Cream and sugar with that sir?

COSTA RICA CORONAVIRUS UPDATE

Currently as of today, we have approximately 375 cases in Costa Rica with 2 deaths. There have been 2 confirmed cases in our Canton (county) of Carrillo, both of them being right here in our little town of Playas del Coco. The President of Costa Rica has made some tough calls, but I support him 100%.

1. Restrictions on all vehicle movement from 5 pm to 5 am. This is mostly to stop people from going out to socialize.  They are also limiting day time driving to one day a week, based on your last number on your license plate. You can only drive for basic necessities like groceries and pharmacies.
2. All beaches and public parks are CLOSED. There are no exceptions to this.
3. All churches and religious temples are closed, even though Holy Week of Easter is coming up.
4. No large gatherings or social events; all soccer games cancelled, concerts postponed etc.
5. The Borders are CLOSED to all foreigners.
6. All bars, casinos and nightclubs were forced to close.
7. All alcohol sales have been banned across the country.
8. Banks and grocery stores, now have special hours for seniors only, and most have shortened the total working hours. Our local Mercados are limiting the amount of people who can be in the store at a time, and only one person per family can shop. This eliminates groups gathering in these public places.
9. Any foreigner with residency, who leaves the country during this crisis, will immediately lose their status!

Boy did this last one set off a shit storm.

Buyer’s Remorse in Costa Rica

The world has gone mad! They just cancelled the NHL and NBA seasons, and the rest of MLB Spring Training. People are stocking up on toilet paper for God’s sake. Schools are closing, large gatherings cancelled, and people are locking themselves in their homes. If you go to social media, you literally want to jump off a building, as the fear is out of control. It doesn’t help either, that the media is blowing it totally out of proportion and everyone is trying to make it political. Two weeks ago, all my Facebook friends were Constitutional Scholars and today they are Infectious Disease Experts.

But you really wouldn’t have known it the last week in Costa Rica.

Sure, many frightened travelers have postponed their vacations, and most big events have been called off, but the town was still very busy, and the airplanes were full. I just went through an incredible two weeks, of amazing highs and very low lows, and I was so happy when I finally got back to paradise. I thought for sure, that I would be the only person on the plane, yet every seat was full except for about 10%. Personally, I was way more scared about driving on the black ice returning my rental car, than catching coronavirus on the jet; I had seen all these massive car pileups on TV. As soon as we landed, I knew everything was going to be OK. Our phenomenal Liberia airport (LIR), has 6 gates, but there were already 11 planes there when we arrived. After 10 minutes of chilling out, they finally had us park on the tarmac and brought the rolling stairs to the door. Man, nothing feels better than 92-degree heat blasting your face, after suffering through a miserable 8 days in Denver Colorado.