Costa Rica ranked first in Latin America as a tourist destination

Way to go! Costa Rica was recently ranked number one destination in Latin America by the World Economic Forum's annual travel competitiveness report which indexes 133 countries according to their business environment and infrastructure; cultural, human, and natural resources; and their regulatory framework.

Costa Rica, which moved up two places to 42nd place overall this year, also ranked sixth in the world for its biodiversity and protected areas... tenth for the government's prioritization of tourism... nineteenth in effectiveness at branding and marketing... and twenty-second in expenditure on travel and tourism. It also ranked first in all the Americas (yes, even outplacing Canada and the United States) for "human, cultural, and natural resources." Not bad for a country that occupies far less than one percent of the earth's land mass. more >>

Ridley turtles swarm Costa Rica's beaches like a D-Day invasion

I've always wanted to witness an "arribada" (mass arrival of Ridley turtles) in Costa Rica. The nation is one of only seven countries where the females of this species, uniquely among the world's seven marine turtle species, come ashore en masse to lay eggs.

Until a few years ago, arribadas were known to occur only at Playa Nancite (off-limits to visitors) and Playa Ostional, in Nicoya. More recently they have occurred at Playa Guiones (Nosara) and Playa Camaronal, further south.

During the course of an arribada, tens of thousands of turtles come ashore for three or four nights during July-December (peak season is August and September, starting with the last quarter of the full moon). The mass arrival is a strategy for outwitting predators--or at least of surviving despite them: together they deposit millions of eggs at a time.

Imagine my thrill when I arrived at Playa Camaronal at dusk one day last December to find an arribada in progress. more >>