ecotourism: Poas volcano & La Paz waterfall garden

On Thursday we left for our last real adventure. We went to see the sulfuric lake at the bottom of Poas Crater. It was absolutely amazing. People will go and wait for hours to see the crater and it was very clear right when we got there. The volcano is active but we knew we wouldn’t be seeing it erupt or any lava flow. The last time they had eruptive activity ended in 1954. It has been a very long time since there was any major activity. Walking to and from the crater we were able to see the effects of acid rain, which was pretty cool. Then vegetation is mostly brown and black from the moisture that comes from the clouds. It was windy, cold and raining while we were there. I wasn’t dressed very well for that part of our trip.

 

Next we headed to La Paz Waterfall Gardens where we saw several animals, insects and other really neat things. There were several different species of birds that we saw while we were there. I love toucans and there were a lot of them. We actually saw two birds getting in a fight. It is really neat because you can tell that they were communicating with each other. I wish I knew what they were saying. Haha I don’t remember what it was called but there was this tiny bird and its head was a bright turquoise, it was so pretty. There were also several hummingbirds there. We saw the biggest one that exists. It didn’t feel very safe being surrounded by all of them; you could actually hear them as they flew by. They have an average speed of about 45 miles per hour and can make it to about 60!  They perch, but they can’t walk they have very weak feet and they are the smallest birds in the world. 

 

Then we went and saw a snake exhibit which held 30 of the most deadly snakes in Costa Rica. Some of the snakes we saw were the following: the Golden Eyelash Viper, Bushmaster, and the Green Vinesnake. There are 137 species of snakes in Costa Rica and 22 that are venomous.

 

 

We then went into a little forest where we saw frogs. It was really neat because most of the frogs were not locked up in the class cases like they usually are in museums. We felt like we were actually in the rainforest seeing these different frogs. Some of the frogs we saw were the Flying Frog and different Poison Dart frogs. When we went to La Selva there were so many frogs, especially the blue jean frog. The poison dart frog is in fact poison, hence its name. But the function of the poison on their skin is use for defense from their predators. They have bright color patterns to show their venomous nature.

 

We also saw some monkeys, which I love. There was the smallest monkey I have ever seen and it looked like a little gerbil with a monkey face. I wanted to remember the name so I could research them more, so I had Morell take a picture of it, but unfortunately I do not know where she is. I will come back and post the name because I think it is worth looking into.

 

We made it to the waterfalls and they were absolutely gorgeous. We walked through a trail where I believe we saw about 5 different waterfalls. It was a bad decision wearing glasses because the mist from the waterfalls kept getting on the lenses. The waterfalls were pretty rough, it would’ve been a lot of fun if we could’ve rafted down them, but it seemed like it would’ve been extremely dangerous. Ecotourism in Costa Rica has allowed me to have some of the greatest experience of my life that I will never forget! Oh, we also saw several beautiful butterflies…my grandma was everywhere. ;)

coffee: Cup of Excellence

Cup of Excellence Costa Rica 2008. I was researching coffee and I came across this website with an invitation for coffee lovers to join The Specialty Coffee Association of Costa Rica for their 2nd edition of Costa Rica Cup of Excellence.


Costa Rica is on the hunt to find "exceptional, masterpiece coffee lots" and recognize the producers for their dedication to growing these unique coffee lots. They are holding this year’s Cup of Excellence in Santo Domingo de Heredia at the Bougainvillea Hotel. They are currently being supported by 16 enterprises and are looking promote and enhance the image of the coffee in Costa Rica. They want to enhance exposure and use more effective marketing of the coffee lots that are selected. They are targeting high paying customers that are willing to pay for the Cup of Excellence seal.


They have a Quality Certification which guarantees that they high quality coffee is produced under guidelines that are both consistent and strict. Their objectives for this are to increase the amount of high quality coffee being produced in Costa Rica, to train producers to make quality coffee by offering a standard method of production, to keep track of the production process, to have the best prices, and to market different coffees under this seal of quality guarantee.


