SETTING THE WAY TO GO FOR ALL GLOBAL INSTITUTIONS COMBATING THE PANDEMIC
The United Nations (UN) representative in Costa Rica has recognized the “exceptional and innovative” way in which the country has responded to the Covid-19 Pandemic. “Under the leadership of the President of the Republic (Carlos Alvarado), the Minister of Health (Daniel Salas), the Emergency Operation Center (COE) and all related institutions are truly developing an inter-institutional response and an exemplary articulated response,” was said by Alice Shackelford, UN coordinator in the country.
Shackelford highlighted, for example, the fact that the National Liquor Factory (Final) is producing gel alcohol, instead of Guaro Cacique, to supply demand and that “Correos de Costa Rica” is providing facilities to distribute this product to the population. “There is a coordinated, articulated response, also thinking about an innovative system that can help us against Covid-19,” said the representative.
She states that “on behalf of the United Nations System we want the citizens to know that the country is being accompanied to develop this response by the different implementation plans to ensure that no one is left behind.”
Hackelford indicated that they are supporting the communication and development of the country’s official’s message to the population about the novel Coronavirus, with a more specific focus on more vulnerable groups such as indigenous peoples, children and adolescents, senior adults and people with disabilities to ensure that no one is left behind.
On Thursday morning the country had registered 69 people infected with the virus, one of whom died last Wednesday and five others continued hospitalized. The first fatality is a retired doctor (pediatrician), 87 years old, who was hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit of the San Rafael de Alajuela Hospital.
Daily, the health authorities offer a press conference to inform the population about the new cases, the measures to be taken and insist that citizens do not leave their homes unless for urgent needs. Among the provisions that have been taken as a result of the pandemic, there is the suspension of classes until April 13th, the cancellation of large public gatherings, the suspension of sports activities and the closure of discos, bars, and casinos.
Also, as of this Thursday, all borders are closed for the arrival of foreigners, while nationals and residents entering the country will be placed in mandatory quarantine. For its part, the bank system will prioritize the adjustment of debts for those affected by the virus, and the National Rehabilitation Center (Cenare) was designated as the exclusive hospital to attend patients with Covid-19.
Friday I went to Alajuela early for my appointment at the government hospital to get an appointment scheduled with my Cardiologist in Nov-Dec for my annual checkup (yeah, its weird to have an appointment to get an appointment), plus I had a package to pick up at Aeropost and a couple of items to get at PriceSmart.
Wow! I had not been to Alajuela since the Coronavirus scare hit and it has nearly as many cases as San Jose as the second largest city (and my provincial capital by the way). EVERYTHING WAS DIFFERENT!
1st, to get to the hospital early enough for shorter lines, I took the 6:30 AM bus, which is usually packed with people going to work, shopping, appointments, visits, etc. There were just 5 of us passengers on the bus – scattered out one to a seat. And at the entrance to bus was a bottle of hand sanitizer.
Empty streets!
2nd, as the bus arrived in Alajuela I could immediately see a difference with fewer cars and people – some streets like a ghost town!
3rd, no wait for a taxi with few people there to use them.
4th, when I got to the hospital, there were few people out front as I was expecting by now, but I wasn’t expecting to be turned away! When I got to the door a guard was stopping everyone and I showed him my cita(appointment paper) and he rattled off several things rapidly that I did not fully understand but I think he was basically telling me “no” that “all appointments not emergencies are canceled.” Bottom line, he would not let me in! 🙂
I got there early on purpose to avoid a long wait, yet I still expected to spend an hour or more. But I spent only 5 minutes there and it was now about 7:20 AM, with Aeropost not opening until 9 and PriceSmart at 9:30. Ugh! Oh well, I drank no coffee at home that morning and had only a bowl of cold cereal, so I took my time walking about 8 blocks to the nearest McDonald’s for breakfast.
