In January of 2005 Costa Rica Books released the 14th edition of Christopher Howard's perennial bestseller "The New Golden Door to Retirement and Living in Costa Rica." In April Costa Rica books will publish the one-o-f-a-kind "Christopher Howard's Guide to Costa Rica Spanish. " Also look for Christopher Howard's "Official Guide to Costa Rican Real Estate" in late 2005.

The construction of some stretches of the Southern Costal Highway have caused a boom in the real estate market in this area. The new costal highway will link Jaco, Quepos, Dominical and Palmar Norte. The highway will improve infrastructure in this area and drive the area's real estate market for many years to come.

Kyle Dobbs, from the United States, defeated Argentina's Sebastian Fernández in a one-hole playoff to become the new champion of the Costa Rica Open 2005 American Express, presented by BETonSPORTS.com, a golf tournament billed as one of the most important in Costa Rica.

The rate of exchange closed 2004 at 459.64 colones per U.S. dollar, 40.5 colones more than at the end of 2003, therefore resulting in a 9.5 percent devaluation as an average.?

In 2004, tourism confirmed its key role in the economy of Costa Rica.

This sector allowed for several economic and social factors not to be as negative as they would have been, by counteracting the effects of the extremely high prices of oil, which according to several analysts and the Central Bank affected in no less than 1 percent the growth of economy.

Meanwhile, tourism experienced a 16 percent to 20 percent hike from 2003, with an estimated 1.48 million visitors.

This represents income for us$1.45 billion, as compared to us$1.2 billion in 2003. This also means that while dollars from tourism accounted for 19 percent of the exports in 2003, in 2004 the figure was 20 percent - 8.7 percent of the gross domestic product - almost three times the banana exports and more than eight times coffee exports. Tourism Leads as Dollar Earner In 2004, tourism confirmed its key role in the economy of Costa Rica.

This sector allowed for several economic and social factors not to be as negative as they would have been, by counteracting the effects of the extremely high prices of oil, which according to several analysts and the Central Bank affected in no less than 1 percent the growth of economy.

Costa Rica: No artificial ingredients and no stress on the budget This Carolina-sized country working its way up "top destination" lists, it's no wonder. Even though the thought of lush green scenery, pristine beaches, and intense biodiversity will excite you, you'll be more pleased to learn that doing this trip for under $1,000 was no challenge at all.

Progress in Human Development - Costa Rica climbed just one bit in the Human Development Index of the United Nations Program for Development, as compared to the one disclosed last year, but kept her steady upward trend since the Index was first published in 1990. The assessment is based on data from two years before and the grades range from 0 to 1 when Costa Rica was graded 0.834 in 2004, as compared to 0.832 in 2003. The variables considered for the Index include life expectancy, access to education, and income. In Latin America, only Argentina and Chile did better than Costa Rica, which is 45th among 177 nations. According to the figures, Costa Rica is among the "countries with high human development," since it is among the top 55 nations in the Index.

In 1978, 58 year old Polish, Karol Wojtyla, assumed the title of Pope and for the last 26 years headed the Roman Catholic church. The first Non-Italian Pope in the last 450 years of the Catholic church died in Rome Saturday at 9:37pm (1:37 pm in Costa Rica.