Puriscal Pandemic 2020

COVID-19 cousin found at the river.

Everyone will have a story to share about their experience through the COVID-19 pandemic. Here's my perspective, so far, from rural Costa Rica. Like so many other countries in the world, Costa Rica began shutting down borders and businesses in March. At that time there were very few confirmed cases and just a few deaths. However, the fear vibe was strong because of reports from Italy. Personally, I became concerned earlier with reports from China. What type of virus would cause them to build new hospitals very quickly and lock people in their homes?

As the rainy season began to appear the cases and deaths followed along. Now the number of people positive for the virus, hospitalizations and deaths are at all time highs. What is strange to me is during the height of this, the country has been in the process of “opening up”. For example, I think they recently allowed movie theaters and bars to open at limited capacity. Economically, this is a true disaster for the country. The government seems busy negotiating for more world bank loans and ways to squeeze more money out of people. Protests have begun about unemployment and the idea of raising taxes. That is what’s going on at a country level, now back to our rural spot.

We are extremely fortunate that, so far, none of this has impacted us very much. The biggest inconvenience is restricted driving days. I haven’t been to town since April. John is handling all the shopping and chores in Puriscal. I get reports back from him on what it’s like in town. Initially there was a lot of fear in people’s eyes and streets were bare. Now I hear things are more or less back to “normal” and everyone is wearing face coverings in indoor public spaces. There have been very few cases in our area and it seems those that get it already had some type of underlying medical condition or are elderly. No one I know in Costa Rica has come down with COVID19.

My initial fear has subsided, especially once I saw how much the main stream news in the USA and world was pumping the fear vibration and the amount of false reporting on so many things. For me, this experience has caused me to get the vegetable garden producing just about all of our produce needs and to get the chicken area up and going again. I was also inspired to make some changes to my diet and daily routine. Probably the most important thing this pandemic brought to me was the importance of the sun! Sun on our skin and in our eyes is critical for optimal health. I am happy I was able to realize that and that we live in the tropics with such abundant sunshine.

As for the future, I predict the amount of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths will decrease as the rainy season ends. I don’t know how Costa Rica will recover from the economical impact, but I hope they make smart decisions that allow prosperity for everyone. Time will tell…