5th, I entered the biggest MacDonald’s in Central Alajuela with only one other customer inside! Like the bus, they had hand sanitizer at the counters. I took my time with ham & eggs and lots of coffee while reading the Washington Post. At about 8:30 I began the 6 block walk to Aeropost, getting there 10 minutes before they opened officially.
6th, at Aeropost I only waited a few minutes before one of the clerks, who recognized me through the glass (I’m a regular), came out with my little package, so I did not even have to be one of their limit of 3 customers inside the store – see sign below. And the bright red & green sign reflected backwards in their window is a MegaSuperMercado, a downtown chain-supermarket across the street! The English translation of their home-made sign: “Maximum 3 customers within the branch.” In what they call a “branch office.” That is also the feature photo and the recommended “Social Distancing” to help stop the spread of the virus. Costa Rica is doing its part one little business at a time! 🙂
“Social distancing!” inside banks and businesses.
7th, Because of the time I saved from the hospital rejection, I had about 30 minutes before PriceSmart even opened, so I just walked the 12 or so blocks to PriceSmart which opens at 9:30. This is one way I get my exercise! 🙂 And in so doing, I walked by Alajuela Central Park which, like the one in Atenas, is closed with yellow tape wrapped all around the whole block:
“No large public gatherings” thus all parks are closed in Costa Rica!
8th, at the entrance to PriceSmart (our store like Costco or Sam’s Club) they not only had a bottle of hand sanitizer, but specifically asked me to please use it while the lady wiped off the handle of my push cart. But unlike everywhere else I had been that morning, they were full of people and at opening time! Full with long check-out lines! And still some crazy bulk-buying by the panicked!
I actually don’t like this store which is too expensive, too large a quantity of things, and not consistent in their stocking; BUT they usually have about 5 or so items I cannot get anywhere else – things I really like. (Another option might be at AutoMercado, an American-styled supermarket specializing in American brands, but their location is not as handy for me as PriceSmart, as a bus rider.)
When I got out of PriceSmart it was a little after 10, meaning I had just missed the 10 o’clock bus! In the mornings the return buses only run on the hour (tho every 30 minutes in the afternoon), so I just slowly walked the 6 blocks to the bus stop for Atenas and still had time to read a little of my new mystery book before it left at 11. Oh well, another morning is gone! But hey! I’m Retired in Costa Ricaand this kind of virus-influenced inconvenience is simply part of my daily adventure! Its what you do when you are retired in Costa Rica! 🙂
“An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.”
― G.K. Chesterton
Maybe – or maybe not – just art that my second dentist (Ureña) likes or maybe a relative made. He has these in his lobby and 3 appear to be the same indigenous woman from behind but in different clothing and accessories. Whatever the story behind them, my first impression was good and I snapped photos with my phone. The other appears to be an early migrant from the Caribbean Islands to the Caribbean (Atlantic) Coast of Costa Rica, where most of the Afro-Costa Ricans live and have roots in Jamaica or other Caribbean Islands, originally brought here by Spaniards to work their banana and other farms. We have the largest Jamaican population outside of Jamaica. 🙂 Anyway, I think it is good art and I enjoy art!
“The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.”
~Francis Bacon
¡Pura Vida!
And a local sense of humor at Tico Times Digital Newspaper:
Since all the people are staying at home, the native animals are reclaiming our Costa Rica parks, even Jurassic Park! 🙂 Or is that the lake in downtown San Jose’s Sabana Park?
Native animals return to Costa Rica as coronavirus forces humans indoors The Tico Times – Mar 21, 2020
Yeah, it’s been awhile since I’ve done an update and there is still not a huge progress to show. They have been working on one of the radial sidewalks for over a month, the one from the center kiosk to the northeast corner. They’ve even had a cement truck out, but still very slow. It will be really nice when they finish it, with two half-circle patios off the sidewalk, one on each side at each end for picnic tables, game tables, and exercise are a few things shown in the original architect’s drawings.
