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Theater at Noon in Alajuela
Features Humberto Vargas, trova, Aug. 5 at 12:10 p.m., Juan Santamaría Museum, Alajuela.

“Oliver!”
Musical performed by Monteverde youths, staged by Far Corners Community Musical Theatre, Aug. 5-7, 7 p.m., Bromelias Amphitheater, Monteverde. Info: 2645-6114, www.farcornersmusicals.org.

Workshops
“Get Set for School” Aug. 5, 2-6 p.m.; Kindergarden, Aug. 6, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Desarrollando Mentes, Escazú. Further information at www.desarrollandomentes.com

Music at Dusk
Concert the UCR Camerata, Aug. 5 at 5:30 p.m., National Theater, Av. 2, Ca. 3/5. Info: 2221-5341.

Residents of Puerto Viejo and Cahuita and much of Costa Rica´s Caribbean region were without telephone or cell phone service Wednesday, after a fire broke out in the transmission center of the Costa Rican Electricity Institute in Limón.

Crews have focused on restoring emergency communications first and on establishing radio bases with 3G and GSM cell phone technology. As of 5 p.m. on Wednesday, full service in the region had not been restored.

“Our principal concern is to return telecommunications services to the people of Limón in the shortest time possible,” said Iván Flores, telecom systems and network director for ICE. “We have focused all the resources of ICE (on the problem) since last night.”

Rigoberto Ríos, a waiter at Bio Natura café in downtown Limón, said he's eager to see phone service return to the area.

“A phone is something that seems so small, but it's so necessary,” said the 28-year-old, who lives in Río Banano, about 12 kilometers south of Limón, where all telecommunications – land lines, cell phones and Internet –went out. “If I want to call my mom, I can't.”

Asked if he thought ICE would restore service promptly, he replied, “Maybe a foreign company could solve the problem faster.”

ICE authorities are attempting to confirm the cause of the fire.

The Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) ordered Tuesday that the Costa Rican cellular telephone market be opened within 90 days.

Although the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA), in effect since January 2009, required the market to open to competition, access for interested cellular service providers has not yet been granted by Costa Rican regulatory agencies. Currently, the state-owned Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) holds a monopoly on providing cellular phone service.

According a statement by the Sala IV, which voted unanimously July 30 to enact the order, the Environment, Energy and Telecommunications Ministry (MINAET), the Superintendency of Telecommunications (SUTEL) and ICE must “coordinate actions” in the next 90 days to make cellular frequencies available to would-be competitors.

In April, the three government agencies encountered what they characterized as “logistical problems” in securing frequencies for incoming cellular providers.

The court's opinion said that delays in opening the cellular market have been “excessive and unreasonable,” and that it “is affecting the fundamental rights of consumers who opted for freedom of services” in a nationwide referendum held in October 2007 that was supportive of CAFTA.

While the Sala IV's order echoes widespread frustration with the delays, local media and analysts said the 90-day deadline for opening the market might be too ambitious. However, Carolina Mora, a SUTEL spokeswoman, said that if the agency were forced to complete the process in 90 days, “it would be possible.”

“We have already contacted MINAET and ICE regarding the order made by the Sala IV,” Mora said. “In order to complete the market opening in 90 days, we will need to modify several of the technical and economic processes we originally outlined.”

For more on this story, see the Aug. 6 print or digital edition of The Tico Times.

More than 200 ornithologists, biologists, bird guides and amateur birders flocked to the University of Costa Rica (UCR) last Thursday for the inaugural session of the second Costa Rican Ornithology Conference (II Congreso Costarricense de Ornitología).

Co-presented by the Costa Rica Union of Ornithologists (Unión de Ornitólogos de Costa Rica) and UCR's Biology School, a who's who of the Costa Rican birding world was on hand at the event, including Costa Rica's most eminent ornithologist, Julio E. Sánchez.

Sánchez, a recently retired, long-time curator of birds at the National Museum, is now president of the Union of Ornithologists. This non-profit, non-governmental group, founded in 2006, now numbers 100 or so members, dedicated to promoting biodiversity conservation, primarily through the study of birds and their habitats.

A major recurring theme of the five-day congress is the effects of urbanization, man-made noise and development on bird habitat.

This subject is central to the Union's mission, namely promoting biodiversity conservation. One of the group's first initiatives was to identify and establish the country's primary Important Bird Areas – or IBAs – and start lobbying to protect them.

The IBA program began in the 1980s as a conservation strategy developed by BirdLife International, a global partnership of conservation organizations. Today there are IBA programs in more than 100 countries. So far, using scientific protocols set by BirdLife, the Union has identified 21 IBAs, covering 54 percent of Costa Rica.

The conference also included the chance to get outside and see some real-time birds on early-morning birding walks around the UCR campus, led by a distinguished trio of birding guides, all Union members – Julio Sánchez himself, along with Esteban Biamonte and Luis Sandoval.

The Union has published an informative booklet about its goals, called “ Participativa: Participemos en la Conservación de las Aves en Costa Rica.”

For more information about the Costa Rica Union of Ornithologists, visit their website www.uniondeornitologos.com.

See the upcoming online feature story at www.ticotimes.net for more on birding.