It has come to my attention that my first blog had an excess of scientific discussion that left much to the imagination about my actual experiences here in Costa Rica. Therefore, I’ve decided to start this blog with a series of stories about my travels, and sythesize their meaning and my feelings about them at the end. I’ve picked my favorite memory from La Selva, a rundown of one of our farm tours, and an overview of my experience with ecotourism at Tortuguero to highlight some of the main course subjects and personal themes I’ve experienced both over the past week and throughout the trip. I’m going to tell the stories in order, and include one from the previous week, in the hopes of contextualizing my understanding of the course topics of monoculture farming and ecotourism with a meaningful experience at La Selva.
Night Hike at La Selva
5/10
Before we left La Selva, I asked that we do one final group reflection session to contemplate our experiences there. Professor Libby posed a question along the lines of “What has been the most meaningful experience for you at La Selva, and what has it taught you or reaffirmed about yourself?”. For me, the night hike fit that bill.
Honestly, I was a bit nervous for the night hike when it was time to head out; wandering into the forest in the dark (with a really terrible flashlight) isn’t much improved with the knowledge you’ll have a guide. My entire group was apprehensive about seeing snakes, but our nature guide was the opposite. “My friends and I are having a competition to see who finds the most snakes!” he said. He then proceeds to find one and get SUPER close to it, shining a flashlight in its face to get a good picture as seen below:
The snakes we saw were actually pretty small, and between that and our guide’s blatant lack of fear, we got used to the night life pretty quickly. Shortly after our first snake find, as one of us was lamenting about the probable number of them around us at any given moment, our guide said, “Don’t be scared, the forest can sense your energy. You must think positively if you want to see anything good”. I followed his advice, and found myself excited to find all sorts of creatures, even snakes, and having a lot of fun.
A highlight of the hike came near the end, and was something I didn’t think I’d do before. We stopped in the middle of a trail, and our guide instructed us to turn off our flashlights. In the pitch black, we had little time to be nervous before he told us he found what he was looking for, and held up a piece of wood in the light. “Isn’t it beautiful?” he asked us. Obviously we were confused until he turned off his flashlight again and we could see a faint glow coming from the bark. It was bioluminescent from its decomposition process! We passed a few other glowing pieces of wood around in a stunned silence, and it was genuinely one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.
Before I left for Costa Rica, my primary concern was my historical aversion to change. Change, and especially change in environment, has been a source of anxiety for me ever since I can remember. When I was really young, I couldn’t do sleepovers, because being in strange places in the dark were too much for me to handle. The prospect of being away from home and my family on a 21 day trip, my first time out of the country, made me worried I would feel like that little girl again. However, as I hiked through the rain forest in the dark, listening to the sounds of its inhabitants, searching for the things that creep in the night, and even sitting in total darkness, I realized I was feeling exactly the opposite. This experience has not only opened my eyes to astonishing biodiversity, beautiful nature, and rich culture, but it has made me understand the depth of my personal growth. I’m thriving in a situation that I was at first unsure I would even be able to endure.
Pineapple Farm
5/13
While I enjoyed our visits to both banana and chocolate farms, the pineapple farm was my first experience with sustainable large-scale farming and therefore my favorite. We learned so much about sustainable versus monoculture agriculture, and it grew my appreciation for the time, money, and effort invested into growing organic produce. There I had some of the best fresh pineapple I had ever tasted, and a variety of other pineapple foods like piña coladas.
During our tour, we learned about sustainable and unsustainable farming practices, primarily focusing on the use or lack of pesticides. Our guide told us that, in places that use pesticides, employees have to get blood tests 2x a MONTH and shower and change when they leave work for the day, and are often grossly underpaid. These practices are cheaper and reduce the fruit rejection, but are harmful to people and the environment. On the other hand, the pineapple farm uses plastic over the crops instead of pesticides, and employees are unexposed, well-paid, and only need blood tests twice a year. While fruit rejection is higher, the harm to the environment and workers is exponentially less, and this is only the beginning of the differences between the two.
Ecotourism in Tortuguero
5/17 – 5/19
We only visited Tortuguero for one full day, so it’s easier to summarize the entire experience here. Tortuguero is a national park, and gets its name for being full of turtles. Ecotourism is booming in this area, so you can always see a boat coasting down the river. In fact, the boat rides to and from our lodge and the boat tour may have been my favorite parts of our visit.
We had the opportunity to visit the town of Tortuguero and see its beautiful black sand beaches where turtles come to lay eggs in the thousands during mating season. The beach was wonderful, and we learned about Tortuguero’s complex history. We also had a chance to walk around town, which was very tourist-oriented due to the location in a national park. We also enjoyed time by the pool and amazing meals, and the wildlife in the area was stunning.
However, it’s hard not to compare Tortuguero to La Selva. As nice as it was, there is an emphasis on the tourism aspect of ecotourism, which at times made me feel disconnected from the wildlife. Comfort is nice, but human activity can also cause distruption to local ecosystems. We saw capuchins rifling through anything they can access just to look for a suitable source of food, and I’d imagine the large-scale use of engine-powered boats for transportation generates pollution that affects aquatic ecosystems in the area.
Now
5/19, 12:00 PM
In the spirit of sharing more experiences, I’ll tell you what I’m doing as I write this. It’s super hard to find time to work on school work with our packed schedules, so I’m working on this blog on a bus to Arenal Volcano in the La Fortuna Area. I kinda smell like wet dog from petting the local strays, and am writing on my iPhone trying to ignore the itch of my sunburn on my shoulders and the sway of the bus that threatens to rock me to sleep. Speaking of, I’ve been falling asleep everywhere lately while in transit; you wouldn’t believe how easy it is to fall asleep upright if you’re on a rocking boat or bouncing bus. I actually fell asleep halfway through writing this paragraph!
A note to my Mom: I put on a ton of sunscreen but the equator sun made it through on my shoulders somehow. Also, to be quite frank, the entire trip has just been a series of skin issues, my sunburn being the mildest. The heat and humidity mixed with layers upon layers of sunscreen and bug spray have not been kind to my largest organ.
Perhaps, dear reader, you may now be wondering how my series of stories all tie into each other. But never fear! I wouldn’t just leave you hanging like that (and I want a good grade on this assignment). It’s important to understand that my experience at La Selva gave me an appreciation for biodiversity and an understanding of how humans and the rain forest can coexist without being of detriment to each other. Therefore, when I see things such as monoculture farming with harmful pesticides and burning practices instead of sustainable alternatives such as the pineapple farm we visited, it creates concern for the health of the people and the land in Costa Rica. Additionally, the abundance of ecotourism that can at times lean more toward tourism than ecological concern brings up more questions about how Costa Rica, a leader in planetary health, can further improve these systems.
The night hike gave me an idea. Although change can be difficult and scary for me, I’ve found ways to navigate it that have led to beautiful experiences. Additionally, during my time learning about some of the harmful agriculture and tourism practices, I’ve been inspired to change my daily habits to support more sustainable companies. In the same way, I believe that the right motivation, education, and resources can help companies in ecotourism and farming to move toward more sustainable practices in order to protect this precious ecosystem. This fear of change, whether it be for avoiding financial loss or keeping long-standing practices, is the first obstacle that needs to be overcome in the fight to place nature over luxury.
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