Hoping for a Bite: A couple of fishermen tried their luck Saturday in Montezuma, on the Pacific Nicoya Peninsula.

Inflation for the month of October registered 0.57%, slightly lower than in the previous month. But that's not low enough.

“A Dream Is a Wish in Your Heart”
Show by dancers 3-9 years old, today and tomorrow, 4 p.m., National Auditorium, inside National Children's Museum; also Nov. 11, 11 a.m., Eugene O'Neill Theater, Costa Rican-North American Cultural Center, Barrio Dent, San José. Info: 207-7554.

“Somos como Somos” Folk Dance and Song Festival
7 p.m., Melico Salazar Theater, Calle Ctrl., Ave. 2, San José.

By Blake Schmidt
Tico Times Staff | bschmidt@ticotimes.net

An English teacher and a yoga instructor from the United States yesterday said they are frustrated with the way Costa Rican authorities handled the robbery of their car Saturday while they were headed for an afternoon dip in the ocean at Playa Hermosa, on the central Pacific coast.

Though the two reclaimed only some of their belongings and ended up missing about $400 cash, the Public Security Ministry reported Sunday that Tourism Police recovered $10,300 belonging to Grace.

U.S. citizen Phil Hemion -- a teacher and resident of Heredia, north of San José -- said he and his friend Melissa Grace, a resident of the central Pacific beach town of Jacó and yoga instructor, looked on helplessly from the beach Saturday while three suspects in a Geo Tracker broke into their car with a screwdriver and took Grace's bag full of cash, jewelry and other valuable items, as well as some clothing.

Hemion and Grace called the police, who said they had already stopped the car in Jacó because of previous reports that it had been used in suspicious activity.

“There are a number of organized gangs operating throughout the country, and we had identified this as a car previously involved in illicit activity,” said Tourism Police Director Katia Chavarría.

Police searched the car and allowed Hemion and Grace to look through it until they found all the stolen items with the exception of a ring, a cell phone chip and about $400 cash, Grace said, adding that police did not handcuff the suspects and allowed them to rummage around the car while they were searching.

“Police would not search the car again to find the remaining items,” Hemion said. The three suspects – two of them Colombians with refugee status identified by the last names Cortés, 67, and Castaño, 30, and the third a Costa Rican, identified as Cordero, 21 – were detained overnight and released the next day.

Chavarría said she didn't know who filed the report saying police found $10,300 belonging to Grace, but that it was false.

Chavarría said the case is now in the hands of the Garabito prosecutor's office.

Finding ways to decrease violence is among the topics President Oscar Arias and his counterparts plan to discuss at the Summit of Latin American-Iberian Heads of State to be held Thursday through Saturday in Santiago, Chile.

Arias hopes to open a dialogue about security, environmental protection and peace, according to a statement from Casa Presidencial.

The President believes “violence in the region is at worrisome levels that require the strengthening of prevention and control strategies to achieve better levels of citizen security,” the statement said.

During his three days there, Arias plans to meet with King Juan Carlos I of Spain, Spanish President José Luis Rodríguez, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and Mexican President Felipe Calderón.

-Tico Times

Inflation for the month of October registered 0.57%, slightly lower than in the previous month. But that's not low enough.

With 7.65% accumulated inflation for the year, Central Bank President Francisco de Paula Gutiérrez has said that the bank will probably not meet its goal of annual inflation below 8%.

In a speech before the Chamber of Banks, Gutiérrez blamed high food and fuel prices – mostly on imports – for the missed goal, according to the daily La Nación.

“These factors are exogenous to monetary policy, where the Central Bank can't do anything,” Guitérrez said.

Inter-annual inflation (that is, inflation accumulated during the last 12-month period) has reached 9.84%.