Costa Rica

ecotourism: Poas volcano & La Paz waterfall garden

2008-06-11T15:57:00.003-07:00

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

2008-06-11T15:57:00.001-07:00

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.

2008-06-11T14:38:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-11T05:59:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-10T15:46:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-10T14:39:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-10T07:23:00.000-07:00

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

coffee

2008-06-10T07:08:00.000-07:00

Before we even visited Cafe Britt, my home-stay offered us chocolate covered coffee beans for desert. These coffee beans happened to be from Cafe Britt. I noticed the name before, but now I honestly see it everywhere I go. There were products from Cafe Britt at the airport, they have been at basically every super market and gift shop I've been to... Cafe Britt is everywhere! Not only do they have coffee, but there is anything you can think of covered in chocolate. While visiting the coffee plantation they had samples of many of their different products all around their gift shop. Most of my favorites were the chocolate covered fruits. They had white chocolate, dark chocolate, milk and every nut you can think of covered in chocolate. Cafe Britt offers even more products like coffee candy chews. Their delicious coffee is everywhere, my home-stay drinks it and I've noticed it at other people's homes. I thought the coffee was really good, so I bought some to take back to the states for more to enjoy.

I also noticed that they have samples of coffee everywhere we go. They also always have samples of all of the different chocolate covered items at all of the gift stores we go to. By the time our groups leave they are all gone...oops. My mom had taken back coffee for my dad and he is already begging for more. He even wants a t-shirt! They have a few different coffee vending machines here at school. The other day I put my money in, heard the coffee being made...but when it opened up there wasn't a cup. I went and asked for help and they basically told me that there was nothing they could do. But, I went over to the library and that one worked and I had my lovely coffee.

more on bananas

2008-06-09T20:33:00.001-07:00

While producing bananas workers bag the stem of the banana plant to keep the fruit safe from insects and damage from the sun. The workers make sure to use proper safety equipment while doing so. On most banana farms the bags used a recyclable, because most organizations are trying to be more environmentally aware. Ribbons are used to show the age of the plant or their scheduled week for harvest. The plants are tied up to make sure they will not fall over because of the stem’s weight. The twine used is also recyclable is most cases. The stem will then be harvested in regards to the color of the ribbon and the maturity of the stem. Padding is used to separate the plants and to keep the plants from being bruised. The workers on the farm will cut the stems and then put them on a cable that will take the fruit over to the packing station. They also check the plants size and health. The plants that are harvested are then cut down to allow for new growths. This is when the recycled bags are collected by the workers to be recycled.

personal: The Osa Peninsula

2008-06-05T11:21:00.000-07:00

Due to the tropical storm, Alma our plans for last week had changed some. We stayed in San Jose and had class all day Thursday and Friday (including a mid-term). We ended up going white water rafting that Saturday morning. Rafting was a blast, but I of course got stung while we stopped for lunch. That was a long day and we were up bright and early on Sunday to leave for the Osa Peninsula. I went to bed not feeling great, but I figured I was just worn out from the long day. I was wrong and our 10-12 hour trip to the Osa consisted of multiple stops for me to get off and get sick...mostly on the side of the road. The ride wasn't very smooth and we got to a point where there was a bridge we needed to cross, and the bridge was no longer there. We looked around for another route and we found a bridge that didn't seem sturdy or big enough for our van to cross. All of the students got out while the bus driver and others tried to get it across. There were some difficulties and we ended up needed rocks, wood, and our strong boys to push the bus across the bridge. We then got on a boat that was pretty rough, probably didn't help that I was not feeling well. When we got there we had a wet landing. (We had to put all of our luggage in strong trash bags) The place we camped at was very nice and the people were a lot of fun. The first day we took a boat to another island where we went hiking. When we first crossed we only had water up to our ankles so we took off our hiking shoes...keep this in mind. We hiked for about 3 hours seeing a lot Mccaw (gorgeous birds) howler monkeys (which woke us up while we were sleeping) and several other neat insects, plants, etc. There was even a tree that would kill you within 30 minutes if you were to eat a leaf from it. We went by the water and learned how to open coconuts using trees. So we get back to where we need to cross back over and it does not look familiar. The tides were so high that we had to take whatever we needed off and hold our bags above our heads to cross. The water was up to my shoulders...it was crazy. As I was trying to cross to the other side, I notice something right near me that I swear is an animal...I of course freak out a little and try to turn around and go back to the other side. Everyone is laughing at me assuring me it is just a tree log. One of the guys continued to cross realizing that it is not a tree log. It was in fact a half eaten otter that still had blood streaming from it. This also means that we were going through water where there was a crocodile nearby. SOO SCARY!

