Incredibly, the infected woman decided to ignore health officials and broke quarantine so she could attend classes at her university.

Thirty-five others are under watch.

A third person, a youngster, has flu symptoms (not yet confirmed as Swine Flu) possible infected by her father who recently returned to Costa Rica from Mexico. If confirmed, that would be the first case of swine flu caught within the borders.

The Ministry of Health this morning asked the passengers of two other flights, TACA LR 631 and Mexicana  387, to call 911 emergency so they may be tested.

Employees at the San Jose airport are wearing surgical masks, and many incoming passengers are having their temperatures taken upon arrival.

I am not going to go into this swine flu deal because unless my readers are living on another planet, you have been deluged with probably more information that you want to know.

I am more concerned though as my wife works at Calderon Guardia Hospital.

Did you see it?

Frontier Airlines ran an ad during the Superbowl that may interest you if you live near or can get to, Denver, Colorado  (all flights specials originate there).

Price Denver to San Jose, Costa Rica is $139.00 (each way) and that ain’t bad… BUT you have to book and pay TODAY by 9 PM MST.

Rules:

* Purchase by February 2, 2009
* Complete travel by June 10, 2009
* 14 day advance purchase required
* Choose off-peak travel days
o Tuesday – Wednesday for US
o Monday – Thursday for Costa Rica

Can you do it?  If so, come on down to Costa Rica! The weather is fine… though I DID see a cloud the other day!

Oh… and the temperature here this morning (in San Jose):   72 F

How is YOUR weather?

While justifiably scary to most parents, the numbers themselves are small  Still, it bears spending some time learning about this parasite.

Basically, the whole process starts with rats. Rats become infected and pass larvae in their feces. Slugs and snails come in contact with the feces and they then become infected. The disease is passed to humans while eating undercooked snails or possibly on vegetables that either have small snails on them or perhaps have not been thoroughly washed. I say perhaps, because the Center for Disease Control (CDC) states “There is some question whether or not larvae can exit the infected mollusks in slime”.  Some here think that just contact with the slime of a slug can infect a person, maybe by just crawling around on a lettuce leaf, but clearly there is no proof of this. More likely would be ingesting a tiny snail in your salad.  Either way, wash those veggies!

I know little about escargot, but I know a ton of folks who dote on it. I tried it once and liked it, but then if you put enough garlic on a shoe, I’d probably like it equally. I also think special snails are used in preparing escargot.  Probably went to prep school or something… but just the same, I think thorough cooking is called for.

Kids, however, can find slugs and snails to be fascinating. They pick them up and think they might make fine pets.  A few weeks ago, however, a little boy (15 months) died after eating a slug. He passed after spending  two week in Childrens Hospital.. The larvae do just terrible things to a child’s intestines.

Interestingly, all of the kids involved lived either in San Jose or Alajuela. I say interestingly as, in general, Cost Rica’s normally nasty critters and bugs live on the coasts or the rain forests where the tropical heat provides a better environment.

This all starts with the rats, of course, so in addition to the cautions above, make sure there is no thriving rat population near you.

More and more aftershocks are hitting the same area and those still there are living in constant fear. Yesterday afternoon at least 10 aftershocks were felt areas of Sararipiqui. The smallest was 2.7 and and the largest was 4.5 (about 2 PM yesterday) on the Richter Scale.  Many could be felt here in the Central Valley.

The weather is not helping. While the Central Valley enjoys near perfect weather, the mountainous areas in and around Sararipiqui and the Poas volcano are suffering rain almost daily. The risk of mud slides is high and there is some talk that the government may have to evacuate the area. Because some areas can now only be reached by helicopter, and the rain and low cloud cover prohibit that, an evacuation would indeed be a daunting task.

I have received several emails from people planning trips to Costa Rica, all asking if it is safe to travel here. The overall answer is yes. Clearly, however,  if your travel plans included a day trip the the Poas volcano or you were planning to raft on Sararipiqui river,  planning to stay at the Peace Lodge and visit the La Paz waterfall, you should certainly delete those from your itinerary. Check with your travel agent as to when these attractions will again be available.

Currently, the death toll is at 23. As there is still a list of missing, this will probably rise as searchers now have given up the work.

However, I did not want to discard it, and I decided it might be of general interest to a lot of readers, especially to older folks considering a trip to Costa Rica and more especially to older women who might like to travel together! Here is the account or the trip taken by Della and her female companion and written by Della.

