Salvadoran scope
The San José Alliance Française is showcasing photographs by the French ambassador to El Salvador, Francis Roudière, of his adopted home in an exhibit entitled “Mirando desde afuera” (Looking from Outside), through May 15, at the Alliance in Barrio Amón, www.afsj.net.

Art and Life Week – Women in C.R.
Fashion show, tonight at 7 p.m.; poetry recital, tomorrow at 7 p.m.; dance, theater, Thursday at 7 p.m.; concert by Guadalupe Urbina, Chiny, María Pretiz, MAF, Friday at 7 p.m., Spanish Cultural Center.

Newcomers Club luncheon
At 11:30 a.m., Club Campestre Español Restaurant, San Antonio de Belén, 2249-2673, casafloradora1@yahoo.com.

Nicaraguan taxi and bus drivers that transport an estimated 1.5 million people a day went on strike yesterday saying they won't start up their engines again until the government sits down to negotiate a solution to skyrocketing gas prices, the highest in Central America.

Trucks drivers were also on strike, paralyzing the economy.

The strike comes as international crude oil prices topped a record $120 a barrel this week.

“There's been no response from the president of the republic to end the strike,” said Vidal Almendárez, president of the Federation of Taxi Drivers. “There have been attempts to negotiate locally, but we're telling them negotiations have to happen here in the capital.”

The federation, which represents an estimated 15,000 taxi drivers nationwide, began the strike along with the National Transportation Coordinator and the Interurban Transportation Directorate yesterday, which represent regional bus drivers.

The only bus drivers that have kept the motors running were those on urban Managua routes, which receive a subsidized gas price that is about half the market price for gas in Nicaragua, which was more than 90 córdobas a gallon this week ($4.70).

Almendárez said the rest of the country's bus and taxi drivers want a deal similar to Managua buses, and want the government to sit down with driver union leaders to find a solution.

The government says it has offered to sell the cooperatives gasoline at cost – for a savings of roughly 6 córdobas ($0.30) less. But as of 6 p.m. yesterday evening, no agreement had been reached.

“We seek an alternative in which the price of gasoline is frozen so we can have a reasonable price for users. People aren't able to pay these prices,” Almendárez told The Nica Times.

For the second time this year, Costa Rica's Central Bank escaped binging on dollars in the exchange market, according to information released by the finance company Aldesa.

The financial institution has been forced most weeks to absorb dollars, preventing the colón from bouncing below the established lower exchange limit.

A flood of dollars in the Costa Rican market pushes up the value of the colón, something the Central Bank tries to control by purchasing those dollars and issuing colones.

That action, however, tends to increase inflation – something the Central Bank has committed to controlling for 2008 – fueling speculation that the bank will choose to lower the bottom limit on the exchange rate instead.

In 2008 alone, the Central Bank has purchased $1 billion off the exchange market. That marks a steep increase over 2007, when it bought roughly $1.4 billion the entire year.

Playa Tamarindo, a tourist hotspot on Costa Rica's northwestern Guanacaste coast, has lifeguards again after a shortage of funds last August washed up the beach's life-saving program.

Three trained lifeguards are keeping watch in separate towers every day, according to the Guanacaste Tourism Chamber (CATURGUA), thanks to a fund-raising and awareness campaign by concerned Tamarindo residents.

Spearheaded by sisters-in-law Ann and Cheryl McKillican, with the support of the Tamarindo Improvement Association, residents and businesses are contributing $2,500 a month to keep the program afloat.

The service is vital for a beach that on a given day can see as many as 100 surfers, said Giancarlo Pucci, of the recently constituted Playa Tamarindo Tourism Commission, according to a CATURGUA press release.

“What's more, it must be stressed that these lifeguards are equipped with necessary buoys, ropes, boards and binoculars, among other equipment,” Pucci said.

Tamarindo's reputation as a fun beach increasingly popular with North Americans has been marred by recent drownings including that of U.S. tourist Matt McParland, 42, whose fatal swimming accident in January may have been prevented, witnesses told The Tico Times, if lifeguards and adequate life-saving equipment were at hand.

The lifeguards came with a string of good news touted by the beach town to fight the flawed image – overbuilding, dubious water quality and safety – of a locale Forbes magazine calls Costa Rica's “most popular beach.” Developments there have included the formation of the new tourism commission, which is a CATURGUA offshoot, and projects ranging from rebuilding roads to recycling to a new police station.