My review of The Adventurer’s Son got a “Like” from the author, Roman Dial. I finished the book and liked it much even if sad. A guess all of us who venture into the wilds realize the dangers but still go because of the great joys! I would have guessed that in Corcovado he most likely would have died from a deadly snake bite and would never have guessed from a tree falling in a storm – but such are the surprises in the wilderness and in life and death. And I’m glad it was not “foul play” from a bad human as some had thought throughout the story. It was an emotional read.
I went to the dentist this morning (report below) and afterwards the bank to pay my rent (my only monthly bill not on auto-debit which is a long story) then by the park to my pharmacy for two prescriptions from Dr. Ureña. I noticed two or three new precautions for Coronavirus. Here’s two pictured.
Bank Line with 6 ft. Distances
Bank lines here (and many others) have always used chairs so people can wait in line seated, just getting up and moving every time another person is called. Before now, many chairs were crammed in side by side with people elbow to elbow. Now we are separated! 🙂 And I did not ask my teller to let me photograph his hands, but all tellers are wearing rubber gloves now.
It seems even more stark when no one is in line! But I don’t like to photograph people in public without their permission anyway! 🙂
Central Park Closed
While I was walking by the park this morning, city employees were stringing up the yellow hazard tape to essentially close the city park where usually it is the center of social activity and close contact between people. Not now! Such social distancing is necessary if we (the whole world) are to defeat this pandemic!
And I am avoiding my 2 or 3 times a week coffee or breakfast with friends at Crema y Nata. The World Health Organization recommendation. I may still eat out once or twice a week, but at odd hours at a table solo!
Stay Healthy! Avoid People! 🙂
Dental Update
This morning was my time to go back to the dental specialist for my root canal, assuming the infection was gone. Well, it hurt all week which was an indicator that I still have an infection. Plus the root canal specialist couldn’t make it because she had to rush her husband to the hospital with some kind of kidney problem, but Dr. Ureña is very good and I trust him. In fact, he did two things I wish she had done: He removed the temporary cap and will leave it off with only a wad of cotton in the hole, allowing the infection to drain (she did say that might have to be done). In addition to an antibiotic in the hole, he gave me a prescription for an oral antibiotic to take for a week. Together they should clean up the problem caused by a North American dentist not completing his root canal properly. He also gave me his personal cell phone number if I have any problems or severe pain. It is hard to find soft food that I like to eat beyond oatmeal and pudding! 😉 And even then I can only chew on my left side.
Whew! I go back Monday to see if infection is gone so the root canal can be completed or decide when, but surely sometime next week. But Dr. Ureña assures me I will be fine for my trip the 30th. And since tourism is at a standstill here, I may be at the lodge nearly alone or with an easy job of “social distancing.” 🙂 From the land of rainforests & happiness . . .
Yesterday one case of Coronavirus was confirmed in Atenas. Many of our local people commute to both Alajuela and San Jose for jobs, a natural way for it to spread from the two cities with the most cases. Country-wide Costa Rica has 75 cases now and one death. This is a real pandemic!
Those were the last words emailed to the parents of Cody Roman Dial as he entered the famous and notorious Corcovado National Park on the Osa Peninsula of south-western Costa Rica on the Pacific coast near the Panama border, July 10, 2014.
I am currently about 85% through the Kindle version of this memoir of the loss of Roman Dial’s son Cody Roman Dial here in Costa Rica the same year I moved here, 2014. It all happened in one of the wildest jungles in Central America, the kind with dangers that attract young men like Cody! From snakes & jaguars to illegal gold miners.
