Protests in Panama by indigenous groups have spread. With road blocks between the border and Changuinola this has effectively closed the border to tourists attempting to get from Puerto Viejo to Bocas del Toro.  The roads from the border crossing on the Inter-American Highway to David, Panama have also been blocked.

One protester has also been reported killed.

Caribe Shuttle wrote yesterday that after several days of trying to route their passengers around the problems, they have had to cancel their normal services until further notice. However, they creatively have found a way to move people by boat. The only difficulty is that since there is no Costa Rican customs in Puerto Viejo, travelers must first travel to Limon to get a maritime exit stamp (or entry if coming from Bocas).

The only other reliable way to get to Bocas del Toro from Costa Rica is to fly on Nature Air from San Jose.

More:

• Border Closed, More Road Blocks – Bocas Shuttle Cancelled
• Temporary Boat Service Available Between Costa Rica and Panama

The Ara Project, based in Alajuela, breeds Scarlet (Ara macao) and Great Green macaws with the sole intention of release into the wild.  Find out more and donate at: www.thearaproject.org

We are now re-introducing Greens here with the hopes that once a sustainable population is established, they will eventually meet up with the wild population and re-create the Caribbean corridor.  A reintroduction has never been attempted officially with the Great Green species, so the Talamanca area is witnessing the first release of these birds in the world!  The first release consists of ten birds, nine of which have been released since August and are doing extremely well.

The success of this release is not solely dependent on the macaws; the community must be supportive of this effort if it is to be successful.  We are encouraging people let us know if any macaws are in your area.  This lets us know not only how they are using the release range, but also helps us identify birds that can fly farther and faster than we can keep up!  With the help of reports, we have estimated they have established a range of 41 square kilometres!  People can also help the macaws by planting fruit trees such as the almendros, and enjoying the birds from afar.  They do best when left alone, and we hope people watch out for anyone trying to harm the birds.

Thank you so much for your support and interest in the Ara Project and the macaws!  Please feel free to contact us at any time:
colline@thearaproject.org  (506) 8524-4675
allan@thearaproject.org (506) 8971-1436

Colline W. Emmanuelle is the Education & Community Outreach Manager for The Ara Project. She is originally from Baltimore, Maryland and has been involved with the Project since February 2011. In addition to macaws, Colline’s favourite animals include anteaters and yeti crabs.

OVERVIEW:
There have been community anti-crime organizations in the South Caribbean for years, dealing with crime issues typical of any tourist beach town: assaults, robberies, and less occasionally, attacks of a more violent nature. Attendance at various neighborhood watch groups tended to follow a cyclical pattern that spiked with the occurrence of higher profile crimes then rapidly diminished. 

A meeting in San Jose in 2010 with Jorge Rojas, Director of OIJ, drove home the point that, owing to the extremely low percentage of crimes reported (estimated to be in the mid to low teens), the canton of Talamanca had, on paper at least, one the lowest crime rates in the country. Without the statistics in the form of denuncias, the area received fewer personnel and resources than the conditions in the zone called for.

Community meeting with police

As a response, we created an online database with which the community could report crimes and compile its own statistics, to gain a clearer picture of what was occurring, to identify problem regions and recurring patterns that might aid in prevention, as well as to demonstrate that the incident rate was far greater than was being captured in official numbers. Several barriers existed to adoption, chiefly a strong reluctance, in a town whose economy relies almost solely on tourism, to openly discuss crime for fear of jeopardizing commerce.

A Facebook group was launched, and the ability to see and discuss in near real time how crime is affecting the neighborhood proved a compelling experience.  A consensus developed that there was far more to be gained than lost from this sort of open discussion. The group expanded very rapidly, and people motivated each other to get active in the effort.

WORKING WITH THE COMMUNITY:
Members of the community have met regularly with the Director of OIJ, Ministers of Public Security, Fiscal General, etc in order to bring to attention the needs of the communities Southern Caribbean.  The police chief actively reaches out to the community through regular public meetings and online through the Facebook group.  Similar meetings occur with the Fiscalia.  The Mayor of Talamanca is also very involved, offering full support and participation in the efforts of the local community and maintaining an active Facebook profile.