The next day we took boats to another island where we went snorkeling. It was pretty fun, but the weather wasn't very great. It was kind of difficult to see things and the sun always makes things better! Every night we would all hang out where we ate and play cards, listen to music, and dance. Once I was feeling better it was a great time, we saw some huge insects that I will post pictures of when I get a chance. The owner even gave me a cute bracelet, but it broke. He kept asking to see my beautiful bracelet but I couldn't tell him, so I told him I had it packed up safely so nothing would happen to it. There were some crazy storms while we were there, but it was a fun experience.

bananas:banana industries "go green"

2008-05-30T20:23:00.000-07:00

There are banana smoothies, splits, breads and more. Acres of rainforests are cut down to make banana plantations. The workers spray several pesticides and herbicides to keep away fungi, weeds, and pests from eating away at the disease prone banana plants.

Most of the world’s bananas are grown in Central and South American lowlands. Sales in Costa Rica have been rising steadily over the years. The idea of implementing a more environmentally friendly way of producing bananas is gaining popularity. Standard banana plantations will tie plastic bags around the buds to protect the fruit. But these pesticide-covered bags tend to end up in watersheds and rivers, sometimes clogging them. Today almost all banana growers in Costa Rica are using the bag recycling programs. Dole recently signed an agreement with the government of Costa Rica to produce a carbon neutral supply chain for both the bananas and pineapples grown in Costa Rica.

People are working on producing completely organic bananas in the near future but there is an airborne fungus that shrinks the bananas and then finally kills the plant. Right now we only have powerful fungicides that can fight that disease. There have been fertilizers that have been developed that have been able to minimize the disease. The overall goal for banana producing businesses should be to achieve sustainability. They can’t just reduce the use of these chemicals they also need to focus on good working conditions etc for the farmers.

coffee: inside Cafe Britt

2008-05-30T15:01:00.000-07:00

The Coffee Tour at Café Britt was a very fun, but also an educational step into the world of gourmet coffee. This is a very important and prestigious crop for Costa Rica.

They took us on a tour through their staged coffee farm visiting their working plantation and roastery. We learned about the sustainable growing practices they use and how important coffee is in both Costa Rica’s social and economic development. We visited the roastery where people were working and packaging coffee. They also taught us a quick, food network type version of professional coffee tasting. I volunteered and was able to get a hands-on lesson of how to be a professional coffee taster. Coffee testing needs to be done by experts. They need to have very strong senses to get the job done. They test and inspect the coffee beans to make sure they are quality. There are lab tests done to make sure it passes certain assessments for example chemical and physical. The quality assessment and analysis is done by the experts that go through a long process to qualify as a coffee testing expert. They test for things like moisture content, black-bean, sour-bean, and broken beans, also other important aspects like the size.

Café Britt is a promoter of organic farming in Costa Rica. They started this program in the early 90’s and it has been successful in enabling organic coffee farmers to make certain that the water, soils, and biodiversity are all preserved. "Café Britt is a service company. We focus on people and we want to positively impact their lives. Which people?Our coworkers, our customers, our suppliers and our community." - Pablo Vargas, CEO

Café Britt works on projects that focus on sustainable Fair Trade practices. They work with small farms on educational projects focusing on sustainable growing. Café Britt also focuses on environmental conservation working on protection and preservation of biodiversity.

Once it was time to harvest the workers at Café Britt would fill their basket with about 25 pounds of coffee. Once they went through processing, the weight reduced significantly. I was able to see that very well when I volunteered to be a tester. The guides said that people might even suck the juices out of the coffee because they are fruits. They said to be careful because this fruit from the bean is in fact a laxative. Café Britt harvests the fruits once they are ripe. They make sure they do this in the same day or else the coffee might develop a bad taste. They take them to the plants and put them in a machine. This machine takes some of the skin off of the bean and then the beans are washed releasing the second layer of skin. Once they get the layers of skin off they need to dry the beans. There are a few ways in which they can do this: one which is free or buy using a drying chamber. Of course the free way of drying coffee is through the use of the sun, which is very time consuming. The other way is expensive and could have possible machine problems. They can also replant the seeds if they don’t think they are quality, they do this my putting them into soil and placing banana leaves on top.

personal:May 24-26 weekend adventure :)

