Rain, Sustainable Tourism, Etc.

Hello to all loyal Una Aventura Mas blog followers:

Well, this is a little later than promised, but here is another update of our adventures here in Costa Rica. First, we need to mention that the very beginnings of rain have come back to the Central Valley and San Bosco. Not only has it begun to control the dust a little, but it gives us all a little respite from the intense heat of the day. There’s nothing like a downpour in the afternoon for cutting through the heat brought by the tropical sun. According to most people here, it is pretty rare to start getting rain this early, perhaps it is an effect of El Nino…either way, we are just happy to see the world getting green again. Amy is VERY happy with the return of the rain...the house can get pretty hot during the day, and this makes it much more tolerable.

The past month has really gone by fast, mostly because I was teaching my third and final course of the year, Sustainable Tourism. This course is furthest from my own expertise, so I was a bit nervous about teaching it. However, I was really blessed with a nice (and small) group of five students that took initiative and seemed to learn a ton. They weren’t the only ones learning, as I feel like I gained a lot of knowledge and experience with the issue. It was really nice to have a Tica, my student Pamela, in the course to always remind us Gringos about some real, “on the ground”, effects of tourism and the struggles with sustainability that Costa Rica has gone through (and with which it is continuing to deal).

Of course, one of the nicest things about teaching in the NRSD program is the fact that our courses always involve field trips to move the course away from the theoretical and into the practical. I had spent the first week and a half breaking down the possibilities and impossibilities of sustainable tourism, and the emphasis was more on the latter. The fieldtrip was designed to give us some ideas about what is possible in bringing sustainability to tourism and to build the students back up.

We started our tour with a visit to Rainforest Alliance and their tourism certification program. It was a quick, but very educational, visit with them at their offices in San Jose. After several hours in the van, we arrived at Costa de Pajaros on the Gulf of Nicoya. We were served lunch from a woman’s cooperative that was struggling to find ways to bring tourism to their coast, and to find visitors for their project ideas. Besides feeding us a wonderful meal of fish filets covered with a shrimp sauce, they tried their best to remain optimistic about the steps they have made forward. I should mention that the visit was arranged by a group called ACTUAR, which is an umbrella organization/inbound operator for community rural tourism projects in Costa Rica. If any of you want to go on an off-the-beaten-track tour here in Costa Rica, I suggest you look them up (http://www.actuarcostarica.com/). ACTUAR actually scheduled the visit to the next two locations we visited as well, and they offer many tours that are truly community projects.

After lunch, we boarded a boat and crossed to Isla Chira, which is in the middle of the Gulf of Nicoya. No one really knew what to expect when we got the island, even Pamela (Tica) and Jan (15 years in CR) had never been to Chira. We were surprised to find out that a community of 3-5,000 people lives on the island!!! Unfortunately, socio-economic times in Chira have not been great over the last 10 years. They used to survive off of fishing, but as with many coastal inshore fisheries in the world, overfishing and pollution have decimated the fishery and the people have been left to scramble for new opportunities or migrate. Over the last few years, a women’s group on the island formed to offer rural tourism opportunities at a lodge they have built on a piece of property they bought with their own funds. They also built the lodge buildings, numbering four now, by themselves. We visited their Artesania workshop (and of course bought souvenirs), stayed the night with them, ate some good food, and received a nice chat from a young woman leading the charge. It was really interesting to hear the ways in which the project was empowering the women of the community. I wouldn’t call their albergue (lodge) high class, but it was comfortable and quiet. It would be a great place to just hide out and enjoy solitude, also the birding was pretty good. The next morning we got up early, ate, and headed out for a several hour tour of the mangroves with our lady captains. It was refreshing to have a woman pilot the boat and act as the nature guide. Guiding jobs are usually dominated by men, so it was nice to see this twist (and they were good at it too!). The mangrove tour was interesting, we saw lots of shorebirds, but had no luck spotting crocodiles… David the bird geek was quite pleased, but I’m not sure the rest of the group was too psyched, but hey it was better than a classroom, no?

