Sep 8, 2008

Digging it: Costa Rican archaeologist Ricardo Vázquez, 52, leads kids in a mock excavation during a day of archaeological adventure at the National Museum in San José.

Lindy Drew / Tico Times

Some of the Pacific coast's most popular beaches are dangerously polluted with sewage runoff, according to a broad study revealed Friday by the National Water and Sewer Institute (AyA).

According to water samples taken Aug. 13, the beaches of Playas del Coco, Playa Tambor and Jacó are hazardous to human health.

The most seriously polluted beaches, however, lie on the Caribbean, in the near the port city of Limón: Cieneguitas and Portete.

The tourist beaches of Puerto Viejo and Cahuita, farther to the south, were clean, the study found.

The northern Pacific's Playa Tamarindo, which last year made headlines for shockingly high levels of fecal coliform in its waves, has managed to dramatically lower contamination levels.

“The fact that it has improved does not mean that everything has gotten better,” said Darner Mora, the head of AyA's National Water Laboratory. “There is still much to do.”

According to Mora, though the ocean water levels have gone down, inspectors have discovered new sources of untreated wastewater flowing into the ocean.

In August 2007, AyA found fecal coliform bacteria levels as high as 4,600 and 1,100 parts per 100 milliliters (ml) of water.

AyA and the Public Health Ministry warn that swimming in anything higher than 240 parts per 100 ml of water can be hazardous to your health.

In a test of water levels on Aug. 13 of this year, fecal coliform levels in Tamarindo were down to 45 and 20 parts per 100 ml at the same places.

Mora said that, at all the beaches, the studies were taken at two points chest deep in the ocean at least 100 meters from the outlet of any streams or water discharges.

For Jacó, which has also made recent headlines for its water contamination problems, the average of the two samples taken Aug. 13 was 472 parts of coliform per 100 ml of water.

Playa Tambor, on the tip of the Pacific's Nicoya Peninsula, had a level of 327 coliforms per 100 ml of water.

At Playas del Coco, samples taken from the north end of that beach had an average of 805 parts per 100 ml of water. The south end was much lower, at 173.

The filthiest beach on the Pacific, however, is that of Quepos, a small port town on the Central Pacific coast, north of Manuel Antonio National Park. Offshore from Quepos, where the Pez Vela Marina is under construction, coliform levels were clocked at 2,400.

The beaches within the neighboring national park, however, are clean, Mora said.

Mora noted that while some beaches showed serious contamination problems, the majority of Costa Rica's coastal waters are pristine, or very close to it.

Costa Rican customs officials have sent foreign seafarers packing this hurricane season, denying the three-month temporary import permit extensions that used to make the country's Pacific Coast one of the best storm refuges in the world.

“In the last 10 days, three boats have left,” Tim Leachman, the co-owner of Land Sea Marina Services in Golfito, in Puntarenas province, where he rents dock space to international boats, said last week. “There was no grace period, and some boats were forced to leave within a matter of hours without adequate time to pack the necessary provisions.”

Pancho, a small sailboat from Chile that was moored at Land Sea until about two week ago is now on its way home during the most treacherous open-water travel season, Leachman said.

National customs laws tie boats' temporary import permits to their owners' “migratory status.”  Most tourists are granted a 90-day tourist visa upon entering Costa Rica; their boats would be issued an initial three-month temporary import permit accordingly.

In the past, owners renewed their tourist visas with Immigration by leaving the country for at least 72 hours, while the Finance Ministry issued a second, three-month temporary import permit, which allowed boats to stay in Costa Rican waters for a total of six months, the girth of the hurricane season.

Now, in a reinterpretation of the customs laws – the laws have not been amended since 2000 – that also regulates on-land motor vehicles, customs officials are not issuing second temporary import permits, forcing boats to leave Costa Rica, or face monetary fines and penalties.

Some boat owners are placing their craft under bond, which allows the boats to stay in Costa Rica for up to nine more months. Once under bond, however, the boats cannot be used.

“We make a lot more money when a boat is being used,” says a spokesman from Banana Bay Marina, one of three marinas in Golfito that is endorsed by customs to keep boats under bond.

For decades, Costa Rica's unique location made it an attractive off-season rest stop for international boaters. According to Leachman, thalassic globetrotters plan their Costa Rican stop months, sometimes years, in advance.

Costa Rica's Pacific Coast is usually safe from the hurricane corridor in the Caribbean, though this year it has been battered by tropical storms Alma and Hanna.

“Sail families are some of the best tourists,” says Leachman. “They buy groceries. They fly down friends and families. They hire mechanics and electricians to make repairs.”

Here, they can tour tropical waters while much of the rest of the maritime world hunkers down to wait out the hurricanes. Their activity also creates economic stimulus during Costa Rica's rainy season, which is generally slow for tourism. But the new customs measure threatens to impede this symbiotic situation.

“Without the return to the six-month cruising permit as a minimum, any small marina – any business like ours – will be difficult to sustain economically,” says Katie Duncan, Leachman's partner at Land Sea.

According to Banana Bay Marina, the new interpretation of customs laws is a measure to control foreign overland traffic from places like Panama, Costa Rica's southern neighbor.

“I don't think they want to harm the sailors,” says Leachman. “I don't think they're aware of what they're doing.”

Golfito customs officials would not comment publicly on the issue.

Residents in Costa Rica's northwestern Guanacaste province began returning yesterday to their homes after heavy rain from Tropical Storm Hanna sideswiped the Pacific coast last week, flooding hundreds of houses and forcing more than 2,000 people into emergency shelters.

Nearly 1,400 people remained in shelters as of yesterday afternoon, according to the National Emergency Commission (CNE), which is helping to provide medical care and food to the storm's victims.

