A Day in the Life…“Stuck” in Costa Rica during the pandemic
Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of. – U2
By the end of March 2020, Mark and I found ourselves alone - stuck - at our hotel in Costa Rica due to the Covid pandemic. We had laid off our employees and shut down the hotel as no tourists were permitted to enter the country.
In the early weeks of the pandemic, Mark and I heard little news of how the pandemic was affecting the world. We spoke with our kids and other family in the U.S. to find out how the U.S. was reacting.
We heard about some of the ‘rules’ that were being imposed in the U.S. People were told to stay home with only family in a small ‘bubble’, stores were closed, people started working from home, parks were shut down. Constant hand-sanitizing was encouraged, social distancing and masking started to be a ‘thing’.
Sounded miserable.
Mark and I were trying to figure out what this hopefully temporary situation was going to mean for our hotel’s future. We didn’t know. We knew we were losing money – but for how long??
We knew that despite this shitty situation, we were fortunate to be in Costa Rica. We lived outdoors in constant sunlight and fresh air, and our supplies were fully stocked - all the things our family in the U.S were ‘missing’ in their lock down.
This was the 1st time that Mark and I lived at the hotel with virtually no one else around. No guests. No full staff. We now had to cook our own meals and do our laundry – all the things that had been done for us by the hotel staff. (Spoiled, I know.)
I was the reservation manager for the hotel and now there wasn’t much work for me to do each day. All the upcoming reservations were cancelled, and now it was very, very quiet. No one calling or emailing to book a trip. We didn’t know when people would feel comfortable traveling again and the border closure kept getting extended.
Now what were we going to do all day?
At the time we had to shut the hotel for the pandemic, we had a full calendar of reservations. We had expected a full house for the next weeks, and our pantries and refrigerators reflected that.
We had so much fresh fruit that we cut it all up and froze what we had space for. We had a zillion gallon-sized Ziploc bags of frozen papaya, pineapple, mango, and bananas. We had all the vegetables growing in our garden. We had frozen fish, pork, and chicken for days, and our pantry was stocked with dry goods. Our liquor bodega was filled. We had enough beer, wine and liquor on hand to host a wedding!
How lucky we were!
We’d start each day with a fresh smoothie! Every morning, Mark and I would get up, choose some of the frozen fruit, go to our organic garden and choose some greens, usually kale or spinach, add some yogurt or other things we had, and I’d pop it all in our bar’s blender and make us breakfast. Once, we discovered that some of the “kale” leaves we had been eating were actually cauliflower leaves! (They look the same!) I guess they were edible because it didn’t bother us!
I would make a giant French press of Costa Rican coffee and pour an orange juice for Mark, and we’d continue with our day.
Doing what?
Since we kept 2 of our maintenance guys employed in the first weeks of the shutdown, Mark would work with them on projects around the hotel during the day. Alexito and Flaco would work 7am to 2pm, 6 days a week with Mark and then by afternoon, Mark and I had the whole hotel to ourselves!
During the time the guys were working with Mark, I found ways to keep myself busy. I cleaned the café area and reorganized the drawers of silverware. I have a weird fetish about organizing glassware, so I arranged all our wine glasses in a few different areas for efficient use and storage. I reviewed the pantries to understand what we had on hand, and I got more familiar with our restaurant kitchen which I now set up to cook for 2 people instead of 22!
One day, I spent hours making a dozen homemade bagels. What else did I have to do? I really had a taste for a bagel!
Even though I had my yoga platform, there wasn’t great wi-fi there, so sometimes I set up my iPad and virtually joined a Zoom yoga class with my yoga mentor in the U.S. from our common area. I got to practice outdoors in the sun, looking at the ocean, while the other participants were in their bedrooms at home. I felt a little guilty about my view when we all had our cameras on!
In the afternoons, Mark and I would spend time at our gorgeous hotel pool and hot tub (which we rarely did when staff or guests were around). Many times, as I sat there looking at the beautiful ocean in the sun and warmth, it was hard to comprehend that the world had shut down, people were dying, and the universe told the world to take a giant pause. My little pause was a blessing. As worried as I was about the hotel’s finances and our family back in the U.S, I took a moment to say ‘thanks’.
