We had an extension of ecotourism this past weekend. We went to the Osa Peninsula, which I already talked about somewhat. The Osa Peninusla is part of a huge national park in the southern pacific side of Costa Rica, Corcovado National Park. It covers over 100,000 acres of land, and is very difficult to access so there aren´t a ton of beachy tourists. Our hotel/tent place that we stayed at did a few things that were sustainable, which surprised me. Because of the limited food resources and things like that in the middle of nowhere (actually named Drake Bay, Costa Rica), the food scraps are fed to a pig that lived near the hotel. The master plan is to fatten up the pig with the scraps and feast on him later, which is pretty smart but old school. Rumor has it that they also had their own personal cow out back whos milk was served at breakfast. Warm, unpasturized milk that hasn´t been processed to 2 or 1% or skim doesn´t taste all that bad actually. The hotel had limited power sources and didn´t use lights during the day and the dining area was pretty dark at night. Even though this hotel was kind of like camping, it was still luxurious to a certain extent which surprised me.
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.
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