Last Trip

Today we took a trip to Poas Volcano and Lapaz Waterfall Gardens.

We headed out at seven in the morning for the volcano and it wasn't looking like the weather was going to be good to be able to see the volcano. We stopped for coffee and I bought some gifts for Anna, unless I want to keep them...haha.

The volcano is a basaltic volcano the stands at an altitude of 8,200 feet above see level. When we got up the volcano it was really cloudy and we couldn't see it. One of the guides, not ours, started yelling that the clouds were moving and just for us the clouds cleared and we could see the volcano perfectly. The guide said he had been waiting up there for 45 minutes, waiting for the clouds to move. It is often a rare occasion to see the volcano because it is so high above sea level and it is located near a cloud forest. The volcano wasn't anything I expected. It looked like a whole in the ground that smelled like sulfur and it had a pool that was emitting smoke (it's a prehistoric-looking hole that spews boiling sulfurous gases according to infrocostarica.com). I took so many pictures. We didn't stay up there very long because it was cold (first time I was really cold in Costa Rica and I had shorts on) and it started to rain more. The park also had a really nice gift shop where I only bought a few things because it was expensive.

After our trip to the volcano we went to see the waterfall. Our first stop when we arrived was to see the aviary where I was attacked by a bird who insisted on trying to eat my raincoat. It also stole one of my bobby pins. I thought I got it bad, but Peter was a target by the bird who liked me and a McCaw. I saw beautiful birds and took a lot of pictures. In that same area they had a monkey cage where there were tiny monkeys who liked to chew on my camera string; they had huge feet that were soft. These monkeys are from Brazil and are called the White Tufted Eared Marmosets.

Our next stop was the butterflies, but we had to walk through a pass that had Spider Monkeys and White Faced Monkeys in cages. The White Faced Monkeys were beating each other up and the Spider Monkeys were hiding. The Butterfly Observatory was one of the most beautiful things I have seen on this trip. There were thousands of butterflies flying everywhere. I took a lot of pictures, but than my camera battery died; that was really upsetting. I got to see butterflies hatching, butterflies who were drying their wigs, butterflies flying, EVERYTHING TO DO WITH BUTTERFLIES I SAW IT!

After the butterflies we went to the Hummingbird Garden. There were so many of them and they were zooming everywhere I thought I was going to get hit. You could here them zoom by you and you could get to see them really close, but they wouldn't let you touch. This is the only place in the world to find 24 hummingbird species that is documented.

Next, we went to the Serpentarium where we saw all different kinds of snakes. Some were large and didn't move and others were bright colored and they looked like they were ready to bite you, but they were in class cages. There were 30 species of snakes of Costa Rica there. Some of the most famous snakes were Bushmaster, Terciopelo, Green Vinesnake, and Golden Eyelash Viper.

After the snakes we got to visit Casuta de la Paz which is a house that is set up to look like the times 100 years ago in Costa Rica. This reproduction was built only using tools available to the average farmer a century ago. There was an ox-driven cart that a lot of us got pictures with, but the ox's smelled really bad.

Our next stop was the Ranarium where we saw frogs. I saw the two kinds of poison dart frogs that Costa Rica has, one is red and one is a pretty green. There were leaf frogs too that don't look like frogs when they are on a leaf because they squish down into the leaf and look like a slimy green blob.

We took our last nature hike last where I felt the spray of a 120 foot waterfall; it got me pretty wet. We started out at Templo water fall, walked to Magia Blanca (this is the magic water fall because if you look at it for 20 seconds than look away it looks like the trees are moving up towards the sky), than we moved on to Encantada, Escondida, and finally La Paz.

After our hike we shopped around at the gift shop than headed back home to San Jose.

This little trip was definitely focused on tourism, but I like that because it makes it easier to see all the beauty, but sadly they did have to damage the surroundings to make cement paths, bridges, and things like that. I enjoyed our last trip a lot even though it was gray outside and wet.

