The Curse of Costa Rica?

Oriiginally entitled Not Going to Costa Rica this post was first published on 13-March-2023. Since then more material has attached itself to the tale; this is the updated version.

A Tale of Woe (Mainly)

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 the day 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 throughout a hopeless Covoptimist. By the end of August, I thought Covid was over and the world would 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 the cloud forest at Monteverde, with walkways through the canopy – as featured in the Paddington movies, 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.

Intended Stop 1: Tortuguero National Park (photo: Peter)

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 major 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 been able to live a normal life for the last 70 years.

Long-billed Curlew, Tortuguero (photo: Peter)

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 sentence effectively finished of Costa Rica 2022.

Intended Stop 2: Arenal (photo: Peter)

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 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.

American crocodile, Arenal (photo: Peter)

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. They were lying.

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 their successor has been chosen by 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.

Caterpillar of one of the Leucanella family of moths, Arenal (photo: Peter)
If nature has anything more like a decorated turd, I don't want to see it

I was confident we were going when we sat down to dinner. Lynne ate, but did not 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, but probably 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.

Intended Stop 3: the Monteverde Cloud Forest

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

In Conclusion

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?

Costa Rica 2024

My In Conclusion was a bit too quick. On my birthday in September, I received a communication from my sister, Erica. It was a birthday greeting of the kind you would expect between siblings who live 200 miles apart and so do not see each other often. The final paragraph read I think it is time to fess up that our main holiday this year is to Costa Rica. I did not say anything previously as we did not want to appear as though we were doing a one-upmanship thing on you. I do know that you are far more mature than to think that… and of course I am. I wished them (Erica and husband Peter) well and was glad that one of us would get there, even if it was not me.

My sister Erica and her husband Peter

They booked with a company well-known for sending people to far-flung places. Initially they told them they would fly to San José, the capital of Costa Rica, from Heathrow via Montreal – considerably less of a detour on a globe than it looks on a flat map. A little later they changed this to Heathrow – Frankfurt – San José and then to Heathrow – Miami - San José.

At American airports, unlike all other airports, the segregation between airside and landside only happens at the gate, so once disembarked they cannot separate those who have reached their final destination from passengers in transit. Consequently, everybody must go through the whole rigmarole of entering the USA, and transit passengers must then exit again. To enter, even for an hour, you require a visa or at least a visa waiver.

Side-striped palm-pit viper, Monteverde (photo: Peter)
Good news, a bite is nasty but not fatal to humans (usually)

To receive a visa waiver you must apply by ESTA (U.S. Electronic System for Travel Authorization.) This takes time and costs money, so Erica did not do it immediately in case the company changed their minds again. Once that seemed unlikely, she sat down to complete the on-line form. All went well until the question have you entered Iran, Syria, North Korea or Cuba since 1st March 2011. She spent a week in Iran as a tourist in 2017. Since then, she has acquired a new passport and a new surname, so would a little fib be appropriate? She was tempted, but the consequences of being caught out would be serious - who knows what sources of information governments might have - and one visit, that long ago? Would it matter? She did what I would have done and told the truth - and it did matter. Within the hour she and Peter knew their applications had been rejected.

A bird-feeder in Monteverde is visited by two of the 366 species of hummingbird tentatively identified as:
left a female purple throated mountain gem (the males have the purple throats) and right a green-crowned brilliant

By then it was too late to apply for a full visa – and would it be granted, anyway?

The curse of Costa Rica was striking again.

The travel company were unsympathetic. A cancellation at that stage would mean no refund from the company and their travel insurance would not cover it.

Intended stop 4: The Beach. We intended to stay Sámara, thus photo is of sunset at Tamarindo, 50 km to the north.
I doubt they are very different. (photo: Peter)

But why cancel when there are any number of ways of getting from Sussex to San José. Erica did some research and went back to the company. Eventually they offered four choices, two involved leaving on the wrong day for their pre-booked tour and one was a direct flight from Gatwick to San Jose on the right day. They live 30 mins from Gatwick Airport, so not a difficult choice. BA fly three times a week from Gatwick to San José, they would have to return via Madrid (BA and Iberia are essentially the same company) but that was a minor inconvenience.

So, everything was solved, but still Erica said she would not believe they were going until wheels met tarmac in San José.

Teatro Nacional, San José

And the curse of Costa Rica is not so easily sidestepped. The belated end of the rainy season brought a deluge of biblical proportions. Costa Rica closed down and the Foreign Office advised against all but essential travel.

Just in time the flood abated, the waters receded and a dove was seen flying eastward across the Atlantic with an olive branch in its beak. The curse of Costa Rica was finally lifted.

Erica and Peter enjoyed their holiday, if it was at times a little damp,...

Erica enjoying the rain

... and I am grateful to them for this story and the wildlife photos above.