Source: Wikimedia Commons

Powerful rip currents have once again taken the life of a foreign visitor who arrived in Costa Rica in search of fun and relaxation. This time, the setting of the unfortunate incident was the pristine Playa Flamingo, located in the province of Guanacaste, and the victim has been identified as a 40-year male from Italy named Giorgio Modula.

According to a news report by Manuel Gutierrez of daily tabloid Diario Extra, the dearly departed signor Modula had been missing for a few days. He disappeared on a sunny Saturday morning in mid-May, not long after he arrived in Costa Rica along with his sentimental partner and a few friends.

Rescuers from a couple of units of the Red Cross in Guanacaste conducted a thorough search for signor Modula. The search was actually called this past Friday; two days later, a tourist reported the presence of the decomposed body of a male on the beach, right at the water’s edge during slack tide.

Officers from Fuerza Publica, Costa Rica’s national police force, were dispatched to Playa Flamingo; they identified the body as that of the decedent and notified the Red Cross, who will be tasked with notifying the family of signor Modula about the unfortunate finding.

In terms of rip tides, the Gold Coast beaches of Guanacaste are generally considered to be safer than the stretch of Pacific coast located from Jaco Beach to Playa Dominical in the South Pacific; alas, recent atmospheric and oceanic conditions all along the Pacific shoreline have resulted in risky maelstroms forming in the surf.