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Suave IV Fourth International Fashion Accessory Biennial
Organized by the Association of Textile Artists of Madrid, Sept. 6 to 16, Spanish Cultural Center, Barrio Escalante.

Sustainable Tradition and Responsible Innovation”
Sept. 6 to Oct. 12, Sophia Wanamaker Gallery, Costa Rican-North American Cultural Center, Barrio Dent.

Mundoloco Concerts
Feature African singer Sarah Carrere Mbodj, Dominican singer Cora Daryl Bobb and Unity reggae band of Costa Rica, Sept. 6, 9:30 p.m., Jazz Café, San Pedro.

GUATEMALA – Natural disaster has again struck this country, where strong rains that have fallen since Thursday have killed at least 37 people, left 40 missing and affected more than 40,000.

The spokesman for the National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction (CONRED), David de León, told EFE news service that the majority of deaths occurred in landslides.

By Sunday afternoon, rescue workers had found 21 bodies amid tons of mud and rocks from a landslide at kilometer 171 of the Inter-American Highway, at the Summit of Alaska in the department of Totonicapán. The landslide occurred Saturday night.

Although preliminary reports from rescue corps speculated that more than one hundred people were buried at the site, CONRED reduced the figure of those missing to between 35 and 40.

According to De León, the resumption of strong rains forced workers to suspend rescue work at the site. These are expected to resume Monday.

The bodies of 12 of those killed were taken to the community of Santa Catarina Ixtahucán, where they lived and where they will be buried Monday.

As a result of the rains, CONRED reported Sunday that 30,500 people remain at risk, 41,865 have been directly affected, 10,162 have been evacuated to secure locations and 6,996 taken to temporary shelters.

The rains have also destroyed bridges and roads, caused more than 80 landslides of various sizes, ruined crops and flooded hundreds of homes.

Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom declared a “national emergency” on Saturday because of the rains. He quantified the damages at between $375 and $500 million, and asked parliament to approve an increase in this year's national budget and a temporary tax he referred to as a “reconstruction bond” to cover the costs of the emergency.

“It's painful that it's the poorest people who pay the costs of natural disasters,” Colom said, as he asked citizens to collaborate with rescue workers and to abstain from leaving their homes to avoid greater losses.

According to the National Seismological, Volcanological, Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, the rains are the result of a low pressure system to the north, which will continue to affect the country through Monday.

Tropical storm Agatha, which affected the country at the beginning of June, killed 174 people, affected more than a million others and caused damage to infrastructure and crops quantified by the government at more than $975.

–EFE

According to a mid-year report by commercial real estate firm NAI Costa Rica, Costa Rica's real estate markets for housing, offices, retail space and land have all shown signs of improvement through the first half of 2010.

The report, which monitors monthly activity in residential, commercial, construction and investment markets, found that the Costa Rican real estate market is “recuperating well” after the recession year of 2009, which saw the market slow considerably.

“The Costa Rican market has suffered the last two years, including an almost complete paralysis of big projects outside of the Central Valley, in the area of Guanacaste and other coastal areas,” Carlos Robles, business director of NAI Costa Rica, told The Tico Times. “At the end of last year and the beginning of this year we started to see a slow recovery that is projected to continue in the remaining months of this year. The majority of markets are starting to look more and more positive.”  

Robles said real estate has picked up in large part because national banks are reopening credit lines that were closed in 2009. By unlocking credit, new developments were able to acquire necessary financing and stalled developments were completed.  

The report also indicated that the industrial market is experiencing a strong recovery, evidenced by the over 95 percent occupancy rates in warehouses, and free-trade zones. Office space is showing a 90 percent occupancy rate, and a demand for retail property is high, as evidenced by the 60,000 square meter expansion of the Multiplaza Escazú shopping mall, the leasing of 6,000 square meters of office space at Avenida Escazú and the construction of the “Momentum” complex on the east side of San José.  

While most real estate indicators are positive, Robles said several incomplete developments remain in the Guanacaste and central Pacific regions and that national real estate prices continue to be too high. Robles said that further growth in the Costa Rican real estate market would most likely have to wait for the lowering property and housing prices to meet the expectations of national and international buyers.

“There is a lack of buyers looking for a second home, particularly in the U.S. market, which is one of Costa Rica's largest markets,” Robles said. “Their wallets are much thinner than they were a few years ago. To entice new buyers, prices need to be adjusted to more affordable levels.”

For more on the 2010 Costa Rican real estate market, see the Sept. 10 print or digital edition of The Tico Times.

Costa Rica will host the first international environmental film festival in its history, from Sept. 25 through Oct. 1 in La Fortuna de San Carlos, at the foot of the Arenal volcano in north-central Costa Rica.

The Criterio Ambiental Film Fest will bring together 50 filmmakers from Europe, the United States and Latin America, whose works advocate the protection of the natural world.

The festival is sponsored by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and organized by Costa Rican filmmaker Gustavo Solís-Moya.

The event will include screenings, debates and round-table discussions with participating filmmakers and environmental experts from around the globe.

For Solís-Moya, Criterio Ambiental is an opportunity to educate the world's populace.

“We hope that this effort allows us to generate a greater consciousness in our country as well as the population of Latin America and the entire world to unite ourselves and work together in the construction of a cleaner, more sustainable planet,” he said.

The event's supporters include the San Carlos Municipality and several other Costa Rican governmental agencies and ministries, including the Environment, Energy and Telecommunications Ministry and the Costa Rica Tourism Board.

Anyone interested in more information can visit the festival's website at: http://www.criteriofilmfest.org/