It’s so weird to think that there’s only one more week left of this class. Not to cliche, but time really does fly when you’re having fun! This week was all about our research projects, and I couldn’t be happier with what Julia and I are working on. Going into town to conduct our social research surveys has been such an eye-opening experience.
Before everyone dove into their research projects, on Monday we went to this extremely eco-touristy resort for a cacao/chocolate demonstration. I’ll admit, the chocolate making process is interesting (and tasty), but everything just felt so artificial. From the moment we pulled into the resort, I knew that everything was going to feel really inorganic. Obviously the trees, iguanas, the river, and the forest we walked through are all beautiful and natural, but the resort and chocolate demonstration just felt too touristy for me in contrast to the experiences of being at La Selva and the two earlier farm tours. I do have to admit that some of the ecotouristy things are great, like the fact that I’m writing this blog post from the side of the pool at Torteguero, soaking up the sun by some monkeys. It’s definitely nice to relax after such a long week of research.
One of my favorite things about this whole Costa Rica experience has been how immersive everything has felt. Waking up to the sounds of howler monkeys in the morning, walking over a gorgeous suspension bridge and seeing turtles and caymans on the way to meals, even the sounds and sights of geckos chirping in the classroom – everything I’ve done at La Selva has been centered around the rainforest and the gorgeous landscape around us. I really love being surrounded by nature and really getting to understand the importance of the environment in Costa Rican culture, which was only made more apparent by going into town and conducting social surveys.
On Tuesday and Thursday, I got to go into town with the other social survey groups, and it was just fascinating to see what life in Sarapiqui was like. Being that it wasn’t a touristy area in the slightest, we stuck out like sore thumbs with our backpacks and iPads for surveying, but it did give us the chance to get a great sample group and talk to really interesting people. We did get rejected a couple of times, but for the most part everyone we talked to was super nice. My spanish is “muy mal” and I can mainly chimed in with “hola” and “muchas gracias”, but thankfully Julia speaks the language pretty well, so she was able to get people to fill out our survey. We went to bakeries, coffee shops, grocery stores, clothing stores, a hotel – literally anything we could walk into that looked inviting.
One conversation that we had with a cashier at a general store really told me all I needed to know about the culture of Costa Rica. This woman, who luckily for me also spoke fluent english, is from Costa Rica and lives in San Jose with her husband, who’s from Quebec. She told us about how she was in Sarapiqui to work for her aunt for a while, mainly because she loves the natural beauty for the area. She told us about how she and her husband love the landscape of Costa Rica, and that she was currently taking French classes to broaden her horizons. She said that she loves to travel and wants to see the world, and mentioned wanting to go to both New York and Chicago after Julia and I shared where we were from. I was so intrigued after hearing all this, especially about her husband moving to Costa Rica from Canada. According to the latest Costa Rican census, the number of immigrants in the country totals to about 390,000, or 9% of the country’s population. The main reasons given as to why people immigrate to Costa Rica are due to the nature and culture, which makes perfect sense.
Based off of the current survey data from Heredia, it is looking like part of the hypothesis that Julia and I have is correct: Costa Ricans care more about climate change than Americans. Our results from the 21 La Selva surveys we conducted was fascinating, with literally everyone we talked to saying that climate change exists and is a threat to humans, animals, and plants. The contrast between this attitude and that of Americans is remarkable, and I have no doubt that is largely in part due to the cultural significance of the environment to Costa Ricans, as well as the way their lives are so deeply immersed in nature. As I’m writing this we haven’t looked at our results for Tortuguero quite yet, but based off of a couple of the conversations we have had so far the great people here are equally caring and immersed in their environment, especially being that we are talking to people who directly benefit from ecotourism, which is centered around Costa Rica’s beautiful biodiversity.
I’m looking forward to the other forms of culture I’m going to see during the final week of this adventure. Hopefully it doesn’t all go by too fast, because I really do love it here. Spending too much time in the United States really clouds your perspective of other cultures and other parts of the world, and being here has really gotten rid of that cultural fog.
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