Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, July 26, 2005
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Authorities Find Missing Bodies
Of Child Plane Crash Victims
Concluding an eight-day search on land and over water, Red Cross officials found the bodies of the two children who died in a plane crash off the Pacific coast last week. Exhausted and operating on a dwindling budget, searchers temporarily stopped the search July 20 (TT, July 22), but were bolstered by a donation from the family of the victims, who rented a helicopter for the search over the weekend.
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Welcoming Guanacaste to the
Club Once More, 181 Years Later
Businesses shut their doors, parades and celebrations hearkening back to pre-blue jeans days congested streets in northern Pacific towns, and President Abel Pacheco promised to build a museum in honor of the day the country was celebrating: July 25, 1824, when the northwestern province of Guanacaste voted to go Tico. Yesterday was the 181 st anniversary of the decision, and, as in years past, it was a national holiday, a time to remember when those golden beaches and cowboy towns were not always within Costa Rica 's border.
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Poindexters Play at War
In Alajuela
Five chess grand masters have competed in the Alajuela Open International 2005, going on through tomorrow in Alajuela, northwest of San José. One of the favorites, the Israeli Victor Mikhalevski – ranked 216 th in the world – was defeated by the lower-ranked Honduran Ricardo Urbina and the young Costa Rican Carlos Alfaro.
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July 26
Classes for Relatives of Senior Citizens and Disabled People
The University of Costa Rica (UCR) is offering workshops on preventing domestic violence against disabled people. The registration period is July 26-Aug. 10, 1:30-4 p.m., in front of the main office of the School of Medicine, San Pedro campus. Registration for classes in quality of life improvement for elderly citizens is on the same date but from 9-11:30 a.m., at the campus in San Ramón, Alajuela.
Getting Ready for a Tsunami
The Hotel Marriot Los Sueños, in Herradura Beach, Puntarenas, the Geophysics Investigation Center and the Seismology National Network are offering a workshop for residents of Garabito, Puntarenas, and the hotel staff on preparing for a tsunami. It includes a simulation and takes place today and tomorrow at the hotel.
Speakers Forum, “Understanding Politics in Costa Rica ”
A talk, in English, by Robert Nahrgang, at 7 p.m., Big Mike's, Escazú. Info: 289-6333, 821-4708 or Big Mike's, 289-6087.
By Robert Goodier
Tico Times Staff
rgoodier@ticotimes.net
Authorities Find Missing Bodies
Of Child Plane Crash Victims
Concluding an eight-day search on land and over water, Red Cross officials found the bodies of the two children who died in a plane crash off the Pacific coast last week. Exhausted and operating on a dwindling budget, searchers temporarily stopped the search July 20 (TT, July 22), but were bolstered by a donation from the family of the victims, who rented a helicopter for the search over the weekend.
On Sunday, the bodies were found in the water near the site of the crash, between the islands of Cuita and Sombrero, the Red Cross reported.
The children, U.S. citizens Connor Kells, 7 and Jack Ruetz, 9, were among three children and a total of six victims of the accident. The plane, a Pilatus Porter PC-6, capable of landing on land or on water, took off from the Tamarindo Airport in the northern Pacific province of Guanacaste and crashed into the ocean 1.5 miles from shore on July 16. Authorities have yet to rule on the cause of the accident, but speculate that it was brought about by a mechanical failure.
An average of 15 trained Red Cross volunteers searched daily for the missing children after divers with private companies and fishermen pulled the first bodies from the wreckage of the plane, over 100 feet below water. The Beach Times, an English-language weekly that covers the region, called the divers the “unsung heroes” of the rescue mission, reporting that the “lion's share” of the work fell on the shoulders of sports fishermen, private boat owners and diving companies.
The other four victims, also U.S. citizens, were the plane's owner, Greg Gund, 32; Cindy Ruetz, 42, mother of Jack and Justin, 9, who also died in the crash; and Paul Kells, 53, Connor's father. The Ruetz family lives in Playa Flamingo, Gund lived in Playa Negra, and the Kells family was visiting from Manhattan Beach, California, according to the weekly.
Welcoming Guanacaste to the
Club Once More, 181 Years Later
Robert Goodier
Tico Times Staff
rgoodier@ticotimes.net
Businesses shut their doors, parades and celebrations hearkening back to pre-blue jeans days congested streets in northern Pacific towns, and President Abel Pacheco promised to build a museum in honor of the day the country was celebrating: July 25, 1824, when the northwestern province of Guanacaste voted to go Tico. Yesterday was the 181 st anniversary of the decision, and, as in years past, it was a national holiday, a time to remember when those golden beaches and cowboy towns were not always within Costa Rica 's border.
The province that was not always a province, which commemorates the decision in its coat of arms, reading “ de la patria por nuestra voluntad " – “of the homeland by our own will” – has become one of the country's primary claims to a distinct culture. The region has a veritable monopoly on Costa Rican traditions, dance, costume and color of many kinds, placing it among the regions that carry the country's cultural banner.
To further entrench this notion, Pacheco traveled to Nicoya, a city on the Pacific coast peninsula of the same name, to announce the imminent construction of the Guanacaste Museum, wire service EFE reported. According to the decree he signed yesterday, the museum will foment the “research, promotion, publicity and conservation of the province's cultural and natural heritage,” in the hopes of “stimulating its people's regional identity.”
Echoing Pacheco's sentiment, legislator Ligia Zúñiga, from Guanacaste, said the “recognition of its (Guanacaste's) value is fundamental, above all at times in which the rescue of our history and culture is indispensable to light our paths in making big decisions as a society and to successfully confront the challenges with which a globalized world presents us.”
According to a statement from her office, she went so far as to call the day of her province's annexation “the most important contribution that Costa Rica has ever received to date, not only in territory, but also in natural and cultural treasures. The annexation has meant a commitment of labor, loyalty and honor from people who, by their own will, decided to live as Costa Ricans.”
Poindexters Play at War
In Alajuela
Five chess grand masters have competed in the Alajuela Open International 2005, going on through tomorrow in Alajuela, northwest of San José. One of the favorites, the Israeli Victor Mikhalevski – ranked 216 th in the world – was defeated by the lower-ranked Honduran Ricardo Urbina and the young Costa Rican Carlos Alfaro.
Costa Rican Alejandro Ramírez, ranked 181st in the world, was in third place in the competition yesterday. He is also one of the five participating grand masters; the others are Neuris Delgado, from Cuba, Varuzhan Akobian, from the United States, and Alonso Zapata, from Colombia.
Twelve countries sent a total of 170 players to the championship, including Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, the United States, Honduras, Israel, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and Costa Rica.
-ACAN-EFE
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