PROJECTS:
During the past year, Un Caribe Mas Seguro has continued their work and undertaken new projects.  Some highlighted projects:

Online database of Incidents:  This has become the primary source of information used by Fuerza Publica.  The website also shares information on prevention, who to call, how to act and much more information of importance to the local community: http://www.caribeseguro.com

Convenio between CATCCAS and Ministerio de Seguridad Publica: provides a legal framework for binding agreements of cooperation between MSP and the community.

Streetlight project:   a digital inventory map of major streetlights in the region indicating where lights were present, where they needed to be replaced and where they needed to be installed.  This would eliminate some of the “dark zones” where tourists were regularly being assaulted at night.  The map was used to petition ICE into addressing the issues.

Digital map project:  Requested by the Fuerza Publica in order to better identify the local streets and location of residents and businesses.  A new police officer receiving a call to person x’s house will be able to pull up that person’s location on a computer screen at the delegation and speed the response time.

Rise in Official Denuncias:  Victims who saw little hope of individual justice started filing denuncias for the benefit to the community as a whole that arises from more accurate reporting and statistics.

Police station renovation

Fuerza Publica Capacitacion:  Security training program and certification for businesses was offered in June.

Beach Guard Program:   ARECHIPU – Association of Residents Playa Chiquita Punta Uva have organized to hire three local beach guards.  Guards patrol the beaches, caution tourists who are not being careful and report suspicious behavior to police.   Since the inception of the program, the previous average of 1 incident per day has been reduced to nearly zero.

Victim’s Assistance:  The Victim Assistance Program helps both locals and tourists through an often complicated judicial process. It supports tourist victims with translation services, helps to file denuncias, helps to cancel stolen credit cards, contacts embassies, offers transportation to OIJ, etc.  In the case of more serious crimes, the program helps to coordinate additional nights at hotels and meals in local restaurants so the victim can complete the denuncia process without incurring additional expenses. The program has been successful in turning victims’ encounter with crime from “a very negative experience in a foreign country” to “the community cares – what a great place”.

Hotel and Business Certification Program:  Project under development to establish guidelines and a certification program in crime prevention for local hotels and businesses.

LESSONS LEARNED AND BEST PRACTICES:

Law enforcement in Costa Rica faces the reality of needing to do more with less, and without the communication, cooperation, and trust of the communities they work in, they will be at a grave disadvantage.

We consider a program like ours critical to the success of citizen security, and elements that in our experience are essential are:

1)  Forum: enables the community to be in direct contact with each other and with law enforcement.  We are fortunate to have a police chief, Leandro Chaverri, who was highly receptive to the idea and very motivated, and we used Facebook because of the high adoption rate and its “stickiness”.

2) Incident Database: a tool for the community to keep track of what is occurring is key. As well, it demonstrates to law enforcement that the community is a serious partner, and is dynamically and independently evaluating their work.

3) Regular Meetings: While the communication afforded through the internet is extremely powerful, face-to-face meetings are critical as well.

Article by Eric Haller. Eric Haller has lived in Cocles for 5 years, plays music, and can be found blogging from time to time at erichaller.com or twittering @haller

Did you think 2011 felt wetter or drier than normal?

Well if you guessed drier you’d be correct.

A resident of Playa Negra, Charlotte, has been adding up rainfall numbers each month since 2002 on her rain gauge. Click the image for a full-sized version of the rainfall chart.

The average monthly rainfall is Puerto Viejo is 310 mm (12.2 inches) with November and December generally being the rainiest months and September and October being the dryest months.  But in 2011 the dry period stretched from August to November and the average was only 260mm.

Of course, as any resident of the area knows, the rain comes and goes during the day and there’s rarely a day without sun!

The Puerto Viejo Weather page has more information and the most current forecasts.

There are 100′s of kids in Talamanca that need help to purchase their school supplies. School starts in February, but we do the drive now so you can have the opportunity to purchase the gift of education for a local student and then present to the conscientious person you want to honor with that gift.

Levels of donating:
• You can donate the actual materials that kids need by dropping them off at ATEC. Contact tmatecadmi@gmail.com if for the official list of supplies needed.
• US$1+ buys some pens or a notebook.
• $35 buys all of the school supplies for one kid for one year!
• $66 buys all of the school supplies for one kid for one year AND their school uniform AND SHOES!
• Or you can adopt a 1.5 kids or whole bunch of kids!

If you’re in Puerto Viejo drop off your donations of supplies or cash at the ATEC office.  Or if you can’t make it there, you can make a credit card donation at the Puerto Viejo Satellite donation page and Puerto Viejo Satellite will cover all the fees so that 100% of your donation will make it to the kids.

