ORIGINAL JOURNAL

Manuel Antonio - May 39, 2009

Located directly south of San Jose, Costa Rica, you will stumble across the countries most gringo infested areas. However, Manuel Antonio is often considered a favorite spot by many travelers because of it's ability to connect a national park forest right up to the beachfront. This along with very vivacious wildlife are the reasons why this beach is so great.

La belleza de la playas aqui en Manuel Antonio son brillante. La agua es el mas claro que he visto en este paiz. No sabia si hubiera serpientes en esta playa, pero tuve un sentimiento que me dijo que esta playa fue seguro. Lo que es que fue muchos personas en este lugar, bastante y por causa de esto la viaje era poco dificil, y no estuve tan relajado que lo quiseira. Aunque, en total a mi megusta mucho Manuel Antonio, y tengo algunas historias de la playa.

First off, I should mention the monkeys. They were black faced monkeys and they could be found hoping around everywhere with a random glance of a sloth here and there. There were lizards everywhere, big ones too. These aren't just little geckos, these looked like komoto dragons in south africa. Anyways, I didn't hassle them too much other than the time I grabbed one of their tails.

The beach here was probably one of the most beautiful, like i said above. The best part about the ocean down here is how warm it is, its like bath water. You're sweating from being out in the sun all day and so you decide to hop in the water, BUT its so warm that it doesn't really make too big of a different. Im not complaining.

I played beach soccer all day here too, and picked up a nice tan. I should let you guys know that i'm using the spf 50 and sometimes I bring out the big guns with the spf 75. However, since my skin is getting back to its dark mexican complexion, I usually just spray on some waterproof spf 30 and surf for the day. But enough about my sunscreen, lets talk about soccer.

Costa Rica is CRAZY about soccer (futbol). Ever since I arrived, I've been keeping in fantastic shape playing soccer everywhere, like Manuel Antonio for example. I'm not so great compared to my Tico counterparts, but I hold my own in a pickup game in San Jose's "Parque Sabana" 4 times a week after school. I'm glad I found something to keeo me even more occupied than I am already.

Critique
------------------------

Where to start. At first glance at this blog, you would think, "well there's still hope, maybe he didn't do everything wrong". Maybe that's true, but I'm going to start on the list of wrong things I did on this trip to earn me the proud "Soft-Core" tourist grade of B-. 

For starters, I shouldn't blame myself entirely. It is true that I had done no research about Manuel Antonio, and that I only knew what I had heard from other North Americans, who said they loved it. But because of Costa Rica's reputation of having a role as a leader in its policy to protect and sustainably use the natural resources it has (Estado de la Nacion), I shouldn't have expected anything less than what I assumed. Manual Antonio is a prime example of the $1,400 million that the economy in Costa Rica generates every year, just from tourism (Semanario Universidad 19/5/2005).

Starting from the lowest rating, with indigenous involvement, the only involvement I had seen were artisans selling their goods on the street by the beach. I also didn't notice many women working there and so division of labor yields a lower score. Education also gets a much lower score because in all honesty, I didn't learn much beyond the fact that I shouldn't leave food in my backpack or the white collar monkeys will get it. This might have something to do with the housing and food score being so low, because staying at a higher end hotel with no apparent efforts to spare the environment doesn't receive a high score and eating at the same hotel brings down the food score.

However, having an "eco-friendly" mindset when I travel, leads me to believe that this trip could have been more damaging than it actually was. I'm sure there are people who come to Manuel Antonio and have much more of an environmental impact than I did. 

EVALUATION:
-----------------------------------

Transport: (private transport) 4
Food: (hotel restaurant) 4
Housing: (fancy hotel) 3
Destination: Manuel Antonio 4
Cultural Experience: 5
Education: 3
Environmental Impact: 5
Division of Labor: 5
Human Rights: 4
Indigenous Involvement: 2

Total Points: 39/100

Ecotourist Impact:
Soft-Core Tourist rating C+

ORIGINAL JOURNAL

Dominical - May 15, 2009

Dominical is something special. That's maybe one of the best ways to describe this place. Its is most well known for its waves, not saying that the town isn't anything special, its just that esta playa es conocido para sus olas. This was probably not the best place to surf for the first time in 7 years. The waves at this beach are huge. That didn't stop me from trying to surf all weekend though, and the best part was that I could rent a board all day for 10$.