The women boated us to the Nicoya Peninsula, where we met up with our driver to take us to the next stop, Cerro Escondido. Cerro Escondido is a private reserve that was set up by an NGO (ASAPALECO) via the financial donation of a Danish woman (Karen Mogensen), After a nice introductory talk and a lunch, we set off to hike into the reserve and to the albergue that they have set up inside. The reserve itself protects the sources of several local rivers (important as water sources for the growing population and tourism of the region), which is also a patch of primary forest. Because of the elevation of the forest, it is different than the dry forest that is found throughout much of the Nicoya and up into Guanacaste. We were lead into the reserve by Don Arnulfo, a man who had grown up in the area, once ran his own finca (farm), but who had always loved nature. A few years back he began working for the reserve, and there he is able to continue one of his passions: reforesting Costa Rica. He constantly collects seeds of rare and endangered trees, grows them into saplings, and plants them. He told us that he plants between 1,000 and 4,000 trees a year!!! Arnulfo lead us up the riverbed, making sure to bring us to a few good swimming holes and to the magnificent waterfall that is one of the true natural wonders of the reserve. Next, it was up 1,200 steps across about a half-kilometer (i.e. very steep) to get to the albergue. After that good hike, we were greeted with fresh coffee and pancakes made by Arnulfo’s wife, Doña Mary. We then got some rest in our modest, but comfortable rooms, washed up, and had dinner and a talk from ASAPALECO’s director. It was also very informative, especially in comparison to Isla Chira. The Cerro Escondido project was classic ecotourism in that protecting the reserve came first, but the surrounding community was not entirely left out, it is policy to include their interests in the running of the reserve.

The next morning, some of us woke up early and headed to the reserve’s lookout / fire tower to catch the sunrise over the Gulf of Nicoya. It was a good climb, and so worth the effort. We got to enjoy the sunrise, listen to birds and howler monkeys greet the morning, and see an incredible view.

Check out the video:



After enjoying a hearty breakfast, we hiked out and headed back towards San Jose, and made one last stop in Alajuela to visit a hotel called Finca Rosa Blanca. The owner, Glen Jampol, allowed our group of grubby, travel weary, students into his “5 Leaf” hotel. Five leaves means they have the highest certification level offered by Costa Rica’s voluntary certification program (CST). This is quite an accomplishment, as the standards are quite high. We had a nice hour visit with Glen, who was very frank about his view of sustainability, and showed us the ways in which his hotel makes money and is sustainable too. It was pretty amazing to see what this artist from Berkeley had done here in Costa Rica. Finally, we headed back to Ciudad Colon to rest and finish off the last couple days of the course.

So, I guess that is a lot about that field trip… sorry to have gone off on that, but I thought it was all so interesting….

After finishing my course, life has been much more relaxed again. Last Sunday, Amy and I took advantage of an early morning rise to climb the mountains surrounding San Bosco. This time we went even further and basically followed the entire ridgeline before returning back to the house. It was a great 3 hour hike with lots of views of the surrounding valley, birds, and of course insects J. You’ll see some pics below.

This week has been Semana Santa (Holy Week) as well as Passover. We started out the week with our very fist Seder ever!! It was an eclectic mix of UPEACE students that shared our table with us, including an Israeli, a Costa Rican Jew, U.S. Jews, and several “jew lovers.” It was a fun and irreverent, but it wasn’t quite like being with the family. Finally, tonight, we’re going to head to a nice dinner to celebrate Easter. We’re headed to Essencia for some fine dining for a change, hooray!

OK, I’ve gone on way too long here. We hope that all our loyal readers are enjoying the posts, and that Spring arrives soon for everyone. Lots of love to you all.

Saludos y abrazos,

David (and Amy)


The Costa de Pajaros...heading to the "ferry":


Albergue in Isla Chira:


Ablergue in Isla Chira:


Our Guides into the Mangrove:


Roseate Spoonbills flying away in the Mangroves:


Howler Monkey cooling off on the way to Cerro Escondido:


The waterfall on the way up to Cerro Escondido:


Seeds that Don Arnulfo had found along the way:


The old homestead house at the albergue in Cerro Escondido:


Sunrise, Cerro Escondido:


David at the fire tower, Cerro Escondido, we left before sunrise hence the headlamp:


A cashew fruit at the albergue in Cerro Escondido...the fruit is "interesting" but don't eat the nut until its been roasted!:


The Ridgeline atop the moutains by our house in San Bosco:


In the distance you can see the Costa Rica version of "Sleeping Giant" (that's what they call it too!):


A lovely vulture...they hang out on the fencelines along the top of the ridge...kinda creepy (ick):