This is our first blog post on Out of Office Villa and unfortunately it is not about vacation.
We thought it may be important to inform those who were considering to travel to Costa Rica in the near future about what is going on in the country.
Below is the latest data map of COVID-19 spread in Costa Rica. You can find updated information on variety of official government websites and local online media platforms.
COVID-19 skyrockets in Costa Rica
We stayed in our villa for the first two weeks of March, 2020 after arriving on February 29th. Talks about the spread of the virus were ramping up before our departure, but we felt it was still OK for us to travel. And, of course, we were cautious and observant of our surroundings to make sure we are keeping the distance from people in the airport.
When we arrived and spoke with our friends in Playa Junquillal, Guanacaste, everyone was still in relaxed Pura Vida pace. Locals were not too worried, but were fully aware of the global health situation and anticipated that it may one day hit the country.
Costa Rica has recently become one of the mos sought out tourist destinations. Over 3 million people visited the country in 2019. It was no surprise that on March 6th the traveler from New York was reported to be the first #COVID-19 case that was confirmed.
Since then, the numbers have grown dramatically. Within 2 weeks of our stay in the country, they #coronavirus spread reached about 30 people. As of this moment, March 25, it's now over 200 COVID-19 confirmed cases in Costa Rica, but no deaths have been reported yet.
And we hear that residents have started stocking up on food and other essentials, like everywhere else in the world. Local stores have implemented limitations on how many items per person one can buy.
What actions did the country take?
The week of March 16th, the country has closed borders to travelers who are not citizens or residents of Costa Rica until April 12th.
On March 24th, the national vehicle restriction implemented between 10pm to 5am daily and indefinitely to reduce non-essential travel.
National parks, beaches, religious services, schools have been closed. And if you are a legal resident and decide to leave the country, you automatically will lose the residency status and will not be allowed to come back as a resident.
Like everywhere else in the world, it is encouraged to practice social-distancing and stay at home.
Since the country heavily relies on tourism, the president of the country is encouraging visitors to postpone their travel plans instead of canceling them altogether. The video below has quickly become an unofficial call to action to support that request.
Our trip back to Silicon Valley
As we were heading closer to our departure on March 15th, the US started announcing shelter-in-place in various parts of the country. California state being one of the first ones to implement it.
Both my and my husband's employers came with announcements to work from home.
We had debated to potentially stay and live this wave through in Costa Rica, but we chose to travel back to the Bay Area and were dreading the airport crowds. Since we had a 3h layover in LAX, we decided to rent a car and drive home to San Jose, CA instead of hanging around in the airport.
This was our first time using our Global Entry cards and to our surprise, the lines were not huge. We managed to cross the border (a family of 4) within one hour and head to the car rental.
Upon arrival back, the following day, I headed to the grocery store to stock on on some basics. It felt like it's Black Friday shopping day with people lined up to enter the store.
And it was dreadful to see empty shelves.
It was one thing seeing all of that in the news, on social media and hearing about it, and another thing actually experiencing in person.
All in all, we are back and safely staying at home for the time being until it all goes away and everyone is back to normal interactions and back to office environments.
We did decide to close down Out of Office Villa from being rented out until June. Guanacaste, Costa Rica is entering its low rainy season now, it should not impact the bookings that much. We did incur several cancellations that were already in place because of travel restrictions put in place.
We all look forward to the end of it. To the tourism picking back up and to the new high-season starting in November-December, 2020.
Stay healthy!
Pura Vida!
Loreta
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