There were some bad stories from this trip that i am slightly reluctant to share. For starters, the rip currents at this beach are infamous, and just the week before, a young girl was pulled into the water by them and was killed. I noticed these rip currents the scary way, by means of accidentally surfing in them for a bit. It wasn't until i noticed how powerful they were that I came to the conclusion that if I was in water that was deeper than could touch then I wouldn't be able to swim back.

The other story gives me the chills when I think about it. All day sunday, I was out swimming in the ocean, diving into waves, body surfing, just hanging out in chest high water. Well, apparently there are 2 meter long sea serpents that infest the waters of Dominical. Some of the deadliest sea snakes on the world. I found this out when I asked on of the young local dudes to come deeper into the water with me. His reply was rather blunt, he said, "NO, no podemos nadar mas altamar porque hay serpientes, muchos muchos serpientes."
It was about this time that I decided to get out of the water and relax on the beach.

There are a few cool stories though, possibly one of the most bizarre things that happened to me was while I was swimming into deeper waters to catch the larger waves. I noticed the bubbles on top of the water were more of a darker hue, or more of a brownish color. The cool thing was is that as I was paddling my surfboard over the waves that had broken already, I noticed large numbers of fish jumping out of the whitewater curl. It looked like how the fish would jump out of the water at a dam. The first thing that came to mind was, "wow, that's really crazy", as some of the fish were actually hitting me on the head. The second thing that came to my mind was "ok, why are all these fish in such a hurry to get out of the water." I had seen enough discovery channel to conclude that they might have been running away from something bigger, so I decided to head up the beach about a kilometer to finish the day.

All in all, Dominical was one of my favorite places to be for the weekend. The hotel was about 30 yards from the ocean and the nightlife was a blast. Being immersed in Costa Rica's surf heaven was right up my alley. I only wish I could surf better.

Critique

------------------------

Well looking at this trip from a critical standpoint it is easy to say that this could have been one of the more "relaxing" trips. A trip where I paid more attention to my personal interests than those of the environments. This isn't necessarily a bad thing unless I am not regarding the environment. I have come to realize that because of my ambition to travel to these more remote, local places, that I have been taking "Hard-Core" trips. I have found that in each place I go I try and submerse myself in the culture, and try not to alien indigenous involvement. For example, Dominical is known for it's surf, so we see my ability to grasp the concept of renting a surfboard from a local and trying to try the things that fuel the town of Dominical itself. I took public transportation this time, however I took two busses, and the second one I know for a fact that it didn't have regulations on its exhaust...

The cultural involvement of this area was very similar to Puerto Viejo, because of this observation, I have always called Dominical the "Puerto Viejo of the Pacific Side". I enjoyed the stay very much, however, staying at a hotel yielded a lower rating, but since it was local, and didn't appear to be harmfully affecting the surrounding, housing receives a 5. Education has a lower score as well as cultural experience because I wasn't so much focused on learning from the environment as much as going out at night, sleeping, and surfing.

And once again, environmental impact remains at 8, the same as the Puerto Viejo trip because I don't see too much difference in agenda and lifestyle as I did in Puerto Viejo.

EVALUATION:
-----------------------------------

Transport: (public transport) 6
Food: (local soda) 8
Housing: (hotel) 5
Destination: Dominical 7
Cultural Experience: 6
Education: 5
Environmental Impact: 8
Division of Labor: 8
Human Rights: 8
Indigenous Involvement: 8

Total Points: 69/100

Ecotourist Impact:
Hard-Core Tourist rating D+

ORIGINAL JOURNAL

Rio Celeste - May 15, 2009

"Rio Celeste is located around the Alejuela area in Costa Rica. The easiest way to access rio celeste is through the tiny somewhat indigenous city of San Rafael de Guatuso. I have to say that it was a pretty stressful weekend trying to get by, because when me and my buddy Kohei decided to take on this adventure, it was thursday afternoon. We needed to leave friday morning. It all worked out too because we finished our test in Intermediate II and booked it home to pack for a weekend. This was our plan:

Friday: 
11:30am............ bus from SJ to Guatuso

6:30pm.............. arrive in Guatuso (Long bus ride wow!)

7:00pm............... FIND a place to sleep. (true, we had no lodging.)

