One thing is for certain, Costa Rica not only has some beautiful sights to visit but it is also very much into dance and we mean all kinds of dance.

• Manuel Antonio Manuel Antonio
• Manuel Antonio Manuel Antonio
• Manuel Antonio Manuel Antonio
• Manuel Antonio Manuel Antonio
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This year’s visit began with a trip to Manuel Antonio on the south west coast of this beautiful country of Costa Rica. Once there some of the sights left and right left you breathless and if you walk on some of this hills that also could easily leave you breathless. But it was all great with fantastic beaches to enjoy, incredible panoramic views and if you are adventurous, many hikes where you can see some of the must incredible topography, plant and animal fauna in the world. And at night plenty of good food and dance and more dance.

• Costa Rican Open Costa Rican Open
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As I mentioned earlier, “Ticos” the Costa Rican short slang for Costa Ricans, love to dance and nowhere could you appreciate their passion better than at the Costa Rica Open Dance Fest. The first day of competitions was a full day from 8 AM until midnight, filled with dancing. Earlier in the day we saw children dance all the different styles from the “criollo” to salsa groups and singles and pairs to ballroom, where they showcased all the different genres in our style of Ballroom dancing. We also saw the Rhythm and Latin styles showcased in the adult section of Pro/Am dancing this day, as well as some of the Latin Open amateurs taking to the floor, we saw it all.

They also had plenty of support from other American countries not just the USA. They had some excellent participation from Mexico, Brazil and a couple of other countries. This is all fantastic but what is really impressive to us all is the amount of support the Costa Rican people gave all the dancers, the room was packed from start to finish even though it was being broadcast live by Hola TV in Costa Rica and the USA, but you could also see it at teleredtelevision.com .

• Convention Center Convention Center
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Today we are heading once again to one of the most beautiful and fully equipped convention centers we have ever seen, with its changing lights depicting the proud jungles and fauna of the country. Today at that beautiful venue the competition will continue featuring more Ballroom dancing this time with focus on the Ballroom and Smooth section, with pro/am of all ages, junior, youth and amateur groups taking part. We are also sure to see more folklore and other genres of dance throughout the day. It is all a wonderful festival of all styles of dance that come together like Costa Rica itself in peace and “Pura Vida.”

On the way to the venue today we saw the volcano erupting in the distance, this is a new occurrence for us visiting Costa Rica. It must be Pele from Hawaii’s cousin, the Turrialba Volcano also dancing and celebrating life “Pura Vida.” We will keep you posted about all the happenings at the convention center with more video clips on FaceBook. We leave you with the actual knowledge of where this volcano is that we just saw in the distance.

Costa Rica is an amazing country that draws not only year-round tourists, but also scientists. Archeologists, geologists, and volcanologists travel to Costa Rica from all over the world to study the beautiful, natural landscape. One of the reasons that volcanologists are so drawn to Costa Rica is because the country’s bountiful national parks and reserves are home to more than sixty volcanoes. That’s right, there is a great number of glorious towers (some dormant or extinct) raising about the earth here in Costa Rica. Volcanologists come here so that they can study these volcanoes, in the hopes of finding out more about what makes them erupt. The hope for these studies is that the knowledge gained can help scientists find a way to better predict eruptions, and ultimately save lives.

• Eruption Eruption
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The erupting volcano Turrialba is an 11,000 foot tall strato volcano that can be found in the region with the same name, Turrialba in Cartago, about 50 kilometers to the east of Costa Rica’s capital city, San José. The area is typically one that is teeming with tourists and scientists, who have long celebrated the volcano’s craters.

Once we got to the beautiful convention center today (Sunday), we continued with the intense competition, but this time with jazz, ballet, folklore singles and groups and we have to say we saw some of the most impressive talent of the two days of dancing.

There was a heat with group of little girls, 5 of them to be precise, that were amazing, each one of them had what we can almost call a professional program.  The young ladies must have been 7 years old or it seems less, but their maturity in some of their work sent chills to one’s spine. We were only a little concerned with the choice of music. Perhaps the best of the heat, a young girl, who performed a very adult song and although there was no vulgarity in the song or theme, it dealt with very adult issues and we are sure it made some of the judges swallow hard, after a couple of them mentioned that although they thought she was perhaps one of the best, her teachers should give better thought to this type of theme. But we have to say that, it was lovely to see so much talent and all so young all in one category.

• Folkloric Group Folkloric Group
• Salsa solo Salsa solo
• Salsa Group Salsa Group
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But there were some excellent teams as well, one of the urban teams was amazing and clearly a “Costa Rica” got talent moment.  Their choreography was so precise, they must have spent lots of time, sweat and discipline to get the work to be this perfect.  These were just a few of the amazingly talented dancers we witnessed this year at the Costa Rica Open Dance Fest. We also saw plenty of Pro/Am Ballroom dancing but this time in the Ballroom and Smooth divisions, we were also glad to see some participation from the USA and Costa Rica in these categories.

With this the two days of competition in this beautiful green paradise came to an end.