They seemed content to exchange their weapons for cars.

Christmas Workshops
For kids 3-10, making menorahs and Christmas trees with LEGO, learning about Hanukkah and Christmas through stories, cooking and more, through Thursday, Centro Desarrollando Mentes, 50 m north and 50 m west of the Costa Rica Country Club, Escazú. Info: 289-4586, 814-6000.

Sonsax in Concert
Traditional Christmas carols, through Thursday, National Auditorium, Children's Museum, end Calle 4.

By Alex Leff
Tico Times Staff | aleff@ticotimes.net

One would never have guessed that the float to steal the show at San José's Saturday night Christmas parade would be Chinese.

But indeed, the Chinese entourage took center stage when it ploughed through the Costa Rican Festival of Lights. Many spectators' jaws dropped while the glowing red and gold dragon float and human-controlled serpentine creatures slithered by, almost like a Chinese New Year's celebration. The troop won the top prizes for “brightest” and “most original” float, with 9.3 points out of 10.

On the Chinese float were the words Viva la Amistad China-Costa Rica, or “Long Live Chinese-Costa Rican Friendship,” reminding native festival-goers of their government's historic crossover in June, which ended diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favor of bridge-building with the China (TT, June 8).

However, San José's 11 th Festival of Lights once again showed that the Ticos, too, can put on an impressive Christmas street party, with 15 floats and almost as many marching bands crawling along Paseo Colón and Avenida Segunda at blaring decibels, but slug-like tempos.

Equally impressive was the Costa Ricans' stamina. Many families showed up in the morning to hold a spot close to the roped-off street parade. The parade finally started at 6:20 p.m. in a spat of rain and amid some 1,500 police, Red Cross and other security workers. The tail end was still trucking along at midnight.

Highlights included the bands' skillful drumming with twirling sticks, and horn sections that blasted songs ranging from traditional Christmas fare to U.S. band Black Eyed Peas' hip-hop craze “Don't Phunk with My Heart.” Also in gringo fashion, several cheerleading squads strutted top-notch acrobatics, and floats by Coca Cola and MasterCard led the league of corporate sponsors on display.

Judges gave the float driven by Canadian bank Scotiabank the top score of 8.9 points for its children's entertainment factor.

Deserving of another prize, perhaps, were those charged with the thankless task of cleaning up the mounds of rain-soaked trash left in the street by revelers.

Costa Rica is set to host the next meeting of the International Task Force on Sustainable Tourism Development in February.

In an interview printed in this week's print edition of The Tico Times, Claire Hughes, a British Embassy adviser hired to assess Costa Rica's Peace with Nature initiative, points to tourism's potential for destruction, saying, “People come in, make their money, build their hotels and condos, then they're gone, on to the next place. What is Costa Rica left with?”

Participating countries including Australia, France, Germany, the United States and Great Britain have engaged in an almost two-year-old task force working on ways to prevent further ruin from tourism, whether culturally, economically or environmentally.

“I'm sure that it will be a fruitful meeting,” Costa Rican Tourism Minister Carlos Benavidas told reporters.

He boasted Costa Rica's green practices and efforts toward sustainable development, which have helped lead the country to become a premier destination for ecotourism.

“Tourism policies should foster an equal distribution of resources,” he said.

Benavidas also pointed to the country's goals to slash its greenhouse gas emissions, as President Oscar Arias declared in June, “By 2021, Costa Rica's 200 th birthday, we will be a carbon neutral country.” That implies the tourism sector, too, Benavidas said.

“Costa Rica is a country with one of the highest levels of biodiversity in the world,” said Benavidas, but it also faces the problem of climate change, “a serious challenge for humanity.”

-EFE

They seemed content to exchange their weapons for cars.

No, it was not some bizarre anecdote from a U.N. disarmament project. These were Costa Rican children exchanging toy guns and other children's gifts seen as promoting violence for more playful, peaceful Christmas gifts, such as toy cars, soccer balls or dolls.

The exchange was part of a campaign called “Peace, a treasure for humanity,” started Friday at the National Children's Hospital in San José, the daily Diario Extra reported.

Legislator Alexánder Mora, one of the leading voices behind the campaign, has also been trying to push forward bill that would regulate the sale of toys that mock guns and other weapons.

The next “farewell to arms” will take place Dec. 22 in the Southern Zone canton of Pérez Zeledón, and will be carried out every three months in a different part of the country, the organizers said.