Cheers to China: Costa Rican Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno (left), Assistant Chinese Foreign Minister He Yafei and Chinese Trade Minister Ma Xiuhong yesterday celebrated the inauguration of the Chinese Embassy in San José.

About 110 Costa Ricans left yesterday for Caracas, Venezuela, where they will undergo surgeries to repair vision problems including cataracts and pterygium, a fleshy tissue that grows over the cornea, according to a statement from the Venezuelan Embassy in San José.

“Sex and Reproduction” Conference
With Dr. Carl Djerassi, who helped develop the contraceptive pill, 3:30 p.m., Costa Rican Technology Institute gymnasium, Cartago. Info: 233-7701.

National Symphony Orchestra
With pianist Jon Nakamatsu performing works by Castro, Rachmaninoff, Dvorák, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 10:30 a.m., National Theater, San José.

Magic Show
3 p.m., Multiplaza del Este, Curridabat.

Ganassi in Concert
Classical music, 7 p.m., National Theater lobby, San José.

Free Concert
By the San José Band playing the sound tracks of famous movies, 11 a.m., Gold Museum, underneath Plaza de la Cultura, San José. Info: 256-4139.

Activities for Kids
Storytelling, games, 3 p.m., Multiplaza Escazú.

By Gillian Gillers
Tico Times Staff | ggillers@ticotimes.net

The Chinese Embassy opened in the western San José suburb of Rohrmoser today with a flourish after the two countries signed accords on political dialogue, visas and academic exchanges.

“We have been planting this relationship during the last two and a half months,” since the two countries established diplomatic relations June 1 (TT, June 8), said Costa Rican Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno. “After the planting comes the rain, so that we can harvest.”

So far, the fruits of this harvest are three accords, signed yesterday by Stagno, Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister He Yafei and Chinese Ambassador to Costa Rica Wang Xiaoyuan.

The two ministries agreed to maintain “close political dialogue” by meeting every two years. A second accord will allow government officials from each country to visit the other without a visa for 30 days. A third will promote academic cooperation between the Foreign Service Institutes that form part of each ministry.

This afternoon, high-ranking officials from both countries stood in the embassy's well-groomed garden as the Chinese flag was raised to the tune of the Chinese national anthem. At the cocktail party afterward, Stagno and Yafei chatted in English, champagne in hand, about the Costa Rica's must-see volcanoes and rainforests.

By Dave Sherwood
Tico Times Staff | dsherwood@ticotimes.net

A concert tonight at La Sabana Park, near San José, will kick off a national campaign to raise awareness about Isla del Coco – an island national park 365 miles off Costa Rica's Pacific coast that Jacques Cousteau once called “the most beautiful in the world.”

The free concert, which will run from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., will include music by the groups Editus, Baula Project, Cantoamérica and Son de Tikizia.

Spearheaded by the marine environmental group Marviva, as well the Environment and Energy Ministry (MINAE), the nonprofit Conservation International and others, the campaign begins with the concert and will also include TV spots, billboards and advertisements on buses and public transportation over the next three months.

The idea, according to Betsy Murillo of Marviva, is to “generate an emotional tie with the park, so that the people of the country, private businesses and the government commit to protecting it.”

The groups have also enlisted Costa Rican celebrities including astronaut Franklin Chang, Olympic gold-medal winning swimmer Silvia Poll, Saprissa soccer goalie Francisco Porras and others to lend their faces to the campaign.

The goal is to raise awareness and, eventually, funds via donations through the campaign's Web site, www.tuislacoco.com, to assist in research and protection of the national park, which was declared a World Natural Heritage Site by the United Nations in 1997.

About 110 Costa Ricans left yesterday for Caracas, Venezuela, where they will undergo surgeries to repair vision problems including cataracts and pterygium, a fleshy tissue that grows over the cornea, according to a statement from the Venezuelan Embassy in San José.

Miracle Mission is a project of the Bolivian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) that began in 2004 and is led by the governments of Cuba and Venezuela.

This is not the first group of Costa Ricans to participate in Miracle Mission – so far 300 Costa Ricans have benefited.

As part of this “mission,” a team of Venezuelan doctors traveled a few days ago to a rural community in northern Costa Rica, where they pre-examined more than 90 patients who are now scheduled to undergo surgery, the statement said.

Another 160 people interested in taking advantage of the program visited the embassy to get more information.

The program aims to help people with limited economic resources. The Venezuelan government covers all costs involved, including bringing the patients to Venezuela and returning them to Costa Rica, hospitalization, food, surgery and medicines.