The book is The Adventurer’s Son by Roman Dial, the young man’s father, and it starts slow as a childhood biography of Cody helping you to love the adventurous boy as if you were his parent too. Then later he adds as many details as he had of Cody’s solo adventure hike from Mexico City to South America through Central America as an invincible-feeling 27 year old with enormous experience in the wild since his young childhood, most with his parents or sometimes with just the father, who is a lifetime adventurer, explorer, scientists, college professor and part-time explorer for National Geographic. The young man sort of had a reason to feel invincible in the wild. On his trek he climbed the highest mountain in Mexico, used his Spanish language to relate to locals, did an impossible off-trail hike through the jungles of El Peten, Guatemala and boated through the dangerous La Mosquitia Swamp in Honduras before coming to Costa Rica. All of the above were already amazing feats!
Cody Roman Dial
Because Corcovado National Park is one of my favorite places in Costa Rica that I have visited 3 times now, I was naturally quite interested in the story and the book.
I will not try to summarize the book or write a full review right now (I’m still reading it), here I give links to public information on the book (the above title link is to the Amazon.com source of the book). Below are three reviews. Plus I have added the reports of the father’s search by our local online newspaper Tico Times and some other news media reports below that. Lastly I have added links to the photo galleries of my three visits to this wilderness national park that took Cody’s life.
Cody’s equipment and passport found with human remains.Forensic specialists recover remains 2 years later.
There are many more stories online about the mysterious disappearance of Cody Roman Dial and and the ultimate conclusion that he was struck by a tree in a storm and killed in the wilderness of Corcovado National Park, hiking off trail which is against the park rules and hiking without an official guide which is also against the park rules. Sometimes rules are for your own good, but a real adventurer doesn’t always think so.
The book and the live news stories are heartbreaking for parents (I empathize because I’ve lost a child), but this story shows the infrequent yet possible dangers in the wilderness that any adventurer knows are possible. I would personally have thought a poisonous snake more likely there, but even the less likely falling tree is possible, especially in the many storms there.
I remember backpacking solo on Fiery Gizzard Trail in TN with fewer dangers but real dangers anyway. Then one day in 2012 on just a day hike there I stumbled and fell on a rocky mountainous trail and was serious hurt requiring stitches in my head. Maybe a life of adventure is always a gamble to some degree, but many real adventurers feel they must continue the gamble! But, like with so many things for me, I tend to be a moderate, wanting adventure but with more caution than many require, especially the young invencibles!
And yes! I will continue to go to Corcovado National Park (see photos of my 3 visits linked below), but always I go with a guide on an official trail, as tame as that may seem to you Cody’s out there! 🙂 I am basically a risk-adverse adventurer! And yes, that is compromising the very meaning of “adventure,” but I’m an old man who is still alive and still having fun! 🙂
My Comparatively Tame Corcovado Adventures
2018-March-13-17–Danta Corcovado — At Los Patos Entrance on above map.
There are only two other entrances that I have not visited, Sirena & Rio Tigre, but may yet. No planned trips there this year but maybe I go again in 2021. 🙂
One of the many retirement blogs is titled “This Retirement Life”and the writer Dave Hogan, a financial planner, just took the Caravan Tour of Costa Rica which I highly recommend for a 9 day overview of the whole country as a tourist first, before you start the serious work of planning on living here.
After doing the Caravan Tour Dave stopped in to San Ramon to interview my friends Paul and Gloria Yeatman who have done the excellent blog “Retire for Less in Costa Rica” for the last ten years along with a healthcare tour of Costa Rica and are slowing down now, about to phase out their monthly blog post that I highly recommend to all couples considering retirement here and I will likewise recommend the book they are soon putting together by the same title, in addition to Gloria’s CR Cookbook already available! 🙂
Read this great Interview with Paul & Gloria Yeatman on the Retirement Life blog. If you are considering retirement anywhere outside the U.S., it will help you with the big picture from another first-hand experience! And get to know a couple who did retirement as well or better than anyone I know! Enjoy!
“It is better to live rich than to die rich.” – Samuel Johnson
“There’s always a story. It’s all stories, really. The sun coming up every day is a story. Everything’s got a story in it. Change the story, change the world.”
― Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky
Those were 
