Hotel Posada del Sol

Hacienda Pinilla. When Atlanta developer Pat Pattillo bought the 4500 acre farm in 1973, it was mostly desolate pastureland and sweaty, masticating cows. In exchange for much of the desolate pastureland, Pattillo has replanted nearly a million trees of dry forest and winding hiking trails. He has also built a hotel, luxury condos and homes, and he connected them with paved roads. Additionally, Pattillo has installed three fiber optic cables, a water-supply system, a golf course, a tennis and fitness center, horse stables, a beach resort, three restaurants and a waste water treatment plant to accommodate 8,000 residents. The extensive project has also been a godsend for the local community, for which Pattillo has provide financial resources, cultural events and precious jobs. At one time, his operation employed more than 1,000 Ticos.  Two years ago, he built a new Beach Club at Avellanas Beach, which boasts its own restaurant and wellness area. There are a variety of long- and short-term options for guest accommodation: the colonial-style residential homes in the communities of Villas Malinches, Avellanas and Villas Palmas Real suit families and retirees looking to come back again and again (and perhaps just stay a while). The Pinilla property also includes the JW Marriot Guanacaste – a 310-room resort and spa that went up in 2009.

First Costarican reach the top of the Mount Everest. Warner Rojas left camp 4 last Thursday at 8 pm to climb the last 900 meters to the top of the Mount Everest. This last climb takes 10 to 12 hours. In this way they expect to be early in the morning at the top so there will be time enough to descent before dark because descending in the dark is dangerous.

English language schools in Costa Rica. At the 30th of June the Instituto Britanico will close its doors of the just in May opened new school building. The institute teaches English in Costa Rica since 28 years. Over 15.000 students learned English at the institute. In two years the tutoring hours to students from companies dropped down in half. At the other hand, the Brazilian institute Wizard Language Institute, that has already more than 1200 sites worldwide opened the first site in Costa Rica just a few month ago. Other language schools also had a fall in students since 2009. But most schools see their numbers growing since the beginning of the year, mostly because big foreign companies start to invest and hire in Costa Rica again.

Medical tourism. Last Monday started the Medical Travel International Business Summit in San Jose. Thirteen countries and 200 businesses took part in the three-day summit, organized by the Council for the International Promotion of Costa Rica Medicine and aimed at developing medical tourism in Costa Rica and Latin America. Medical tourism generated about $288 million in Costa Rica in 2010, with an estimated 36,000 medical tourists visiting the country, according to figures provided by the Presidency Ministry. In 2014, the industry is expected to generate some $800 million in dividends and attract 100,000 visitors to the country. Edgar Salazar, manager of Nova Dental Advanced Dental Center, said 95 percent of Nova’s customers are foreigners, and the majority are U.S. or Canadian citizens. He said the market for foreigners travelling to Costa Rica to have medical procedures is only going to grow. At Clínica Bíblica Hospital in San José, 18 percent of patients are foreigners. Medical tourism isn’t something that will just affect hospitals,  but will create new opportunities for all tourism-related businesses.

New Train

New trains for new train route. Temporary President Alfio Piva signed a contract May 24 with Spanish company FEVE to buy six trains that will travel between the capital, San José, and the eastern province of Cartago, the contract allots an investment of $6 million for the trains. Each train has the capacity to carry 180 people per trip. The new route will be inaugurated with the traditional visit of the President to Cartago in September 14 (the day before Independence Day celebrations). INCOFER authorities are also looking into extending service between Cartago and Heredia. The trains  will be ready to begin operations in October.