The payment of mandatory annual Christmas bonuses, or aguinaldos – a Costa Rican December tradition right up there with tamales and La Noche Buena – has begun, creating a cash craze evident yesterday in long lines at automatic teller machines and packed stores.

By law, all employees in Costa Rica are due an aguinaldo, which is calculated by dividing the employee's total yearly income by 12, Labor Ministry spokesman Geovanny Díaz explained.

Some public employers began paying the bonuses at the beginning of the month, and all ministries paid their employees' aguinaldos Wednesday, Díaz said. Private employers have until Dec. 20 to pay the bonus or face penalties.

Many flocked to ATMs Wednesday and yesterday to withdraw their cash, a trend the Public Security Ministry says it prepared for by stationing extra police in the streets and warning citizens to watch out for theft.

“As part of our end-of-the-year operative, we've given a lot of advice about how people can take care of their money,” said Public Security Ministry spokeswoman Ingrid Luna.

The ministry's recommendations include not going to the ATM alone, only carrying the amount of cash one plans to spend that day and remaining cautious while carrying shopping bags.

Private employees with questions about their aguinaldo can call a hotline set up by the Labor Ministry, 800-TRABAJO. Public employees should consult their office's human resources department with questions or concerns, Díaz said.

Two-thirds of Costa Rica's 4,500 kilometers of roads are in bad or “regular” shape, according to a study presented yesterday by the University of Costa Rica (UCR) in the eastern suburb of San Pedro.

The study, carried out by the university's nonprofit National Laboratory of Structural Materials and Models (Lanamme), found that during the past two years, road infrastructure has not shown any improvement; on the contrary, 2.5% of the country's roads have deteriorated so much they are now unusable.

Engineer German Valverde explained at a press conference that 32.7% of the nation's roads, spanning 1,474 kilometers, are full of potholes, making them difficult to traverse.

Another 32.6% are in “regular” condition,” while only 32.1% are in “good” shape, meaning they can be driven on comfortably. Meanwhile, 114 kilometers, or 2.5% of the country's roads, are so damaged they could not be studied.

Lanamme also evaluated the structure of highways that support trucks carrying heavy loads. It found that 33.9% were in bad shape, 51.8% were in regular shape and 11.6% were in good shape.

Vice-Minister of Public Works and Transport Pedro Castro said the government is aware of the severity of the country's road woes, and has doubled the budget for road maintenance and reconstruction from $70 million to $140 million for 2007.

According to Castro, $70-$80 million of these funds will go toward road maintenance, while the rest will pay for highway repairs.

-ACAN-EFE

Ramón, the star penguin in this year's Antarctic movie, “Happy Feet,” will bring the world a touch of Costa Rican Spanish as he teaches another animated penguin to woo the ladies through rap music.

But where did Ramón, in the voice of Robin Williams, learn the styles of Latino rap? He learned from Paco, the Costa Rican hip-hop and reggaeton artist now living in Los Angeles.

“It was incredible, and educational,” Paco told The Tico Times in a telephone interview. He said working with Robin Williams changed his life.

In brief synopsis of the film, complete with musical interludes, Paco explained how a penguin named Mumble (Elijah Wood) didn't know how to sing, but was a great tap dancer. He went on a journey and fell in with some adelie penguins, who happened to be Latinos, who happened to rap. Ramón taught Mumble to rap, and Mumble showed his new friends how to tap dance.

After its second weekend in U.S. theatres, the George Miller film hit $100 million in ticket sales, holding position number one against James Bond in the season's second-place flick “Casino Royale.”

Paco, also known as Francisco Jiménez García, led the Costa Rican Reggaeton group Ragga by Roots from 1991 to 1999, before moving to the United States to continue his career in rap music and Spanish voice-overs for large corporations.

“Happy Feet” in Costa Rican theaters today.

See next Friday's print or pdf edition of The Tico Times for more on this story.