JANUARY 22, 2007

BIG Air: Costa Rican surfer Gilbert Brown soared to a second place finish at the Latin Pro Tour competition Saturday in Miramar, Argentina.

FIRST in Line: Triathlete Leonardo Chacón Friday became the first Costa Rican to request a passport from the Immigration branch in the northwestern Guanacaste city of Liberia. Chacón aspires to train in Spain and go on to compete in the 2008 Olympics in Bejing, China.

Residents of the northwestern Guanacaste province no longer have to make the long trip to San José to request passports – as of Friday, they can do so from the province's capital of Liberia, according to a statement from the Public Security Ministry.

The Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT), together with other Central American tourism ministries, is gearing up for the International Tourism Fair (FITUR) in Madrid in hopes of regaining some of the tourists lost when the Spanish airline Air Madrid shut down, Tourism Minister Carlos Benavides recently told the daily La Prensa Libre.

Two prominent Citizen Action Party (PAC) politicians, faction head Elizabeth Fonseca and leader Ottón Solís, are scheduled to arrive today to Washington D.C. for a five-day visit aimed at promoting Costa Rica's development model of “solidarity” rather than the controversial Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA), according to a statement released yesterday by the party.

Passports Processed in Liberia

By Amanda Roberson
Tico Times Staff | aroberson@ticotimes.net

Residents of the northwestern Guanacaste province no longer have to make the long trip to San José to request passports – as of Friday, they can do so from the province's capital of Liberia, according to a statement from the Public Security Ministry.

This new service is an effort by the General Immigration Administration to ease congestion at Immigration's central San José office and transmit information electronically, the statement said.

Guanacaste residents can schedule passport appointments at the Liberia Immigration branch Mondays and Tuesdays; 30 appointments are available each day, said Immigration spokeswoman Heidy Bonilla.

Those interested must go to the Liberia office to make their appointment, but Immigration hopes users will be able to do this online next month, Bonilla said.

To get a passport, citizens must pay $56 at Banco de Costa Rica and bring a photocopy of their identification card, or cédula, and a photocopy of their expired passport if they have one.

Passport requests are then sent electronically to Immigration's central office in San José, and the user may either pick up his or her passport personally in the capital or request that it be sent to Guanacaste by mail.

Leonardo Chacón, a 22-year-old athlete seeking a scholarship from the International Triathalon Foundation in Spain to train for the 2008 Olympics in Bejing, China, Friday visited Immigration in Liberia and became the first Guanacaste resident to take advantage of this new service.

Liberia is the second city outside San José where Immigration has begun processing passport requests. In December, the Immigration branch in the Pacific port city of Puntarenas also began offering this service.

Within the next year, residents of San Carlos, in north-central Costa Rica; Limón, on the Caribbean, and Pérez Zeledón, in the Southern Zone, will also be able to process passport requests at their regional Immigration branches, Bonilla said.

ICT to Promote Costa Rica at Tourism Fair

The Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT), together with other Central American tourism ministries, is gearing up for the International Tourism Fair (FITUR) in Madrid in hopes of regaining some of the tourists lost when the Spanish airline Air Madrid shut down, Tourism Minister Carlos Benavides recently told the daily La Prensa Libre.

Seven Central American counties – Costa Rica, Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama – together with TACA Airlines, are preparing a joint stand at the fair, to be held Jan. 31-Feb. 4. Decorated with relics from each country, the stand was designed to project the theme “ Central America, so small... so big,” the daily reported.

Part of the strategy is to provide other travel options for tourists from Spain and around Europe who used to fly to Central America via Air Madrid, Benavides said.

After a falling out between the airline and the Spanish government in December of last year, the airline grounded all its planes, leaving 120,000 passengers across Latin America and Europe stranded (TT, Dec. 22, 2006). San José was the Central American hub for the company, which flew mostly between Spain and other Latin American destinations.

FITUR, one of the biggest tourism fairs in Europe, will unite 107 Central American businesses including hotels, airlines and media groups.

These representatives will be displaying “new offerings” in terms of wholesalers and airlines,” Benavides told the daily. They will also meet with their Spanish counterparts to examine the possibility of opening more new flights and increasing investment in hotels.

-Tico Times

PAC Leaders on Washington D.C. Tour

Two prominent Citizen Action Party (PAC) politicians, faction head Elizabeth Fonseca and leader Ottón Solís, are scheduled to arrive today to Washington D.C. for a five-day visit aimed at promoting Costa Rica's development model of “solidarity” rather than the controversial Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA), according to a statement released yesterday by the party.

The pair plans to meet with U.S. legislators, university professors, think-tank experts and José Miguel Insulza, secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS).

“We want the United States to understand... Costa Rica's successful experience in human development, democracy and respect for human rights and the environment,” Solís said in the statement. Costa Rica and the United States should build “a relationship that can strengthen these national achievements instead of threatening them, like the free-trade agreement being negotiated would,” he said, referring to CAFTA. PAC has long opposed the trade pact, which is being debated in the Costa Rican Legislative Assembly and could soon move to its main floor.

During meetings in Washington D.C., PAC legislators will explain why they advocate trade that is “truly just and fair with respect to the national reality,” the statement said.

Costa Rican Surfer Grabs Second
Place in Argentine Competition

Costa Rica's Gilbert Brown caught international attention along with winning waves at the Latin Pro Tour Saturday in Miramar, Argentina, holding strong to finish in second place in the Open division, according to a statement from the Costa Rican Surf Federation.