8:00pm.............. Eat something then sleep

Saturday:
7:00am...............Wake and Eat

8:00am..............Find a taxi to Parke Nacional De Volcan Tonorio

9:30am - 4:00pm..Hike Rio Celeste

5:00pm..............Call taxi to take us home

7:00...................Eat then head to Logde

Sunday
8:00am...............Bus from Guatuso to SJ

1:30pm...............Arrive in SJ

This is basically what we did for the weekend. The tricky part about Rio Celeste is that it is very hard to access. This is another reason why a lot of foreign travelers and tourist don't plan of this trip, because it is very difficult not only to reach the access road to the National park, but also to Rio Celeste itself. If you ask me this trip was well worth every second and I plan on heading back up to this region to do some fishing.

During my stay in the hotel, (which was 10$ a night btw) I managed to make friends with the family that were also the owners. We sat and talked saturday night for a few hours, (yes in spanish) and they told me about everything that i hadn't seen in the area, such a the lake with crazy fish in it. So i decided to make another trip to fish here sometime, maybe after a relaxing weekend. That same night the family kept bringing me these very strange fruits, some I have neverseen or heard of before, such as the Guaba fruit, or the "manzana de augua" -their version of the apple, it was delicious.

Tell me if this isn't the craziest thing you have ever heard, the owner of the hotel, the mother has an uncle that lived in Portland, Oregon. She had visted the place during last years intense snow storm! The even crazier thing was that she had a sister in NEWBERG! so she had also been there as well! I couldn't believe it when she told me and then she showed me some pictures and by god, she had been there.

The thing I think I like most about traveling is that when the other people here at Veritas university travel, they always go to beaches. I don't believe that much can be learned from going to tourist playas and getting a tanning with other Americans. I find trips like the one I just took to be way more authentic, because I find myself in so many situations when i'm directly interacting with the culture. This is were the true lessons can be learned. The moments where I find myself eating strange fruits with people in a place where I have no idea is on a map, talking and learning their prospectives about the world and even the outside look of Americans. This town was not big, it was not pretty, it was not clean or fancy, but I realized that night that sometimes, no matter where you are, you should just take the time to stop, and just take a breath. The culture of these people is so relaxed, and they enjoy the moments they have with each other. One thing that this woman, Gladys told me was:

"No me gusta los Estados unidos por causa de esto; por que los personas no tienen tiempo para hablar. Los Estadounidenses son occupados cada monento del dia que no toman el tiempo para relajar y hablar con uno a otro."

This I believe to be true, and even myself who is not always a busy person had to agree with her in this case. The culture of this whole society is much more calm. I'm not sure if it is a good thing or a bad this, but its different.

All in all this trip was great. We managed to find lodging no problem, and there is nothing like six hours on a bus following a truck full of fresh pineapples, filling the air with the sweetest scent. Not to mention that so far in my life, nothing compares to the adventure we had on Saturday. I had never seen such lush vegetation and so a vibrant rainforest, nor ants bigger than my thumb. Make you you look at my pictures because words can't describe the beauty of Rio Celeste. The best part was easily los Termales. In which hot water from below ground warmed by the Volcano Tonorio, mixed with the fresh running water of the amazing blue river. I decided after an hour there that these Termales were going to be my new happy place.

Then again, I am a sucker for nature. "

Critique
------------------------

So this Rio Celeste adventure definitely has a few ups and downs. I guess I should start with the negative things that seemed to arise from this trip, since those are the hard ones to spot. To find the things that I could have done better, a strict critique is required. For example, the cabinas that I stayed in were not CST certified, nor did they have any leaves, however, they were locally owned and operated, and for this the rating stays at 7. Transport also receives a 7 because yes I did suffer through the Costa Rican Public Transport service, but to access the park, a taxi was utilized and that's a very individualistic approach to travel. One thing I did not notice either was a more widespread indigenous division of labor between men and women. I remember walking through the town and only noticing men in the streets and waiting tables. I noticed women shopping at the markets and I assume they had been at home caring for families.

On the positive side, the adventure to Rio Celeste might be one of the most "Hard-Core" ecotourism experience I have had. The destination gets a perfect 10 because the area was not adapted to make money, and in no way had anything been done to make it more tourist accessible. I had to put in a big effort to see this garden of eden. Indigenous involvement also receives a 1o as well because the town of Guatuso was only indigenous people. I recall when me and Kohei were walking through the town, I could not help to notice that we were the only extranjeros in the whole place. It was completely run and sustained by Costaricense.

