7.6 Earthquake in Costa Rica

Yesterday morning Spencer and I went on our daily walk to the river. It has been consistently raining in the afternoons resulting in many days we are unable to cross the river.  Instead of walking on the other side we walk to the river and look at the changes from all the rain.  As we were walking to the river I spotted a big, brilliant Motmot fly away from just a few meters in front of me. We approached the area where the bird lifted off and I find a feather she left behind on the ground. How pretty! It’s rare to see one in such good condition. I admired it for a while and decided to take it home.

As I bent over to pick up the feather I realized my arm and hand was going to miss the target so I tried to correct the motion and my arm swung in the other direction causing me to miss the target once more. It felt like my hand and arm was a pendulum. Finally on the third pass at the feather I was able to pick it up. What’s going on I wonder? Am I dizzy? As I stood upright I realized the ground was rolling from an earthquake. I could see the waves of motion rolling through the land. The intensity slowed down briefly and then became more intense before slowing down again. It felt like it lasted more than 30 seconds.

Spencer was very calm through all of this. Actually, I was so focused on picking up the feather and then realizing an earthquake was happening that I really didn’t pay much attention to him, other than to recall he was being a good boy. Many parts of the trails on our property are steep and in the rainy season can become very slippery. Luckily for me, the bird feather was in a flat spot of the trail. Had I not seen the feather and instead walked a few more meters then I would have been right at one of those steep slippery trail areas. I’m grateful I was able to be on flat ground during the earthquake.

The earthquake was very powerful at 7.6, however there was no damage to us or our property. May we continue being so fortunate in the future!