This week was a very eye-opening learning experience, to say the least. From rounding out our time in Torteguero, to our days in Arenal, Palo Verde, and Monte Verde, we had the opportunity to see all kinds of “eco”tourist hubs, as well as places many tourists would never chose to set foot in. Throughout all these places, there could be no doubt which was the most environmentally friendly, and which was least.
Torteguero was a middle-man between sustainable ecotourism and just plain tourism. While there were undeniably sustainable practices implemented at Torteguero, there were also several practices that were less so. On the positive side, Torteguero used fans over air conditioning in all of their rooms and served locally sourced food for every meal. While both of these practices certainly help to reduce the ecological footprints of all visitors, there were other factors which had the opposite affect. As part of a wetland forest, the only method of transportation available around the park and between the hotels and cities was via gas-powered boat. Each boat held 20-30 people at a time and the boats were staggered throughout the day to reduce the impact on the local environment, the use of gas powered boats still undoubtedly results in negative impacts on the environment.
Arenal was where the line between ecotourism and tourism got its murkiest this week, to say the least. Our first activity upon arriving in Arenal was meeting with an Indigenous community, something I went into very excited about. However, I quickly realized this encounter was not what I, or the Indigenous community themselves, wanted it to be. The entire time we were there, it felt like we were watching a performance. Not only a performance, but a performance with unwilling actors. The translator was giving unreliable translations and encouraging them to change what they were saying when it did not align with what he wanted. The leader of the tribe we spoke with even said that some other members of their family and tribe were upset about them doing what they were doing and that they were on the outs with many members of their community because of it. They expressed that their only reason for doing it was to sell their goods. That it was difficult for them to make a profit selling their goods at the local markets but it was their primary source of income. Lands have been taken from Indigenous people across Costa Rica in order to develop more ecotourism attractions. Through the expansion of ecotourism, natives have been forced to sell their pride and their culture in order to make a living.
After our brief time with the Indigenous tribe, we parted for our hotel in Arenal. Stepping onto our hotel property felt like stepping into a gated community. Having spent nearly two whole weeks at La Selva, we had all become quite used to the overwhelming presence of bugs anywhere and everywhere we went. Yet as we crossed into the property of our hotel in Arenal, it felt like we hit a wall. Although uncomfortable at times, the bugs up to this point in our trip had come to serve as a symbol of our integration with nature for me. They came to be a source of comfort because I knew when I was around the bugs, I was around nature and in a place that truly cared about preserving the local ecology. When we arrived to Arenal, and there was not a single bug in sight, we all felt their absence. For most people, the absence of bugs is something to celebrate, not a sign of foreboding. But to us, the only thing it meant was that our pure living with nature had come to a halt. And for me, this was something very hard to come to terms with. The lack of bugs meant that the hotel was making their environment toxic to bugs; manicuring their land to make it more comfortable for tourists. Even more, this hotel was the only place we stayed the entire trip which had air conditioning. While staying in Arenal, especially after our extended time in La Selva, it was hard to be anything but hyper aware of how much larger our ecological footprint was.
In this way, for me at least, Palo Verde was almost like a breath of fresh air. There were a lot of mosquitoes, yes. And I quickly developed an irrational fear of contracting Chagas. However, life felt more natural again and that is a feeling I came to value a lot on this trip. I felt like we were once again living with nature, rather than in it. I think the biggest difference between Palo Verde and the previous places mentioned was the fact that Palo Verde is not typically an advertised tourist attraction in the same way Torteguero and Arenal are. The people going to Palo Verde are people who truly understand the importance of preserving the ecology there. By contrast, many tourists visiting places like Arenal and Torteguero are looking for a nice, relaxing getaway where they can feel completely comfortable and for most people, that unfortunately does not go hand in hand with bugs, lack of air conditioning, and other things that are definitively better for the environment.
Other than La Selva, I think Monte Verde was probably my favorite place we stayed during the trip. While there is no doubt that Monte Verde was still a tourist attraction, they seemed to have figured out ways to combine comfort and sustainability for their guests in a way that Arenal, and even Torteguero to a degree, had not. Being in the cloud forest, concerns with mosquitoes were already fairly diminished. However, we saw all types of beetles and various other bugs during our time here. We also again were able to stay in rooms without air conditioning, only fans. All the food served in the restaurant was grown on-site, or from local markets and farms if it was not something available on-site. One aspect of the place we stayed in Monte Verde that had me questioning the negative impacts of its existence was the fact that there were two families who lived in houses right next to the hotel itself. I can only imagine that having tourists constantly invading your space can come to be pretty overwhelming, but the hotel does provide a lot of services for those families to offset the harms.
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