EVALUATION:
-----------------------------------

Transport: (bus transport) 7
Food: (local soda) 8
Housing: (local cabinas) 7
Destination: Rio Celeste 10
Cultural Experience: 8
Education: 8
Environmental Impact: 8
Division of Labor: 7
Human Rights: 8
Indigenous Involvement: 10

Total Points: 81/100

Ecotourist Impact:
Hard-Core Tourist rating B-

ORIGINAL JOURNAL
Puerto Viejo - May 11, 2009
---------------------------------

Well this is the first chance I’ve had to journal since last week. So here goes....

Last weekend was great. On Friday after school a group of students and I went to this beach called Puerto Viejo. It was interesting, not only because it was a beautiful beach, but because since its location on the Caribbean side of the country, there is a lot of Rasta culture intertwined with the people there. We drove about 4 hours southeast and then reached this small little town and then unpacked at the hotel.

That night for dinner I had rice and beans along with chicken and a mango smoothie, which is pretty much what I ate everyday that I was there. Luckily for me I’m already accustomed to all the food there and I cannot get enough of it. After dinner we went back to the hotel and then that night everyone went to a bar in the town. This bar was way cool, in fact, every place I’ve been to so far has had live music. At this particular bar the group played legitimate covers of Bob Marley and then a mixture of their own Rastafarian jams, and then a few salsa songs. You can believe I’ve become a good salsa dancer since I’ve been here, because everywhere you go, there is salsa dancing.

The next day, Saturday, a group of us went to the beach down the road at a little pueblo called Manzanilla. This beach wasn’t so nice right as we got there, but one guy who was more native to the area told us to travel further down the beach, which we did. It was about a 10-minute walk south along the coast, (the coast was so nice). There are stray dogs everywhere too, so I gave one of the cuter/cleaner dogs water and it followed me all the way down the beach till we got to the really pretty section that was more secluded, (it didn’t matter cause there was NO other tourists). Anyway, I hung out with Feliz (the dog) and swam for a few hours and acquired one of the worst burns since I can remember. After that we went out to lunch and then dinner. After dinner I followed along with everyone else with the usual bar hopping, I don’t understand how people afford it though. I might buy a beer or two but usually the other people just keep them coming. I’m going to try and be friends with these kids I think.

We left Sunday and it took us about 5.5 hours to get home because there was a landslide on the usual rout. It was ok though because the scenery here is spectacular. The mountains are huge and mind blowing and there are so many plants and wildlife everywhere.

Dinner is always good here, and I have begun to watch/play/follow soccer much closer now. Just because that’s what everyone here does. Today I am going to the town center to play some soccer as well. As a matter of fact I am late, but that’s ok, because everyone here is at least 20 minutes late for everything. Its called Tico Time, even my teacher is late for class everyday by at least 15 minutes. No one knows the time, and there are no clocks anywhere. Even the university is clock-less.

Now that’s what I call a vacation."

Critique
------------------------

So looking back on my very first trip in Costa Rica, I can see many things that I did wrong on this trip. For example, when I went to Puerto Viejo and Manzanillo, I used private transportation through the University, which was ok, but I think that using the public transport through Coca-Cola might have been a more "eco friendly" route, even if it wasn't much. Also housing was low because I stayed in a hotel that was necessarily acknowledging the ecology of the area, and I'm positive they didn't have a ITC Certification either. As far as cultural experience; I think I learned, or at least observed the cultural differences there in Puerto Viejo. However, I can't say I learned as much so much as I just observed and enjoyed. I think that I could have been more perceptive of the details. Like during the passing through all of the banana plantations I would have like to have known that Costa Rica is a country that uses the most pesticides in the world, especially in bananas, and that these pesticides flow freely into waterways unmonitored (Bonillo and Meza 1994; Estado de La Nacion 2001). 

However, I think that the experience I had culturally, and the strong indigenous influence and involvement in this town, give me reason to say it was more of a Hard-Core Tourist experience. I managed to be respectful of the environment and noticed the environment around me, however, there were many things I could have improved on.

EVALUATION:
-----------------------------------

Transport: (private transport) 4
Food: (local soda) 8
Housing: (hotel) 4
Destination: Puerto Viejo 7
Cultural Experience: 8
Education: 5
Environmental Impact: 8
Division of Labor: 7
Human Rights: 8
Indigenous Involvement: 9

Total Points: 68/100

Ecotourist Impact:
Hard-Core Tourist rating D+