How to avoid the drama of the US presidential elections? Vote, and then leave the country! During this pandemic, I can work from anywhere in the world since all my meetings and classes are online. I saw that flights to Costa Rica from San Francisco were $289 round trip on United! This was before Costa Rica was even open to citizens of California. But I bought the tickets anyway, because the number of COVID-19 cases were decreasing, and it seemed like a good bet. I was lucky because by November 1^st, all citizens of the world were welcome to Costa Rica – without a coronavirus test. At present, all that is required is Costa Rican health insurance which costs about $10/day. Costa Rica now is a paradise free of tourists, on sale!

But the rain was unreal. I have been in tropical rainstorms before, but nothing like this. In Drake Bay, it was incessant. This was the remains of hurricane Eta that hit the Caribbean side of Honduras and Nicaragua, but also led to huge tropical rainstorms in Costa Rica. It reminded me of the wet seasons in the Cameroonian rainforests, where I had spent weeks holed up in my tent. But this never stopped, so the first 5 days of the Costa Rican adventure were very soggy. Even so, it is always fun to swim in a warm ocean in the rain. And Corcovado National Park is an unspoiled rainforest, rich in bird species and so much wildlife. Even with this weather, it was a highpoint of the trip, with an adventure boat ride over the rough wavy seas. Usually I get terribly seasick, but maybe (hopefully) I have somehow overcome nausea at this point in my life. Our guide in the rainforest showed us how leaf cutter ants can bite through skin, and pointed out a tiny poison dart frog. The wild boars appeared and then quickly vanished, like forest ghosts. The large turkey-like curassows seemed fearless, and didn’t bother to try to avoid eye contact. There are few places on the planet as remote as Corcovado. It was the ideal place to forget about vote counts in Pennsylvania, and see how nature used to be, before human populations got out of control.

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We stayed at Casa el Tortugo, a charming family owned guest house/restaurant with clean rooms, great internet and simple yet delicious Costa Rican food. I ate a lot of beans and rice, but also a delicious plantain ceviche, accompanied by tropical fruit juices. On the flight to Drake, several Americans were finally returning to the USA after being stuck in Costa Rica for months during the pandemic lockdowns. We were the first tourists to visit Drake since the beginning of the pandemic. It felt special to be the only visitors in a town that typically draws thousands of American nature lovers. Even with the rain, it was somehow perfect. Sleeping with the sounds of waves and rain, after the smoky, hot dry, fiery months in California was nourishing to my skin and lungs.

Five days of downpours was enough, and next on the itinerary was Monteverde, but due to bad roads, that got canceled. Instead Arenal, with sun and hot springs seemed like the most reasonable choice for the remainder of the trip. A minivan picked us up, and transported us to La Fortuna, with a quick stop at an Israeli-owned vegan restaurant on the way. Again, with so few tourists, all the resorts were offering great rates. I have never stayed at a resort, because of the prohibitive costs, but Arenal Springs Resort was delightfully affordable: hot and cold thermal pools, and each room has a view of the impressively perfect shaped volcano. It seems that everyone in Costa Rica is friendly, and before the trip, I practiced my Spanish on Italki.com with a new online friend in San Jose.

What to do in La Fortuna? On Saturday, the 7^th of November, at the Fortuna Waterfall, I heard that Biden had won the election, and I swam in the chilly water at the base of the waterfall, enjoying the news. Horseback riding on the volcano among the lava rocks, a trip to Caño Negro at the Nicaraguan border to see birds and caimans, and then a tour of a chocolate farm rounded out the trip. Of course, I attended my Zoom meetings, and did some work in the sun. Will this be our future? Will the pandemic change how we work, and will we all want to move to Costa Rica? On the other hand, I don’t know if I will want to ever go back, because it felt so special to be greeted by the Ticos who missed the tourists, and be alone in this beauty. Costa Rica will be full again soon.

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I truly was nervous that Trump might win the election. Now I feel a little more relaxed returning to the USA. I have a special affinity for Kamala Harris, given that she and I are both half Indian, around the same age, and we both grew up in Northern California. I believe that her parents were at UC Berkeley at the same time that my father was a graduate student there, and I wonder if he had known her mother, given that there were so few Indians in Berkeley at that time. I may never know, but I like thinking that they had met each other. Costa Rica doesn’t have an army, and the government values its nature, broadly because ecotourism is such a huge contributor to the economy. Now with no tourists, people still seemed content. There are tropical fruits at hands reach everywhere, so I can’t imagine that anyone in this small country is hungry. Costa Rica showed me that people can be friendly and say “pura vida” which approximately means “no worries” continuously even during hard times. We in the USA and Europe could learn a lot from the people of Costa Rica. Pura vida!