Costa Rica, Coronavirus and Buddy (by Cindy)

Costa Rica, like most every country in the world, has cases of Coronavirus (23 confirmed as of this writing). A few short weeks ago it seemed like a problem that was more serious in places much further away in the world but now is top of mind for everyone here. Things have changed so much in a few short weeks. As this is the high season for tourists, it shouldn’t have been a surprise that the Coronavirus traveled here too.

This week the Costa Rican government canceled all mass events and festivals. For example, Guns N’ Roses was scheduled to perform on March 18 in the national stadium, but the show was postponed to later in the year (ticket holders were told to just hold on to their tickets for now).  Some schools have been closed. Our Spanish teacher told our class that if necessary, he would conduct our classes on-line. That hasn’t been necessary yet. A few of our classmates have been affected. One is teaching courses at the satellite campus of Texas Tech, located in Avenida Escazú, within walking distance of our apartment. He said the school is preparing to go to on-line only instruction. He will need to get set up for that; he needs to get a whiteboard for home, etc. The office of another classmate’s husband has closed, and everyone is now working from home.  Our fellow classmates who drive said that there is noticeably less traffic on the roads.

We’ve also noticed changes in regular activities. On Saturday mornings in the park next to Avenida Escazú they hold a large yoga gathering. All of the participants bring their mats, and an instructor with a microphone leads them through their poses, with a guy running a sound system blaring calming music in the background.  They weren’t doing yoga this Saturday.

Also, in Avenida Escazú Park, they started holding “Weekly Picnics” on the weekend evenings. This consists of fifteen or so white tent-like structures, open on two sides, with white lights draped over them.  They barely hold two people sitting on the ground.  There is a white cloth on the ground for people to sit on, and a small wooden platform for people to put drinks and presumably snack food. We did walk down to see how this worked one night. Pretty much two people were squeezed under the tent, sitting awkwardly, with a waitress that came by to take drink orders. We could see a popcorn machine, but not much else in the way of food. To me this is an event that sounds much more fun or romantic than it actually turns out to be.  Sure, the days are warm, but the nights do get chilly, and there is no shortage of wind. They didn’t set up the tents this weekend either.

And, of course, people have been stocking up on supplies. Up until this week, we hadn’t taken this kind of action. I spent a few hours in the afternoon the Friday before last with a friend who lives down the hall. She was showing me her supply stockpile and gently encouraging me to do the same. Not only did she have food and water, she had also bought a small, single burner camping propane stove, with several small propane cylinders. She is originally from Chile, and her concerns are not only from the Coronavirus, but also what could happen here, as she says, in a small country. Chile has been experiencing a lot of unrest lately, something that she said she never ever would have expected just a few years ago. That has definitely shaped her thinking.

This week, with all of the cancellations and increased number of cases, we finally decided that we should have some supplies on hand. Our neighbor John was driving to PriceSmart and asked if we wanted to come along. Admittedly at first, we had declined, as we had just been to PriceSmart for essentials, but as the news of cancellations continued through the week, we changed our minds and went along. We usually walk to PriceSmart, but if we were stocking up, we would need to have a car to get everything home. Thursday our neighbor was kind enough to pick us up after Spanish class, and we headed to PriceSmart. They are doing construction at our PriceSmart, which is causing disruption anyway, but Thursday around noon was much busier than normal. Neighbor John patiently waited for a parking spot. We watched a couple load a car with what seemed like hundreds of hot dogs and a lot of liter-sized soda bottles. After they left, we took their spot, and then we entered. Usually the back of the store where they sell the cleaning supplies, personal toiletries, etc., is not crowded. Not so that day!  Things weren’t chaotic, “ticos” (local Costa Ricans), are known for their patience, but it was still very crowded, and the lines were long. I did notice that the cashiers had lists of items with quantity sales restrictions. We stocked up on some items, like cereal, crackers, tuna, boxed milk, and even Spam, in the case of a real emergency only. But we didn’t stock up on paper towels or toilet paper as we had quite a bit already, and we only have so much room for storage.