2008-05-29T15:59:00.000-07:00

I’m sure all of you are dying to hear about my amazing weekend. We started off with class that Friday morning, so as you can imagine our attention wasn’t at its best. We made it through class and lunch at the university then we left for Arenal. We got to our hotel, which had a perfect view of the volcano. We headed over to the Baldie Hot Springs. The whole area was gorgeous. There was a waterslide into one of the hot springs and it was pretty intense…thought I lost a contact, but I didn’t! The scenery around the hot springs was absolutely gorgeous. There was also a swim up bar in one of them. Some of us even "manned up" and got into the hottest spring at 152 degrees. I'm not going to lie, it was actually painful. We were all worried about going all the way under and that ended up being the least painful part. They has massage tables set up all around that hot spring, they were really cute and had the towels folded like birds. They seem to do that at all of the hotels like they do on cruises. We ate dinner there and the food was soo good!

On Saturday we went to La Fortuna waterfalls. We rode horses to get to them, and I think this is when my camera broke :( It was an awesome experience and I was able to recover the pictures from my disk. We were oblivious to off limits signs, so we were able to go behind the waterfall, it was amazing. After that we went to Arenal Park where hiked around and saw the volcano. Neither words nor pictures can capture how beautiful the view was from the lava flows. The power went out that night all over town so we had to use candles and flashlights to get around. Because it was dark everywhere, we were able to see the top of the volcano light up. J
The next morning we took a boat jeep to Monteverde. We then took busses up to our hotel on a very bumpy ride. The whole ride was sooo beautiful, I don’t think I have ever seen anything like before. We went on a canopy tour and the zip lines were awesome. The view from the zip lines was also gorgeous...I know I have said this multiple times, but everything we saw was unreal (in a good way). That night we went on a night tour of the reserve with our guides and saw several bats and other insects.

We were up bright and early on Monday for a morning tour…530 AM. I am glad we got up because some of us were able to see the Quetzals which are brightly colored birds of the trogon family. They are found in the tropical regions of the Americas. We saw them in the cloud forest where people might visit multiple times and never spot a single Quetzal. We saw both male and female Quetzals. We didn’t end up going to the cheese factory, but I think we were all pretty worn out.

personal

2008-05-26T17:57:00.001-07:00

I just got back from the BEST WEEKEND ever a litte while ago. It is still very surreal to me. Pretty bummed because my camera broke, but I should be able to get my pictures off of the memory card. I will blog about this weekend very soon, but I want to try to get the pictures up and working. I just wanted to thank everyone for keeping up with my blogs! It truly means a lot to me and I want ALL OF YOU to be able to experience what I have been so lucky to have experienced. There is still soo much more to come!! I love and miss all of you so much!! Oh and aunt laure you should have jack and pete show you all of my albums on facebook and whoever else has access. LOVE YOU!! Oh and not to make any of you jealous or anything but we are leaving bright and early to go to the beach while our professors are in $%&$ :)

ecotourism

2008-05-22T19:11:00.000-07:00

I ¨borrowed¨ this picture from the internet

Many Third World countries are focusing on quick industrialization and urbanization, but Costa Rica turned to ecotourism as its key to economic development. Even though Costa Rica is a very small country, about the size of West Virginia it still has great biodiversity including lush rain forests, volcanoes, scenic beaches, and exotic wildlife. According to a case study by TED, the nation’s tourist industry brings in about 1 million visitors annually and generates approximately $1 billion a year, making it Costa Rica’s second largest source of income. The research I found for bananas and ecotourism has some conflicting information so I will better inform you once I myself hear information from their known industries. I found that in terms of bringing in foreign currency, tourism is only second to the electronic components sector led by INTEL (which we saw today) and earns more foreign exchange than the nation’s former staple exports, and coffee and bananas combined. The expansion of ecotourism has definitely boosted Costa Rica’s overall economic development. It has allowed for employment opportunities to new areas and other general economic benefits to the local communities and the economy in general. As Martha Honey, the author of Ecotourism and Sustainable Development: Who owns Paradise? and former resident of Costa Rica, puts it, "They do ecotourism very well in Costa Rica." (Egan, 2001). I am anxious to see what I hear firsthand about ecotourism in Costa Rica while we are visiting.

¨As Katrina Brandon of the Nature Conservancy describes it, in its ideal form ecotourism would¨...
1.Provide valuable financing for parks and conservation efforts,
2.Serve as economic justification for the preservation of nature parks and wildlife,
3.Reduce exploitation of conservation areas by supplying local peoples with viable economic alternatives,
4.Promote environmentalism and conservation, and
5.Encourage private conservation efforts (Lizano, 2001).