La Selva

My guide with a bird's nest in his hand

Poison dart frog

Huge spider

Bird that didn't move

Our home for the night

We started off our trip for our last weekend at La Selva Biological Station on Thursday.
La Selva is situated at the joining together of two major rivers in the Caribbean lowlands of northern Costa Rica. It comprises 3,900 acres of tropical wet forests and disturbed lands. The Station is bordered on the south by Braulio Carrillo National Park (closest national park to San Jose). The station is a protected area as well where biologists/researchers study the animals and plants and hope to increase the biodiversity of Costa Rica by keeping a large part of Costa Rica protected. They figure out how plants and animals behave in their surroundings. While we were there I went on three nature hikes, one of them was at night without a guide! I learned a lot more about the rainforest and its animals and plants while I was there by Roberto and my guide from La Selva.
We saw a lot of poison dart frogs that were red, monkeys that put on a show for us, and wild pigs with their babies called peccaries (?) that were really tame.
We learned about the plants that live on other plants (Epiphytes) and strangler fig trees (trees that grow around other trees until they cover the whole three and it dies from lack of sunlight).
La Selva has four major tropical life zones and protects a large portion of Costa Rica’s biodiversity including more than half of the 886 species of birds, home to 1850 species of vascular plant flora, thousands of mammals, reptiles, insects and amphibians.
There are two equipped laboratories at La Sleva. La Selva can sleep 80 people in six-person eco-dormitory rooms and cabins (we got to sleep in the turtle cabins). There is a huge bridge that connects the two parts of La Selva. La Selva is one of the world's premier sites at which to conduct ecosystem research according to the Organization of Tropical Studies website.
La Selva's combination of protected ecosystems and laboratory facilities is unique. There is an extensive trail system of more than 50 kilometers, which provides access to a wide range of different biodiversities. The entire property has been topographically surveyed and there are markers ever 50 meters, so, it´s hard to get lost.

OSA

Doggie at the camp

huge bug

lizard that walks on water

Group picture

Our beds in our tent

waterfall I jumped off of

Sunday, June 1, was spent traveling to the OSA Peninsula. The roads were gravel and dirt, which makes it take us longer to get to where we are going. We went through a huge palm tree plantation (that's what it looked like). They were in perfect lines for miles. They were doing a lot of roadwork the majority of our drive and had to wait sometimes to cross one-lane bridges that were very tiny. We were almost to where we were going to get onto boats to get to the peninsula when we found out the bridge was washed out, completely gone. We had to go back a little way and found a tiny bridge to cross. We had to get off the bus for safety reasons and the bus bottomed out and the guys had to push the bus. Lucky us, the bridge was by a bar and some drunk Ticos came out to help with the situation...haha. If Ronaldo were driving (our regular driver with the Mercedes Benz bus) we would have gotten over it with no problem.
We took two boats and a boat with our luggage down the Sierpe River to get to our final location. There was a very pretty scenery but it was raining some of the time. Interesting fact: Costa Ricans don't like having docks because that makes it public property under law so there aren't many docks around which makes it harder for us because we have to get wet to get out of the boat. There weren't any docks, which kept the protected areas even more protected because it restricted who could come to the areas.
We took taxicabs up the hill to get to our eco-camp, Drake Bay Wilderness Camp, where we were staying for the weekend. It was a short ride up hill. The camp was very muddy, but we had a lot of fun. We lived in tents that had real beds in them, but the beds didn't have box springs so the mattresses went through the boards and it was quite uncomfortable and hard to find a good position to sleep in.
Monday we walked down the hill to the beach where we got back on the boats. They took us to another part of the peninsula that was protected, Corcovada National Park. We did some eco-tourism there: two nature walks. We had to leave he location as we left it. At this park I saw the most animals. I saw Scarlet McCaws, jaguar footprints, howler monkey, bugs, crabs, agouti (I think, brown, cat-sized rodent), and tapir footprints (one of the largest mammals in Costa Rica).
My guide through the forest didn't ware shoes. He did everything barefoot and it looked painful, but he said it hurt for him to ware shoes. I got to wade through a "river" where there was a half eaten otter floating. I have a picture, but it's disgusting.
There was fresh water everywhere and I got to swim in it in two different places. Our guide opened a coconut for us and that is when I fell in love with fresh coconuts. It tastes completely different from the coconut flavoring.
Tuesday it was raining and we thought that our trip to the island, Isla Del Cano, would have to be canceled. It wasn't and we got to snorkel in the coral reef and we swam at the beach. I saw beautiful fish while snorkeling. My favorite was a blue one that was iridescent. I opened my first coconut on this beach all by myself. It took me about fifteen minutes. I had to break open the outer shell by hitting it against a rock and then had to peel back that layer. When I got to the coconut I had to take a rock and hit it around it in a circle and finally it cracked open. It was very delicious. On the boat ride home we stopped and watched the dolphins jumping in the water.
A little more about the eco-camp: I overheard that the owner started building it last August and we were his first visitors. Everything was open, there weren't many walls and I don't think their were any windows. Our showers drained into the forest, which I don't think was very eco-friendly because there are chemicals in our shampoos and soaps that are not gentle to the rivers that flow into the ocean.
Wednesday we returned to San Jose. It pretty much took the whole day.

