The National Emergency Commission (CNE) has issued a red alert, its highest alert, for Guanacaste and the Central Pacific as the unrelenting rains from tropical storm Alma flood the coast.

Tango Show
“Tango, La Música de Buenos Aires,” 8 p.m., National Auditorium, Children's Museum.

E.U. business roundtable
“The European Union, Your Business Partner,” 8 a.m.-6 p.m., Hotel Radisson Europa, Barrio Tournón, 2520-1643.

Garden fair
Outside the Tobías Bolaños Airport in Pavas, through Sunday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Infant massage workshop
Today through Sunday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Hotel Villas del Río, Escazú, Mariel Madrigal, 2289-2137.

Monteverde book launch
“Walking with Wolf: Reflections on a life spent protecting the Costa Rican wilderness,” by Kay Chornook, 5 p.m. at the Bromelias Music Garden, information: 2645-5786 or 2645-6272.

Gineth Soto has postponed her dream of becoming the first Costa Rican to best the highest point on the planet, Mount Everest, which would have been the second-to-last peak on her Seven Summits mission.

The 5-foot-tall, 34-year-old Soto managed last Wednesday to reach Camp 3, at 7,100 meters (23,621 feet), and was just two days away from the 8,850-meter (29,029-foot) summit, but the temperatures plummeted and she caught another bout of the famous “Khumbu cough,” the trekker said via a communiqué issued by her Costa Rican sponsor, Banco Nacional.

“I had recovered from the cough days before, but the weather worsened and when I got to 7,100 meters, the cough came back violently, because of the cold, and stopped me from continuing on,” Soto said.

Soto described Khumbu cough – named after a flank of the mountain – as a “dagger in the lungs, and every time you cough, it's like your ribs are digging into your stomach. It's a terrible pain.”

She continues, “I'd been warned of the danger of going higher. It was a very tough decision, very difficult. I thought of all of you, all the people in Costa Rica who've followed me and sent me messages of support, and I came to the conclusion that, in these conditions, the right decision was not to attempt the ascent. I promised my family that I'd come back alive. (I also) felt that going down Everest rescued, or in a stretcher, wasn't what I wanted for myself, for the bank as my sponsor, or for Costa Rica, because I was representing you all with great pride. I want all Costa Ricans to know that I gave it my all… If it weren't for my cough, I'm sure I would have made it.”

Soto has already upped five of the world's tallest mountains – Aconcagua (6,962 m/22,841 ft) in South America, Elbrus (5,642 m/18,510 ft) in Europe, Africa's Kilimanjaro (5,895 m/19,341 ft), Denali or Mount McKinley (6,194 m/20,322 ft) in North America and Australia's Kosciuszko (2,228 m/7,310 ft).

But Everest is known to better many who have tried to conquer it. Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first reached the top in 1953. Since then, a mere 2,500 people – about 150 of whom are women and only one Central American, Guatemalan Jaime Viñales – have ever managed to followed in their footsteps.

An average of one in 10 climbers dies on the mountain.

In her communiqué last week, Soto mentioned two Swiss trekkers who died during their descent and other climbers who were rescued just in time.

Fans are marveling at Soto's climbing down in one piece.

One admirer, aspiring trekker Mark Washburn had nothing but praise for Soto's effort, noting that many of the greatest mountaineers try repeatedly to reach the top of Everest.

“I've never met her before, but she's my hero,” Washburn told The Tico Times.

The Costa Rican trekker said she will certainly give it another shot, but on a new route, seeing as she was forced to climb the Nepali southern side when political unrest broke out in Tibet.

“I will try again,” she said. “I'm thinking about an ascent through Tibet, as I had originally planned. On that side the weather conditions are not so harsh and there's less risk of getting sick.”

A controversial aqueduct that would take water from a neighboring community to feed booming tourism growth in Costa Rica's northwestern province of Guanacaste has been suspended by the local government, citing concerns over water supply.

The $8 million project would pipe water from the sleepy village of Sardinal to Playas del Coco and Ocotal, two beach towns nine miles away in the canton of Carrillo.