Sometimes in the afternoons, Mark and I walked and hiked around our property or went to our yoga platform to practice yoga together. Often, Mark went out birding and have some quiet time to himself, while I stayed by the pool reading and ‘holding down the fort’. Sometimes, he would stay, and I would walk down our mountain road. I always listened to Broadway show-tunes while I walked. Might seem strange, but I’ve always found solace and a pick-me-up in show-tunes, and what better time to need a pick-me-up than during a global pandemic!
Late afternoons, we would shower and then return to our common area for our nighttime ritual.
Usually, one of us would head down from our apartment to start the ritual first. It started by cracking open a cold Imperial or pouring a glass of Chardonnay while we cooked. We always turned on music on our Sonos speakers to jam to while we cooked. We turned it up loud as no one was anywhere around us to hear!
For dinner, we would decide what to pull out from the freezer, usually chicken or fish. Then we’d cobble together some assortment of vegetables, pasta or rice, and other things to go with it. We had an abundance of bok choy in our garden which I hadn’t cooked with before, so we had some version of bok choy with our meal almost every night! We were really missing Chicago pizza so one day I made pizza dough, and we had pizza for dinner. Mark learned to make super-rich chocolate brownies from scratch, so we always had some delicious dessert too. We became really creative!
After we finished dinner, we’d clean up, put away the trash so the raccoons wouldn’t get in it, and shut the kitchen for the night. We’d refill our glasses with wine, grab my iPad, and head out to the Adirondack chairs on our green roof. Under the dark, star-filled sky, we’d choose a movie on Netflix or Prime and with a great wi-fi connection, prop up the iPad between our chairs and watch!
With less activity from people and cars around the hotel now, the wildlife got more courageous and came into the common spaces to look for food. We could be watching our movie and have raccoons or pizotes (coatis) walking on the green roof around us sniffing for food. Or an anteater would just walk through the garden!
Sometimes at night, Mark and I would have dance parties set to my ‘pandemic’ playlist. Songs that spoke to me about what was happening in the world. Strangely it made me feel better. It gave me something else to do during the day - come up with songs for my playlist! Songs like: It’s the End of the World as We Know It and Radio Song (first lyric: The world is collapsing around our ears) by R.E.M. or Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of and Until the End of the World by U2. And more hopeful songs like Walk On and Peace on Earth by U2.
We’d be in bed by 9pm and wake early with the sun, ready to do it again the next day.
For how long we’d be stuck in this moment, we didn’t know.
But these were the best weeks I’d had at the hotel since we started this adventure, and I didn’t want it to end yet.
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What song was on your pandemic playlist? Do show-tunes pick-you-up too? What did you do to pass your pandemic time?
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Loved reading this. Such great (albeit bizarre) memories of the weirdest time ever.
I didn't mind the pandemic time off. I didn't have a magical place like CR to be but I loved the home I lived in at the time. We got pretty good relief money from our govt and I got decent severance for the layoff lol. So I went and adopted a puppy and enjoyed my life for months!
My mouth was watering over the plate of your homemade bagels, when I was reading along, and then I got to the next photo of you by the pool, and of course, my brain sees the "bagel in the sky" cloud shape (partially eaten), and I think; perhaps this is a sign that I should go out and get a bagel.
This all sounds movie-like; so unreal, kind of mystical/magical; a quiet, lush, gorgeous place with the natural surroundings, incredible food, the opportunity to try out new recipes, all in a sort of stop motion sort of situation, not knowing when the world would start "spinning" again. You make it seem luxurious, from a distance of safety, from 5 years in the future, when I'm sure it was significantly more terrifying. That's the beauty of looking back.
We were all doing different things, yet all sort of stopped, in a way. It's fascinating to look back now, from a place of safety, and learn what everyone was doing back then, in a variety of circumstances.