This was a documentation of my month long trip to Costa Rica with Miami U. It is now a way to update people in my life for my trip to hopefully nearly all the countries in central america in 2012.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Ecotourism part 4
Bananas part 4
The way bananas grow is pretty interesting. First of all, bananas are not a tree. They are a plant, and the banana group begins as a flower. The flower takes 9 months to mature and turn into a bunch of bananas, and as they ripen, plastic bags are put over the bananas to protect them from bugs. Because this plantation is the main eco-friendly project for Chiquita, these bags are recycled and reused, but on most plantations this doesn´t happen and often times these bags are found in the ocean or other random places along the drainage ditches.
This plantation takes extra care to make sure their workers are safe. These methods include wearing a long sleeve shirt (oh yeah, im sure that does a lot) and a mask. Workers also get their blood tested every 3 months to make sure that they are doing okay, but all these methods dont really seem to be that effective. To me, it seems kind of fake. They do all these things to pretend that they care about their workers, but in actuality, these methods are just to look nice and don´t seem very effective. The health of the workers is still largely at risk, and the company looks the other way because they are doing a tiny bit to act like they care.
We got to see their packaging plant, and it seemed to be safe overall. The workers looked happy and had simple jobs like washing off the bananas, throwing out the ones that looked flawed so they could be used in baby food and other things, putting stickers on each banana by hand, or packing the bananas up in boxes to be shipped to America and Europe. We also witnessed the crazy Chiquita Banana Show, where local women try to become actresses and follow a cheesy script explaining how the bananas are grown and processed. It was one of the most bizarre experiences of my whole trip, along with the Cafe Britt show, and was hard to understand because it was all in Spanish. They had outrageous costumes and wore makeup to look like men. At one point the women grabbed some guys hands and made them dance in a circle. It was awkward to say the least, and one of the women had disturbingly sweaty hands. They took us out to the banana field for an extension of the bizarre show where they showed us the plants. Every banana plant is tied down to the ground with multiple ropes because the plants are too big to hold themselves up, which is one again an example of why bananas probably shouldnt be grown in Costa Rica. This will never change most likely. Overall, the plantation was very interesting and demonstrated some big problems that Chiquita has some not-so-effective solutions to try and fix.
Coffee part 4
Here in Costa Rica there are different prices for coffee compared to in America. According to my research, that is because America imports over 1200 thousand tons of coffee each year while Costa Rica imports no coffee since it is grown here. The demand is normal and the supply is high, while in America the demand is high and the supply is lower. Here, a 1 lb bag of Cafe Britt coffee is $5, but in America it is $9 plus the shipping for it to get there. At the award-winning Del Cafe... Tal, we could purchase coffee for $10/lb while in America large scale stores like Starbucks purchase it for $15/lb. This mark-up is not necessarily seen by the producer themselves but more likely by middlemen, unless significant effort has been put forth in order to eliminate them like in Daisy's case. Also, you can buy coffee directly from foreign producers and will most likely get a better deal rather than going through a large intermediary. Starbucks even sells a Costa Rican coffee called Tarrazu that is 1 lb for $13, and it is out of stock on their website. The description is full of fluff to make the coffee sound different and great. Examples of this are "single-origin coffee offers vibrant flavors and a refreshing acidity" and "vibrant and refreshing coffee is complemented by bright, fruity flavors like lemon, strawberry, peach and pineapple". I believe almost none of this superfluous marketing ploy.
Once again, the price of coffee depends on its classification. The price varies significantly if the coffee is Fair Trade, organic, organic certified, shade-grown, or sungrown. Some of these methods are healthier for the environment in general, while others are not, so it is up to a eco-friendly consumer to purchase the more expensive coffee. Since I do not drink coffee, I don't know if there would be a difference in the taste between all these classifications but I'm assuming not.