Anthony apparently flew into Limon airport on Sunday on a private flight and filmed a segment for the reality TV show “¡Q’ Viva! The Chosen” which he is producing along with his ex-wife, actress and singer Jennifer Lopez.

More: AFP: Marc Anthony conmociona al Caribe costarricense, Tico Times: Latin star Marc Anthony making waves in Costa Rica

Costa Rica entered the history books of world surfing Sunday when Craig “Tequila” Schieber became the first Costa Rican surfer to win the title of world champion at the 2011 International Surfing Association World Masters Surfing Championship, held Oct. 16-23 in La Libertad, El Salvador. Schieber won gold in the Grand Kahuna division (age 50+).

The masters championship is a gathering of the world’s top surfers age 35 and older. Surfers from different countries compete for medals in five categories, Masters (35+), Grand Masters (40+), Kahunas (45+), Grand Kahuna (50+) and Women Master (35+). Tica surfer Andrea Díaz placed fifth in the women’s category. Costa Rica finished the tournament ranked seventh overall in the world.

Schieber, who became a naturalized Costa Rican citizen 20 years ago, lives in the beach community of Puerto Viejo. He and the rest of the Costa Rican masters team are set to arrive back in Costa Rica on Monday afternoon.

Source: Tico Times: Costa Rican wins world surfing championship

The restaurant is was one of the recipients of the “Aportes al Mejoramiento de la Calidad de Vida” prize for 2011.

Other awards were given to a community leader in Alajuela, a team of veterinarians from the Universidad Nacional, a group of clowns and a recycling program.

The awards were decided on by a committee from Costa Rica’s ombudsman and from the public universities.

More: La Nación: Autoridades premian aportes para mejorar la calidad de vida

La Nación is reporting today many more details of the proposed expansion of Route 32 between San José and Limon.

The project is now being estimated to cost between $350 million and $420 million dollars. It is being financed by a credit line from the Chinese government and would be built by Chinese firms.

The 108km project starts from the Rio Frio crossing on Highway 32 to Limon. It will include 4 four lanes of traffic in a separated roadway, 14 overpasses, bus bays, pedestrian overpasses and a bike lane to protect the many students and workers who commute by bicycle along the route. The plan also includes repairs to the 32 km connection from Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui (the other Puerto Viejo) to route 32.

The route carries about 5,000 cars a day including 700 commercial trucks.

The project is still in the planning stages so no timeline has been announced.

More information: La Nación: País negocia crédito blando con China para ampliar vía a Limón

A big thank you to the Puerto Viejo School kids, who spent their unscheduled day off from school with us in the unrelenting heat. Way to go!

These community events do not only rely on the people to come out and spend their day picking up trash, we also need the local businesses to get involved. I am happy to say that the support from the local businesses was amazing! It is truly a great feeling to have companies and organizations like ATEC, Banana Azul, Cantik, Coco Loco Lodge, El Diamante, Exploradores, Farmacia Amiga, Interbus, Koki Beach Restaurant, Supermercado Old Harbour and Terraventuras which all pulled together to help make the event a great success.

Special thanks to Terra Nostra for coming to support us for this day! Their insight of how important the clean-up of our beaches is, was very inspiring. They instructed us on not just picking up trash, but also on how to sort trash correctly. I guarantee you I will never look at trash the same way again.

After collecting all this trash it had to go somewhere. Well that was when Reci Caribe and Municipalidad de Talamanca took over. After the trash was sorted correctly all the recyclable items were documented and then loaded onto a truck and were sent to the local recycling center, all the remaining trash was transported away by Municipalidad de Talamanca to a local land fill.

All the collected trash collected at this beach clean up is going to be reported to the Ocean Conservancy and the data is going to be added to their world wide program “International Costal Cleanup 2011”.

Residents and local businesses of Puerto Viejo really proved that even the smallest communities can make a difference when everyone works together. Once again great job everyone! Lets all continue to keep our beautiful beaches clean!

You can see more photos and more information about the results at the facebook album.

Article by Nina Neidhart. Nina is the general manager of Gecko Trail Adventures, a Puerto Viejo based tour company which offers packages, transportation, tours and activities throughout Costa Rica. They specialize in helping clients to set up a customized and authentic experience of the real Costa Rica. More information at GeckoTrail.com.