My name is Liz and I live in the NW of beautiful Costa Rica, Central America. CR has been the “gold standard” and a great example of how to deal with COVID effectively with many organizations praising us for our quick and decisive action against the spread of disease.

We quickly shut our borders to everyone, shelter in place became the norm and many workers, decided to work from home. Consequently, other that the capital city and the surrounding areas, most of the country has seen few or no cases. And in a country of 5 million people, I think we have had less than 100 deaths. My own little town has had no cases at all, but we are still wearing masks in the supermarkets and banks, social distancing, and staff of any business have either masks or counter shields and of course, antiseptic gel and sinks outside many places for patrons

Traffic has been restricted, either by hours, or the numbers on the licence plate, so in general, there is little traffic and its so quiet at night that I can hear the ocean about 800 meters away

I live in a little town, so there are not too many places to take pictures So I took a photo of the “community cart” at the entrance to the bigger supermarket, that also says that masks must be worn and you must put gel on your hands before entering and also the cashiers in the background wearing their masks

Another of a customer shopping with his mask on, but that are shelves are still full, there are no shortages.

And another is of a member of staff wearing a mask as is mandatory.

The other photos are of people starting to line up for a community kitchen where a bakery has been used to feed between 150-200 local people who are out of work and have no money for food, 3 times a week.

And one of 2 of the volunteers there with the COVID closure notice on the right hand side window.

Many people are out of work, so a local bakery has set up as a community kitchen, serving 150-200 hungry people 3 times a week. We have all done out bit, whether donating to the community baskets at most of the supermarkets, or bartering things like vegetables for bread, sometimes even medical services for donation to the community

Many people were stranded here when the borders closed, and property owners have mostly dropped the price of any rentals to accommodate people who are stuck

Life is by no means “normal” but some bars and restaurants are open, the beaches (which were closed) have reopened for a few hours a day and being stuck in a pretty little beach town, is really not too bad although we are all waiting for the day that “normal” returns!