Ecotourism

Golden frog

San Jose is the capital of Costa Rica, but it is not known as a good tourist destination. It´s dirty, overpopulated, and seems to be no different than other large Latin American cities. What makes Costa Rica different than other Latin American countries is what is outside San Jose. I call it the ¨country¨, but it is Costa Rica´s natural parks and protected areas around the country that makes it a good tourist destination.
Costa Rica prides itself with being a large ecotourism country. Ecotourism enhances cultural and environmental factors. Our first ecotourism destination in Costa Rica was to Arenal (volcano) and Monte Verde (cloud forest). They are ecotourism locations because Arenal is a natural park and Monte Verde is a protected area.
Arenal is a visited tourist destination because of the volcanic eruption of 1968. When we traveled through the park we saw how the land had naturally recovered from the eruption without human involvement. There were smaller plants that covered the ground and when we got closer to the volcano the volcanic rocks took over and a few plants grew around them.
Monte Verde is a protected cloud forest. There was a primary forest that is older than 80 years old. There is also a secondary forest that has been cut down within the last 80 years, but it is now growing back and will become a primary forest again. You can tell the difference between the two because the secondary forest has shorter trees and more foliage on the ground. The primary forest has taller trees with fewer plants on the ground because there was less sunlight for them to survive.
According to Cradle to Cradle, ¨Nothing goes in or out of the planetary system except for heat and the occasional meteorite. The system is closed, and its basic elements are valuable and finite. Whatever is naturally here is all we have. Whatever humans make does not go ´away´´´ (103). Costa Rica is taking advantage of their naturally beautiful landscapes and making it so humans cannot destroy some parts of their country (natural parks and protected areas). This is becoming very appealing to tourists because they want to see what ´´natural´´ looks like. This may also destroy what is making Costa Rica a lot of money. People can destroy protected areas, trampling through, taking things that aren´t supposed to be touched, and scaring away the natural wildlife which could eventually destroy the natural habitat of the plants that need the animals to help them pollinate and grow.´´ The vitality of ecosystems depend on relationships: what goes on between species, their uses and exchanges of materials and energy in a given place…Remove the threads, one by one, and an ecosystem becomes less stable, less able to withstand natural catastrophe and disease, less able to stay healthy and to evolve over time´´ (Cradle to Cradle, 121-122).
Example: The golden frog was a very popular frog in Monte Verde, but now it is believed to be extinct because it hasn´t been seen for over twenty years. Reasons for its extinction include that a fungus was introduced into Monte Verde that killed off the frog. Another conclusion is because of the climate change that is a result of global warming.
One way Costa Rica is trying to lessen the amount of tourists is by not making it easy to get to these locations. Our ride up to Monte Verde was a very long ride, up a mountain, and the road was full of potholes. Not widening to roads or fixing the potholes is a strategy that local towns are using to keep to tourist population low, but how long will that last?

Eco what?

Ecotourism is a form of tourism that appeals to ecologically and socially conscious people. Ecotourism focuses on volunteering, personal growth, and learning new ways to live on the planet. It typically involves travel to destinations where flora, fauna, and cultural heritage are the primary attractions. Ecotourism is extremely popular with the many tourists visiting the extensive national parks and protected areas around the country. Costa Rica is recognized as one of the few with real ecotourism. Since the 1990s Costa Rica has become famous for ecotourism and national parks. In terms of 2008 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index, Costa Rica reached the 44th place in the world ranking, being the first among Latin American countries.
On this trip we have experience a lot of ecotourism. We traveled to two coffee plantations so far that showed a lot of flora and fauna (huge gross bugs).
The world´s largest service industry is tourism. The developing nations of Central America, with its cloud forests, active volcanoes, and wide variety of flora and fauna, are taking advantage of the growing demand for ecotourism. Costa Rica is leading this trend. The idea behind ecotourism is to preserve a nation's natural resources while profiting from them. However, their ecotourism industry is starting to become ecologically damaging with the growing supply of tourists. Unlimited numbers of tourists are allowed into Costa Rica. They should put a cap on how many should be allowed to come in or their multibillion dollar industry will collapse when their rain forests and animals deplete. With tourism there is an increase in garbage problems.
Costa Rica is a prime location for tourists because of its biodiversity, environment, and location (five hour airplane flight from Ohio). A quote that one of our speakers told: "We humans fight war against nature forgetting that we will be the losers."