7th International Poetry Festival
Poetry readings 10 a.m., Music Conservatory, Guápiles.

Jacó's first Art Festival
Dance show at 6 p.m., Jacó, lot next to the Red Cross building.

Ancient Tico tunes
Ocarinas and whistles by Proyecto Jirondai and Medieval at Jazz Café, San Pedro, 10 p.m. http://jazzcafecostarica.com.

Freestyling to Beijing : Tico swimmer Mario Montoya at a meeting Friday in which Costa Rican athletes were awarded scholarships to attend the Summer Olympic Games. Montoya is poised to participate in the 200-meter freestyle.

Hannah Rexroth | Tico Times

Six Costa Ricans are headed to Beijing to represent Costa Rica in the Summer Olympics, but other hopefuls could still qualify within the next month, according to the National Olympic Committee (CON).

The athletes represent a wide range of sports. Swimmer Mario Montoya will participate in the 200-meter freestyle, Nery Brenes in the 400-meter dash, Allan Segura in the 20-kilometer walk, Kristopher Moitland in Taekwondo's heavy-weight category, Federico Ramírez in mountain biking and Henry Raabe in road cycling.

The committee estimated that 10 to 12 athletes would qualify for the Beijing Games, which run Aug. 8-24. Other Olympic aspirants could still make the grade over the next month.

Josabeth Azofeifa, chief spokeswoman for CON, said the Pan-American Sports Organization has offered 25 million colones (about $50,000) worth of scholarships to help cover Costa Rican athletes' costs.

But as the athletes are perfect their strokes and buff their running shoes, CON's executive committee is trying to settle internal politics.

Record numbers of newborn leatherback turtles in recent months have been crawling across Junquillal beach on Costa Rica's Pacific coast thanks to a community effort to fend off poachers, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Junquillal is an important leatherback nesting area but is not state-protected as is Playa Grande, the giant migratory turtle's principal Central American nesting zone.

WWF said 886 leatherbacks – baulas in Spanish – have spawned, making the 2007-08 season the most fruitful in years for this six-kilometer-long beach, which is patrolled every night by six young people who form the organization Baula Boys.

This season Junquillal “has probably become the second most important beach for leatherback turtles to nest in Central America, due to not only the number of nests but also the success in the number of birth of young turtles,” Gabriel Francia, coordinator of the WWF's Pacific leatherback turtle conservation project, said in a statement.

During the patrols, from October to March, 24 nests were found and protected, and only one nest was reported sacked.

“We used to take the eggs to eat them. Now we protect them,” said Wilmar Gutiérrez, a proud Baula Boy. “Our dream is to one day see here dozens of turtles laying eggs in one night, and that visitors that come here leave with a good impression of Junquillal.”

The U.S. Embassy in San José will be closed today as the United States observes Memorial Day, which commemorates U.S. men and women who have died during military service.

Families, including those of the more than 4,000 U.S. troops killed in Iraq, will mourn today in a holiday that started after the mid-19th century Civil War to honor fallen soldiers of the Grand Army of the Republic.

The holiday's observers later grew to include families of the country's World War I casualties, and today, the day honors U.S. soldiers who have died in all wars and military missions thereafter.

Memorial Day always falls on the last Monday of May.

For many, it is a long weekend during which to visit a cemetery or war monument, have a picnic or attend sporting events like the Indianapolis 500 auto race, which saw its 92nd running yesterday.

The embassy will reopen tomorrow with normal opening hours, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.