Johnny Dixon and Calypso Experience in concert
Caribbean music, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, Escazú, 2288-4740, www.jazzcafecostarica.com.

Jazz jam session
10 p.m., Jazz Café, San Pedro, 2253-8933, www.jazzcafecostarica.com.

If your ship didn't come in this year, don't despair. There's always next year – and tomorrow night might be just the time to practice some of the magical rituals handed down through generations in Costa Rican folklore to give your luck a little boost.

On New Year's Eve, sprinkle a handful of rice in every corner of your house. Next day sweep up all the grains with a new broom and save them in a little bag. The old wives guarantee this will keep food on the table all year.

Wear something yellow and you're bound to meet your true love in the year to come.

If it's travel and adventure you're after, pack a suitcase and leave the house with it at exactly midnight. Walk at least one block to ensure a year full of travels.

To guarantee money all year, Ticos used to ask 13 different friends for cincos (five-céntimo coins) before midnight Dec. 31. The tiny coins are virtually extinct now, but the tradition lives on using five-colón coins.

See the latest print or digital edition of The Tico Times for more Costa Rican New Year's superstitions.

Southern Costa Rica is set for smoother driving after the Osa municipal government announced it will spend ¢862 million (more than $1.6 million) on road work in the area.

Plans include paving the roads to develop the area as a prime destination for tourism.

Smoother roads are expected to bring tourists to such southern Costa Rican spots as Ojo de Agua de Barrio Canadá, Los Angeles de Piedras Blancas, San Josecito de Bahía Ballena, Palmar Norte and Tres Ríos de Ciudad Cortés.

Nicaragua has injected two banks with almost $5.87 million to boost their credit line.

The Central Bank announced in a statement that it paid $4.9 million to Banco de la Producción and $967,716.96 to Banco de Crédito Centroamericano.

The funds are meant to provide a lift to the banks' negotiable certificates of deposit.

From 2000 to 2003, Nicaragua issued these certificates – known as CDs, or in their Spanish acronym, Cenis – amid the panic from five crashing banks, Banco Sur, Intercontinental Bank, Banco Mercantil, Banco del Café and Banco Nicaragüense de Industria y Comercio.