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Pacific Fishing Above Average

Central Pacific

Capt. Brandon Keene on the Fish Whistle had the boss in town for a few weeks. They fished almost every day and caught sailfish, mahimahi, grouper, snapper, roosterfish and a handful of marlin.

Capt. James Smith on the Dragin Fly has been offshore a few times a week lately and has caught some sailfish, mahimahi and marlin, but the best catch was a few big yellowfin tuna in the 80- to 120-pound range. July is usually one of the best tuna months along the central Pacific coast.

The Disco Pirate, under Capt.…

Costa Rica the happiest place on Earth, says new report

By Alex Leff
Tico Times Staff |
Happy to be here? Costa Rica tops a new list of the happiest countries on the planet compiled by an independent research group in Britain.

In the second Happy Planet Index (HPI) calculated by the New Economics Foundation, Costa Rica shot ahead of its third-place spot in the original index released in 2006 (TT, Aug. 4, 2006). Vanuatu, an archipelago in the south Pacific, was the happiest and Colombia placed second in the 2006 index.

The country scores 76.1 out of 100 on the new…

U.S. expats toast Independence Day in Costa Rica with 8 a.m. beer

A thousand miles from the shores of the United States and three months into the rainy season didn’t hamper the Independence Day celebration for many U.S. expatriates living here.

Beer flowed freely and hotdogs were served in sets of two or three as U.S. citizens gobbled up anything that would remind them of 4th of July.

Mechanical bull-riding, square dancing, volleyball and a rock band grabbed the attention of the hundreds of guests for the four-hour event, beginning at 8 a.m. Friday.

An array of nonprofits and businesses arranged booths on the grounds of…