All Things Panama

Guanacaste’s main international airport in Liberia just posted the strongest first quarter in its history, another sign that Costa Rica’s Pacific gateway is carrying a larger share of the country’s tourism traffic. Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport handled 793,075 passengers from January through March 2026, up 12% from the same period last year and the …

Read more “Costa Rica’s Liberia Airport Posts Best Quarter in History”

Costa Rica’s biggest auto fair of the year is in full swing, and this edition is one for the record books. Expomóvil 2026 started Thursday, and runs through Sunday at the Centro de Eventos Pedregal in Belén, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the Association of Vehicle and Machinery Importers (AIVEMA), the trade group that …

Read more “Expomóvil 2026 Opens in Belén with 350 Models”

Costa Rica’s fraud problem is moving fast online, and travel is one of the clearest targets. What used to look like isolated scams now forms part of a wider pattern built around fake booking platforms, cloned websites, false promotions, and digital payment traps aimed at residents and tourists alike. The scale of the broader problem …

Read more “Costa Rica Sees Ongoing Spike in Digital Fraud Tied to Travel and Payments”

A new study from the National University’s Observatory on Tourism, Migration and Sustainability in the Chorotega Region says development in some of Guanacaste’s best known beach towns is becoming more exclusive, more segmented and less connected to the communities around it. Focusing on El Coco, Nosara and Tamarindo, the report argues that the dominant pattern …

Read more “Costa Rica Report Says Gentrification Is Reshaping Guanacaste”

Long before Costa Rica became synonymous with cloud forests and wildlife reserves, its coastlines were contested territory in one of history’s most dramatic power struggles. During the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, the country’s remote bays, dense jungles, and exposed river mouths made it both a target and a thoroughfare for pirates, corsairs, and privateers …

Read more “The History of Pirate Raids Along Costa Rica’s Coast”

Opposition to the Bahía Papagayo development in Playa Panamá is intensifying after SINAC authorized tree cutting in the project area. The citizen group Salvemos el Bosque de Playa Panamá has called two demonstrations, one for Tuesday, April 21, at 4:00 p.m. outside the Constitutional Chamber in San José and another for Wednesday, April 22, at …

Read more “Costa Rica Activists Rally Against Bahía Papagayo Plan to Cut 700 Trees”

Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo let an early opening slip away Friday as top seed Alexander Zverev fought back from a set down to win 5-7, 6-0, 6-2 and reach the semifinals of the BMW Open in Munich. The comeback sent the German through to a last-four meeting with Italy’s Flavio Cobolli and ended Cerundolo’s run at …

Read more “Latin American hopes fade in Munich as Cerundolo falls to Zverev”

Humane World for Animals Costa Rica has partnered with Costa Rica’s National Environmental Security Commission to deliver a series of training workshops for government authorities responsible for handling wildlife rescued or confiscated in illegal trafficking cases. The workshops are part of a broader project titled “Improving Costa Rica’s Capacity to Combat Wildlife Trafficking,” funded by …

Read more “Costa Rica Authorities Train to Better Handle Rescued and Seized Wildlife”

Costa Rican security personnel are taking part in a new round of U.S.-led regional exercises in El Salvador, where more than 1,200 members of military, security and disaster-response forces from seven countries began training yesterday under the CENTAM Guardian 26 program. The exercise, hosted by U.S. Southern Command and El Salvador’s Ministry of National Defense, …

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Eight of the 25 migrants deported from the United States to Costa Rica in the first flight under a new third-country agreement have told authorities they fear returning to their home countries, a development that could push several of them into Costa Rica’s asylum system just days after their arrival. Costa Rican immigration chief Omer …

Read more “Costa Rica Says Deported Migrants May Seek Asylum Over Return Fears”