My friend Joanna was treated to a Costa Rica ‘resorts only’ trip by her son and daughter in law last December. She came back psyched about living there and wanted to explore more of Costa Rica. So, I signed up on the ‘Real Costa Rica blog’ and started following comments -

We left San Diego, Ca. March 27th, having taken Frontier Airlines (cheapest, and least time spent) to San Jose. We had reserved a 4wh. dr. SUV, and headed out to explore the Nicoya Peninsula. We had a map from the rental office, and headed out, the hair on our back rising as we maneuvered getting out of San Jose. Once accomplished, and taking the ferry from Punterenas, we were much calmer and happier starting on our adventure.

We did follow the ‘rules for tourists’ as you mentioned, always taking our bags in at night, always having our auto within our sight. We did not wander at night -

Ticos seemed curious, interested and surprised to see two Sr. Citizens out and about, through back roads and inland, through small communities and farmland, and everyone we met was friendly, kind, helpful, and informative. Most did not speak English, we do not speak Spanish, but we learned the important words and used sign language to get around. We had such a wonderful time. We wanted to be in the culture, among the people, and we did just that. Pharmacias, cabinos, bancos, agua, banas, fruitas, we got by. Oh yes, we learned to say ‘mucho gusto’.

We stayed in family run cabins, and felt very safe.

I did most of the driving, and the mountains were the adrenalin pumpers for me – blind curves, large trucks, with only room for one vehicle at a time – sideless bridges, ruts in the ‘roads’ more like mud or gravel trails, that was more scary than anything else, but, we managed well.

Being able to stop when we saw a little ‘art shed’ and seeing the lovely art work, and being invited to meet the family – see the baby parrots, and Tucan, in the back yard, meeting the family’s children, both of us willing to try to communicate, giggling at our attempts – even in the off the beaten path, money was no problem as nearly everyone counted in dollars.

We usually were given a ‘typical breakfast’ included with our cabin, in the a.m. I like eggs over easy, and this is not very common I guess so I asked if I could make them myself, so they let me make them, in their kitchen.
Fun…

We found a glorious little teak cabin that one family had put up, cut into the mountain, overlooking the vastness below, and the ocean way in the distance. Breathtaking.
Since it was the end of the dry season, water was sometimes low, and these people were so sorry the town had cut the water, that they gave us not only a wonderful breakfast, typical style, but made fresh corn tortillas and lots of rice and beans, and cut mangos to take with us for lunch. They showed us their cage full of quail and eggs they considered a real delicacy.

It was odd to me that near the ocean, it was so hot – due to the proximity to the equator. Hadn’t thought of that….

Montezuma we liked a lot, we stayed in a very nice hotel, and the restaurants were superb…. Cobano was like going back in time 60 or 70 years. our last two days we stayed in San Jose, with our auto parked in the hotel ‘basement’ at night. We found the hotel as it was getting dark, and were glad of it, because a few blocks away as we were looking for a bed and breakfast sign we had seen, we found ourselves in a huge very ‘ghetto’ neighborhood, then a few blocks further, a neighborhood with lovely homes, completely ironed in, driveway and all, and men with billy clubs and dogs guarding the streets.’

The hotel staff was friendly, informative and fun to converse with as well. A huge park several blocks away had an art festival every Sunday and we found some great treasures.

My friend is still interested in living there, but I have a bad back, and cannot imagine driving the roads there, where about l% of the country, it seems, is paved.

I am thankful we had the ‘Real Costa Rica blog’ as our guide -

If she does move, she has no rose colored glasses on now, and will more than likely rent, and not buy. Very good help on that.

I will come again to visit!!! – and learn more Spanish as well. We arrived back home on April l3th. It was the best l7 day adventure we have ever had. People are people, everywhere, and looking for the similarities, and being willing to explore the differences, using common sense, looking forward to each day’s difference as we headed out in the am was really very special.

So this is a great thank you for the time and effort put into keeping the blog going, and people contributing as well.

Thanks for the nice words and thanks for sharing your vacation with us. I enjoyed reading your account, and I hope my readers will also.

(Next time you come, do read The REAL Costa Rica main web site. Then you will know just how hot are the beaches in Costa Rica.)

Those of you who follow my writings probably already know about Rolando, the Flying Cucaracha Affair, and the occasion tarantulas that come avisitin’ at Casa Ticogrande. However, for sheer annoyance, nothing can top the ants (hormigas). that look at this house as a giant smörgåsbord.

