Not Going to Costa Rica

A Tale of Woe

Costa Rica 2021

Costa Rica

We had booked a Cuban trip for March 2020 but as departure approached, so did a new and as yet unnamed Corona Virus. I was expecting imminent government action that would cause a cancellation, but it didn’t come, so we went.

It came two days later. Our travel company wanted to bring us straight home, but I demurred and we eventually lost only one day of our holiday. The airline industry was shutting down and we had to fly Havana-Paris-Amsterdam-Birmingham, arriving home shortly after the first lockdown had started.

Where are they all?
Driving home from the airport after the start of the first lockdown. March 2020

By summer the prolonged lockdown had worked, the number of cases was much lower and stayed low even after restrictions were lifted. I was no Covidiot, unlike the Prime Minister, Lynne and I had obeyed the rules meticulously, but I was always a hopeless Covoptimist. By the end of August, I thought Covid was over and the world would soon start opening up. We booked a trip to Costa Rice for February 2021.

But of course, it wasn’t over, autumn came and cases rose. The Prime Minister promised a ‘normal Christmas’ even though he was in possession of the facts and projections, but he was, as usual, saying what he thought people wanted to hear. The second lockdown came, I contacted the travel company and we rescheduled for 2022.

Where Were We (not) Going?

Costa Rica has become a popular destination and I was surprised by how many people I have spoken to recently have been there. No doubt, they know where it is, but others seemed less sure. They know its not one of the Spanish Costas, so it must be across the Atlantic somewhere, but where? Confusion with Puerto Rico is common, and understandable, but Puerto Rico is an island, Costa Rica isn’t, it is a slice across central America.

Costa Rica's position in Central America

It is not large, 150 km from the Atlantic to Pacific coast and 400 km north to south. Our plan was to cherry-pick the best of Costa Rica, stopping at five locations across the country.

Flying Gatwick to San José, we would look round the capital and then journey by bus and boat to Tortuguero, a National Park on the Atlantic coast. It was the wrong season for the turtles (never mind, see Oman (2): Sur and Turtles), but we were guaranteed howler monkeys, sloths in the hotel garden and an early morning boat trip to see what we could find. From there we would travel to La Fortuna at the base of Arenal, an active volcano, for lava walks and a dip in a thermal pool.

Costa Rica with our intended stops marked in red

Stop 3 was at in the cloud forest at Monteverde, with walkways through the canopy – as featured in Paddington, even though it is not ‘darkest Peru’. Then down to the beach at Sámara on the Pacific coast before returning to San José and home.

Costa Rica in 2022

Little did we know it but the 2022 plan started unravelling in September 2021.

Tortuguero Canals
Sourced from Wikipedia, photo in public domain

Lynne was suffering from a persistent and very unpleasant cough and extreme tiredness. Coughing fits regularly left her retching, but when one brought up a little blood, it was time to consult the medical profession. A series of blood tests, an x-ray and an CT scan failed to throw light on the cough, which by January had gone away on its own, but they did flag up a potential heart problem. We were not worried, Lynne had open-heart surgery in 1954 and as the heart/lung machine was yet to be invented the surgeons had only minutes to perform the operation to avoid brain damage. Looking inside the chest now, is alarming – to those who understand these things - but the experimental operation was a complete success and she has lived a normal life ever since.

National Museum of Costa Rica by Eric T Gunther
Reproduced from Wikipedia under Creative CommonsAttribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

We were to travel on Thursday Feb 24th. On the Monday evening a cardiologist phoned us, saying he needed to see Lynne immediately. She said we were going to Costa Rica in two days. He sounded sceptical. Lynne gave him a brief history and he asked if she had regular check-ups. She told him she used to, but was signed off in 2002. ‘They wouldn’t have signed you off if they had seen what I have just seen,’ he replied. And that finished Costa Rica 2022.

Arenal Volcano photo by Leonora (Ellie) Enking
Reproduced from Wikipedia under  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic.

