CowParade Inauguration
Life-size cows designed by Costa Rican artists, 9:30 a.m., Parque Central. Calle 0, Av. 6 to Av. 2.

Rey Ruiz in Concert
Salsa, Fiesta Casino, Alajuela, 8 p.m. 

Soul and ‘new-soul' at Jazz Cafés
Soul/R&B singer Sasha Campbell at Jazz Café, San Pedro, 10 p.m.; Robert Aguilar & The Neotics at Escazú, 10 p.m., http://jazzcafecostarica.com.

Eight beaches this week were defrocked of their Blue Flag designation, which certifies them safe for human use and rates the level of contamination with a star system.

Seven Pacific coast beaches in the Guanacaste and Puntarenas provinces that lost their Blue Flag honors were Arenilla, Ocotal, Tamarindo, Manzanillo, Agujas, Pelada de Nosara and Dominical.

On the Caribbean side, just one beach, Playa Negra in Puerto Viejo, lost the designation.

Tamarindo's beach did not regain certification, even though Mayor Jorge Chavarría said February tests he ordered showed the beach was much better than August 2007 tests conducted by the National Water and Sewer Institute.

The August test results led to the beach losing its designation and a wave of inspections by the Health Ministry that resulted in 65 sewage citations and 11 business closures.

Blue Flag Director Darner Mora could not be reached for comment.

The daily La Nación reported Tamarindo received the worst rating from the Blue Flag program, which is run out of the National Water Laboratory, because of fecal contamination.

Manzanillo beach, which is directly in front of the troubled but recently reopened Hotel Allegro Papagayo, also lost its designation, allegedly because of contamination caused by the hotel.

The Costa Rican Blue Flag program started in 1996 is unrelated to the international program of the same name.

Monteverde has already kicked off its annual extravaganza for non-commercial, homegrown music, but there are still plenty of shows remaining in the varied program to choose from.

In an immaculate cloud forest preserve in Costa Rica's north-central Tilarán Mountains, the Monteverde Music Fest of weekend concerts serves to “promote and stimulate the national music scene” according to Patricia Maynard, the event's organizer.

Maynard, also a music producer, said the lineup crosses genres, from rock to reggae to Celtic and flamenco, all Costa Rican and most not heard on the radio.

The 15-year-old festival is also bidding to give a boost to the Tico audience with lower-priced tickets, at ¢2,000 (about $4), for Costa Rican nationals, and $10 for foreign visitors.

The group Soloflamenco is set to give an open-air show Friday at Green Park, after the previously scheduled group, Native Culture, canceled. Then come Celtic players Peregrino Gris on Saturday at the Anfiteatro, which Maynard said is a partially covered venue. Both shows start at 7 p.m.

Electronic-world music duo Santos y Surdo play at Green Park on Sunday.

Maynard also said the April 4 show by Evolución, “one of (Costa Rica's) most popular rock bands,” and the April 5 concert by Parque en el Espacio, “a trip rock” band that is one of her favorites, are not to be missed.

The festival comes to a close April 6 with concerts by Cantoamerica and Sonambulo.

For more information, call 2645 5926.

Baseball hall-of-famer Rod Carew is set to visit Nicaragua next month to show Nica ballplayers a thing or two after a stellar 18-year career in the majors, the Managua daily La Prensa reports.

The Panama-born, New York-raised former infielder will give a week of workshops and conferences starting April 21. His stop-offs will include the American College and the Denis Martínez National Stadium in Managua and Roberto Clemente Stadium in Masaya in a visit organized by the U.S. Embassy and Major League Baseball.

Born Rodney Cline Carew, he honed a relaxed crouched stance and batted his way to seven titles, surpassed only by Ty Cobb, Tony Gwynn and Honus Wagner, according to the Web site for the National Baseball Hall of Fame (which inducted him 1991).

Carew, 62, won Rookie of the Year when he started out with the Minnesota Twins in 1967 and won the American League Most Valuable Player award 10 years later. Debuting at second base, he went on to switch to first base in 1975. Four years later he was traded to the California Angels, where he played until 1985. Carew had a lifetime batting average of .325.

Apart from his fame in the United States, Carew is a national hero in his home country of Panama, which renamed its national stadium Rod Carew Stadium in 2004.