Story 69: Too hot to trot

 

   Several years ago my brother Bruce and I visited Costa Rica, and found ourselves in the northern part of the country in an area called the Guanacaste region.  I remember being on bus near the Nicaraguan border. The Costa Rican border patrol police were going aground checking passports.   They were looking for Nicaraguans trying to get into Costa Rica.  They reluctantly took my passport, but did not even give it a long glance.  

      Apparently many Nicaraguans try to get into Costa Rica illegally.   Costa Rica is the only democracy in the region and it is in better shape financially and much more stable than Nicaragua.  It is no wonder the Nicaraguans wanted to move there any way possible.  It reminded me of Mexicans risking death to get to the USA.

After our bus trip, we were staying a local hotel, when the owner suddenly announced there was a man going to Rincon Viejo park, a beautiful rustic park with volcanic activity, waterfalls, and lots of animals.  We quickly packed our stuff, but neglected to get additional water.  That proved to be a critical error on our part.

We got to the park and began our hike.  It was a 2-3 hours walk through the jungle.  Along the way, we met a couple from Spain, a Spanish doctor (no relation to a prior doctor in an earlier story) and her husband.  

         We saw butterflies, monkeys, and other strange critters along the way.  I also noticed that my water bottle was getting low and asked Bruce if I could have some of his. Something I feel guilty about even today. In retrospect, it would have been helpful to have a water purifier, but they say that hindsight is 20/20.  

        After a brief drink from his bottle, we came to a bubbling volcanic mud pit.  We took pictures of the Spanish couple beside the the pool and then went swimming underneath a waterfall.  The water was cool and refreshing.  If only our trip was over at the point, but we still had 2-3 hour return hike to go.  

Rincon Viejo is located near Nicaragua as I mentioned  before, and while it is not very humid, it’s heat is deceptive.  More like Arizona.  On our way back, we found ourselves without water.   We had opportunities to get more water from streams, but we were concerned about getting giardia from tainted water.  When I think about it, maybe taking that risk would have been worth it. Because as we were heading back Bruce started to suffer the symptoms of heat exhaustion. It was very scary for both of us.  I really should have listened to the guide books. Blame my mistakes on the errors of youth.

Bruce took off his shirt appeared to be very red and started to act erratically.  I was scared he would die and we wouldn’t make it back. Fortunately for us, the Spanish couple let Bruce have some of their water and with their assistance, made it back to the park ranger station in one piece.

When we got back, we thanked the couple who helped us and then found a faucet of water and began to drink and drink for what seemed to be close to ten minutes from the local water spout.  Water never tasted so good.  It was a moment I’ll never forget.

Life Lesson 69: Never underestimate the environment.  Because when you start to take nature lightly, you may find that nature will make your life painful.  Also, whenever you hike, always hike with others, tell people where you are going, and prepare for the worst case scenario by packing extra water, food, and other things needed to face certain emergencies.  Because an ounce of prevention as they say, is worth a pound of cure.