Tag: pandemic

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Got My Vaccination QR Code!

I got it 2 days ago, on December 1. This is to prove that I have been fully vaccinated against Covid and tentatively starting January 8 will be required to enter all businesses and other public places just like the mask and handwashing. Vaccination Required in Costa Rica! They will have scanners at the entrance to scan the QR Code on my phone (or on a paper). Until then it is optional for businesses that want to be open at 100% capacity. Soon Costa Rica will be totally Covid-free! Everyone vaccinated! 🙂 Then all restaurants can use all their tables! 🙂

Biden tried in the States but the stupid Republicans stopped him and the vaccination requirement. Sure glad I live in Costa Rica now and not the States! We are very safe here and tourists are returning (if fully vaccinated) 🙂 and we are one of, if not the safest & healthiest country in the Americas! Pura Vida! The Red X and line through number is in case someone tries to copy my code! 🙂 Though an ID Card can be asked for which would make a copy not work anyway! 🙂 But I’m trying to be safe!

Continue reading “Got My Vaccination QR Code!”
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Costa Rica Schools Restart in 2021 February

Well . . . a “blended” model of every other day in person and every other day online beginning February 8 for public schools and in January for some private schools with masks and social distancing required for everyone! Read about it in Tico Times online: Costa Rica will resume in-person learning in 2021.

Today I walked past Colegio Liceo during their “graduation” of seniors with everyone outside waiting to go in for diplomas, one family at a time. Unfortunately 2020 has not been the best year to be a graduating senior! But it is what it is and will certainly be memorable! 🙂

Costa Rica has had hardly any children with the virus and the country as a whole low in cases compared to the United States, though we are still dealing with cases, mainly in the big city of San Jose and some along the Nicaragua border with Nicaragua being hit hard and their 3rd world country government doing little to prevent cases, kind of like the USA :-). Costa Rica still has a national requirement of masks in public and 1.8 meter (6ft) distancing anywhere in public with restaurants, hotels, supermarkets and other businesses limited to 50% capacity and automobiles only allowed on road every other day based on tag number with big fines for cheating. These kinds of precautions help! 🙂

The featured photo is one of my old ones of Escuela Central Atenas, the public elementary school here. During the down time workers have repainted it from this institutional beige color to a little brighter institutional gray and white now. Sorry I haven’t photographed it yet.

KLM names airplane after Costa Rican national park

Read about it in Tico Times article. The Boeing 777-300 was baptized “Cocos Island National Park” in honor of the Costa Rican Pacific island that’s an important conservation area for terrestrial and marine wildlife (and that was the inspiration for the fictional Isla Nublar in “Jurassic Park”).

Cocos Island National Park Airliner

¡Pura Vida!

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Central Park Open to COVID Quiet

Last week they took down all that yellow plastic crime-scene tape that surrounded the Atenas Central Park, but it is still mostly empty with no concerts or fiestas scheduled. There were a few old men on the opposite corner where they usually “hang out,” but that was all. And the colorful Marigolds that were planted on this corner that I shared earlier have been removed. Hmmm. And there has been no continued work on the park remodeling, probably because of a lack of tax money.

Atenas is still in the Pandemic Shutdown Mode with few people in Central Atenas on the above cloudy day and many shops closed, some permanently. A difficult year for many here and worldwide!

I feel safe walking to and through town with my mask (required by law here) and anyone else who is out is also wearing a mask and maintaining a 1.8 meter distance, also required by law here. It is a bit of trouble but at least we are not having the daily increases of cases and deaths like the USA! It is still beyond my understanding how so many people still support that stupid, lying, self-centered, racist Donald Trump who clearly is responsible for thousands of deaths he could have prevented and the equally evil Republican Party supporting him. God help America! At least one Republican expressed a little bit of common sense today on Trump’s refusal to concede the election:

“It’s just simply madness,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said. “The idea of supplanting the vote of the people with partisan legislators, is, is so completely out of our national character that it’s simply mad. Of course the president has the right to challenge results in court, to have recounts. But this effort to subvert the vote of the people is dangerous and destructive of the cause of democracy.”

~Washington Post, 10 December 2020

Thank God I live in Costa Rica!

¡Pura Vida!

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A Lockdown Puzzle

It’s rumored that many people went back to working jigsaw puzzles while on COVID19 lockdown. My neighbor’s sister came for an extended visit from the States just before our airport closed for the pandemic and she just returned to the states this week. In addition to books, she had this puzzle to work on while here. She gave it to me on leaving since her brother was not interested. I started on it immediately, liking a challenge!