We did go to Walmart that afternoon to get some other things. Walmart was also restricting sales of some products, like anti-bacterial hand soap and Lysol. I needed hand soap for my bathroom and was looking for the kind I usually get. However, all of the different kinds of hand soaps they usually stocked, had been replaced with the anti-bacterial kind. They were completely sold out of Lysol, and they were also out of the 409 multi-surface cleaner that we usually get.  I also wanted a large box of facial tissues, e.g., Kleenex. They only had boxes of 50 or less, again, not typical. The next day we went back for some fresh items and found that they had restocked the large facial tissue boxes, and there was another germ-killing spray. We grabbed a couple of each. Today we were able to get the 409 cleaner (second to last one). By the way, there has been an ample supply of toilet paper available, and some of it is even on sale.

Our neighbor John works for a logistics company that is setting up an office here. The office is supposed to open in a few months. He does travel for work, and also goes back home to Florida. Work travel events have been cancelled for him. He was debating whether he should go back to the States or stay in Costa Rica, due to the Coronavirus. His company had told him it was his choice, but as he talked to more people, he began to get more concerned about being able to get back to the States at all, and possibly overstaying his visa. He finally decided to leave on this weekend, just a few days after he had also stocked up on supplies here.

Because of the uncertainty of the situation, he isn’t sure when he will be back – he is estimating 4 to 6 weeks. He asked a favor of us, could we please take care of his plant while he was away. Of course, we readily agreed.

Yesterday afternoon, the day before he left, neighbor John brought over his plant. In my mind I was picturing a smallish plant. We don’t have plants in our apartment, and I thought that a small attractive plant wouldn’t be bad to have around.  I wasn’t ready for what neighbor John walked in with. It was a corn plant, probably 2 ½ feet tall.  John said that his wife when she had visited had said he needed something green in his apartment, so this was the result. He has obviously grown quite attached to the plant. He told us he calls it “Buddy.”  I asked how to care for “Buddy” and was told it needed indirect sunlight, and as for watering, he put it in the sink every night, watered it, and let the water drain out overnight. Ooh boy! We met neighbor John for a farewell happy hour drink later that afternoon, and he commented that he had already felt Buddy’s absence in the apartment. Sounded like a Tom Hanks’ Castaway movie “Wilson” volleyball thing going on there.

Now I don’t want to call the object of another person’s affection “ugly”, but this corn plant is certainly not the most attractive plant. And loading this thing in and out of the sink every night? Buddy is not light.  We had placed Buddy on the floor near the window. That night we took Buddy to the sink, watered him and left him there overnight.

This morning, as per most mornings, John got up before I did. When I came out to the living room, Buddy was on the floor near the window, and John was on the couch. He told me that “he and Buddy needed a bit of separation for now.” Apparently, it wasn’t easy for a person with stiff morning joints to get Buddy out of the sink and back onto the floor. At least Buddy wasn’t dripping water on the floor.  

As per usual, John had been doing research so we would best know how to take care of corn plants, and they do need moist dirt. Buddy’s dirt is covered with a layer of gravel, so to check it, you have to stick your finger down past the gravel into the dirt, which I did.

Also, did I mention that Buddy has browning on the tips of his leaves?  We found that you can cut that off, but not all of it, and it is probably due to inconsistent watering. Buddy’s going to get trimmed.

We’d kind of decided that Buddy was “high maintenance” and we needed do what we could to mitigate the situation. I suggested that we get something small to put Buddy on, so no one had to lift Buddy. We also decided that a plate-like structure under the planter to retain water would allow us to stop needing to put Buddy in the sink every night. We could just water him in place.

Today we went to Walmart to find the necessary items for our new roommate, Buddy. We found a small, inexpensive stool. In the gardening section we didn’t find just the plastic plate thing we had envisioned, but we did find an inexpensive planter that had a base that came with it that we thought would work. We picked it up intending to just use the base. When we went to the checkout, the checkout lady talked to us in Spanish about the planter and the base. Of course, we didn’t understand what she was saying (no gardening topics yet in our Spanish classes, we’re just now on reflexive verbs).  Based on what she was doing with her hands, she seemed to be indicating that the base and the planter weren’t a matched set. They had looked like it to us, and the bases were the only ones next to the planters, so we really didn’t feel we had a choice. But when we got home, we found out she was right. We ended up using just the planter and not its base.  Buddy is now situated on his little stool in a new planter.

We were already going to send pictures to neighbor John of Buddy to reassure him he was OK. But plain pictures – what’s the fun in that?  We bought some additional items at Walmart today that John has been using to accessorize Buddy for update pictures to our neighbor.  We don’t want Buddy’s stay in our apartment to be boring, even if he is involuntarily quarantined here due to the Coronavirus!

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