Last week the ICT board of directors approved plans for 370 slip marina in the Papagayo Bay. The project was presented by Ecodesarollo Papagayo, who will build the marina and other facilities within a 44 hectare parcel on the bay. The initial investment will be $15 million.

Last week the INS sold 10,247 insurance policies for cell phones. The policy is only available for telephones operating under the new GSM system, since they have an electronic serial number IMEI. This number allows the ICE to block the phone from the network, no matter whether or not a new SIM chip is installed.

The annual policy costs 7.25 % of the value of the telephone, a phone that is worth 100,000 colones pays a premium of 7250 colones. The insurance covers the purchase price of the phone in case of theft.

Ticos set a new record for text messages on Christmas Eve, probably due to the 153,000 new users that have purchased new lines in December. The previous record was 11 million messages, during a soccer match between Alajuela and Saprissa. On a normal day 8 - 9 million messages are sent.

Since ICE charges a rate of 1.5 colones per message sent to an email address or to another phone, the new record generated a Christmas bonus of 21 million Colones for the ICE.

Over 2000 riders enjoyed a very traditional parade Monday. It was so traditional that it even began an hour later than scheduled, but right on time according to “Tico Time”. Presidential candidates Otto Guevara and Otton Solís rode in the parade with their constituents.

There were no incidents to report during the parade, and the Red Cross had only attended to 6 people as of 3pm.

The Diario Extra reported that over 3000 riders assisted, but only 1000 had paid the 5000 Colon entry fee.

Today is the other big parade - Carnaval. 18 groups are expected to participate beginning around noonish.

It was a dark and stormy night….
Even though Saprissa gave up an early goal to go down 3-0 in the overall score, they came back with 4 unanswered goals to advance to the final round of the playoffs against Perez Zeledon.

Goals
0-1, K. Bernard at 11′. 1-1, W. Centeno at 20′. 2-1 C. Bolaños at 40′. 3-1, A. Solís at 45′. 4-1, W. Centeno at 86′.

Next Matches:
Wednesday 8 pm at Perez Zeledon
Friday 8 pm in Saprissa Stadium