Good Evening from Costa Rica
Rincón de la Vieja has been erupting on and off since July, but this week the signals changed. Scientists warned that eruptions could grow stronger, and within hours emergency officials put five districts around the Guanacaste volcano on yellow alert.
At the other end of the weather picture, El Niño is now expected to cut the rainy season short, and the government wants the extra cost of keeping the lights on spread across three years of power bills.
Also this week: you can now book a red taxi through Uber, the number of landlords paying tax on rent hasn’t moved since 2020, new nonstop flights are coming from Tampa, Austin and Nashville, and La Sele finally won a game.
This Week By the Numbers
5 — districts in Upala and Liberia now on yellow alert around Rincón de la Vieja
80% — how far below normal September rain is projected to finish in the North Pacific
36 — months over which the government wants El Niño power costs spread across electricity bills
300+ — red taxi drivers signed up when Uber Taxi launched
32,373 — registered rental income taxpayers, in a country with about 360,000 rented homes
4.5x — the votes Costa Rica got over runner-up Norway for responsible travel in the National Geographic Traveller (UK) Reader Awards
The Top Story
The volcano remains at Activity Level 3, or Precaution. (Federico Chavarría / OVSICORI)
The National Emergency Commission (CNE) moved five districts around Rincón de la Vieja from green to yellow alert on Thursday. They are Dos Ríos and Aguas Claras in Upala, and Mayorga, Cañas Dulces and Curubandé in Liberia.
The decision came hours after the OVSICORI volcano observatory warned that eruptions could continue and some could be stronger than those seen so far. Between Sept. 26 and 28, instruments recorded 123 small earthquakes south of the crater in the Las Pailas area. The summit rose about 13 millimeters (half an inch) during September, and sulfur dioxide is reaching the surface more easily than before.
None of that means a major eruption is imminent. The yellow alert raises preparedness in nearby communities, and six eruptions recorded between Sept. 25 and 30 were mostly small releases of steam and gas.
For most people, the real danger is the rivers. Eruptions can send lahars, fast-moving flows of mud, rock and water, down channels far from the crater. Stay out of rivers carrying volcanic material, don’t drink or touch that water or give it to livestock, and if ash falls, cover your nose and mouth.
More News
Fares still follow the official taxi rates.
You can now order one of Costa Rica’s licensed red taxis through the Uber app. Uber Taxi launched Tuesday with more than 300 drivers signed up, and it sits alongside UberX, Uber XL and Uber Comfort.
The big change is knowing roughly what you’ll pay. You see an estimated fare before you confirm, though the final charge still follows the official rates set by the regulator, Aresep. Drivers can only pick up passengers in the province that matches their taxi plate.
The launch follows a pilot with the orange airport taxis at Juan Santamaría International Airport. DiDi has offered red taxis in its app since 2023.
September is normally the wettest stretch of the year. (MAG)
If you live on the Pacific side, the rainy season may end sooner than you’re used to. The National Meteorological Institute (IMN) expects El Niño to bring the dry season to the Pacific coast and Central Valley sometime between October and December, with November still the likely month of transition.
September is projected to close 80% below normal in the North Pacific, about 60% below in the Central and South Pacific and about 50% below in the Central Valley. That’s the rain that usually refills wells and aquifers before months of almost none. Expect more heat too, and fewer of the cool, breezy spells that usually arrive late in the year.
A national contingency plan also models a worst case in which the Orosi and Tres Ríos systems, which serve about 700,000 people in the Greater San José area, lose up to 45% of their water production. That’s a planning scenario, not a forecast. The Caribbean is the exception, with rain running above normal, so pack for wet weather in Limón, Cahuita and Puerto Viejo.
Hydroelectric plants produce roughly 70% of Costa Rica’s power.
When reservoirs drop, the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) burns imported fuel and buys power on the regional market, and that costs more. A directive from the Ministry of Environment and Energy, published Friday, proposes recovering those extra costs through electricity rates over 36 months rather than in one abrupt jump.
