I didn't see the show, but I have actually been to CR & some of what was said in the article is a misrepresentation.
Yes, the Del Rey is the most popular place to meet chicas who are prostitutes. It's open 24 hrs a day, & you could go in there at 6 a.m. & take a girl back to your hotel. On weekend nights, the place is packed so that you can barely move, with the girls grabbing you & trying to entice you to pick them. You can negotiate a rate with them, but when I was there, the standard rate was $100 USD for 1 hr.
However, since prostitution in CR is legal, the girls are required to carry what amounts to a license from the Costa Rican government in order to ply their trade. The owners of the various bars will NOT allow a girl to work in their bar without one. Why? Because they'll be shut down if they're caught, and for the Blue Marlin (which is the bar inside the Del Rey and where all the girls hang out) that would be like pissing away literally millions of dollars over the course of a year. BTW, you can also ask a girl to see her license if her age is in doubt. If she doesn't have one, I wouldn't take the chance of taking her back to the hotel with me. Interesting sidebar: when you do take a "guest" back to your hotel, the girl MUST leave her license with the front desk as a precaution against her robbing you, ie., she has to stop at the front desk, so there's no clean getaway. Also the hotel where I stayed would call the room before the girl left just to make sure.
I just want to say that I in no way condone sex with underage girls, but if one were to go looking for that in CR, it is unfortunately available. You'd basically have to find it on the street however, and that means a) the girl is unlicensed, so may be underage or diseased or both, or b) the girl may be a transvestite.
I had a great time in CR & would love to go back.