Sixteen days ago (a Thursday), we had to cancel a ‘bucket
list’ hiking trip in Torres del Paine National Park, Patagonia in Chile. We were scheduled to go from Costa Rica to
the park through Argentina and my niece and my son Daniel were supposed to join
us from the US. On the previous day St.
Lawrence University where Daniel goes had announced they were moving to on-line
classes after Spring Break. But that day
Argentina said that folks coming from the US would be quarantined for 14
days. Hastily we tried to arrange a way
to the park only through Chile but with no luck luckily. A week ago while we would have been hiking, Costa
Rica closed its borders to non-citizens.
Had we gone we would have likely been unable to return to Costa Rica.
In Costa Rica (CR), tourists like us can stay for 90 days
without a visa but if you want to stay longer you have to leave the country and
come back. Our Patagonia trip was to be
our leave and come back. Since that was
cancelled we had to find another way, so we walked into Nicaragua. This is a regular thing and many many people
do it every 90 days. Here is the article
that we followed. https://mytanfeet.com/travel-tips/crossing-the-border-between-costa-rica-and-nicaragua/. We didn’t walk all the way to Nicaragua, we
first drove to the border, then walked into Nicaragua, paid some money, got our
passports stamped, paid some more money a few more times, and walked back
out. Oh, and we saw some people we know
while we were there. As we are walking
out, Gab says ‘Hey there’s my friend from school!’ So we saw someone we know in Nicaragua; that
has still not sunk in.
Meanwhile in CR, our kids’ school went online and there were
a growing number of cases there. At the
time it was 12 or 15. Here is the graph
of how cases of COVID-19 have gone in CR. https://ticotimes.net/2020/03/26/costa-rica-posts-largest-increase-in-known-covid-19-cases-up-to-231(Isn’t it crazy how the trend is so similar to that in other
places, almost like these things can be predicted using some kind of abstract
notation or symbols… but I digress.)
So then last week our kids did their Costa Rican school from
home or tried since it was in Spanish. Our
condo was 100m from Playa Grande, a large beach known for its surfable waves in
Marino Las Baulas National Park. It is
amazing there. While the kids worked
with some success, Steph and I fretted and fretted and fretted. The previous week we had thought about
cancelling the Patagonia trip over and over.
Now we plotted another trip in Costa Rica to Corcovado National Park to
raise our spirits. And worried about
whether we should go back to the US. The
weather continued to be sunny and warm; it is the dry season right now in
Guanacaste Province so every day was sunny with temps in the mid 90’s. And when I say everyday I mean we had had 30
minutes of rain in the last 90 days. But
elsewhere the world was coming apart.
And by apart I mean that y’all couldn’t get together or couldn’t get it
together or something like that.
Then the end of last week Costa Rica closed the National
Parks, so no Corcovado. And no more
Playa Grande (or any of the nearby beaches in Las Baulas). It was a tough mental blow for kids cooped up
in a condo and who had enthusiastically wanted to see some sights and had embraced
surfing. So we found a tree house hotel,
long on Gabriella’s list of things to do, in a jungle to visit for the
weekend. It was also going to be a
mental break for Steph and me. Somewhere
around this time, alcohol sales stopped in our region to discourage people from
congregating. For about two weeks the
unspoken question in our household was-are we going to go home. With a goal of taking a mental break from
worry, we made reservations for Saturday and Sunday night, packed up and
started our drive. With advice from Costa
Rica neighbors --- who happen to live in Ardmore, PA --- we also bought plane tickets
home so that we had them in case knowing they would be easy to cancel. Flights
to the US were being cancelled; in a week there would be no regularly scheduled
flights to the US until who knows when. Saturday,
we stopped along the drive for a bathroom break and to grab a drink about halfway
along our 6 hour drive to the treehouse.
Steph checked her email via wifi at a Subway. The tree house place had cancelled all
reservations. The effect on all of us
was palpable to everybody. Turned around
and drove home. But the die was
cast. We were still gonna wait until
Monday to make a final decision but I think we were all effectively done.
On the way home we stopped at a beach and took a long
walk. CR would announce the closing of
all beaches shortly thereafter. The US State Department and the Embassy in San Jose, the capital of CR, sent notices that US citizens who want to go home should very soon or they might not be able to get out. Monday we woke up and had a family meeting
with many many tears.
