Subscribe to our Daily News RSS feed.

Read the Daily News on your mobile device.

Symposium
On games as therapy for children with aggressive behavior, led by Anne Steward of James Madison University in Virginia , July 21, 4-8 p.m., auditorium, UNIBE, Tibás. Info: 2297-2242, ext. 143, 146.

Bon ArtPetit 2010
Art contest based on Manet's “Le déjeuner sur l'herbe,” deadline July 30. Info: 2222-2283, adecorne@afsj.net .

2nd National Haiku Contest
Organized by the Japanese Embassy, deadline to enter poems Sept. 30, contest rules at www.cr.emb-japan.go.jp .

A team of archaeologists has uncovered a rare and important time capsule on private property in the Costa Rican town of Tres Ríos, just east of San José.

During an archeological impact study, the group discovered indigenous burial grounds with remains that they reckon date back to 1100 A.D, team members said Tuesday.

The roughly 400-square-meter lot in a suburban area is the site of 32 graves, where archeologists so far have found the remains of 26 individuals, ranging from infants to adults. The team has also uncovered 98 ceramic artifacts, such as pots and bowls, on the grounds.

The tombs were made out of river rock and topped with flat slabs with printed hallmarks. Bodies were stacked on top of each other, some up to five levels high.

Maritza Gutierrez, the lead archeologist for the dig, was unsure to which indigenous group the remains belong.

Gutierrez said that the indigenous people broke the bones into pieces before placing them in the tomb as part of a once-common ritual in Costa Rica's central valley. Flat bones, such as the pelvis, as well as skulls, were buried in the ground around the caskets.

The property is owned by a Belgian woman who was required to conduct a “best environmental practices” assessment in order to obtain her building permit.

This option requires an archeological impact study and, if builders find signs of an archeological site, construction must be halted until experts can excavate the land and remove the bones and artifacts.

Archeologists began searching the Tres Ríos property two months ago and expect to continue digging for an additional two weeks.

Mirna Rojas, the head of the National Museum's anthropology department, emphasized the importance of adequately completing these analyses.

“This is why it is so important to do these archeological impact studies,” she said. “As you can see, this started as nothing, but look at the quantity of fossils and artifacts. They take up three-fourths of the lot.”

Rojas said that builders will often attempt to conceal archeological remains in order to prevent construction delays. But she warned of the possible consequences of this neglect.

“An archeological site isn't like a forest that you can replant,” she said. “Once it's destroyed, there is no way to recover it.”

The bones and artifacts will be taken to a laboratory for analysis and carbon dating. The examinations will help specify which indigenous group the remains are from and establish with more precision the dates of the group's existence.

Once the studies are completed, the artifacts and remains will be displayed at the National Museum.

Costa Rican authorities are looking to transfer 180 prisoners from San José's Buen Pastor Prison after heavy rains and mudslides made a section of the prison uninhabitable.

The women's prison sits on the banks of the Rio Cañas, which has been swelling under recent intense rainfall and threatens to swallow a prison wall.

As most prisons in the country are already at capacity, the Justice Ministry is currently pondering where the inmates could go.

“The 2010 rainy season began very forcefully,” said Justice Minister Hernando Paris, which has “increased the urgency” for the relocation.

The move could have benefits, he said, as women would most likely be moved to places closer to their homes and families. “Concentrating the women in one central prison impedes many families from visiting,” he said.

Paris admitted that there is no immediately available space where they could be moved, as nearly every prison is full. The latest statistics show that 9,304 people are serving sentences in the country, in a system with a capacity for 8,470 (TT, June 18).

Eventually the prison system has to turn its focus away from building more capacity and toward prevention methods, said Paris.

“If we construct 1,000 prisons, we will fill all 1,000 prisons if the effort is not accompanied (by prevention).”

Matt Gross walked out of the pouring rain and into the hotel looking very much like the frugal traveler he once was. In one hand he carried a plastic bottle of green-tinged palm wine, in his other was a sack of avocados. The traditional Costa Rican fare he bought from street vendors – in-between surviving an attempted mugging and filming his new television series. 

For four years, Gross wrote the New York Times' Frugal Traveler column, gathering a cult following as he spanned the globe on the cheapest budget he could manage. He left his job at the Times in May to create the travel television series "Strangers in a Strange Land," choosing Costa Rica as his first peculiar destination.

The show's theme centers on Gross meeting people who are living their dreams in unusual places. 

"Even if their dreams a little odd sometimes," Gross said. 

Gross shot a 10-minute "sizzle reel" in Costa Rica in June -- a shortened version of the television show, which will then be sent around to networks. The episode focused on two characters: a man who spends his life as a professional gambler in San José and a woman who runs a celebrity gossip news agency in the beach town of Playas del Coco, in the northwestern province of Guanacaste. 

A crew consisting of Gross, a producer and a cameraman spent a week shooting the footage. Gross decided on Costa Rica over northern Thailand because of its short distance from the United States, and since he already knew people here he wanted to include in the show. Still, the preplanning and all his past travel experience couldn't prepare the trio for one misadventure. 

While trying to fix a flat tire on the highway between the capital and Playas del Coco, Gross heard frantic honking from the cars passing by. He watched a man sprint toward the driver's side window with his eye on an expensive camera. 

"You don't necessarily think someone's going to be running across the other two or three lanes of the highway and across the median to reach into the car and grab the camera," Gross said. "That's sort of surprising." 

His producer, Mariah Wilson, reacted fast enough to take the camera first and scare off the thief. Gross said after the incident drivers stopped to help out. One man loaned a tire jack, another assisted in changing the tire. Police officers also came to their aid.  It's because of these these affable, albeit sometimes quirky, characters that "Strangers in a Strange Land " will focus on people. Gross said he hopes an emphasis on people rather than sites, eats or survival (including traveling frugally), will set his show a part from the Anthony Bourdains and Andrew Zimmers of the travel TV world. 

"It's me and one or two other people," Gross said. "You really get to know the people, see them as characters not just walk-ons and walk-offs."

For a Q&A with Matt Gross on the best places in the world to visit (and how to visit them cheaply) visit The Tico Times blog at: theticotimes.wordpress.com.