The project is being funded and carried out through a trust fund set up by developers from the region, with the oversight of the National Institute of Water and Sewers (AyA). Once built, the aqueduct would be handed over to AyA.

The project set off protests in Sardinal – some violent – and organizers from the community have said their rights are being trampled, and their water stolen for private gain.

On Tuesday, the Carrillo Municipal Council voted to suspend the project.

“This is because we are not sure of the capacity of Sardinal's aquifer,” said Carrillo Municipal President Franklin Rivas. “We do not have serious or recent studies that tell us what amount of water we have in the aquifer.”

Rivas said AyA presented a study of the aquifer to the municipality, but said it was completed in January, when the project was nearly three-quarters finished.

Documents released by the AyA and other agencies in response to a lawsuit show that internal audits questioned a lack of permits and oversight for the project.

Lisbeth Quesada, the nation's ombudswoman – who is appointed by the Legislative Assembly to act as a liaison between the people and the government and whose title in Spanish translates literally as “Defender of the Inhabitants” –strongly opposes the aqueduct, asking AyA to suspend it until doubts are cleared up.

Yesterday, AyA Director Ricardo Sancho announced the agency will be investing more than $1 million in the local aqueduct that serves Sardinal and speeding up the work there, which he said has been planned for years. In addition, he said, the local aqueduct will also be connected to the Playas del Coco-Ocotal aqueduct, feeding additional water to the community.

Sancho said he will also visit Sardinal today to meet with leaders from the community in order assuage their concerns. The AyA director insisted the pipeline project is sustainable and transparent, and uses only 10 percent of the water available in the aquifer.

Canadian author Kay Chornook is set to launch her new book on Costa Rica's Quaker pioneer and conservationist Wolf Guindon this evening near the very cloud forest he for years has sought to protect, Monteverde.

Chornook will present her book “Walking with Wolf: Reflections on a life spent protecting the Costa Rican wilderness” (Wandering Words Press) at 5 p.m. at the Bromelias Music Garden, which is in the north-central Costa Rican town of Monteverde.

The author told The Tico Times via e-mail that Guindon is a “Quaker, conscientious objector, pioneer of Monteverde, most recognized conservationist in the area, walking, talking man of the jungle (and) now a 77-year-old great-grandfather.”

She based “Walking” on dozens of tape recordings that Guindon filled over the years and more recently in conversations with Chornook. It's a walk whose Costa Rica path began about a half-century ago, when four members of an Alabama Quaker group left the United States after being prosecuted for objecting to the military draft.

Following an agricultural study tour through Central America, the group was captivated by Costa Rica and its political stability with no military. In 1951, they settled here.

For Chornook, the significance of launching her work in Monteverde is huge.

“This is a highly anticipated book in this community because of who Wolf Guindon is and what he has done,” she said.

The National Emergency Commission (CNE) has issued a red alert, its highest alert for Guanacaste and the Central Pacific as the unrelenting rains from tropical storm Alma flood the coast.

Most Costa Rican airports, including Juan Santamaría in Alajuela and Daniel Oduber in Liberia , remain open with international flights running as normal. However, Tobías Bolaños airport in Pavas has been closed since 6 a.m. – except for opening a half hour this afternoon – and remains closed until further notice from national meteorologists, according to Miguel Ortega, of the airport's management department.

Emergency officials have evacuated about 80 people from the Parrita Centro, Pueblo Nuevo and Sibrad areas, according to CNE spokeswoman Rebeca Madrigal.

At least 120 homes have been flooded, the CNE reported, while bridges and roads across the country have been blocked or damaged.

As many as 60 accidents have been attributed to the rain, according to the Transportation Ministry.

Winds have been reported as high as 50 to 55 miles per hour, according to the National Meteorology Institute in Costa Rica . A storm with winds reaching 74-95 miles per hour is considered a Category 1 hurricane.

Authorities have issued warnings from Costa Rica to El Salvador . The rains, which began last weekend, look to continue, particularly along the Pacific as the storm moves toward Nicaragua .

Alma is the first tropical storm of the year. Hurricane season begins June 1.

Read tomorrow's Tico Times and Daily News for more on the storm.