This program will offer many benefits. This will increase the culture in the company, there will be improvement of quality and consistency, they can gain more trust from their customers, and they can use it as marketing tool, etc. he Specialty Coffee Association of Costa Rica was founded in 1993. They established it for growers, toasters, millers and exports with an effort to furnish Costa Rican coffee to international gourmet coffee markets.

We took our final this morning...had a little break and then presented our final papers. After that Glenn shared a video with us from TEDTalks. This talk was given by Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor. I think everyone should check it out, it´s truly an amazing story. I had also wanted to mention that everyone read about the Aral sea if you aren´t familiar with the story, also something I found very interesting from a class lecture. Just thought I´d throw that out there.

ecotourism: Corcovado National Park

Tapir footprint

I jumped off this waterfall :)

As I mentioned before, Ecotourism is extremely popular in Costa Rica. Over half of the country´s visitors travel to biological reserves or national parks. The tourists are usually attracted to the very exotic and diverse wildlife that can be found among the different ecosystems in Costa Rica. While we were at the Osa Peninsula we went to Corcovado National Park. This park was established in 1975 and covers almost 300 square miles. There is a great variety of wildlife that is found in this park. The park will attract all different types of tourists. It is also the largest primary forest that is on the American Pacific coastline. Corcovado National Park is one of the few remaining lowland tropical rainforests left in the world. It is actually known to have the most species in Central America. There are 40 species of freshwater fish, 140 mammals, 500 different species of trees, 367 species of birds, etc.

It is a really neat park because there are several hundred miles of trails that allow people to get to some of the furthest corners of the park. We were hoping to spot a Jaguar, but we weren´t lucky. We did see Crocodile while we were on the boat and some very neat birds. There were several howler monkeys which woke me up while I was sleeping. They are the second loudest mammal next to the elephant, pretty interesting. We saw a footprint of a Baird´s Tapir…they are so big! It was probably a good thing that I didn´t see one because I would have probably freaked out, but it would have been pretty amazing. The hike we took was very captivating due to the wide variety of life in the park, both plant and animal.

bananas:Chiquita

BANANAS!

Beth, Jon, and I

We visited Chiquita the other day where we learned basically everything you may need to know about banana plants. Bananas grow in tropical regions that are about 10 degrees from the equator. Chiquita owns about 15,000 hectares of banana farms. They shipped 136 million boxes of bananas in 2004. 10 percent of the workforce in Costa Rica works in the banana industry. I already covered the banana production process in previous posts so I will focus on other things we learned while visiting Chiquita.

Chiquita is aware of the importance of environmental responsibility. The farms are visited annually by Rainforest Alliance auditors to make sure that the banana farm environment meets the set standards. Some of these standards include: conservation of soil and water, minimal use of pesticides, wildlife protection and other areas like environmental education. They also check on fair pair and safe working conditions for employees. It is important to point out that they do not have one bit of tolerance when it comes to deforestation.

There are many things that Chiquita has done to practice environmental responsibility. The agrichemicals that Chiquita uses have been approved by the USA EPA and the European Union. They also make sure to only use the least amounts of toxic chemicals possible. Chiquita has also planted at least a million trees in many different places. They have the water monitored and have made traps that are used to keep organic waste from polluting rivers etc. Because there are still some pesticides that need to be used, they make sure to train the workers very well to be aware of how to use them safely.

After the bananas go through the initial production process, they are sent to the packing station. We were able to watch the workers as they packed the bananas at Chiquita. Once the bananas are transported to the packing station they are weighed and counted. The bananas are then cut and placed in tanks of water that clean them. They stay in these tanks for about 10 minutes to make sure that the latex used does not stain the bananas. If the fruit does not meet the standards they can be sold under a different label or they can also be sent to a processing plant.

