedestrians in the capital here will find monuments to musicians, street sweepers, families and now, mutts. It’s an artistic extension of an underlying egalitarian ideal that remains alive in the Costa Rican psyche.
Publicado: 29 September 2009 11 ComentariosReportaje sobre la expedición que realiza National Geographic en la Isla del Coco.
Publicado: 21 September 2009 1 ComentarioInteresante artéculo en nacion.com sobre una nueva especie de ballenas que están visitando nuestra costa Pacéfica.
Publicado: 21 September 2009 11 ComentariosMcDonald’s has opened its third “green” restaurant in the world in Via Lindora, a booming area of high-end strip malls west of San Jose. The restaurant was, according to the engineer in this video (Spanish only) built to the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED standards, which is the current standard for “green buildings.”
The only information I have to go off is the video that I linked above. As it stands, it’s a nice promotional piece for the restaurant that details all of the ecologically friendly efforts used in building this place, but makes no attempt to actually prove that they work.
Will the next stop for McDonald’s be healthful food opitions and environmental education for all? Doubt it.
I took the train into the office today, and it was wonderful. From the station in downtown Heredia to the Estacion al Atlantico in San Jose, the 25 minutes of ride were clean, comfortable, air conditioned and stress-free. This last point is key. I normally drive into the office, and fighting traffic/potholes/stray dogs/weather always makes for a white-knuckle ride. But for just 350 colones you can avoid all the drama of the street. Trains leave from Heredia every half hour, between 6am and 9am. Return trains from San Jose start at 4pm and run through 7pm, again departing every half hour.
This is quite the fortuitous discovery for me. Now, I can lazily read the newspaper and arrive downtown fresh as a spring morning, happy to participate in the tangle of public transportation.
Publicado: 16 September 2009 13 ComentariosWASHINGTON- Un avión que es “carbono neutral” en Costa Rica, un programa de “voluntarismo en zonas rurales de Camboya para apoyar la educación local, y una comunidad de sitios Web de cartograféa en España han tenido los máximos honores en el segundo desaféo de Geoturismo, patrocinado por la National Geographic Society y Ashoka Changemakers.
Los ganadores suman a la práctica y avanzan la tendencia creciente de Turismo de la Naturaleza: el turismo que sustenta o realza el carácter geográfico de un lugar – su medio ambiente, la cultura, la estítica, el patrimonio y el bienestar de sus residentes.
Ellos fueron seleccionados entre 10 finalistas de 611 iniciativas presentadas provenientes de 81 paéses. Las iniciativas presentadas en el “Desaféo de Geoturismo 2009: el Poder del Lugar” casi duplicó las del primer desaféo de Geoturismo en 2008.
Los tres ganadores, iniciativas de vanguardia e innovadoras, proporcionan a los visitantes la oportunidad de participar en el transporte sostenible, cada ganador recibirá un premio de $ 5.000:
Publicado: 11 September 2009 12 ComentariosThe popular Caribbean destination of Tortuguero (whose names comes from tortuga, or turtle), is in the middle of a successful nesting season fo the green turtle. This large sea creature is in danger of extinction. However, the number of nesting sites is up this year, giving researchers hope that the turtle is on the rebound.
The turtles are the area’s claim to fame, but there are other reasons to visit Tortuguero, too. Here’s an article by Nick Majerle.
Maybe there is something to the old maxim, or maybe it doesn
Publicado: 6 September 2009 10 Comentarios
Trece diputados presentaron ayer un proyecto de ley que pretende eliminar la religión oficial (que acá es el catolicismo) del Estado costarricense. Todo bien para la libertad de todos, pero en este artéculo de La Nación formula su titular y citas de una forma poco imparcial. El blog Fusil de Chispas tiene una buena reacción al artéculo. A ver que opinan…