I normally work only “nature” puzzles, especially landscapes and since moving to Costa Rica I have only worked puzzles online, electronically, and usually a much easier image than this 1,000 piece Coca Cola nostalgia painting. ! THIS WAS DIFFICULT! I spent an hour or two every day for six days but completed it solo. Now I will give it to my maid whose children and niece will enjoy working it while also feeling “trapped” at home. And I will go back to online 50-piece nature images that I can solve in 4-5 minutes before going to bed at night! 🙂 Hey! Its just to calm me down and clear my mind for bedtime! A tranquilizer. 🙂

A difficult jigsaw puzzle. Un rompecabezas difícil.

¡Pura Vida!

Most Read Bible Verse in 2020

Isaiah 41:10 was searched for and read more online than any other this year during the pandemic:

Don’t panic. I’m with you.

    There’s no need to fear for I’m your God.

I’ll give you strength. I’ll help you.

    I’ll hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you.

Isaiah 41:10, THE MESSAGE

New plastic currency begins November 26

CENTRAL BANKING announces: Costa Rica to issue first polymer banknotes

For photos of what they will look like go to: Q Costa Rica News Article

¡Pura Vida!

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Pandemic Birding!

Thanks to my friend Larry for catching this fine AP News Article:  Bird-watching soars amid COVID-19 as Americans head outdoors   Read the article linked to see what people all over the U.S. are doing more of now, then head over to eBird or just use your phone to download the free app Merlin to identify birds and start your “bird collection” online or in a photo gallery. My world-wide (10 countries) ebird count is over 530 now!    🙂    Thank you Larry for this great way to relieve one’s boredom from quarantine! And feel free to peruse my BIRDS photo collection that include 76+ species I photographed in the States before moving to Costa Rica.

Now, this quote from the article:

“The birds don’t know that there’s a pandemic. They’re migrating, building nests and laying eggs, just like they always have,”      ~Michael Kopack Jr.

¡Pura Vida!

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Costa Rica’s Prepared for Virus

Like Costa Rica’s emblematic Sloth, the people here are always smiling and prepared for come what may – even Coronavirus! Feature photo is by the Sloth Rescue Ranch, not me, and from Tico Times. Read on to see how better prepared little Costa Rica is than the big ol’ USA and thus we will get over it quicker too!   🙂

Thursday’s Tico Times edition reminded us of how better prepared we are than a lot of bigger countries for the pandemic, like our great university is already making emergency respirators for when/if needed at only $140 each! (You think the U.S. would ever do that?) People are ready to sacrifice financially for the 25 days we are closed to all outside tourists (and it will be much longer before tourism is back to normal–like by next winter we hope). Here are the specific articles this week in Tico Times about the pandemic’s affects on Costa Rica:

Costa Rica now has 201 cases of COVID-19   (as of Thursday past)

UCR Develops Emergency Respirators for $140 each!

Zero Tourists allowed here for 25+ days!

Beaches & Parks Remain Closed

airport-liberia-WEB
Empty Airport at Liberia, our smaller international airport in Guanacaste. No photo of SJO.

 

Read why Christopher Howard is glad he lives in Costa Rica during this world-wide pandemic:  The Best Place to be in the world before, during and after COVID-19    I agree with him!    🙂

 

“A problem is a chance for you to do your best.”

– Duke Ellington

 ¡Pura Vida!

And for photos of why I like Costa Rica so much, see my gallery:

Charlie Doggett’s COSTA RICA

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It’s getting closer!

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!

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Coronavirus in Costa Rica?

Costa Rica is a very health conscious country with one of the best healthcare systems in the world. Thus you can expect great care when a pandemic comes.

I just checked the WHO Website and it showed only 23 cases in Costa Rica as of Friday but see article below for now 26 cases on Saturday, but we have had no deaths. I am still planning my in-country trip 30 March through 4 April to the Talamanca Mountains south of here at San Gerardo de Dota. The fresh mountain air should be healthy as long as no Chinese or Italians are visiting when I do –  🙂   –  Just kidding you Chinese & Italians!   🙂    I expect  there will not be big crowds from anywhere there and I keep a good “social distance” usually anyway, so think I will be fine as long as none of the hotel staff are infected. People here have already quit shaking hand and cheek kissing for greetings  with the elbow bump looking kind of funny to me, but a fun and healthy substitute!

Tico Times English Articles on Coronavirus

March 13, 2020 – Costa Rica up to 26 confirmed coronavirus cases: Updates from Friday

March 13, 2020 – Letter from the Editor: Visiting Costa Rica during the coronavirus pandemic

March 13, 2020 – Central America agrees to regional plan vs. coronavirus; Costa Rican film festival suspended

March 12, 2020 – Costa Rica announces new measures to slow spread of coronavirus

  • This includes cancellation of the big film festival, all public ball games & concerts
  • Public facilities (including churches) are limited to 50% capacity attendance
  • Individuals are requested to give “personal space” of 6 feet or 1.8 meters
  • Government officials are limited in their travel and businesses here are encouraged to do the same
  • Plus more!  🙂

 

WHO Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) advice for the public

¡Pura Vida!