The Caribbean
thursday: In the morning we visited a medical supplies place called Makol. We learned about the medical sector of the economy and how cutthroat socialized health care is in Costa Rica. The hospitals, run by the government, are narrow minded and only buy the cheapest product, even when in the long run or bigger packaging they would get better deals. The hotels also have no way of inventorying things, so when an order comes to Makol, who is only a distributor, products are needed ASAP. We also learned that the socialized health care system works well when you have a life threatening problem, but if you just have a normal check up, you could be put on a waiting list for over a year. Kind of a flawed system. Costa Rica is also having problems with Nicaraguans illegally entering the country using their socialized health care and schooling systems without paying for anything through taxes (see any resemblance to the United States and illegal Mexican immigrants? I do).
saturday: We got up early and drove to Cahuita national park to go snorkeling. I finally got some fins that were actually the correct size and a better snorkel which made me very happy. We saw lots of coral and fish, and even a decent sized stingray in the water. The water was very shallow water compared to the Osa, but was kind of murky. After snorkeling for a while, we had to switch out with this other group so we sat on the beach for awhile. There, we came face to face with white face monkeys right next to us. I could have touched them if I wanted, and they were obviously used to human interaction. They even tried to steal this lady's purse. We also saw a yellow eyelash pit viper (a very small but bright yellow cool snake) and a sloth that was high up in the tree.
sunday: After very little sleep we got up to eat breakfast and a small group went to the actual town of Manzanillo. We went on a little walk to see Panama and this cool view. It was very hot. We also walked around the town and surrounding houses and saw some interesting things. We went back to our hotel for lunch where I had a great hamburger, hung out at the pool and ocean, and relaxed again which was glorious. This was one of the first times that we could actually just sit around and relax and not have to be going going going doing lots of different activities. We ate a good dinner (our hotel had fantastic food), watched strange movies on tv while falling asleep, and made a bonfire on the beach. I slept really well.
monday: Drove back to Puerto Viejo to hang out for 2 hours and eat lunch, JC/me/paul/peter rented moped/scooter things for an hour whcih was the best thing ever. Everyone except me had near-death experiences, right in front of the place we rented them from. We also ate at Peace & Love Pizzeria, which was some of the best pizza I've ever consumed. Then we drove home. It was a good day
Coffee part 3
Eco-tourism part 3
The snorkelling that we did was also an extension of our ecotourism trip. Observing local fish in their natural habitat while limiting the human effects on the environment is what ecotourism is all about. While we did ride in gasoline powered boats and we did put ourselves in the coral reef to examine fish and other wildlife, this type of tourism in preserved waters is still not awful for the environment like other kinds of ecotourism. I always cringe when I think about the bus that we have taken all over the country because I know that the fumes coming out are very strong and definitely not good for the world and CO2 emission problems.
Bananas part 3
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
The weekend (aka saturday-weds)
Sunday, we had a very long bus ride to the Osa Peninsula, including a moment when we had to get off the bus so it could "perform a somewhat dangerous manuever" which involved students pushing the bus from behind so it could bottom out on a tiny bridge. We had to ride on boats to get to the town we were staying in on the peninsula, and the ride was really fun. We went through a forest on the boat (pictures to explain that will come later) and got to go pretty fast out on the open ocean. We got to our camp/tents/nice place that would serve as our hotel for 3 days and everyone got to relax which was wonderful. Dinner was delicious too which made the travel day much better.
Monday we had another early morning, around 7am, to go to the corcovado national park which we had to ride a boat to. This trip has been so crazy for our normal schedules as college students considering all the early mornings. There were 3 groups of about 10 students, and luckily I had a really crazy guide who also worked at the hotel we stayed at. He was in tune with nature to the fullest and hadn't worn shoes voluntarilly in 15 years. He let us on the trail and had us eat termites if we wanted (which taste like wood/dirt but are extremely healthy), eat some kind of muscle thing that was growing on a rock in the ocean, and swim in the this swimming hole that was at the base of a stream coming out of the peninsula that lead to the ocean. We saw lots of bugs like spiders and leaf cutter ants and even a jaguar footprint in the dirt. We also saw tracks of the Tapir on the sand. The Tapir is the largest mammal in the park, and kind of looks like an anteater. We headed back for lunch and saw a half-eaten sea otter that we had to wade past which was pretty repulsive. After we ate lunch and hung out at the beach, all the groups went to the waterfall. My crazy guide lead a small group of us from this little waterfall everyone was at (about 6 feet tall) to a the huge waterfall upstream that was probably 30-40 feet tall. We climbed up rock faces and there were multiple times that I thought I was going to slip and fall off of it and die, but luckily there were no fatalities. After the waterfall visit we took the boats back to our hotel and played cards until dinner and after dinner. This weekend was full of more cards than I've ever played in my lifetime probably.
