Rain Emergency in Costa Rica
 

If you are in Costa Rica today or arriving, please be aware that there is an emergency situation due to the heavy rainfall in the past few days. A huge landslide in a small town near Escazu has killed 20 people with 10 still missing. Some roads have been closed and many towns in low-lying areas near rivers have been flooded.

If you intend to travel around the country today, please check with your hotel staff or rental car company. You can look here for road closure information: www.transito.go.cr and read an update (in Spanish) at www.nacion.com

That's terrible news. Thanks for updating us. Very scary how powerful that heavy rainfall can be.

I read about these major road closures earlier today...


Pan American between San Jose>Libeira

Toll Road between San Jose>Puntarenas

Coastal Rd between Dominical>Uvita>Palma Norte

Road north of Pt Jimenez at Chacarita.

Also caribe side road closed south of Limon...

stay safe out there,
Ballardo Diaz, Jungle Guide

Suppose to arrive in San Jose on Sunday, drive up to Arenal on Monday, drive to Manuel Antonio on Wednesday, and then back to San Jose on Saturday. Need to figure out how out of luck we are going to be.

Lesson learned already on this one...buy trip insurance.

octalon7 - you should be OK with Arenal but not sure about Manuel Antonio. They are working on the area but there has been a lot of damage. You might consider heading either to the northern Pacific or Caribbean instead.

Here's a link with some info.

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?se...ews&id=7766142

You can also look at AM Costa Rica or Inside Costa Rica - two online English language daily newspapers.

Have a house rented in MA for the end of next week so sort of committed, guess we can just hope the roads are cleared out by then.

By the end of next week, things should be pretty well cleaned up.

That's what we are hoping. I did google translate the www.transito.go.cr website with road closure info, but it didn't translate too well (been a a decade since I took spanish as well). The routes from San Jose to Arenal are ok though? We'll be in Arenal Mon-Wed.

I hope the rental car agency doesnt rent out all the SUVs before we get there!

Jaguarman, . recgarding closure you posted on thePan American between San Jose>Libeira, can you be more specifice where it is closed. saw no note of this on transito site. arriving on Thursday, need to drive from San Jose to Tamarindo, then need to drive tamarindo to la cruz any word on route 18 or 21.
at least we have 4wheel drive rented.

vickyln: There are some places on the InterAmerican Highway, particularly in the mountains, where the highway has been damaged. If the transito site doesn't show it, it has probably been repaired by now. Before you leave home, check that site again and then ask at your rental car company if there are any problems. I think that everything will be OK by then but things might be slower. There are alternate routes if there are problems. Your rental car company can advise you about this.

I agree with hsmithcr about checking the transito site for updated road conditions.

Since I'm all the way down on the Osa Peninsula, I don't have up to date first hand information on the more northern areas.

Ballardo - hope you and your family are well and no problems. Today in the Northern Zone, it has been sunny all morning but getting more cloudy. Last night was very cool. (I had to close all my windows!) I'm hoping to catch up on things through the TV news at noon.

For people who are in Costa Rica, the Red Cross is asking for donations of things like canned goods and diapers and bottled water. No used clothing or cooked food. You can drop any of these off at one of the many Red Cross offices around the country. Banks are also taking donations as well as the Red Cross offices.

Stroke, Stroke. Boy there has been a lot of rain. The roads north and south of where we are are cerrado (closed) for now. We are just outside of the city of San Isidro del General in the mountains. Nice sink hole just outside of town on the norteamericano. Don't know how up to date the transito web site is but pretty accurate as to where problems have been or may still be. The Tico times was somehow delivered to San Isidro del General yesterday so am hoping the roads are open. We have a funeral in FL this Sat. Will probably contact the Musoc bus to see if they are getting through. As far as Manuel Antonio by the end of the week, I would have a plan B. Parrita is a mess.

Plenty said about the rain but one more note...a cool front has just moved in so be sure to pack a sweater. We are in the mountains and glad we put in a fireplace.

Any recommendations? Somewhere north/east/west of Arenal?

Depends on what you are looking for. I'm not sure what you mean by your question. Your earlier post indicated you are going ahead with your plans for Manuel Antonio so has that changed?

Well what I meant is that we are going to make the trip to CR regardless. I think I've confirmed we can make it from San jOse to Arenal. However, if the roads aren't opened to Manuel Antonio by Wednesday then we'll have to find an alternative place to visit (that we can get to). Something comparable on the beach would be a good backup.

I´m here in Costa Rica, in San Gerardo de Dota at Savegre Lodge. I was able to get here yesterday morning but last night it rained very hard in the Talamancas. This morning (6th) you could get through from Cartago, although it took a long time, a new tour group just arrived about an hour ago. It was sunny here this morning and didn´t rain yet today. I had a great bird watching tour this morning with Marino Chacon. Male quetzal in the sun, who would have thought given the last few days.

I heard that you can get through from San Gerado de Dota to San Isidro de General, just a few hours ago (about 3pm Costa Rica time). And also to Dominical, but I don´t know the exact conditions. And hopefully from Dominical to Manuel Antonio

The place I was supposed to stay tomorrow has not been in touch since last night (Shelter from the Storm). I am guessing their power is out again and they had more damage last night.

The conditions seem to be changing frequently and even the transito telephone report isn´t reliable.

I hear the road between San Jose and Manuel Antonio might be open now? So we could possibly drive back from Arenal down through San Jose to get there? Miss the coast drive, but as long as we can get in?