this really burns my butt

Guanacacaste to Receive $2 Billion in Tourism Projects
The northwestern Guanacaste province is likely to receive more than $2 billion in tourism projects during the next three years, thanks to 35 projects including hotels and luxury residences in the works, according to the weekly El Financiero.

Additionally, during the next 20 years, at least 28 hotels and 9,700 homes are expected to go up in Guanacaste, many of which are marketed toward retired U.S. citizens.

Investors in these projects are mostly from the United States, but they also come from Costa Rica, Germany, South Africa, Japan, Mexico and Italy, El Financiero reported.

At least 347 hotels to have a total of 6,724 rooms are under construction this year in Guanacaste, marking 66% growth over construction in the region last year. Chains including Four Seasons, Holiday Inn, JW Marriot and Hyatt are among those building.

Guanacaste is the Costa Rican province showing the most tourism development. Attractions include its beaches, national parks and the Daniel Oduber International Airport in the city of Liberia.

the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. when i went to spanish school for 3 weeks last year while living in costa rica all 3 of my teachers, one of them a pastor, all of them very intelligent people, denied that there was poverty in costa rica.

i couldn't believe it. were we living in the same country? how could they not have noticed it?

then i talked to a friend that works for vision mundial (world vision). she said that the government is so hand in hand with the tourism board to promote costa rica as a tourism destination they avoid mentioning the poverty.

sure the ticos will benefit from the tourism, they will get jobs where they will be treated like second class citizens in their own country. although the beach is public property one posh resort that i saw blocked off the road to prevent the locals from the neighbouring village getting to the beach area.

i get so angry that the rich keep getting richer, spending millions of dollars on extravagant weddings, on gowns that they'll wear once, on homes that could house entire villages, on feasts that could feed an entire country. it wouldn't bother me if people cared as much for the welfare of others as they do for themselves.

i know it's to 'protect' us, but when according to food safe, food has to be thrown out simply because it has been out and is left over. there were times in costa rica where we all dipped our fingers into the same bowl and ate with our fingers. i have to admit it caused me to pause but my hunger overcame my concern as i know it would the many children dying of starvation.