Jeff Dunsavage's Blog – September 2010 Archive (18)

Ecuador Declares Emergency as Police Protest, President is Attacked, CNN Says.

During times of civil unrest, travelers often fall out of communication with their families and friends back home. Please keep us posted if you hear of anyone who has gone missing in Ecuador during this crisis.

The Safest Way to Travel in Costa Rica: A Primer for Tourists - a recent article from Insidecostaric.com. I am posting it in full below because it is too important to risk losing due to a broken link. Many thanks to the author, John Holtz.

Please show your support for the family of Kim Paris, a Canadian citizen missing for several weeks in Costa Rica, by joining the Facebook page created by her family and friends. Kim is the fifth person to go missing in Costa Rica since March 2009. Several…

Two French tourists have been missing nearly four weeks in Bolivia's Beni region in the Amazon bordering Brazil, the French ambassador said Wednesday in launching a public appeal for help finding them. The couple was identified as Fanny Blancho, 23 and her partner, Jeremy Bellanger, 25. Read full article.

Ambassador Antoine Grassin said the couple was in the midst of a tour of…

It looks as if the Ottawa Citizen was a bit loose in its language. Canada does not have an official travel advisory out on Costa Rica - but the Foreign Affairs website advises as follows:

Travellers should be alert to their surroundings near the ports of Limón and Puntarenas. In San José, high-risk areas for theft include the Coca Cola bus station, the inner downtown area and the public parks. Travellers should also be cautious in Tamarindo, Jaco, Quepos and Manuel Antonio on…

Car Loaded With Explosives Disabled in Mexico

85 Inmates Escape Mexican Prison Near Texas

Mexico lead the so-called "Death Watch", with 10 journalists…

You can't make this shit up! More than a decade after Elian Gonzalez was ripped from his family's arms at gunpoint in Florida and returned to Cuba after his mother and uncles drowned bringing him to freedom in the U.S., Brazilian authorities have given legal custody Florida runaway to the family of the boyfriend she met online. Read the fully story.

"If this was a…

Jisoo Han, a Korean woman awaiting trial over the death of Dutch schoolteacher Mariska Mast in Roatan, Honduras, has pleaded for Australian Dan Ross to save her from spending the rest of her life in a Honduran jail. Han, under house arrest in Honduras, proclaimed her innocence yesterday and said she still had no idea what happened the night 23-year-old Mast died. Read full…

Kim Paris, a 33-year-old Canadian woman, is the latest ex-pat to disappear in Costa Rica, according to A.M. Costa Rica. The woman, who lives in Santa Teresa de Cóbano de Puntarenas, disappeared Aug. 26, judicial agents in Costa Rica said. U.S. citizen, Roger Peter Biennvennu, 64, has been missing since early July. He lives in Barrio Quebradas, San Isidro de Peréz Zeledón. According to A.M. Costa Rica, Kim is the fifth expat to disappear in the…

Important story on CNN.com about the two American nutjobs who were killing ex-pat property owners in Panama and just taking over their properties (according to one of the blogs I read, they had a local lawyer taking care of the paperwork). The couple was caught in Nicaragua a few weeks ago, after a detour through Costa Rica. This region attracts all kinds -- the hopeful…