A week or two later Lynne had an ECG and we walked into his consulting room. He looked surprised, I think he had been expecting an invalid. To be fair, he had been checking her history; we knew (and he discovered) that parts of Lynne’s notes have gone walkabout, but he had clearly done some extra digging and was well informed. He showed us the apparent massive pulmonary aneurysm, ‘larger than those we operate on’ on his screen. He listened carefully, asked a few questions and suggested Lynne have a MRI scan in a few months’ and if nothing had changed, he would accept it was stable, meanwhile he would support our insurance claim. In June Lynne had her scan, nothing had changed and she will have another in a year. Our travel insurance paid up in full and reinstated Lynne’s cover.

What Makes Costa Rica Special

Costa Rica – The Rich Coast – was so called because the conquistadors claimed to be impressed by the gold ornaments worn by the natives. These claims turned out to be false.

From 1609 to 1821 Costa Rica was the southernmost province of the Captaincy General of Guatemala. Being a long way from the capital and forbidden to trade with its southern neighbour (Panama was part of the rival Viceroyalty of New Grenada) it was remote and sparsely populated. In 1719 a Spanish Governor described Costa Rica as the poorest and most miserable Spanish colony in all America.

Coat of Arms of Costa Rica

At independence in 1821 the Captaincy General became the Federal Republic of Central America. Fighting between the constituent provinces doomed the Federation from the start. Costa Rica withdrew in 1838 and proclaimed itself independent, but by then it was unclear if there was anything to withdraw from.

One major reason for Costa Rica's early poverty was the lack of a significant indigenous population available for forced labour. In the mid-19th century this disadvantage turned into an advantage as the lack of a substantial oppressed community enabled greater social cohesion and political stability. Economic expansion loves stability and coffee, first planted in 1808, became, and remains the most important crop.

Laura Chinchilla President 2010-14
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Being Latin American, Costa Rica had to have at least one military coup; in 1948 a disputed presidential election led to an armed uprising and a bloody 44-day civil war. The would-be military junta lost and to make sure it never happened again Costa Rica abolished its army. Since then, 18 presidents have served single 4-year terms and been replace in free and fair elections. President Laura Chinchilla, served 2010-14, was Costa Rica’s first female president.

Rodrigo Chaves, President since 2022
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Costa Rica is today by far the most prosperous of the 5 republics that made up the Guatemala Captaincy, its per capita GDP is almost three times that of Guatemala the second most prosperous. Costa Rica’s Human Development Index, which takes account of life expectancy, education and income is rated 'Very High'.

Costa Rica 2023

We rebooked for February 23rd 2023 - surely nothing could go wrong this time. Early February all seemed well, but as departure approached that cough, the one that had led indirectly to last year’s problem, returned, but I convinced myself it would get better. 24 hours from departure I checked in and then we drove down to my sister’s in Sussex. She had generously offered to put us up for the night, provide car parking and drive us to and from the airport.

I was confident we were going when we sat down to dinner. Lynne ate, but did not really do justice to an excellent meal. She started coughing when we went to bed and coughed solidly all night. I might have had 60 minute’s sleep, or maybe less. At some time in the small hours she said quietly ‘I can’t get on that plane like this.’ My mind had been so set on going, that was the first time I realised the trip was in jeopardy.Removing my head from the sand I could see it was impossible.

Instead of being driven to Gatwick, I drove us home. Lynne went to bed and stayed there for most of the next fortnight. The cough subsided, but the tiredness still lingers.

Costa Rica 2024

The first cancellation was just Covid, it was not the only trip we cancelled that year. The second was, I am sure, unnecessary but looking at it from the point of view of the doctor I cannot see what else he could have done, and he left us with no real choice but to cancel. With hindsight it was clear that from the moment Lynne was sent for a chest x-ray the consequences had to play out, but instead of foreseeing the problem we just sleepwalked into it – and the timing could not have been worse. Cancellation three was just unlucky.

Will there be a fourth attempt? Who knows?