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| Velvety outside, hard to the core: Andrea Echeverri, front-woman of Colombian rock band Los Aterciopelados – the Velvety Ones – playing her machine-gun-turned guitar November in Bogotá. Echeverri's velveteers perform Friday night in Palmares, one of the hot tickets of the coffee town's big fiesta that runs through the weekend. |
| Ronald Reyes | Tico Times. |
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| Palmares cranks it up a final notch |
| A Mexican pop singer, Colombian folk rockers and a Mötley Crew-alike glam band are among the troupes to put a finishing crescendo on the mass hysteria that this week has engulfed Palmares. |
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| Forest fires wreak havoc in 2007 |
| Forest fires last year razed 32,400 hectares of Costa Rica's wooded areas – equal to the size of about 8,000 U.S. football fields, the National Forest Fire Commission told the daily La Nación. |
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| English teachers wrap up conference |
| Some 650 English teachers from this country and around the world end a three-day conference today at the Costa Rican-North American Cultural Center. |
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| January 25 |
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Palmares Fiestas
Carnival and concerts by Aleks Syntek and Los Aterciopelados, information at http://fiestaspalmares.com
Trova Concert
Nicaraguan Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy, 7 p.m., Librería Internacional, Multiplaza Escazú
Cuban Salsa
Chocolate play at Jazz Café, San Pedro, 10 p.m., www.jazzcafecostarica.com
National Mule Festival
Tico-style bullfight, Parrita, 7 p.m.
Cultural Activities at the National Games
Including concerts, today through Sunday, Barva, San Joaquín de Flores, Heredia, San Isidro , San Rafael, Santa Barbara , Sarapiquí.
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| January 26 |
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Palmares Fiestas
Concerts by Moderatto and more, http://fiestaspalmares.com .
Songs by Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy
4 p.m., Librería Internacional, Paseo de las Flores Mall, Heredia
Belly Dancing
Cardomomo performs at Jazz Café, 10 p.m., www.jazzcafecostarica.com
Clean Ocean Big Water Paddle Board
10 a.m., Cocles Beach , Limón.
March and Demonstration
2 p.m., Plaza de la Cultura.
National Mule Festival
In Parrita, games for kids throughout the morning; marching bands, 3 p.m.; Tico-style bullfight, 7 p.m.; fireworks, p.m.
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| January 27 |
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Palmares Fiestas
Concert by Moderatto and Enanitos Verdes, starts noon, http://fiestaspalmares.com .
Dog Show
Organized by the Costa Rican Canine Association, Jan. 27, 9:30 a.m., Paseo de las Flores Mall, Heredia.
Still singing, Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy
Sunday, 6 p.m., Terramall, Tres Ríos.
Sunday songwriters
Winston Washington plays at Jazz Café, San Pedro, 10 p.m., www.jazzcafecostarica.com
National Mule Festival
In Parrita, Mexican group Karos y Kalua perform, 3 p.m.; bullfight, 7 p.m.
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Edited By Alex Leff
Tico Times Staff | aleff@ticotimes.net |
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| Palmares cranks it up a final notch |
By Alex Leff
Tico Times Staff | aleff@ticotimes.net |
A Mexican pop singer, Colombian folk rockers and a Mötley Crew-alike glam band are among the troupes to put a finishing crescendo on the mass hysteria that this week has engulfed Palmares.
Over the weekend, the Fiestas de Palmares, an hour-and-a-half bus ride northwest of San José, will rock on.
One musician to set it off tonight at Barra Imperial is star singer and producer Aleks Syntek of Mérida, Mexico, after the fresh release of the single “Intocable,” from the album “Lección de Vuelo.” After a 15-year career, Syntek's fame grew across the Atlantic via a radio-friendly duet with Spanish singer Ana Torroja entitled “Duele el amor.” His other works include film scores and a number of other radio hits.
Also tonight, at the Party Zone venue, is a show by Los Aterciopelados (The Velvety Ones), one of Colombia's internationally best-loved bands. Still riding the wave after their 2006 CD “Oye,” these velveteers bring a tight rock backbone coated with guitar and quasi Latin Joan Baez vocals by Andrea Echeverri (photographed above). Their Web site, www.aterciopelados.com, offers a taste.
Tomorrow at Barra Imperial sees Moderatto, hailing from near Syntek's neck of the woods but with an entirely different sound and look. More in the glam rock vain, this Mexican band is famous for Spanish covers of hits by groups from Led Zeppelin to Joan Jett and The Blackhearts.
Beware, Imperial can cost up to ¢7,000 ($14) to enter. Although admission comes with five beers – expect a raucous crowd – it's little match for Sunday's outdoor show, which will also feature Moderatto, this time, gratis.
Sunday's free lineup also includes Argentine rockers Enanitos Verdes, set to crank out tunes from their latest “La Historia” and the 2006 recording “Pescado Original.”
More information can be found at the festival's Web site http://fiestaspalmares.com.
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| Forest fires wreak havoc in 2007 |
Forest fires last year razed 32,400 hectares of Costa Rica's wooded areas – equal to the size of about 8,000 U.S. football fields, the National Forest Fire Commission told the daily La Nación.
Most of the fires were started by humans, the commission said. Flyaway sparks from blazing sugarcane fields is one example of how forest fires began.
The report cast a shadow over the high praise earlier this week by researchers from the U.S. universities of Yale and Columbia who listed Costa Rica fifth among the 149 countries on their Environmental Performance Index.
The touristy northwest Guanacaste province was hit the hardest by blazes in 2007, where 28,836 hectares burned down, National Fire Management Program Coordinator Luis Diego Román told the daily.
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-Tico Times
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| English teachers wrap up conference |
By Gillian Gillers
Tico Times Staff | ggillers@ticotimes.net
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Some 650 English teachers from this country and around the world end a three-day conference today at the Costa Rican-North American Cultural Center.
The teachers attended workshops on educational tools such as video, software and Feng Shui, as well as speeches by lifelong instructors from England, Panama and Guatemala and a storyteller from the African country of Benin. Teachers paid $50 to attend the conference, whose $35,000 cost was largely shouldered by publishing houses, the U.S. Embassy and the Cultural Center.
As more high-tech companies settle here and English becomes a requisite for jobseekers, teachers are under pressure to hone their craft. President Oscar Arias is expected to announce a long-awaited plan to improve English instruction in early March.
Three regional language advisers who work for the Ministry of Public Education did not want to wait. Drawing from their own wallets, Yasmín Mayorga, Esmeralda Montero and Carmen Jiménez produced CDs and written exercises for instructors in the provinces of Guanacaste, Puntarenas and Alajuela. The project won them a $500 award from the U.S. Embassy, presented yesterday at the conference.
“Our work has been very hard, with the purpose of making teachers' work easier,” Mayorga said.
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