What in the world is a Tico? Sounds exotic. Maybe it's something like a Piña Colada or a Capucino. Or maybe it's one of those little biting pests that you find in tropical places. Wrong! A Tico is a very special group of people that inhabit one of the most beautiful, tropical and hidden paradises in the world—Costa Rica. “Tico” is simply the name commonly used to refer to the native inhabitants of Costa Rica.

But why “Tico“? In the Spanish world, the diminutive, formed by dropping the final “o” or “a” and adding an “ito” or “ita” depending on the gender, is commonly used out of friendliness and familiarity. It’s much more cariñoso (affectionate) to call your amigo (friend) an amigito (little friend).

About a century ago many Costa Ricans made the mistake of forming the diminutive by adding an “ico” to the end of words. So poquito (the Spanish diminutive of the word poco, little, few) would be poquiTICO when spoken by a Costa Rican. Because of their friendly and warm-hearted manner, the people of Costa Rica commonly used the diminutive in their everyday speech patterns and thus earned the nickname “Ticos” from outsiders.

Although the Costa Rican educational system has now taught most of the Ticos the correct grammatical usage of the diminutive forms in Spanish, the term “Tico” remains to commemorate this charming affection of the past.

By Lori Klein

Jacó is the coastal town in Costa Rica´s Puntaneras province. Located in the Central Pacific Region, it belongs to the most popular beaches in Costa Rica.  Jacó is approximately one hour by car from San José and Costa Rica's primary International Airport (SJO). Jacó's natural beauty and close proximity to San José and the International airport(SJO) attracts many international and local tourists. Jacó also hosts the largest selection of hotels, vacation rental condos and homes, tours and excursions, as well as over 75 restaurants, several beach bars, nightclubs and discos, and 3 casinos.

Jacó Beach has become the most developed  and visited vacation destinations in all of Costa Rica. Beautiful National Park Manuel Antonio National Park is only one hour South of Jacó.

When you think of this beautiful beach town, you probably imagine amazing beaches, gorgeous nature and hospitability, but probably you don´t imagine the overpopulation of stray animals that are also there.

Therefore on November 11, Friday 2011 the Asociación Pro Bienestar Animal, also known as McKee Jacó, will hold their annual fundraiser. The Annual McKee Fiesta will be a dance and dinner at the Amapola Hotel in Jacó.

Money that will be collected from the festivities will go to the rescue and rehabilitation of homeless animals in the Jacó area.

You can expect to experience live music by the local band Chupacabra, lots of dancing, food and glass of wine- all inclusive with the purchase of your ticket.  

Moreover, there will be also a silent auction and raffle, to make a little extra for the animals.

More information about the event on http://www.mckee-jaco.com/mj_party_fiesta.html

(By Marketa Sobotkova – Marketing intern)

Few days ago there was an interesting article from A.M. Costa Rica (online Costa Rican newspapers) talking about green turtles that have adopted to hotter beaches.

The article says, that University of Exeter (Exeter, Devon UK) conducted a research that shows some turtles arenaturally heat-tolerant. This research was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B and it was focused on green turtles that are nesting on Ascension Island, an overseas territory in the South Atlantic Ocean.

 What scientists from the universities of Exeter and Groningen found is that eggs laid by turtles nesting on a naturally hot beach withstand high temperatures better than eggs from turtles nesting on a cooler beach just a few kilometers away. Since the warmer beach has dark sand it is two or three degrees Celsius warmer than the neighboring beach that has white sand.

These green turtles travel from the coast of South America to the tiny island to nest. Most females of these turtles nest on the beaches where they themselves hatched, so populations can become adapted to specific nesting locations.

Researchers observed eggs that they placed on each beach into incubators of either 32.5 degrees Celsius or 29 degrees Celsius and monitored their progress. They found that the eggs from the warmer beach were better able to thrive in the hot incubator than those from the cooler beach.

Leader of the research Jonathan Blount of the University of Exeter said that the researchers believe this is the first time that adaptation to local environmental conditions has been demonstrated in sea turtles, which is all the more remarkable because the beaches in question are just six kilometers apart.

If you are interested in sea turtles and would like to help in protecting them, please have a look on our Ostional Sea Turtle Project!

Here our volunteers work to protect sea turtles on the beach in the national Wildlife Reserve of Ostional in the Province of Guanacaste.

Why Ostional?

It is one of the top choices worldwide for those looking to help sea turtles. This beautiful national park is currently short-handed despite being one of only 2 areas in Costa Rica where turtles arrive every day.

At Ostional we help to protect three of the seven nesting sea turtle species that exist in the world. These are: Ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea),Leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea), and Black(Chelonia midas agassizii). The Hawksbill(Eretmochelys imbricata) has been observed near the coast, but we still have no spawning records. All these species are declared endangered.

(By Marketa Sobotkova- Marketing Intern)