The U.S. government is donating $40,000 to cover the cost of helicopters hired to reach communities left isolated by flooding and road damage, a U.S. Embassy press release said Friday.

Emergency workers managed to reach the town of Miramar in the Puntarenas province, where 35 families were cut off when their main road caved in, according CNE spokeswoman Rebeca Madrigal.

The commission counted 21 bridges, five aqueducts and 34 roads in a preliminary assessment of the damage. A total of 127 towns and villages in Guanacaste and Puntarenas were affected. The commission is keeping up the alerts it issued Thursday for those provinces, Madrigal said.

Responding to an order from the Supreme Court, Costa Rican Finance Minister Guillermo Zúñiga has released new details on the sale of state bonds to China.

China bought $150 million in Costa Rican bonds Jan. 23, to be repaid over 12 years at 2 percent interest, Zúñiga announced last week. China is set to buy another $150 million in bonds next year, according to a previous statement by President Oscar Arias.

By borrowing at that low interest rate, Costa Rica will save ¢50 billion (about $90.9 million) over 12 years, Zúñiga said.

For months, the press and opposition politicians have criticized the Arias administration for keeping the bonds sale secret. Responding to a legal challenge by the daily La Nación, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) ordered Zúñiga to release details on the purchase.

Other information revealed by La Nación has further infuriated opposition leaders. The bond purchase is being overseen by the local bank BCT, founded by the Costa Rican ambassador to China, Antonio Burgués. Burgués is also a shareholder and member of the bank's board of directors.

While Zúñiga has called the link a “coincidence,” the opposition Citizen Action Party (PAC) is clamoring for Burgués to step down.

“Once again, a government official has used his post for personal benefit,” PAC lawmaker Francisco Molina said in a statement.

The Costa Rican national soccer team scored seven times Saturday at its home Ricardo Saprissa Stadium to beat a scoreless Surinam and clinch control of Group C in the World Cup qualifying games.

Froylán Ledezma led the charge with two goals in the first half.

Other scores came from the feet of Alejandro Alpízar, Armando Alonso, Celso Borges, Alonso Solís and Bryan Ruiz.

The Sele is set, hurricanes permitting, to travel to Haiti for a match Wednesday.

All over Costa Rica, people are on the move. They're spinning, running, swimming, walking with dogs, walking without dogs, playing tennis, soccer, béisbol and more. People of all ages are becoming health-conscious and keeping fit as well as getting “unstressed.”

The polideportivo in Alajuela, northwest of San José, is just one of the sport complexes set up by different levels of government to add vim, vigor and fun to our lives. This one, located in Monserrat, an area behind the Mall Internacional, was built in 1987 for the national games held there that year. After the games ended, the playing fields, track, gymnasium and Olympic-size pool remained. The complex is now run by the Alajuela Municipality.

Movin': Rosa Isela Salazar, right, leads an outdoor aerobics class at the Alajuela polideportivo.

Mitzi Stark | Tico Times

All cantons have sport and recreation committees. Some are more elaborate and some are bare basics, depending on the whims and purses of the committees. Alajuelans are lucky; the Ciruelas River and an avenue of trees on one border make their polideportivo cool and attractive.

The boulevard in front of the gym is for walking, pushing baby strollers, running, exercising dogs, biking, skateboarding and even wheelchair experts doing wheelies. On weekends, families ride bikes together, skate, walk around the perimeter and watch the more daring do tricks on skateboards in the concrete bowl. It's a comfortable and safe place to bring the kids with their scooters, bikes or skates. There is also a play area especially for children.

Also on weekends, sport teams, soccer, speed skating, track and baseball get going, and there are benches for those whose sport activity consists of watching.

But it's inside the gym that we see real action. Weekday mornings from 8 to 9 a.m., Rosa Isela Salazar leads a group of up to 60 people in aerobics. They are all ages and all sizes, mostly women, but a handful of men come regularly.

“Whoever comes joins in,” says Salazar, a certified aerobics teacher.

It's totally free and there are no fancy clothes or tools for this sport, just “tennis shoes and comfortable clothes,” she adds.

A few come in snazzy, matching spandex outfits that stretch with the vigorous movements and are certainly becoming, but anything apart from tight jeans will do.

It's not easy coordinating arms and legs with the rapid salsa, cumbia or merengue music. Just when you think you've got it together, Salazar calls out “avance,” and everyone marches forward and out of step until she calls “atrás.” It's a wonder no one gets kicked or tangled up.

Aerobics classes are free. Some people come every day, others when they can.

Swimming in the 50-meter-long pool is inside lanes in one-hour sessions. Trainers are there to give pointers or to teach swimming lessons. A monthly fee of ¢4,000 ($7.30) covers twice-a-week swims; ¢6,000 ($11) a month gets you four times a week.

Sometimes sports centers host special events, such as the international chess tournament held at the Alajuela polideportivo in July. Chess is a sport in Latin America, and this tournament drew players from 17 countries, topnotchers from Europe, the United States, South America, Cuba and Israel. Chess is by far the quietest sport, even with 240 participants ranging in age from 6 to 83; they're all concentrating on their next moves and nobody dares to talk, whistle or even crunch food.

Polideportivos give athletes a place to train and compete, on the track or in the ring, pool or field. At Monserrat, all activities are free except for swimming and classes.

There are sport installations and polideportivos throughout the country. The Palacio de Deportes in Heredia, north of San José, is right next to the soccer stadium. Around the Central Valley, Santo Domingo, San Antonio de Belén, Parque de la Paz and La Sabana Park have polideportivos, as do Cartago, east of the capital, the Southern Zone's Pérez Zeledón, and Cañas, in the northwestern Guanacaste province.

To find out about sports programs near your home or place of work, contact your municipality.