Soaking Up Sun: This painting entitled “Tomando el Sol,” by Nicaraguan artist Leonidas Correa is on display at the Spanish Culture Center as part of an exhibit this month with works from immigrant artists in Costa Rica.

Parts of the western San José suburb of Escazú will be without power today as the National Power and Light Company (CNFL) does maintenance and installation work, according to the daily La Nación.

Mundoloco Concerts
Featuring Peregrino Gris, Celtic music, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, San Pedro. Info: 253-8933.

Jazz Concerts
With New York University (NYU) artists, 7 p.m., Teatro Bellas Artes. Also, musicians from the University of North Texas (UNT) perform, 8 p.m., Eugene O'Neill Theater, Bario Dent, San José.

The U.S. company Revolution Places LLC has plans to invest $800 million to build a luxury resort in the northwestern Guanacaste province, according to a statement released Friday by Casa Presidencial.

Steve Case, co-founder of the Internet company America Online and owner of Revolution Places, announced this ambitious project alongside President Oscar Arias during a press conference Friday.

Case said the project aims to be both luxurious and environmentally sustainable and is likely to open in 2010.

“We're bringing together the best of the best to create an experience for owners and guests like none other in the world,” he said. “It's important that we preserve the environment and local culture when we develop projects,” such as this one, to be built on 263 hectares at Punto Cacique, between Playa Hermosa and Playas del Coco in northern Guanacaste, the statement said.

The resort, to be called Revolution Place, is expected to provide jobs to 2,500 Costa Ricans, from construction workers to managers.

It is also expected to generate $20 million in taxes yearly, which “will be used by the government and even nearby municipalities to improve living conditions for locals,” the statement said.

Arias applauded the project as the type of foreign direct investment he says is key to Costa Rica's development and also touched on the importance of taking the environment into consideration.

“We ask that companies who come to sit on our soil, particularly tourism companies, respect the environment and comply with all legal requirements. This... works two ways: it benefits the Costa Rican population and it benefits foreign tourists,” Arias said.

Some environmentalists are looking skeptically upon Case's and Arias' promises.

Case's words are often spoken by developers of tourism mega-projects that end up harming Guanacaste's environment, Juan Figuerola -- of the Costa Rican Federation for Environmental Conservation (FECON), an umbrella group for more than 30 environmental groups around the country – told the daily La Nación.

-Tico Times

Police have broken up what they believe to be a central operations base for drug traffickers moving their cargo through Costa Rica. Several operations led to the discovery of an alleged central hub in Portalón, near the central Pacific city of Quepos, yesterday, according to a statement from the Public Security Ministry.

This supposed “operations base” has several tents, storing 150 quarts of oil as well as 600 gallons of gasoline, hidden in a mangrove area. Officers aboard a small police plane observed the tents from overhead, and their co-workers on the ground raided the site, seizing two boats they believe were used by drug traffickers to deliver gasoline to drug-carrying ships at high sea making their way to North America.

Police continue to search the area using drug-sniffing dogs and are searching for two additional suspicious boats area residents reported seeing in the waters.

-Tico Times

Parts of the western San José suburb of Escazú will be without power today as the National Power and Light Company (CNFL) does maintenance and installation work, according to the daily La Nación.

Much of San Rafael and the center of Escazú will be without power from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Areas affected include the stretch between the Paco commercial center and the National Water and Sewer Institute (AyA) tanks, as well as homes and businesses between the Los Laureles commercial center and the Malinches road.

Bordering areas could also experience brief power outages throughout the day.