How Not To Drown In Costa Rica

Recently, I've been publishing quite a bit of short fiction on the Vocal platform (not to be confused with Voice--they are not affiliated in any way.) My latest was a story taken from actual events in response to a writing prompt about the scarlet macaw, a native species which I've become familiar with while living in Costa Rica. It incorporated the real-world drama that took place recently on the Pejibaje River when a young Costa Rican man lost his life to the current. The link to that short story is here: https://vocal.media/fiction/sorting-the-after

In an interesting coincidence, Michel and I happened to catch an event on video that I wrote about in that short story--the sudden flooding of a river without a single drop of rain falling anywhere in observable range. The sun was shining, the clouds were dry, and without warning, the gentle rapids of the Atirro turned lethal. We knew to get out of the water as soon as we detected a increase in the strength of the current so we were never in danger, but the speed with which the change occurred was nonetheless stunning.

The dynamics of this natural event are simple. Rain falls somewhere high in the mountains, swelling the headwaters of any proximal rivers to the bursting point. This mass of water follows gravity with incredible force and power, a sudden flash flood of current and volume that affects everything downstream. It's mitigated somewhat by boulders in its path and the twists and turns of a river bed. But for the uninitiated or the careless, it can come as a surprise. In our case, we had the drone and the phone cam in hand so we were able to document the experience. But safely, because we left the water as soon as we sensed something out of the ordinary was afoot with our favorite swimming hole.

Here's the footage we captured. Don't expect much from the drone; it's a "toy" model we're using to learn the ins and outs of flying before we invest in a "real" one. It did, however, help us document this dangerous yet fascinating phenomenon on the Atirro River near Turrialba, Costa Rica.