Good Evening from Costa Rica
Just before noon Friday, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake centered in Panama rolled across most of Costa Rica, long enough to leave people dizzy. Damage here was light, but seismologists say aftershocks could keep shaking the south for weeks.
The strong colón is still the money story. The Central Bank warns that U.S. interest rates could push the dollar back up, while coffee growers say the exchange rate has hurt them more than the pandemic did.
Also this week: Costa Rica’s retirement visa ranked fourth in the world, the first all-inclusive JW Marriott anywhere opened in Guanacaste, the new maximum-security prison opens Wednesday, and Route 32 closed three times in seven days.
This Week By the Numbers
7.7 — magnitude of Friday’s Panama earthquake, the same as the 1991 Limón quake, the strongest on record in Costa Rica
100+ — aftershocks Panama recorded in the first day
4th — Costa Rica’s Pensionado visa among 46 retirement programs in the 2026 Global Retirement Index
24% — jump in Canadian arrivals in the first eight months of 2026, the fastest of any major market
11 — individual jaguars identified by camera traps in and around Tortuguero
3 — times landslides closed Route 32 between Monday night and Saturday night
The Top Story
A damaged government building in Penonomé, Panama, after Friday’s quake. (Martin Bernetti / AFP)
A magnitude 7.7 earthquake centered on Panama’s Azuero Peninsula shook much of Costa Rica at 11:56 a.m. Friday. The long, rolling motion sent people out of homes and offices from the Southern Zone to the Central Valley. A magnitude 6.6 aftershock about two and a half hours later was felt across the country too.
Damage here was light. The Red Cross reported small objects falling in Laurel and Ciudad Neily near the border, the National Emergency Commission (CNE) reported no severe damage, and the tsunami monitoring system ruled out any threat. Panama took the harder hit, with at least 27 people slightly injured, about 300 evacuated and more than 400 buildings damaged, including homes and schools. No deaths had been confirmed.
It isn’t over. Panama recorded more than 100 aftershocks in the first day, and University of Costa Rica seismologist Leopold Linkimer says strong ones could keep coming for weeks or months, especially near the border. Don’t count on your phone to warn you: OVSICORI’s alert app stayed silent for the main quake because the epicenter was outside its coverage area. If you feel shaking, drop, cover and hold on. If you’re at the beach and the shaking is strong or long, head inland or uphill without waiting for an official warning.
Flying through Panama? Tocumen airport, Copa’s hub, halted flights for several hours Friday, and Juan Santamaría expected seven diverted flights. Check your flight with your airline before you leave for the airport.
More News
Only Uruguay, Mauritius and Spain scored higher.
Costa Rica’s Pensionado visa scored 99.5 out of 100 in the 2026 Global Retirement Index from Global Citizen Solutions, putting it fourth among 46 retirement residency programs worldwide and just ahead of Portugal.
The low bar to entry is what lifts it. You need a lifetime pension of at least $1,000 a month, the lowest threshold in the top 10, and a spouse and children under 25 can be included under that same amount. Foreign pensions aren’t taxed locally under Costa Rica’s territorial system.
The weak spot is paperwork. Costa Rica ranked 40th of 46 on procedure, with applications typically taking 12 to 18 months. The tax advantage could also come up for debate: the finance minister wants to move to a global income system, though it isn’t yet clear whether that would touch foreign pensions.
Even after its rebound, the dollar is down about 8% against the colón this year.
The dollar climbed off its Sept. 17 record low of ₡446.80 to reach ₡460.45 on Oct. 1, then eased back. Central Bank President Róger Madrigal now names the gap between U.S. and Costa Rican interest rates as the main thing that could push it higher again.
The Central Bank’s policy rate sits at 3%, while the U.S. Federal Reserve raised its rate in September to 3.75%–4%. If savings in dollars keep paying better, money could move out of colones. Not every economist agrees, and the extra dollars that arrive with aguinaldo bonuses and holiday spending from late October could pull the rate back down. The next rate decision is Nov. 26.
The strong colón is already costing jobs. Coffee growers say they’re getting about ₡30,000 less per fanega, and the head of the Costa Rican Coffee Institute (ICAFE) says the exchange rate has hit his farms harder than Covid did.