When I speak of ants, I am not referring to one or two… or fifty. I am referring to, in some cases hundreds (or more).

The other night, I called Maria Luisa to the kitchen to witness a true phenomenon. Starting at the base of the counter, crawling up the side of the counter, across all three counter tops (maybe 20 feet) and disappearing into a crack near the edge of the counter were ants. Thousands of ants. I bent close and could hear them singing some sort of marching song.

Our ants are not limited to the kitchen. Oh no! They travel! They come out of the floor in my office, they live in my desk. They live in our bedside tables and on occasion, they join us in bed as we watch TV!

They come in various sizes! Some are very tiny. Some are big mothers, black and nasty looking! They crunch when you step on ‘em.

We also get other critters like the tarantula, an occasional scorpion and some things that I know not the name. We also get the flying cucarachas of course and those really BIG cucharachas about the size of a box of matches. My wife won’t let me touch those as she assures me they eat the smaller cucharachas that gross out everyone. She may be right as we never see those!

Drop anything on the floor and within seconds, it is covered with hundreds of the really tiny ants. “Anything” here can also mean a dead bug of any specie.

The kitchen thing did it for me! The next day I am on the phone to the Cruz Verde. The Cruz Verde are the bug people, the CR equivalent to the Orkin man. Cruz Verde means Green Cross in Spanish. I have no idea from whence came that name, but there you have it.

They arrived on time, and we want about carefully locking up the dog, both cats and the parrot. These guys take this bug thing seriously and they spray inside, outside, in cupboards, along floors, in my desk and nightstand… the works. Two guys – one hour. We are told that we can free the animals from prison in an hour… but I wait three as our animals are family.

Yesterday? No bugs! OK a few but clearly they did their job well which they should have for the $60.00 they accepted as they left.

Today?  None.  Sixty day guarantee, and they want to be in my wallet every six months.

Think I’ll just wait until I hear that marching song again.

This phenomena occured on 9 June when I wrote the post entitled “3,000 Jobs Gone? Why?“. I am 99% sure I read in La Nacion that the new regulation had been published in La Gaceta. It appears I was wrong and it was not published. As Bugs Bunny would say, “Whatta maroon!”.

In Costa Rica, before a law or government decree can be enforced, it must be first published in La Gaceta. The fact that it was not explains why, during my (purely research based) visits to the various casinos, I found them operating as normal. So now I must grovel to my readers and apologize for the mistake. The rest of that post is just fine.

However some of these changes will be published… perhaps as soon as this week, though it seems the decree affecting hours may not be published. If it is, those 3,000 workers will be unemployed as nearly all casinos are 24 hour per day businesses, and the reduction to an 8 hour day (6PM to 2AM will certainly hurt a lot of people.

But… as the government does not appear any too anxious to publish the decree relating to hours, who knows? Could be somebody’s brain kicked in and they realize what a truly bad idea is the cutting of jobs.

Further, there seems to be some question as to whether these decrees will affect existing businesses. One of the new “rules” is that a casino must be part of (actually IN) a hotel and may not take up more than 15% of the total space. How places like the Horseshoe, a landmark and not connected to any hotel, will fare is anybodys guess. The same is true for the Fiesta Casino near the San Jose airport. It too stands alone.

Anyway… now you know!

Lately, the active volcano has been strutting her stuff, and this has been going on for some weeks now. Customers of mine witnessed a fine show just this week.

The volcano is near the town of La Fortuna de San Carlos, about three hours northwest of San Jose by car. We go fairly often and rooms are always easy to get, especially now in the low season. The beds in many of the hotels are positioned so you can watch it at night. Beats Leno!

Wanna see something cool? Come take a peak! Bring the camera.

To provide a bit of background for newcomers, visitors and tourists, there are currently two cell phone systems here in Costa Rica. The first, TDMA , often referred to as “the old system” and GSM, “the new system”. New is better, right? Often true, but in this case… totally not true.

The GSM system was installed some years ago by Alcatel, a French company under contract to ICE the government-run monopoly that controls all telecommunications in Costa Rica. Apparently not satisfied with just trying to win this huge contract in a competitive manner, Alcatel decided to spend some cash in order to bribe some key decision makers in ICE and in the Costa Rican government. About $11 million as I recall! This was also distributed to at least two and probably three ex-Presidents of Costa Rica, two of whom spent some time in prison for accepting these bribes, and a third who is currently hiding out in Switzerland, unable and apparently unwilling to return to Costa Rica for fear of also passing a few hours in the slammer.

