It feels like everything is going so fast now. I look back at the last days and everything just somewhat blurs together. It reminds me of one of the last days my team was collecting data at La Selva. It had been raining so I took off my glasses to clean them. The sun was beaming and when I looked around, everything looked broken down into a beautiful combination of green. My astigmatism made it seem as if all the leaves were composed of glowing globes of green. I put my glasses back on, and while everything was clear, I noticed how much I had taken the details for granted.
Our time at La Selva was nothing short of wonderful. It’s so cool to say that we stayed in a rainforest for over a week. I want to note that RAINforest truly lived up to its name. Besides my shoes getting wet, these rainy days were ones that I loved. They made the unbearable humidity feel relaxing and when you sat down and listened, you noticed that although the rain overpowered most sounds, life was still present. La Selva truly has taught me a lot about the significance that comes with living in the moment. I look back and appreciate the food, the community, the accessibility of the trails, and the wonderful staff. I’ve experienced this sense of awe multiple times throughout the trip, such as admiring the intricate hand-made jewelry at an art market in town, the awe-taking waterfall of La Fortuna, the amazing view of the Arenal Volcano from our hotel room, taking a warm shower and feeling clean, the abundance of bird species you could see from the observatory tower, the simplicity of admiring cows in a field of green, bumping into the other students from Georgia, and the abundance of hills as we traveled higher in elevation. All of these moments have felt magical in their own ways. It’s amazing how many wonders the world holds, some being less obvious than others. Just today during our morning hike at Monteverde, we saw the bright and rare Quetzals. It was an instant moment as it quickly flew away, but it was a beautiful moment.
Throughout my time on this trip, I have found myself learning something new almost every day. One of my favorite things I learned today was how it takes Pumas around five generations to erase an era of memories. As Monteverde Cloud Forest has been around for just over 50 years, there have been more and more sightings of Puma closer to humans as the memories of hunters start erasing from their memories. When our tour guide today expressed this fact, I was mesmerized as it’s something I have never heard before. I have also appreciated learning from lectures. In class, Dr.Libby made a powerful statement. He said that transparency is the friend of consumerism and that opacity is its enemy. We discussed the production of corn and the idea that truly it only serves one species: humans. Corn is so widely produced that out of our income, 12% of our income goes toward groceries. This is the lowest percentage in history as we have a high amount of corn and a lot of foods use corn substitutes. This in turn leads to obesity in the U.S.. It’s been so interesting to learn how everything is connected. In addition, corn is one of the five main crops used for commodity dumping. This in turn causes a lot of people living in rural areas to move to more urban areas, not necessarily because there are more opportunities, but because commodity dumping pushes a lot of farmers from having jobs. This cycle causes poverty to be repositioned into urban areas. This is not my area of knowledge so learning this in class was something that I appreciated. It made me realize how much there is to learn about how the world operates and how much I am capable of learning from my peers. This topic also allowed me to become more conscious about the sources of my foods and the businesses I choose to support with my decisions. For this reason, one of my favorite parts of this trip has been being able to go to organic farms in Costa Rica.
Organic Paradise Tour is a family-owned business that grows pineapples sustainably. Our tour guide, Elion, showed us the farm, how to choose good pineapples, and how they grow their pineapples. It’s interesting as I typically would choose a pineapple depending on how yellow they are, but Elion told us that the green pineapples are the best as they are less fermented. We got to try pineapples from the farm and they were so good! These pineapples were super sweet. It was interesting to learn why all the pineapples I have tasted before are always sour and kinda nasty tasting. According to Elion, if the sugar percentage of the pineapple is less than 14%, they are shipped to Europe, but if it is more than 14% they are shipped to the United States. By the time these pineapples arrive, they are so into the fermentation process that they have lost the sweetness in them. So if you aren’t the biggest fan of pineapples, you might just have to try one from Costa Rica! Another thing that stood out to me was how the farm only has 80 employees who on average harvest around 7,000 pineapples a day and a maximum of around 20,000 per day. This caught me by surprise as typically we see farms hiring hundreds of employees and underpaying them, but you could tell that they valued their employees and paid them a livable wage. We also visited the Cultural Banana Tour. I admire Fran, our tour guide as she is a single mother with three kids and has been so amazing at running her banana business. She started the farm with her family and her sister helped her figure out how to export bananas. The farm was so pretty and she also showed us her Mariola bees that don’t sting but that create honey that sells for $200 per about one gallon. I loved how personal the tour was and how much credibility and love Fran showed towards her family, pointing out the paintings of her mother and allowing our class to partake in the making of Patacones. There was so much love radiating from her and it’s almost as if you could taste it from her food and coffee!
I feel so fortunate to be able to be a part of this trip. Despite the fast pace of the days, I am excited for what the rest of the trip has on hold! :))
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