Costa Rica

LIBERIA, Costa Rica - On a recent Friday morning at a gleaming new international airport in Costa Rica, hundreds of tourists from New York and Minnesota emerged blinking onto the sun-blasted tarmac. At the other end of the runway, eight Americans zipped into tan flight suits aboard a huge white surveillance plane. As four propellers roared, the P3 Orion flew out above the tourists and over the hotels and beach clubs of the Pacific coast, its bulbous radar dish scanning for speedboats loaded with U.S.-bound cocaine.

Union boss Peter Nowak used words like "imagination," and "creativity" in describing the type of mindset he'd like his club to exude this season. The team held a training session Wednesday at YSC Sports in Wayne in preparation for a 10-day training stint in Costa Rica. With three matches scheduled on turf every three days against a pair of clubs in Costa Rica's first division in addition to its under-20 national team, Nowak wants this phase of preseason coincides with his players knowing exactly what to do in "pressure situations.

The Union has signed Josue Martinez from Club Deportivo Saprissa. The forward will be available upon receipt of his P-1Visa and International Transfer Certificate. Terms were not disclosed. Raised within Saprissa's youth system, Martinez made an immediate impact by scoring his first goal during his professional debut against Puntaneras F.C. in November 2009. He has 18 goals in 43 appearances with the Monstruo Morado. In 2010, Martinez and Deportivo Saprissa conquered the Costa Rican First Division Clausura title after the young forward opened the scoring against Asociación Deportiva San Carlos.

Into the low-intensity warfare that has passed for U.S. policy in Central America, Costa Rica's President Oscar Arias shot a ray of light a few months ago. He floated a plan that called for "outsiders" (read: the United States and Soviet Union) to stop fueling the region's wars, a cease-fire in Nicaragua and El Salvador, and a mechanism to supervise elections that would give rebels on both sides of the fence a crack at power that didn't flow from the barrel of a gun. No one said it would be easy.

Two alleged high-living scam artists, accused of bleeding $2 million from a Bucks County school district and then leaving the district business manager holding the bag, were kicked out of Costa Rica yesterday and shipped to Miami, where the FBI nabbed them, authorities say. Fugitives Marc Suckman, 36, and his wife, Teresa, 33, were ratted out by a tipster who saw their pictures in last week's U.S. News & World Report, authorities said. Costa Rican authorities put the couple on a jet to Miami, where they were jailed pending a hearing to ship them back to Philadelphia for a trial on federal fraud charges.

MANUEL ANTONIO, Costa Rica - The afternoon rains long gone, the beach crowd at Playa Espadilla sits back to watch the liquid golds and purples of the Pacific sunset spread across the sky. Surfers catch the last curls of the day breaking toward the crescent-shaped cove. The snowbirds who flock to this resort along Costa Rica's central Pacific coast won't be here for months. There's plenty of room - and plenty of bargains - in local hotels, inns, and restaurants for travelers who don't mind dodging a shower or two during the region's May-to-December rainy season.

Midfielder Tab Ramos scored in the 72d minute to give the United States a 1-0 victory over Costa Rica in a World Cup qualifying game yesterday in Fenton, Mo. Ramos scored into the right corner of the net on a 23-yard shot off a feed from Bruce Murray, who headed the ball from the top of the penalty box. John Stollmeyer set up the play when he kicked the ball in from near midfield. U.S. goalkeeper David Vanole saved the victory when he stopped a penalty kick by Mauricio Montero with about two minutes remaining.

Costa Rica, one of Central America's travel hot spots for much of the 1990s, has hit a tourist slump. Recent figures from Juan Santamaria International Airport show a decline in arrivals of 2.2 percent during the first five months of the year over the same period last year. That seems modest enough, until the figure is contrasted with the 17.24 percent growth in tourist landings that was the average from 1990 to 1994. In 1995, arrivals grew by just 2.9 percent. It's the first time since the mid-1980s that tourist arrivals have dropped, according to the Tico Times newspaper.

ARENAL VOLCANO, Costa Rica - I'm sitting in the middle of a rain forest, mesmerized by the sight of a volcano erupting. It begins with a rumble, like thunder. A thin column of ash spews from the tip of the cone. Lava and freshly baked boulders slide down the steep slopes. My wife and I marvel at the spectacle - and at the fact that just 11 hours earlier, we were eating breakfast in Hershey, Pa. Costa Rica, between the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea and slightly smaller than West Virginia, was the perfect fit - a five-hour plane ride to a vibrant land of beaches, jungles, friendly people, volcanoes, and flora and fauna so numerous that thousands of species have yet to be named.

