Extreme measures are recommended while going out to vote today. Luis Rosero Bixby created an interactive map to show the level of risk of contagion by covid-19 in each district. By clicking on your district, you can see the population number, number of cases per week, expected cases, and risk of contagion.
The “Q20 Risk” tells us the probability, in percentage, that in a meeting of 20 adults, there will be one or more active or contagious covid-19 patients. It’s also assumed that there are two undetected infected for each reported case.
The relative incidence rate (C19) is the quotient between observed cases and expected cases based on the demographics of the given district. The map shows that in certain electoral precincts it is almost certain there will be one or more contagious people.
The highest incidence of the virus in the first week of February has been in the Central Valley. In previous weeks it was located mainly in tourist destinations. The five highest outbreaks currently are in Cartago, districts in the west of the GAM, Coto Brus, Matina, and Desamparados-Aserrí.
One Tica, Ángela Solarta Castañeda, showed just how important voting is to her by driving 14 hours to the nearest place to do so. She lives in Australia, where she can vote at the consulate, 14,000 kilometers from San José.
That’s the first voting precinct to open, because it’s 14 hours ahead of Costa Rica. Voting opens at 6 am February 6th local time. So while it was still 4 pm on Saturday here in Costa Rica, it was 6 am on Sunday in Australia.
The Supreme Electoral Tribunal has authorized voting in 52 consulates in 42 countries. In the U.S. there are polls in Miami, New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, and Atlanta. Voting is also taking place in Panama, Indonesia, Argentina, Spain, Ecuador, France, India, and South Korea. Tica Sofia Castro traveled four hours by bus and subway to vote in South Korea, where she lives.
There are 50,833 people registered to vote from abroad for this election. In 2018, there were 31,864 registered but just 13.9% of them participated.
The below drawing was created by William Carlisle and depicts me (Paul) and my wife Deanna in the Congo jungle, being chased by a Mokele-Mbembe.
The information below was received from Tony Alva and Lola Navarone who contacted me at HPI International on Facebook. Tony and Lola have both visited the Congo in Africa and have information on Mokele-Mbembe. Here are their stories.
Tony Alva while on vacation with his family visited Odzala-Kokoua National Park. This park is located in the northwest of the Congo. A very remote area. The park is one of the oldest national parks. Somewhere in the Congo lurks Mokele-Mbembe. Mokele-Mbembe is described as a Apatosaurus aka Brontosaurus. As Tony and his family were touring the national park, they came upon an area where the trees had lost all of their vegetation and the branches were violently broken. Tony wondered if this was done by giraffes? Tony asked the tour guide, what his thoughts were on who could be the culprit that ate all of the vegetation off the branches and who could have possibly broke all of the branches? The tour guide felt that this was not the work of giraffes, but the work of Mokele-Mbembe. The tour guide said at this location one year ago he came upon footprints that were not made my giraffes, but made by a brontosaurus. Tony asked him what made him think that the footprints were that of a brontosaurus? The tour guide said that it was an imprint that went into the ground 5 inches and the fore limb foot print had 3 toes with protruding claws. The tour guide knew what giraffe footprints looked like, the footprints that he saw was something he has never seen before and the tour guide automatically felt it was the footprints of Mokele-Mbembe.
The park can easily hide a brontosaurus. The park is 13,600 square kilometers. The park has a pristine rainforest. The park is a landscape of forests, rivers, marshes and swamps. If the Mokele-Mbembe is an amphibious dinosaur creature, then it would be at home in the Congo. There has been reports by the locals that the creature that they saw was 35 feet long and had brownish gray skin. The neck of this creature is long and flexible. Tony asked the tour guide where would a creature like this live? The tour guide stated that it digs into riverbanks and lives in caves that are scattered throughout the Congo. Many times the Congo is difficult to explore because of the heavy rainfalls. Some of the rivers have a dominant feature in the Congo. The Lekoli and Kokoua rivers flow into a major channel called the Mambili. The Mambili flows into the great Congo Basin. Tony Alva says that the tour guide feels the Mokele-Mbembe is nocturnal and feeds at night. The tour guide said that the Mokele-Mbembe frequents the bais or salines. Bais and salines are dotted through the rainforest, they are swampy grassy areas that contain water and various minerals and salts for the various animals that live in the Congo, including the Mokele-Mbembe.
Some locals over exaggerate about the Mokele-Mbembe and make claim that this creature devours elephants, hippos and crocodiles. Tony and the tour guide had a great chuckle on this fabricated story, because if Mokele-Mbembe is a brontosaurus, it would be a herbivore (plant eater) and there has never been any sign of Congo mammals being devoured by any mysterious creature. Lola Navarone, a tourist of the Congo claims while exploring the national park, saw the head of a brontosaurus peeking at her from the forest and she claims she heard thundering footsteps inside the forest. Big Game Hunter Carl Hagenbeck received many reports from the locals that a brontosaurus lives in the Congo and there were many reported sightings. When locals were shown various animals on a card deck, the locals stopped at the card that showed a brontosaurus, the locals pointed to this card and said that is the creature that lives in the Congo jungle. Some locals now are claiming that there are no more brontosaurus in the Congo and that the last brontosaurus died 10 years ago.
Sara Donald 