by Rod Hughes

Former lawmaker Ricardo Toledo was rushed to the hospital Sunday after suffering a heart attack as he played basketball at the Costa Rican Tennis Club He was the Social Christian Unity candidate for president in 2006.

Toledo must remain in the hospital for a week for treatment to dissolve a blood clot in an artery in his chest, according to Dr. Eduardo Saenz, his private physician. The clot will be treated with medicines to dissolve it and will not need surgery.

Demonstrating how tricky heart problems can be, two weeks ago Toledo had a complete checkup and was given a clean bill of health.

by Rod Hughes

For a century the standard foreign languages in public high schools have been English and French and in recent years, the emphasis has been on English. But now, two, San Luis Gonzaga of Cartago and at Poas in Alajuela province, have added the language as an elective.

Before, if a parent wanted his child to learn German he had to shell out for tuition at a private school, Humboldt in Escazu, which conducts all classes in that language. In addition, a private cultural organization, Instituto Goethe, offers courses in the language.

The new course indicates increasing interest in this country in schooling students to be citizens of the world. The German government is cooperating in the effort by providing educational materials such as German-as-a-second language texts. This is the second year the Colegio San Luis Gonzaga has offered the elective.

by Rod Hughes

For a long time, Osa residents on the southern Pacific peninsula have pleaded with Costa Rican health authorities for a new hospital to replace the antique they had. Now they do, the Tomas Casas Hospital in Ciudad Cores that opened Sunday.

“Now we don’t have to suffer in the rainy season when we had to evacuate (the old hospital),” 93-year-old Martina Espinoza told the daily paper La Nacion as she sat in her wheelchair during the inauguration. The new hospital is built on higher ground so it will not be likely to be flooded out like the old one.

Moreover, the new 50-bed facility doubles the capacity for patients and will be attended by a 361-member staff instead of the 206 of yore. It has three operating rooms of which one is apt for orthopedic surgery to serve traffic accident victims. The facility is the most state-of-the-art medical facility in the southern zone.

by Rod Hughes

Sometimes the best soccer matches in the country are not between those perennial powerhouses, Saprissa and Alajuela, but way down in the cellar. And so it proved Sunday when Cartago met Santos on the latter’s home pitch in Guapiles and they struggled to a 1-1 tie.

La Nacion sportswriter Roberto Garcis called the match “wrestling on the edge of the abyss” because both clubs are in danger of being dropped from the First Division soccer. It had all the drama, protests to the referee, suspense with a missed chance of as millimeter…

The first half went by scoreless and Cartago had not even a sniff of a clear chance. Then, at minute 66, Leornardo Madrigal, who had substituted for Jose Francisco Alfaro early in the first half, blasted one in on an assist by Leonardo Ocamica. Ten minutes later, Brazilian Eneas da Conceicao evened it up on a pass by Yeinor Santamaria. Cartago continued its attack and the pressure resulted in Santos defender Porfirio Lopez touched the ball with his hand.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Cartago’s Alexander Calvo placed the ball carefully for the penalty kick—and hit the horizontal bar. Despite an unusually long injury overtime (10 minutes) neither side seemed able to recover from that moment.

Other matches: Liberia 1, Perez Zeledon, 0 Liberia edged closer to the quarter finals of the so-called summer tournament by beating Perez Zeledon 1-0, placing the club now only a point behind that same P-Z club and Brujas of Escazu. They need only to beat Santos next Sunday.

The Guanacaste club’s goal came early in the second half when William Sunsing scored after the defenses of both clubs appeared invincible during the first half. Liberia goalie Alvaro Mesen stole the tying goal from Alexander Sequeira with only six minutes of play left.

Punarenas 1, San Carlos 0

Dario Delgado’s minute 54 goal on an assist from Jose Macotelo also put Puntarenas mathmatically within shooting distance of the quarter finals. It was obvious that Puntarenas, playing before the home crowd, was up for the match but was unable to score during the first 45 minutes.

As for San Carlos chances for the quarterfinals—well, you might try praying for a miracle…