U.S. Expatriates Tax Seminar Panama Costa Rica 2009
Jan. 21, 5:30 p.m., Best Western Irazú, La Uruca; Jan. 23, 4 p.m., Los Sueños Marriott, Playa Herradura, Puntarenas. Reservations at 2643-3058, lawyer@crtitle.com.

Live Concert by Catfight
Rock, Jan. 21 at 9:30 p.m., El Observatorio, Barrio La California, opposite Cine Magaly, 2223-0725.

Ecological Workshops
All ages, “Water, Our Friend,” Jan. 21; “Forest Treasure,” Jan. 22; “Taking Care of the Planet,” Jan. 23; “Medicinal Plants,” Jan. 27; “Learning About Recycling,” Jan. 28; “Making Compost,” Jan. 28; “Farm Animal Care,” Jan. 30, 9 a.m. to 12 noon, Vivero el Río, Paraíso, Cartago. Information at 2574-6041.

A couple minutes past noon Eastern Standard Time yesterday in Washington, D.C., Barack Obama placed his hand on the Bible and was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States of America.

Cheers erupted from the approximately 75 Ticos and U.S. citizens gathered in La Luz Restaurant outside Escazú, where the inauguration was projected on a giant screen.

“Personally, I just felt it was a very terrific moment in our history,” said Timothy Lattimer, regional environmental officer at the U.S. Embassy in San Jos é. “It marks a new beginning, and I think that it sets a great example of how our democracy can renew itself.”

Some grew emotional at the sight of Obama, the nation's first African-American president, assuming its highest office. Obama acknowledged this feat briefly in his inaugural address, noting that a “man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.”

“For me, as an African-American, seeing this opens a world of possibility,” said Gregory Toussaint, from Miami, Florida. “It shatters the highest glass ceiling.”

For many throughout the world, the inauguration also highlighted anticipation for a new era of relations with the United States.

President Oscar Arias told the daily La Nación Monday that the new president must close the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and step up its efforts to bring peace to the Middle East.

For many Ticos, though, yesterday was largely business as usual. While millions around the world sat glued to their television screens to watch the ceremony, San José was much more subdued, with patrons casually glancing at newscasts in sodas over lunch.

“We just have to wait and see if there will be any change,” said Jaqueline Malegro, a waitress at one corner restaurant. “We don't know anything yet.”

Tico Times online editor Alex Leff (aleff@ticotimes.net) contributed to this story. See Friday's print or digital edition of The Tico Times for more coverage of Costa Rican reactions to the U.S. presidential inauguration.

Thirty multinational firms set up new offices in Costa Rica in 2008, bringing $428 million in investment, according to a report issued Monday by the Costa Rican Investment Board (CINDE).

That's an 11 percent increase from money brought in by the 27 firms that opened up shop last year, although slightly more jobs were created in 2007 than in 2008: 6,352 to 6,291.

Over two-thirds, or 21, of the newly installed companies were in the service sector, and five in the medical devices sector.

New North American businesses in the service sector include: Amazon, Lux Red, SP Data, City Business Service, Digital Arbor, Critical Mass, Aniden Interactive, Project Resources Group CR, Resources, Astra Zeneca and Experian. The medical group St. Jude and medical manufacturers Astrolab, Firestone Industrial and Products also came to town.

According to Social Security System (the Caja) records, 6,000 jobs were lost between July and November 2008 alone, including 4,800 in the industrial sector and 1,200 in construction.

But it is unclear if new jobs those offered by the international companies will be filled by those who lost their jobs this year since, said CINDE Director Gabriela Llobet, many companies on the list of newcomers belong to industry subsectors and require “highly specialized” personnel.

When the magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck 10 km east of the Poás Volcano on Jan. 8, at least 23 people were killed, most in landslides. Humans, however, were not the only victims.

Thousands of fish in the nearby Sarapiquí River in north-central Costa Rica were killed when mudslides choked the waterway, turning it to a continuous trough of sludge. Researchers fear that the river's entire fish population may have been wiped out.

“For the Sarapiquí River, the earthquake was a catastrophe,” said Ron Coleman, a U.S. researcher from California State University in Sacramento, in an e-mail to The Tico Times. “As far as we can tell, the mud that went into the river choked all the oxygen out of the water and killed all of the fish and likely much of the other aquatic life.”

While the full picture of damage to infrastructure, homes and citizens in the area hit hardest by the quake is now beginning to come into focus, the environmental consequences are still unclear.

The Environment, Energy and Telecommunications Ministry (MINAET) estimated that a total of 550 square kilometers (212 square miles) of terrain, including waterways, were affected in some way by the earthquake.

Rafael Gutiérrez, the director of the Cordillera Volcánica Central Conservation Area, the MINAET office that oversees state protected lands in the quake area, confirmed Coleman's report from the Sarapiquí River.

“The landslides have caused the accumulation of mud that... blocked oxygenation, and the fish have died in extremely large quantities,” Gutiérrez said.

Coleman, who has been researching freshwater fish in the region for 14 years, was in the Caribbean plains the day of the earthquake, but arrived at the banks of the Sarapiquí River the following day.

Locals told Coleman that “the water actually appeared to cease flowing downstream” because of the thickness of mud in the river.

The fish researcher warned that in the short term, the damage to the ecosystem is “severe.” He and other scientists believe that not only are all the fish gone, but also the small organisms they feed on. Larger animals will likely move out of the main river, he said.

Estimating that recovery could take “several years, at least,” Coleman called for patience, and faith in nature.

The good news, he added, is that “the tributaries are in good shape and will rebuild the Sarapiquí system.”

See Friday's print or digital edition of The Tico Times for more a detailed report on the impact of the Jan. 8 earthquake on local fish and wildlife.