This is important to know because the GSM system installed by Alcatel simply did not and still does not work well at all… and it will soon be the only system available.

Recently, ICE announced, in their incredible wisdom, plans to phase out the TDMA system over a three year period beginning in 2009. I am presuming that their intentions are good, pehaps wanting to update and maintain a more current technology. I would support this decision enthusiastically if only the GSM system worked! It does not.

There are huge areas where the GSM system simply does not work and far more areas where it just works poorly. I live and work midway between San Jose and the San Jose airport, and a GSM phone will not work in the home or office. I need to walk down the road 200-300 yards to get service. Many parts of Santa Ana, Urica, and other populous suburbs of San Jose have spotty coverage at BEST!

Even if you are lucky to be in a zone that does have coverage, you are often told that you cannot connect or are told to place your call later. I have lost count of the times I have called my son only to hear that service is not available. This does not mean he is out of service zone; it means the stupid system cannot process the call. During rush hour or bad weather, just forget calling anyone or receiving calls. Theoretically, GSM phones can be set up via Bluetooth to provide Internet access. Internet is offered as a costly service on GSM phones. I tried it and the service is terrible, often not working at all.

The Southern Zone (near the Panama border) has fine TDMA coverage but crummy GSM coverage. As many people use their cell phones as the only form of communication, when the TDMA system shuts down, they will be without communications. Remember it can take years to get a land line installed, so mobile communications is often the only option.

I think by now you get the point. GSM is not a good solution!

So how does this affect Ticos? It screws them of course!

ICE has announced that they want those TDMA phones back so they can be recycled. Good idea. So that means every person who is currently using TDMA must go out and buy a new GSM phone and return their old one. But… GSM phones are not cheap here. All are sold at retail. Buyers could easily have to pony up $300 or more for a new (basic) GSM phone. Some readers might think that $300 is not too bad, but you must consider that that is more than the entire monthly income for hundreds of thousands of Tico households! To place this in perspective, if you currently earn $60,000 per year in the USA, you would need to shell out $5,000 for a cell phone! That is a big expense and this will most assuredly be a burden on low and even middle income families. I am guessing that this will leave many low income families completely without communications. That, or they will buy on credit further exacerbating the huge outstanding credit problems in CR.

Another problem! Costa Rica is now becoming home to more and more foreigners who do not speak the language. The voice mail system on the GSM phones is not available in any language other than Spanish. Now I admit to not feeling real bad about this as it is my opinion that if you are going to live in a Latin country, you must learn the language! However few foreigners arrive here already speaking Spanish, and a cell phone really is a necessity.

All and all, this is a bad idea that helps nobody except the cell phone retailers and the credit card companies. It will hurt a lot of low income families. There should be a better plan.

Caution! Rant coming!

As most expats, I watch the current political battle for the Presidency of the United States. I watch as Barrack Obama and others make their stupid claims that they will “do something” about the price of gasoline in the US, now over $4.00 per gallon in 23 states. They just don’t get it. To me, it as is stupid as their claims that they will stem the outflow of jobs from the USA to other countries. I have news for them. The first will not happen without strong leadership and new ideas (which neither candidate has even remotely shown) and it is years too late the do anything about the second.

People love to blame big oil. It is so very convenient to blame those big companies rather than accept responsibility for what is the real problem. We are pigs, and this is not limited to those in the USA. The same is true here.

The USA has about only 4-5% of the world’s population yet uses 25% of the world’s oil! Oil is a commodity and nothing more. All countries use oil and therefore all countries must buy oil on the world markets. Demand affects this price as does supply. The new big kid on the block is China, a country that is now flexing its economic and manufacturing muscle and their needs are huge. Demand! They buy a LOT of oil and that is not going to stop. In fact, it will be just the opposite. The oil companies in the US, as the government of Costa Rica buy oil on the world markets and they pay whatever is needed to meet their demand. There is no real negotiation as someone else WILL pay the asking price.