The resort takes over the former Dreams Las Mareas at Playa El Jobo. (JW Marriott)
Marriott picked Costa Rica for its luxury brand’s first all-inclusive anywhere. The JW Marriott Costa Elena Resort & Spa has opened at Playa El Jobo in La Cruz, near the Nicaraguan border, after a conversion the operator values at $60 million.
Rates start around $900 per person per night, double occupancy. The resort has 415 rooms, 15 restaurants and bars, 17 pools and a 45-room private section called Griffin Club. Marriott has said JW-branded residences could follow on neighboring land.
The CACCO under construction at the La Reforma complex in Alajuela. (Casa Presidencial)
Costa Rica’s new maximum-security prison for organized crime opens Wednesday, Oct. 14, at 12:30 p.m. Built from plans donated by El Salvador at a cost of more than $33 million, the CACCO will hold up to about 5,100 inmates. It opens months after its original July deadline.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella are expected at the ceremony, according to local media reports, though the presidency hadn’t confirmed its guest list. A University of Costa Rica professor has filed an appeal with the Constitutional Chamber to block the opening on human rights grounds. The ceremony will stream live on YouTube.
Each jaguar’s coat pattern is unique, which lets researchers tell them apart. (File photo)
Camera traps on the Caribbean coast have picked out 11 individual jaguars in and around Tortuguero National Park. The conservation group Turtle Love runs 12 camera stations inside the park and seven more at nearby Playa Tres, and tells the cats apart by their coat patterns. That’s not a population count, just the animals identified so far.
What makes Tortuguero special is that the jaguars share the beach with one of the Caribbean’s biggest sea turtle nesting populations, and they hunt adult turtles that come ashore to lay eggs. Researchers are now tracking how the cats’ movements change during nesting season.
Quick Hits
Route 32 closed three times in one week. Landslides shut the San José–Limón highway Monday night, again Thursday evening, and again late Saturday at kilometer 28 as Tropical Wave 50 brought heavy rain. Check MOPT before you drive, and if it’s closed, go through Turrialba on Route 10.
That red taxi on Uber can cost 2.5 times more. In a news crew’s fare check, Alajuela to Poás came to about $23 on UberX and $58 by red taxi in the app, because taxis still charge the official meter rate. Compare both estimates before you confirm.
Concert producers arrested in a money laundering probe. Producers Don Stockwell and Hugo Barboza were among 18 people detained Wednesday in an investigation into whether more than $850,000 in alleged drug money went into concerts in 2024 and 2025. None has been charged. Organizers say Snoop Dogg’s Dec. 3 show is going ahead.
Canadians are choosing Costa Rica over Florida. Canadian arrivals rose 24% through August to 232,949 as more Canadians skip the United States. They stay an average of 14.9 nights, and by high season seven Canadian cities will have nonstop flights here.
A man wanted by the U.S. turned up in an election-night photo. Prosecutors will look into the political ties of Guobin Tam Zhang, detained Oct. 2 at the U.S. government’s request, after he was photographed at President Laura Fernández’s victory party. Fernández says she doesn’t know him. He has not been convicted of any crime.
Costa Rica’s first artificial beach runs on well water. A 3.5-hectare (8.6-acre) lagoon with seven white-sand beaches is finished near Liberia airport, just as the IMN forecasts 80% less rain than normal in the North Pacific through December. The developer hasn’t said how much water it uses.
The San José–Managua bus is back. Transnica restarted daily service Saturday after a tribunal temporarily suspended the denial of its permit. Buses leave San José at 1 a.m. and Managua at 9 a.m., but the permit fight isn’t settled.
Spotlight
Guanacaste’s roadsides tell the time of year better than a calendar. (Wikimedia Commons)
Biologist Vincent Losasso has spent years driving Guanacaste’s back roads for work, and he admits he’s hopeless with dates. He keeps time by the seasons you can see from the car window instead.
Right now it’s what he calls perfectly acceptable litter season. Mamón chino, the spiky red rambutan trucked in from wetter parts of the country, is sold by the bagful at roadside stands, eaten on the move, and the peels go out the window. A few months back it was dudes-in-trees season, when men climb roadside jocote trees for the fruit while someone waits below with a bag.
Then there’s Christmas, which in Guanacaste never quite ends. By his count, at least three in four small-town plazas keep their welded-rebar Christmas tree standing all year.
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