Brown, from the southern Caribbean beach of Puerto Viejo, came in just behind Chile's Diego Medina. Third place in the Open division went to Costa Rican Luis Vindas, according to results posted on the Latin American Surf Association's Web site.

“I had an excess of confidence and I felt like I could win after surfing one good wave, but it didn't happen,” Brown said. “Diego ( Medina ) had the luck of surfing another good wave to the finish. That was what placed him as champion and I congratulate him,” he said.

Brown said he plans to continue to strive for high rankings during the rest of the Latin Pro Tour, which includes competitions in Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and Barbados, according to the statement.

Recently I picked up a wonderful new attachment for my PDA, called Intelect-Inside, which, when pointed at a subject within 15 meters, is able to capture and display the unexpressed thoughts of that person. A few days ago I went to a quasi-government office. I arrived at opening time and while I waited, having nothing better to do, I pointed the thing at a young employee who was sitting at a nearby desk.

What follows here is the sequence of his thoughts, translated from pachuco Spanish to English:

Whoof! Made it just in time. Stupid new security service! Why do they have to check employees coming in and going out? Yesterday afternoon they almost found the staplers. I’ll have to stop doing that before I get caught.

Don’t these privatized people ever rest?

I know the kind of thing Security is trying to catch in the mornings. They stopped Elberth from the Filing Department from bringing in his bottles of guaro. That’s goodbye to his little business! He’s going to feel the drop in his income… I bet he won’t be able to afford Rosita any more…

Hey, maybe I’ll be able to pick up with Rosita myself. Nah! With the stapler, paper punch and scissors business going phut, I wouldn’t be able to afford her, either. Stupid new security service!

But I daren’t take up with Rosita anyway – Stupid Carmen would immediately tell my wife.

Where is Stupid Carmen, anyway? I know! She must be in the bathroom putting on her face. Uncanny, the way she arrives back at her desk exactly one minute before the jefe walks in.

Uh oh. There’s the messenger from Metropolitana. I mustn’t meet his eye! Maybe if I ignore him, Sánchez will attend to him. Boy, Sánchez is really trying for a promotion – he was actually working when I arrived. What’s he trying to do – show the rest of us up? Stupid Sánchez!

Mustn’t raise my eyes! Hmm, my shoes need waxing. They haven’t been cleaned since the new guards stopped the shoeshine lad from coming in. Now everyone has dirty shoes and we don’t have those racy magazines any more, to pass the while away. Stupid security service!

The new privatized cleaning service is good! They cleaned the dust from my outbox. I wonder if I should make two piles of the stuff in my inbox? The one pile is likely to topple over. Should I put the files in alphabetical order to expedite things when someone needs something? Nah! Too much trouble. Let ’em wait while I riffle through.

Ooh, there’s Rosita! Yoo hoo, Rosita! Wow, I love it when she stretches backward like that. Heck! I caught the eye of Metropolitana – but he just smiled and looked at Rosita.

I think that blouse is one she bought from the Nica. The Nica hasn’t come back since the new guard service started – they probably stop him from coming in. I saw him lurking outside yesterday – luckily he didn’t see me. I don’t like those shirts very much, anyway, so why should I pay for them? Maybe I should grow back my moustache. No, I can’t grow it back because then the lottery chap would recognize me, and I owe him more than I owe the Nica.

Hmm, that man’s here to see the jefe – I’d better pretend to be working. Boy, the dust between the files in my inbox is terrible. I think I’ll go to the infirmary later and pretend to have hay fever, and maybe they’ll give me some more of that allergy medicine I sell to my brother-in-law.

Here’s the file I told the guy from Cosmopolitas I had processed and sent to the Evaluations Department. Stupid Cosmopolitas guy, with his shrill voice and horrible haircut – I hope he got properly messed up! But I must be more compliant or he won’t repeat the nice Christmas present this year.

Ah, here comes Stupid Carmen – so the jefe will be arriving any moment. I’d better keep looking busy. But I mustn’t look up – Sánchez still hasn’t attended to Metropolitana.

We should turn the desks around so we don’t have to face the counter and “see” the people who are waiting. But if we turn the desks around, the people at the counter would see our computer monitors, and that’s no good! I wonder where I can get the new version of Free Cell?

Stupid Carmen hasn’t said “good morning” to me. In fact, she hasn’t even looked at me. Who does she think she is? Boy, I’d really like to nab her stapler, paper punch and scissors, and then see her squirm! But she locks them in her desk whenever she’s away from it. Stupid Carmen! What does she think I am, a thief? It’s not as if taking staplers, scissors and paper punches were really stealing – nobody around here cares about that sort of thing.

Where’s the jefe? I want his newspaper. I’m sure La Liga won, but I want to check the final score of last night’s game. Stupid ICE and its power cuts – it should be privatized! But if they privatize ICE we will follow right behind, and that would be really terrible – I don’t know what I would do! And all these other poor people. Except Sánchez – he would find a new job right away, curse him! I really should try to get into the hierarchy of the union and become one of the Untouchables.

There’s the guy from Profesionales. Maybe he knows how the game ended up. But I’d better not ask him – he may want me to do something for him, and now it’s now only 20 minutes before my first coffee break, so I can’t take on any more tasks.