So who is to blame? George Bush? YES! Bush and every single President of the United States for the past 25 years of so. Also, every member of congress, Republican or Democrat. Not ONE of these clowns has evidenced a modicum of guts and taken a leadership position to wean us off oil, and that CAN be done. Look at Brazil, a great example. Any action we start today will take years to bear fruit, so our leaders bicker, blame each other, blame the other party, blame the oil companies… whatever! Can you imagine a politician standing up and saying that he or she accepts responsibility for the lack of leadership? Many members of congress have been there for years, decades even… and they do nothing! It is time to throw the rascals out!

So what is needed and needs to be done? To answer that, we need to look at both supply and demand. To drop oil prices, either supply must go up, demand go down, or (preferably) both.

Supply

Drill new wells. Simple huh? It is not. Why? We now run afoul of the environmentalists. Everyone wants to do something about the environment. Hell, it is our earth, but oil is in places we want to protect and the oil companies cannot drill there. Much easier to drill in someone else’s country right?

The result? We become subservient to that bonehead in Iran, the Saudis, Hugo Chavez. An entire cadre of world creeps. In fact, is there one major oil producing country that even likes the USA? Between them, they exert enormous control on the USA and its economy. This can not continue. We are at peril.

So the big decision needs to be made. If we are not going to use self control and use less gasoline and oil products (reduce demand), we need to increase supply, but only from our own country (USA). That means drilling new wells in places that will give the environmentalists heart failure.

Even here in Costa Rica, that decision may need be made as there is evidence of offshore oil deposits on the Pacific coast. So far, Costa Rica has not even permitted exploration. I wonder how they will think when gasoline hits $9.00 per gallon. I cannot see how we can have it both ways.

Then there is nuclear power! Oops, here come those pesky environmentalists again. Coal? There is enough coal to produce electric power for the entire USA for 90 years! It is also VERY cheap and there have been new techniques to clean up burning coal. Not as clean as nuclear, but much better than years before. Do you think that 90 years will be long enough to find some real leaders who will wean us, forcibly if necessary, from suckling the breast of big oil? Well certainly not in this election year if McCain and Obama don’t stop stroking us with platitudes and start addressing the real issues.

Besides, silly me! The environmentalists will never permit us to use coal. Heaven forbid!

It also probably does not help that there has not been a new oil refinery built in the USA in 30 years. Why?

Demand

Everyone complains about the high gas prices but that seems to be it. Of course some folks have switched to using public transportation, riding a bike to work, etc. Do you know a lot of them? I do not. I keep in touch with people in the US and no one has really made a lot of changes. Couple of canceled drive vacations.

Here in Costa Rica, they interviewed a bunch of people and asked about the gas prices and how it is affecting them. The poorer folks already use buses as they never had a car in the first place, but the others? They are buying fewer clothes! No kidding! Rather than cut back on driving, they are using discretionary spending to buy maybe one less pair of shoes. Go figure. And Costa Rica has a huge and extensive public transportation network. Get the impression that folks are resistant to the process? Someone needs to do a similar poll or survey in the USA.

But some places in the USA, Los Angeles comes to mind, were never designed around a public transportation system. So how do they cut back? CAN they cut back? If they could, would they? People love their cars and love their freedom to hop in and get away.

Alternatives

So all this us with the alternatives. Hybrid cars are cool, but it takes about two years for the increased cost of those cars to be offset by the decrease in fuel cost. Down here it takes 3-4 years to offet the higher price.

Work from Home. Telecommute?

Alternative fuels? Brazil uses a fuel made from sugar cane I think. Far cheaper. Efficient. Clean. They are far less dependent on oil than most any other developed country. Odd then that our US congress has placed HUGE tariffs on the import of alternative fuels. Yup! Cross my heart!

I can go on, but I am tiring of my own rant. We need leadership. Someone who will maybe place a tax of 100% on any vehicle that uses less then 35 miles per gallon. Imagine a world sans SUVs, gas guzzlers, etc.

Back to Costa Rica. Today’s increase is the sixth this year with another most assuredly coming in July. Gas prices here are government controlled and prices at all gas stations are fixed.

Gasoline today is $5.10 per gallon for super, $4.97 for regular and $4.82 for diesel.

In July, you can pretty much be assured of an $.11 per gallon increase across the board.

When I arrived in Costa Rica, I bought the car that I currently own. Still runs great. To fill up cost me about 7,000 colones (about 8,000 colones in today’s valuation or $15.23).

Today, it costs 30,000 colones or $57.47.

I was gonna go out and buy a new pair of shoes for my wife’s birthday this week.

Changed my mind.