The last strong El Niño shows what’s at stake. In the first half of 2023, Costa Rica generated more thermal power than in 2017 through 2022 combined, and the regulator later named El Niño as the main cause of the higher rates approved for 2024. ICE has been arranging the rental of thermal plants valued at about $415 million.
Nothing changes on your bill yet. Any adjustment has to go through the regulator, Aresep, and no estimate of the effect on household bills has been published.
The number of rented homes grew 25% in five years. The tax rolls didn’t.
Costa Rica has about 360,000 rented homes, but at the end of 2025 only 32,373 people and companies were registered to pay tax on rental income. That figure has barely moved since the tax was first applied in 2020, rising by just 82 filers in five years.
The gap doesn’t mean 300,000 landlords are evading tax. One owner can rent out several homes, and some rental income is legally declared under other tax categories. Still, former Finance Ministry officials say the registry doesn’t add up, in part because residential tenants rarely need an invoice, which lets landlords stay off the tax system’s radar.
If you rent out property here, you’re expected to register and file monthly through the TRIBU-CR platform. The tax is 15% of rent after a standard 15% deduction, roughly 12.75% of gross rent, and it applies even to rents low enough to be exempt from VAT.
Both routes land at Guanacaste Airport in Liberia. (Southwest Airlines)
Southwest Airlines will fly nonstop from Austin to Guanacaste Airport in Liberia on Saturdays and Sundays from June 5 to Aug. 1, 2027, bringing back a direct link that doesn’t exist today. Its Nashville–Liberia service, already announced for February through April, will also run on Saturdays from June 5 to July 31.
Southwest already connects Liberia with Houston, Denver and Baltimore, and it has announced Saturday flights from Austin to San José starting in March 2027. The summer dates fall in the green season, when hotels on the northern Pacific coast usually have more room than during the December-to-April peak.
Quick Hits
Tampa is back on the map. Breeze Airways’ new nonstop between Tampa and San José was set to launch Saturday, flying Wednesdays and Saturdays on a 137-seat Airbus A220. It’s the first direct Tampa link in more than 25 years.
U.S. travelers, look for the QR codes at SJO. Signs in the immigration line and at baggage claim link to the State Department’s free STEP program, which sends embassy safety alerts and gives consular staff a way to reach you in an emergency. U.S. citizens living here can enroll too.
Route 140 is closed for weeks. A collapsed culvert near La Llanada cut the road between Ciudad Quesada and Aguas Zarcas, and repairs could run to mid-November. Use Route 35 and Route 4 through Muelle, and expect longer bus trips toward Pital and Sarapiquí.
La Sele finally won. After losses to Curaçao and Haiti cost Fernando Batista his job, interim coach Bryan Ruiz opened with a 3-0 win in Nicaragua, Costa Rica’s first victory in nearly a year. Relegation from League A is still in play against Haiti at Saprissa tonight at 6 p.m.
British readers crowned Costa Rica twice. It won adventure and responsible travel in the 2026 National Geographic Traveller (UK) Reader Awards and placed second for wildlife behind South Africa. Heading to Corcovado this month? Sirena, El Tigre and Los Patos are closed to visitors through October.
Spotlight
A male puma trailed a female for days in a Guanacaste protected area. (Vincent Losasso / Guanacaste Wildlife Monitoring)
Biologist Vincent Losasso keeps camera traps running in patches of wild Guanacaste, and his latest roundup is the kind of footage most visitors never get to see. In Nicoya, a male margay, a jaguar look-alike the size of a house cat, sat perfectly framed beside a river for 20 minutes, ears tuned to the night.
Elsewhere in Guanacaste, his cameras caught a big male puma following a few steps behind a female over several days, which Losasso reads as courtship. And on a log across a clear forest stream, a pile of scat made almost entirely of fish scales led him to set a camera that now catches neotropical river otters on their occasional visits.
Costa Rica has six wild cat species, and Losasso has now recorded five of them. The oncilla is still on his list.
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