The next day we went by boat to rainy boat ride to the island where we went snorkeling. The water was clear blue which was gorgeous, and the coral reef we were over was pretty far down so to get a close look at the fish you had to dive down a little bit. We also hung out on the beach for a little bit and then went home early for fear of being trapped on the island by what seemed to be an incoming storm. Most people went to sleep in their tents when we got home but I wasn't tired so I read outside and thoroughly enjoyed the awesome view from my deck. I slept a little before dinner since everyone else was still sleeping and then hung out with everyone at night.
On wednesday we road the boat back to the town where we left our bus and had the longest bus ride ever. It was a long day.
itinerary until i leave
Thursday, June 5, Leave to La Selva Research Station, Caribbean (BRING MU T-SHIRT)
Friday-sunday, chill in the puerto viejo, go to banana plantations,
Monday, June 9, Return to San Jose
Tuesday, June 10, Class, Lunch, Class
Wed, June 11, Evals., Group Reports, lunch, Final Exam
Thur, June 12, Poas and water falls visit (no swimming) (BRING MU T-SHIRT)
Fri, June 13, Free day, packing, Farewell Dinner
Sat, June 14, fly home
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Manuel Antonio fotos
dirty croc river. they were massive.
the tiniest croc next to the malnourished cows
small croc next to big croc.
view from our hotel, this is as sunny as it got the whole time. probably raining in this p
the town of Manuel Antonio, that i thought would be resorty. it was not.
dinner time pictures. morell, heidi, me, jon campbell, and paul
monkey road kill. sorry but i had to.
wrestling match. bad idea.
hanging out outside. me, stephanie, steve, and diane.
another view from the hotel
on the beach walking toward the national park
pacific ocean, for the first time in my life. pretty cool even though it was overcast.
cool rocks in the ocean
mas
mas
forest.
another lovely view. it was still pretty even though we had crappy weather.
if you look closely, there are 3 little black dots in the brightness on a branch in the top middle of this picture. those are howler monkeys, and this giant branch almost crushed us when it fell and they screamed and it was one of the most intense moments ive ever had.
me posing on the rock everyone else posed on too oceano pacifico
playa y oceano pacifico
another view
i think there is a white face monkey in this picture. right in the middle at the top, a black dot-ish thing. sorry, i tried.
upper left corner, small rodent-esque animal thingy. very hard to see, well camoflaged.
mas playa y oceano
flores
hotel pool. rain on the water.
final view of manuel antonio. thank you tropical depression/storm thing for giving us tons and tons of rain.
Monteverde Cloud Forest fotos
first sign of clouds entering the cloud forest. the first sign of the incredible non-stop wetness we were about to experience for 2 days. mas clouds
carmen and morell after the tarzan swing at the zipline tour place. it was cool to say the least. notice the wetness
1/2 of carmen, morell, evan, and I after doing the tarzan swing. notice the wetness
bug on the night time forest tour. notice the wetness.
tree frog. its tough to take clear pictures at night using flashlights instead of camera flashes which we weren't allowed to use for some reason. notice the wetness.
a caterpillar that had been eaten from the inside out. pretty cool. notice the wetness.
tarantula. guess i got over my fear of spiders?
selva (forest) in the morning
what tarzan supposedly swang around the forest on
caterpillar of some sort that was alive. whoops, my flash went off so i could finally get a clear picture.jon campbell in front of the strangler fig tree, hollow in the middle because the tree let things grow up beside it, get to the top to take in the sun, they throw their roots down the side of the tree, eventually the middle of the tree rots out and dies, often times bats live in here.famous female Quetzal through the telescope, didnt get a pic of the male
female Quetzal in the tree
plant of some sort
different plant of some sortmy early morning (6am) tour group
leaving the cloud forest.
leaving the cloud forest. notice the wetness. still. everything i brought on this trip got soaked.
cool river on the ride home
man with horse and dog on the drive home