Our first trip to Costa Rica was a great adventure and success. Everything rolled out as planned. We drove 969 miles and spent time on the Caribbean, Pacific and in the Arenal Volcano area. With our upcoming move, we were very excited to experience the culture, nature, beauty and wildlife and we were not disappointed. However, we were very surprised at the amount of RF/MW communication towers all across the county. The towers were taller than what we see in the US and only had a few antennas on each, but they were abundant. Many times the towers were placed right in the middle of town, which is great for reception, not so great for our brains. In Monte Verde, we stayed at the Hotel Ficus and there was a tower directly across the street. We didn’t sleep much those 2 nights and I awoke in the morning with my body vibrating. Sad considering this was the main “nature” destination on our trip.  If we would have taken our phones, I don’t think we would have lost reception. I should have taken my RF meter to see exactly what we were dealing with.

Wifi is made available at every possible opportunity. It’s used as a selling point to promote services to tourists. Most of the time, we were able to keep our distance, but a few times, our exposure was high. It’s enabled on tourist buses and on the flights. Since our return, we’re still waiting for the usual symptoms to calm.

As we see more and more, the balance between connectivity and safety is ignored in the name of convenience and greed. Even in Costa Rica.