CANGREJAL, Costa Rica - A powerful magnitude-7.6 earthquake shook Costa Rica and neighboring countries Wednesday, sending panicked people into the streets and briefly triggering a tsunami alert, but causing little damage. Authorities reported one confirmed death. "When we felt the earthquake, we held on to each other because we kept falling," said Rosa Pichardo, 45, who was walking on the beach in the town of Samara with her family when the quake hit. "I've never felt anything like this," she said.

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - President Obama, concluding a three-day visit to Mexico and Costa Rica, is cheering Mexican economic advances and pressing other Central American leaders to deal with poverty and security while reaching out to a politically powerful Latino audience back home. Boosted by reassuring jobs numbers, Obama is calling for greater trade and economic cooperation with the U.S.'s southern neighbors, arguing that economic prosperity is the best antidote to drug and gang violence and, by extension, to the illegal immigration that the United States is seeking to control.

Obama: Mexico set to advance SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - President Obama on Friday cast Mexico as a nation ready to take "its rightful place in the world" and move past the drug battles and violence that have defined its relationship with the United States. He then headed to Costa Rica to prod Central American leaders to tackle those same issues more aggressively. Obama's visit to Mexico and Costa Rica is his first to Latin America since winning reelection. In Mexico in particular, he tried to set a new course for ties between the United States and its neighbor, promoting Mexico's improving economy and its democracy.

Nike is causing a social-media storm with its latest online ad showing a picture of Tiger Woods overlaid with a quote from him, "Winning takes care of everything. " The ad, posted on Facebook and Twitter, is supposed to allude to the fact that the golfer recovered from career stumbles to regain his world No. 1 ranking, which he lost in October 2010. But some say it's inappropriate in light of Woods' past marital woes. Woods has used the phrase, at least since 2009, when reporters ask him about golfers' rankings.

The NFL has agreed to pay $42 million as part of a settlement with a group of retired players who challenged the league over using their names and images without their permission. Terms of the settlement were announced on Monday. The league will use the money to fund a trust over the next eight years that will benefit retired players. The settlement also establishes a new licensing agency for retired players to ensure they are compensated for the use of their identities in promotional materials.

LIBERIA, Costa Rica - On a recent Friday morning at a gleaming new international airport in Costa Rica, hundreds of tourists from New York and Minnesota emerged blinking onto the sun-blasted tarmac. At the other end of the runway, eight Americans zipped into tan flight suits aboard a huge white surveillance plane. As four propellers roared, the P3 Orion flew out above the tourists and over the hotels and beach clubs of the Pacific coast, its bulbous radar dish scanning for speedboats loaded with U.S.-bound cocaine.

At Episcopal Academy, Crawford Hill was known simply as "Chill," ever since a student needing a library pass noticed there was a cool nickname to be configured from the longtime biology teacher's usual signature: C. Hill. Two years ago, Hill left the acclaimed private school in Newtown Square, where he was also the wrestling coach, to pursue a new career - one still steeped in teaching and inspiring. So he didn't leave the nickname behind. He incorporated it in the name of the Main Line travel business he now runs - Chill Expeditions L.L.C.

CANGREJAL, Costa Rica - A powerful magnitude-7.6 earthquake shook Costa Rica and neighboring countries Wednesday, sending panicked people into the streets and briefly triggering a tsunami alert, but causing little damage. Authorities reported one confirmed death. "When we felt the earthquake, we held on to each other because we kept falling," said Rosa Pichardo, 45, who was walking on the beach in the town of Samara with her family when the quake hit. "I've never felt anything like this," she said.

Go all coffee geek by roasting your own beans. Fante's sells a variety of unroasted (green) beans from such locales as Costa Rica, Ethiopia, and Brazil. Pop them into a 425-degree oven; 12 minutes results in a medium roast. Let rest overnight, grind, and drink, or make your own blends. - Ashley Primis Brazil Santos unroasted beans, $6.29 per pound at Fante's Kitchen Shop, 1006 S. 9th St., 215-922-5557, fantes.com .

Who: D.C. United (8-4-3, 27 points) at Union (2-7-2, eight points) When: Saturday, 7 p.m. Where: PPL Park, Chester TV: CSN; Galavision Outlook: The first match of the John Hackworth era is actually a rematch: The Union defeated D.C. United, 2-1, in U.S. Open Cup play two weeks ago, a physical affair that took extra time to settle in Maryland. United hasn't forgotten that game - especially midfielder Brandon McDonald, who received a red card after getting into a skirmish with Union defender Carlos Valdes, who will play in this match, but is out for the June 26 U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal game against the Harrisburg City Islanders.