Bananas

2008-05-22T18:33:00.001-07:00

I am interested in learning more about the banana industry in Costa Rica because as I am researching I’m not finding as much information as I expected to find. The banana industry has been named the number one foreign currency earning industry in Costa Rica and is continuing to expand to meet the needs of a growing international market. I am really having trouble finding interesting information about bananas in Costa Rica so I will post more once we visit Chiquita and the Organic Banana Plantation. I did find articles about the banana industry “Going Green” but that is almost expected among businesses today.

Production:

Banana plants are the largest herb in the world. A banana plant will continue to grow from the same rhizome, which sends up multiple shoots. A rhizome is a plant trunk and these are used to make new banana plants. The workers will select the shoot that seems the best or healthiest to be the next plant to produce. They will eliminate all of the other banana plants. After about 6 to 8 months the plant will develop a stem that has a large bud. There are little flowers in these that will grow to become bananas. During this whole process the plants are fertilized and protected from diseases, insects, etc. The fertilizer must be approved by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the European Union.

personal:Cafe Britt etc

2008-05-22T17:07:00.000-07:00

This is my home stay...thought you would like to see where I have been living...there are three gates we have to unlock and then finally our front door...

This is at Cafe Britt where I volunteered to be a taste tester. Ñ smily face ha This is the more commerical way to make coffee...

Hanging out at the coffee plantation...De La Cafe Tal ..the ¨family¨coffee plantation

Where they dry the coffee beans

Hiking through the plantation to taste her coffee

A view from De La Cafe Tal...pretty sweet... I wish it wasn´t so foggy so you could see how beautiful it was!

Last night we went to our community bar El Pescadito, they love us there! Not to change the subject...but the guys just asked me how often I view this certain website, I had never heard of it so they told me how awesome it was and to look it up. I´m sure you can guess where that went... Anyway, back to that bar...it is fairly scary, when you want to enter or leave one of the workers has to buzz you in. They tell us it is safe there, but there was a homeless man passed out near the entrance (Don't worry we are being safe). Heidi and I left early again being the good students we are. :)

Today we went to Cafe Britt...soo much fun!! It was really neat to see the differences between a "family" type coffee plantation and once that is more commercial. I talked about the family plantation in a previous blog. It was really cool because it seemed very natural. We had to literally hike up and down through nature. We saw banana trees and coffee beans. (fruit) We then saw where they dry out the beans. As we hiked back to our bus we saw people actually picking the beans etc. As I mentioned before, we went to Cafe Britt today. It was DEFINATELY a touristy place. I will add pictures to show the differences between the more natural vs. the paved coffee plantations. Even though Cafe Britt seemed very commercialized and geared towards children perhaps we still learned about the coffee making process. The tour guides were very energetic and fun and friendly. I actually volunteered and was given a sweet coffee bean picking hat! I went through a short coffee taste testing process and the coffee was delicious. I enjoyed it a lot more than yesterday’s coffee. After we went through the tour we had lunch there. The food was amazing...those of you who know would be very proud because I tried several new things. I mentioned that the chicken was falling apart quickly when my friend informed me that it was FISH!!!! AHHH… I had only taken a bite, if that and it was covered in hot sauce of course. But, I do suggest that everyone orders coffee from Café Britt…delicious! We are sooo pumped for our weekend trip!! TOMORROW! Ñ= haha that is a smiley face! LOveee and miss everyone! sorry if this post was a little crazy, I am tired and not really in the blogging mood. Ñ=

Coffee

2008-05-21T16:30:00.000-07:00

Coffee is one of the industries we are focusing on while we are here in Costa Rica. Due to the topics are are studying it is important to discuss Fair Trade Coffee.
Fair Trade assures consumers that the coffee they drink was in fact purchased under fair conditions. There is certain criteria involved to become Fair Trade certified. "Fair Trade for coffee farmers mean community development, health education, and environmental stewardship" (Global Exchange). Some believe we need Fair Trade more than ever right now due to the world market prices being so low causing farmers problems with maintaining both their land and families. This price fall in the coffee market has also led farmers to bankruptcy. To protect the farmers and their families restructuring of the coffee industry needs to happen. This is again where Fair Trade comes into play. It corrects the markets imbalances by having a guaranteed minimum price for small farmers harvest and encouraging organic and sustainable practices (some of our main focuses).

Costa Rica was the first country in Central America to register coffee exports in 1840. It currently accounts for 11% of export revenues and employs 5% of the nation's labor force. Costa Rica is responsible for 2.6% of the world's production of coffee. There are currently 72,942 coffee growers in Costa Rica. Working with the Fair Trade market has positively impacted the environment in may ways. For instance, working with the Fair Trade market has impacted social development. I am interested in learning more about the personal experiences these industries have had as we visit more coffee plantations.

personal:Pura Vida!

