Daily Archives: September 4, 2008

I found the drugs

I found the medicine that I purchased at the farmacia the other day in San Jose that I couldn’t find later. I really have no idea why I put them where I found them, it was definitely a stupid spot. The powder is similar but the pills are different (I guess they could be the same).

Although, if I had remembered, I’m sure be have been thinking it was an excellent spot.

This might not seem like a monumental post, but had I found it, that might have been enough to prevent me from my hospital visit a few days ago…

LATER: Actually, I’ve taken another look at the powder I found and it’s not the same. The one is electrolytes and the other is an anti-diarrhrettic. I’m not saying it wouldn’t have helped, just that I now know it’s different…

I’m still in Costa Rica

Severe flooding kept me from getting to my flight today. They closed the bridge heading towards the airport and said it was going to be closed overnight (maybe until manana afternoon); please note I did say “the” bridge and not “a” bridge; I think it’s the only way to get to the airport from the peninsula in the rain (if it’s not rainy season, you just drive across the river). Surprisingly, they opened it 90 seconds after I abandoned my car and was planning to walk over the bridge (pedestrians were allowed).

Anyone have any contacts at Delta? They still want to charge me a $150 change fee (I’ve called two different numbers at this point US and CR). If this wasn’t an “act of God” that should cover my fee then I don’t know what is. Once they get my $150 here at the airport I’m sure I’ll never see it again…

I’m booked in a hotel for the next two nights (no flights on Friday) and I want to be here (8 kilometers from airport).

I’ll do a “flood blog post” later, it’s gonna be a long one (home come this never happens when it’s sunny?). Wish I had taken more pictures now…

The Ground Shook!!! Costa Rica Earthquake!

Picture 20Something just happened. I’d say a huge semi-truck or two just drove by too fast and went through the crazy potholes (or something) but that’s not really possible where I am let alone it would have had to had been a 180 wheeled truck since it lasted a bit. It really shook the place for at least 4-5 seconds (it seemed much longer but I’m guessing it wasn’t) with a short ones a few seconds later about 22 or 23 minutes after midnight. Afterwards, it sounded like a few doors opened up at the hotel but no chatter of what might have happened. I don’t know how common earthquakes are here. I know I’ve never felt anything like it!

I’ve been looking on-line and finally found some data! It was a 4.3 Magnitude earthquake!!!! Not sure how big that is, but I’m from Michigan so…

The event id for this is “us2008wnan” as it’s official designation (I guess). This is the closest seismogram I could find from a drum recorder (are they still actually drums?) which happens to be the Volcano at Rincon de la Vieja, you can clearly see in the second block of 15 minutes after midnight the needle went a little crazy. Here’s some info on reading the seismograms.

275 10Looking at the attached right-hand image (the “A” is the estimated center), I’m guessing it centered about 25-30 miles from here (Tamarindo). The smaller left-hand image has some time/date info with location info (and no other earthquake boxes for the last week in Costa Rica).

This was at 10.490°N, 85.851°W, a 4.3 magnitude and 39.7 miles (63.9 km) deep. Could this have been picked up as far os New Mexico or Oregon? Or were those coincidental marks on their graphs? Finding this I’m going to say “yes” (I found this in the morning).

I’ll keep adding data as I find it! It’s been two hours I’ve been collecting info, I’m off to bed, gotta get up in the morning to catch a flight.

Well the Power has flickered off and on today

The power has blinked off and on more than a few times today, but not during any of the storms so I don’t know what’s going on. I suppose there could be storms somewhere else (duh!). I did notice many more police out tonight than the last few days maybe they do that when there are power failures…

But now it’s been off for a few minutes. So no fans, no A/C and I’m assuming no running water since I can’t hear the toilet running any more. At least it’s been cool this evening.

It’s just surprising since there have been so many cRaZy storms this trip that I sensed no outage before today.

FYI – It was only out about 5 minutes….

The Way I Am – NOT sung by Ingrid Michaelson

I’ve really been liking Ingrid Michaelson (although I don’t think I’ve mentioned her here before) but this home video is so cute I felt the need to share! If you don’t know the song it might not be as cute but I think so…

Actually, Ingrid thinks it’s pretty cute too, she sent it out to her fans (that’s how I found it). Here’s a direct link to YouTube if the in-line video doesn’t work.