|
|
|
Velvety outside, hard to the core: Andrea Echeverri, front-woman of Colombian rock band Los Aterciopelados – the Velvety Ones – playing her machine-gun-turned guitar November in Bogotá. Echeverri's velveteers perform Friday night in Palmares, one of the hot tickets of the coffee town's big fiesta that runs through the weekend. |
Ronald Reyes | Tico Times. |
 |
| Palmares cranks it up a final notch |
A Mexican pop singer, Colombian folk rockers and a Mötley Crew-alike glam band are among the troupes to put a finishing crescendo on the mass hysteria that this week has engulfed Palmares. |
| See More... |
| Forest fires wreak havoc in 2007 |
| Forest fires last year razed 32,400 hectares of Costa Rica's wooded areas – equal to the size of about 8,000 U.S. football fields, the National Forest Fire Commission told the daily La Nación. |
| See More... |
| English teachers wrap up conference |
| Some 650 English teachers from this country and around the world end a three-day conference today at the Costa Rican-North American Cultural Center. |
|
| Deepak Chopra to visit Costa Rica for Human Forum |
| A host of international figures, including the renowned Indian/American physician and writer Deepak Chopra, are set to attend the Human Forum in San José from March 11 to 13. The event aims to promote global peace and sustainability. |
|
|
|
|
| Ti Plant Looks Good, Brings Luck |
Here's a hardy ornamental for the home garden that rates high on the eco-garden list. I'm referring to the ti plant (Cordyline terminalis), which is highly esteemed for its foliage with striking hues of red, yellow, green and blue.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| Palmares cranks it up a final notch |
By Alex Leff
Tico Times Staff | aleff@ticotimes.net |
A Mexican pop singer, Colombian folk rockers and a Mötley Crew-alike glam band are among the troupes to put a finishing crescendo on the mass hysteria that this week has engulfed Palmares.
Over the weekend, the Fiestas de Palmares, an hour-and-a-half bus ride northwest of San José, will rock on.
One musician to set it off tonight at Barra Imperial is star singer and producer Aleks Syntek of Mérida, Mexico, after the fresh release of the single “Intocable,” from the album “Lección de Vuelo.” After a 15-year career, Syntek's fame grew across the Atlantic via a radio-friendly duet with Spanish singer Ana Torroja entitled “Duele el amor.” His other works include film scores and a number of other radio hits.
Also tonight, at the Party Zone venue, is a show by Los Aterciopelados (The Velvety Ones), one of Colombia's internationally best-loved bands. Still riding the wave after their 2006 CD “Oye,” these velveteers bring a tight rock backbone coated with guitar and quasi Latin Joan Baez vocals by Andrea Echeverri (photographed above). Their Web site, www.aterciopelados.com, offers a taste.
Tomorrow at Barra Imperial sees Moderatto, hailing from near Syntek's neck of the woods but with an entirely different sound and look. More in the glam rock vain, this Mexican band is famous for Spanish covers of hits by groups from Led Zeppelin to Joan Jett and The Blackhearts.
Beware, Imperial can cost up to ¢7,000 ($14) to enter. Although admission comes with five beers – expect a raucous crowd – it's little match for Sunday's outdoor show, which will also feature Moderatto, this time, gratis.
Sunday's free lineup also includes Argentine rockers Enanitos Verdes, set to crank out tunes from their latest “La Historia” and the 2006 recording “Pescado Original.”
More information can be found at the festival's Web site http://fiestaspalmares.com.
|
|
| Forest fires wreak havoc in 2007 |
Forest fires last year razed 32,400 hectares of Costa Rica's wooded areas – equal to the size of about 8,000 U.S. football fields, the National Forest Fire Commission told the daily La Nación.
Most of the fires were started by humans, the commission said. Flyaway sparks from blazing sugarcane fields is one example of how forest fires began.
The report cast a shadow over the high praise earlier this week by researchers from the U.S. universities of Yale and Columbia who listed Costa Rica fifth among the 149 countries on their Environmental Performance Index.
The touristy northwest Guanacaste province was hit the hardest by blazes in 2007, where 28,836 hectares burned down, National Fire Management Program Coordinator Luis Diego Román told the daily.
|
|
|
| English teachers wrap up conference |
By Gillian Gillers
Tico Times Staff | ggillers@ticotimes.net
|
Some 650 English teachers from this country and around the world end a three-day conference today at the Costa Rican-North American Cultural Center.
The teachers attended workshops on educational tools such as video, software and Feng Shui, as well as speeches by lifelong instructors from England, Panama and Guatemala and a storyteller from the African country of Benin. Teachers paid $50 to attend the conference, whose $35,000 cost was largely shouldered by publishing houses, the U.S. Embassy and the Cultural Center.
As more high-tech companies settle here and English becomes a requisite for jobseekers, teachers are under pressure to hone their craft. President Oscar Arias is expected to announce a long-awaited plan to improve English instruction in early March.