2008-05-21T15:49:00.000-07:00

The ceiling was leaking at the bar haha..the picture is sideways oops!

The hookah

some of us at the bar

Hello again! The days are seriously blending together... so I'll apologize ahead of time if I repeat myself. Our schedule keeps getting changed around a bit, but it has been to our benefit in some cases. (cancelation of classes) We aren't worried about it, because the weekend trips are going to be awesome. The professors also decided to join our free days so a group of students are planning a trip to a beach. It looks like it may cost a little but you only live once. :) Yesterday's schedule was all over the place but I was able to rest for a little bit and then we went to a dance class. I still wasn't feeling very well and I was SOOO thirsty so I came over here and got some drinks and played facebook. I thought we were going to head home after the class but everyone else was more ambitious than I was feeling. We walked to this bar and paid a cover. We weren't very excited about that and they said you had to buy a bottle to sit in certain areas (like upscale bars). Nobody was up for a $45 bottle and I wasn't drinking so we were getting frustrated. Finally seats opened up and the bar starting getting busy. The music was awesome and they even played satisfaction...BRETT!!! The manager said we could sit upstairs if we got a hookah so we did. It was a lot of fun, but my roommate and I bailed out early.

Today we went to Alajuela to visit a coffee plantation. The woman was very proud of being an entrepreneur and she should be because she was just ranked number one in Costa Rica for the best coffee and second overall in Latin America. Quite impressive. We hiked around and saw some sweet plants and this crazy blue bug. We had samples of the coffee and I wasn't a huge fan. I burnt my tongue a little bit, being the impatient Emily I am. We got back late and had to eat quick to make it to our Spanish Survival Session. It was actually pretty fun and we had cake for Bob's birthday!! I took a restroom break during class and the doctor here found me again and said I looked a lot better and greeted me with a kiss. (Costa Rican style--on the cheek-don't worry Ryan ;) ) I will get pictures up soon, my cord is back at my home stay. Now I need to switch over and post about our industries. Chao!

personal:first few days!

2008-05-19T16:02:00.001-07:00

Heyyy everyone!! I am not sure where to begin so I will start with my home stay. We live with Sonia and her husband. She speaks very little English and he speaks ZERO! It is quite interesting trying to communicate with them especially when he picked us up from the University. This will definitely be a great learning experience. Their daughter just had a new baby the day we got here so one of the grandchildren have spent the night each night. Their granddaughter did the first night and her first impression of me was walking in on me putting on my towel (ooops!!) That is basically all I got to see of her other than her sleeping when we got to the house for the first time. The next night Diego was at their house and he is PRECIOUS!! All of the little baby boys make me happy and sad... reminding me of the little monster!! We walked around San Jose and went to some neat places. One of our guides pointed out the tallest building which he believes is only 7 or 8 stories! We went to this beautiful Catholic church and I will post pictures when I can. Mom this is for you: they have cows everywhere decorated like our flying pigs! One of my girlfriends was used as a pigeons bathroom (in her hair and arm) that is always fun. **Sorry this is kind of randomly flowing but there is so much we have done and it is mixing together!! I was very surprised by all of the stray dogs! It is actually sad because you can tell that they aren't taken care of and they are really dirty etc. :( I am also very surprised by the trash on the streets.

I am going to start a new paragraph to give your eyes a little break. The phrase "when it rains it pours" defiantly holds true here. I don't think I can explain how much rain we had. It was interesting trying to walk home in it, our umbrellas and rain jackets weren't enough to protect us. We went to an information session today about our weekend trips. I AM SO excited for these. There are so many awesome things we will do which I'm sure all of you remember me bragging about. I was on the computer today and was hunted down for being late to the meeting spot because I do not have a watch and the computer had the wrong time. :( But I made it and we went to CINDE. This is a nonprofit organization here in Costa Rica. My ADD mind just brought me back to earlier in the day when we went to the bank. The building was awesome and it was NOT your average bank. There was a lot of security and you sat in chairs waiting to exchange money. I really want to learn Spanish and wish I knew more before I came on this trip, but I also believe it actually makes everything more interesting/exciting. I am getting pulled away, but I will be sure to post pictures ASAP and call once everything is figured out. I LOVE ALL OF YOU AND MISS YOU SO MUCH!! (well you know who you are ;) haha) I wish everyone could be here with me enjoying the experiences. I love you!! Adios!