Hollywood Stars Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt in Costa Rica

Famous Hollywood actors visited our country and shared some time with Colombian refugees.

Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and their three children stayed in Costa Rica last December from the 22th till New Year, according to Adrian Sandoval, manager of Aerojet.

The famous couple and their children (Maddox, Zahara and Shiloh) arrived at the Daniel Oduber airport in Liberia on December 22nd at 8:30p.m, on a private flight. They stayed at the Four Seasons hotel.

On the 26th, the couple traveled to San Jose in the afternoon to take a close look of how some Colombian refugees live here.

That’s because Angelina Jolie is a Good Will Ambassador for the United Nations Agency for Refugees (UNAR) since 2002 when she made her first visit to an Latin American country, Ecuador, with the same objective.

During their less than 6 hours stay in San Jose, Jolie and Pitt also talked to Costa Rican authorities in charge of these matters. Around 12,000 refugees live in the country, 9,000 of whom come from Colombia.

After arriving to the capital, the couple went directly to Pavas, west of San Jose, where they visited a bakery managed by a Colombian family. That business
got started and grew up thanks to a microcredit made by the UNAR to that family.

Then, Jolie and Pitt went to a photocopy and paper center near the San Juan de Dios Hospital, downtown San Jose where they walked around 50 meters to get there, almost without security.

Minutes later they visited the UNAR agency, where they spent a couple of hours with dozens of refugees who performed a musical show. At 4:15p.m they met some Government executives at the Costa Rican Art Museum in La Sabana.

During an hour, she expressed her impressions about what she saw with the refugees, and at the same time talked about her worries about the relations of a reduced number of refugees with local and foreign delinquents.

Some witnesses affirmed that she seemed “really interested” and commented on the hospitality and friendly manners of the Costa Rican people.

“On behalf of the UNAR, we want to thank the Government and the Costa Rican people for their constant support to all the victims of conflicts and persecution” said Jolie.

“We had a wonderful Christmas both with the Costa Ricans and the Colombian refugee families which we got together with,” stated the actress.

Later on, she and Pitt visited the different museum halls, as well as a mural that represents the story of the country. The meeting ended at 5:45pm and then they headed to the Juan Santamaria Airport where they flew to Liberia on their private, 15 person G-4 plane.

Mario Zamora, Immigration CEO, and Edgar Ugalde, described the actors like really kind and friendly people, and with a good knowledge of the refugees topic.

Zamora said that Jolie was really impressed about the level of preservation in our forests, the fact that our country does not have an army and the support the country gives to the refugees.

Our thanks to our friends at La Nación – Costa Rica’s largest Spanish circulation newspaper for their permission use this article.

Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.