The bananas that make it through the initial inspection are put on a tray to be packed. Believe it or not, the workers at Chiquita put the stickers on by hand! There is one last shower the bananas are sent through that seals that cut and prevents rotting. Next the box is packed and it is stamped with the date and a code. The boxes are them stacked on pallets and strips from recycled bananas bags are used to protect them and then they are finally loaded into containers.
There are some more interesting things we learned about bananas while visiting Chiquita. One stem will contain 120 to 150 bananas and a box of bananas holds 100 bananas. Then a contained will hold 960 boxes. An average person from the US will eat more than 25 lbs. of bananas a year. Here’s a little fun fact: Chiquita is a word that is used to describe something small and feminine

ecotourism: La Selva research station

Wild pigs...our guide said they can be mean....you know, eat people.

monkey

Blue Jean frog

We visited La Selva research station last Thursday. La Selva was originally used for scientific purposes alone. Overtime it has evolved into a research center for Costa Rican ecology. It is also now available to the public. There we were able to hike through primary tropical rainforest discovering new things we had yet to see.

There are 3,700 acres where about 1,000 different tree species can be found. There are hundreds of different types of birds that can also be found in the rainforest. There are about 50 different species of snakes, some being very poisonous. There were poison dart frogs everywhere! We saw three species of monkeys: spider, white-faced, and howler. Hundreds of researchers visit La Selva each year to study the tropics.

La Selva research station promotes ecotourism. They have guides to inform the visitors of the vast amount of different species and their importance, what researchers there are studying, etc. The guides explain the importance of keeping the environment safe and how we need to protect the diversity found in this tropical rainforest. The guides help the visitors to understand the culture and history of this tropical rainforest. Ecotourism at La Sevla has helped protect the ecosystem found there and has also educated many visitors.

personal

Puerto Viejo
Snorkeling:Osa

Manazillo beach-right outside of our rooms

Last Thursday we went to a medical supply center. The visit was quick but we learned some interesting things. It is important to note that medical supplies are traded freely. I would not want to work at the business we visited, because they are located in Costa Rica there are many hardships they have to deal with and I got the vibe that they aren't treated with much respect.

Later that afternoon we left for the La Selva Research Station. The humidity was way more severe than we had been use to in other parts of Costa Rica. We went on a hike once we got there and saw some new things we hadn't seen before. Poison dart frogs were everywhere you looked. If you read my previous post on La Selva I talked about some of the other things we saw there.

On Friday we woke up early for a morning hike. After that we left for Chiquita. I won’t go into much detail here again, because I already posted about Chiquita. But, we did see a cute little play/dance that these women put on to demonstrate the banana production process. We did eat some awesome banana bread while we were there too. Ñ) We headed to Puerto Viejo after that and when the bus stopped everyone called me up to the front. It was momma and Mrs. Beede! YAYY! We had a lot of fun that night...at midnight I turned 21! We went to this cute little karaoke bar where we all sang. We followed some music and found ourselves at this place called Stanford’s. We had so much fun; we were right on the water. There were tables that were candlelit and tiki torches all over the beach. Then there was a runway where we watched a lingerie show...quite interesting. The place was really neat and a good time...the lighting and music was really sweet.

We got up early to go snorkeling again. We weren’t able to see as much this time as we had before because the water was pretty cloudy, but I did see a stingray. We then pulled up onto the side where we hung out and saw some more animals. A monkey snuck up behind some woman and tried to steal her food...pretty hilarious. The place we stayed was gorgeous...right on the beach. We actually witnessed a little bit of sun while we were there! Our professors finally decided to quit being ¨to cool¨for us and spent time with us one night. It was a really good time, but I did sit on a candle...not the best feeling. We went back to Puerto Viejo and walked around town and went to the cute stores and enjoyed the music. Some of the guys rented scooters for an hour, they were adorable and definitely having the times of their lives. The perfect, relaxing weekend had to come to an end...we headed home and got back just in time to catch up on blogs and work on our other schoolwork. Before I go, I want to apologize if this is a little groggy. I don’t know if I am trying to savour every bit of our last few days... but I have only gotten probably four hours of sleep all together the past few nights...and I did not go out either night...kind of a bummer. Wish me luck...our final exam is at 9AM and our final papers and presentations are due this afternoon. Fun stuff! I can’t believe this amazing trip is coming to an end. Ñ( ...sad face