Yup, pretty dumb. Fortunately, ticos are conditioned to breaking rules so it's not much of an inconvenience. Also, there is a convenient way for the stores to prevent people witnessing the under-the-table booze sales - they can block other patrons from entering under the pretense of "social distancing."

I went with the girl today to Automercado. Heeding the warning from your tale about being denied entry as a group, we walked in separately. But once inside we started talking too much and got too close so our cover was blown. One of the clerks came and asked if we were together, we lied and said no, and then he asked us to keep our distance. Pretty bizarre.

We also checked out Tamarindo - it's a total ghost town with 80% of the stores/shops closed. The beach there has a lot more of the police tape blocking off entrances and when I peaked there was nobody on the beach. We spoke with the owner of one of the few surf shops that was open - he informed us that there was a gun fight in the town recently that lasted ~40 minutes and no police showed up until much later after the event. However when a lady had to chase her dog onto the beach immediately swarms of police came "as if they had found bin Laden."

Well, when this whole shebang started I was invited to a "coronavirus party". Drinking events with ticos can get large, so I guess the rationale is banning alcohol will prevent parties. I assume it's just a way to say "we are doing [activity] to address the problem."

@ Mircea Popescu

Happy to help out, apologies to the ladies if I indirectly robbed them of a beach trip.

Enjoy the empty roads!

Same think with the derpy "curfew", there's a 22`000 colones fine for driving, comes to almost forty bucks -- but in exchange you get completely empty roads and can therefore do 240 kmph in the beautiful lands of over here. All in all I hope they make it permanent.