Three regional language advisers who work for the Ministry of Public Education did not want to wait. Drawing from their own wallets, Yasmín Mayorga, Esmeralda Montero and Carmen Jiménez produced CDs and written exercises for instructors in the provinces of Guanacaste, Puntarenas and Alajuela. The project won them a $500 award from the U.S. Embassy, presented yesterday at the conference.
“Our work has been very hard, with the purpose of making teachers' work easier,” Mayorga said. |
|
|
| Deepak Chopra to visit Costa Rica for Human Forum |
By Rob Bartlett
Tico Times Staff | editorial@ticotimes.net
|
A host of international figures, including the renowned Indian/American physician and writer Deepak Chopra, are set to attend the Human Forum in San José from March 11 to 13. The event aims to promote global peace and sustainability.
The forum will take place at the Real Intercontinental hotel in Escazú, and will be hosted by the Alliance for a New Humanity, of which Chopra is president, and the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Development. Chopra will officially open the conference together with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias who, as well as setting up the foundation that bears his name, is also one of the original members of the Alliance. This is the first time that the conference has been held outside Puerto Rico.
Lina Barrantes, who represents the Alliance in Costa Rica, on Monday told the press that the conference will “explore how the world is moving away from four prevailing myths that today still define human relationships among themselves and with nature: money brings happiness, technology yields well-being, weapons provide security, and natural resources are unlimited.”
The conference will take the form of thematic workshops and round-table discussions on relevant topics. The aim is to encourage dialogue among all nationalities and across all disciplines and political affiliations. Those attending will be able to network, exchange ideas and open new channels of communication to further the cause of sustainable global development and the commitment to non-violence.
In addition to Chopra, many other leading international figures will be attending the conference, including: Indian Ashok Khosla, president of the Club of Rome; Italian journalist and communications expert Roberto Savio; American concert pianist Lorin Hollander and Spanish judge and academic Baltasar Garzón. Current Nobel Peace Laureate Al Gore has attended a previous forum.
Tickets are limited to 500, of which approximately 300 have already been sold.
For more information and to book a place at the Human Forum 2008, go to the Alliance's Web site: http://www.anhglobal.org. Alternatively, contact the Arias foundation at 224-1919. |
|
|
| Ti Plant Looks Good, Brings Luck |
 |
Here's a hardy ornamental for the home garden that rates high on the eco-garden list. I'm referring to the ti plant (Cordyline terminalis), which is highly esteemed for its foliage with striking hues of red, yellow, green and blue.
Many nurseries in Costa Rica use the name ti, though it's also popularly called caña india. This name is used for many of the dracaenas, which are close relatives to the ti plant. However, ti plants have distinctive stems with clasping petioles that cling to the trunk of the plant. Borne on long panicles among the leaves, the pastel flowers look like small, violet and yellow lilies and have a pleasant fragrance and appearance. These plants have a tendency to form an upright shrub, though older specimens become gangly and bend toward the ground.
Ti plants are most often used to enhance a tropical landscaping effect. They are best set in foundation arrangements or large pots, as single standing specimens or under larger trees, as they are very shade-tolerant. In fact, their colors are enhanced in shady habitats.
 |
| Landscape Star: Ti plants are prized for their striking red and green foliage. |
Ed Bernhardt | Tico Times |
It's interesting to note that the ti plant originated in eastern Asia and the Polynesian Islands. It has deep cultural roots in Hawaii, where it's known as ki and is planted around homes to bring good luck and ward off evil spirits. The plant's leaves are also used for thatching, rain gear, clothing, wrapping for food and fodder for livestock, and the roots for food and beverages.
Renowned botanist Henry Pittier, who classified many of Costa Rica's plants in 1908, did not include the ti plant, which leads me to believe this plant was a rather late arrival to the country. Perhaps it arrived decades later with the banana companies.
Propagating ti plants is simple. Stem cuttings 10 to 20 centimeters long can be planted in pots or plastic nursery bags or even planted directly in the soil in their permanent sites. Kids enjoy the magic of starting plants from cuttings; you can use recycled plastic cups and gain a “three Rs” lesson all in one.
Ti plants do well in a wide range of soils, though rich, fertile loam encourages the best growth. They require no water in the dry season, nor chemical fertilizers or insecticides. All you need is compost, which is easily made at home from organic kitchen and yard waste. Compost can change hard, red clay soil into dark, soft brown soil, or sandy soil into a brown sandy loam.
Nurseries carry a wide variety of ti plants, but it's also fun to check around the neighborhood and beg a cutting or two from a neighbor – why, you can even trade at times. Who knows? It may even bring a little luck your way.
For more information on tropical gardening, visit www.thenewdawncenter.info or write thenewdawncenter@yahoo.com.
|
|
|
| 
| 
| Exchange Rates
