An update on the past few days

            The past few days have been jam-packed with so many activities. It’s hard to believe that I have only been here for a week as of today. Every single day feels like many. On Thursday we went to Barilla National Park, which is on the Caribbean side of the mountains that run along the center of Costa Rica (the center is technically on the Pacific side). It was my first time in a rainforest, and I must say that it was one of the most exciting moments in my life. I’ve wanted to go to a rainforest ever since I learned what they were in my second grade science class.

            The day started with breakfast at 5:30 with breakfast. We drove for two hours through the mountainous roads. The roads are absolutely insane with the curvy hills and crazy drivers. People’s definitions of “safe zones for passing” are extremely broad. We most often pass and get passed on the largest curves going down the mountains. Keep in mind that we are in a large school bus-sized bus with pretty much no shoulder or in some cases even a guardrail. But thankfully we have an amazing bus driver that is able to safely navigate us even under the most adverse conditions. He was also able to fix our bus when it broke down on the way home after we slashed a tire. 

           We started off our time at the park with an orientation hike through the rainforest. We saw literally hundreds of different species of trees, plants, and insects. I cannot even begin to describe the level of biodiversity that exists in the rainforest. I’m used to walking through forests in the US where there are maybe ten different kinds of trees and a few dozen types of vascular plants (which for non-science people are plants that do not have a woody outside. Think of any plant you have in your garden). Here in the rainforest, we might see one of each type of species through the walk. We ate our lunch on the side of a stream/river that was home to hundreds of red-eyed tree frog tadpoles. On our way back, I found the first fer de lance (which is Costa Rica’s most poisonous snake). We were walking around down the path and the girl in front of me kicked a few leaves and he slithered across the path in front of me and hid nearby. When I told G (one of my professors who led the hike) that I saw a snake, he poked around it with his umbrella to see what kind of snake it was. At first he thought that it was a non-poisonous snake but quickly realized that the head was angular (which generally indicates the snake is poisonous). It was a baby snake (maybe six inches), but that didn’t mean that it didn’t pose a threat. Apparently the smaller snakes are more apt to bite (for fear of being attacked) and are also not able to control how much poison they inject. But don’t worry, I was not bitten, and was wearing my gum boots (which we have to wear every time we go hiking in the forest to prevent any sort of snake bite). It was interesting because the center stressed how important the boots were, but I definitely passed by several American tourists walking around after we saw the snake with open toed sandals. Definitely not a good choice of footwear. We also hiked past a stream with naturally polluted iron from a nearby stream. It turned the water orange! We also hiked to a nearby waterfall. The hike was incredibly treacherous trying to climb on slippery rocks.

            The second day on Manu Lodge started off rather early. My first class was at six in the morning catching birds in a mist net. The mist net is a very fine net that catches the birds when they fly into it. It does not harm the birds in any way and is a common method used in bird research. We set up the net three times in the course of an hour and let it stay up for about fifteen minutes each time. Over the course of the next hour, we caught six different kinds of birds, three of which were humming birds. It was really cool to see how their phenology was different depending on their food source and behaviors (especially their beak shape; birds that eat nuts typically have large beaks to break open the hard shells and nectar eaters have far more delicate beak structures).

            After breakfast we went to a truly inspiring farm that was run by a single family. This farm was fairly large (about 80 hectares) and completely run by this family. We were given a tour by the matriarch of the family and one of her sons. They first started the farm thirty years ago primarily as a pineapple farm. They were a conventional farm that used pesticides and were not particularly concerned with being environmentally friendly. Over the years, they realized how incredibly important it was to live with the earth instead of trying to fight it. They began to switch to more environmentally friendly practices, and decided to not grow pineapple. A quick thing about pineapple that I did not know- it is incredibly bad for the environment. It is grown on areas of former rainforest that have been clear-cut to make way for the crop. It’s grown in a monoculture (which means no other plant is grown with it), and generally requires a huge amount of pesticides and causes a lot of soil erosion. Currently there are no practices in place to make it more sustainable. Honestly after learning about how bad it is, I’m not sure if I will be able to bring myself to eat this fruit. And if I do, I will definitely reduce the amount that I eat. The farm that we visited did away with their pineapples, and now have a polyculture farm where they grow bananas, mangoes,  cattle, and vegetables to support their family. Today, they produce between sixty and seventy percent of the food they consume on the farm. What’s even more interesting is that studies done by a local university have found that they are considered carbon negative, which means that they sequester more carbon than they produce. They are part of many sustainable initiatives and serve as inspiration and guidance for other local farmers. We were able to take a tour of their farm and forest, and help with some of the chores they had to do. We helped create an organic compost fertilizer by collecting a white fungus in the forest and mixing it with molasses, sawdust, and yeast. Over a few weeks, the fungus and microbes would break down the remaining leaf litter and other stuff to make an incredibly rich compost that can be spread on their crops.

            What I found most inspiring was the people themselves. They were incredibly happy and friendly. They opened up their home to us, and made us feel as if we were their family. They made us a giant feast consisting of all food grown on the farm, and then showered us with gifts. They gave us coconuts from a tree in their backyard, fresh honey from one of their beehives, and fresh cheese they had made the day before. They also told us that if we ever wanted to come back and help out or explore the farm more, they would welcome us with open arms. And they were so incredibly thankful that we were interested in learning how they lived and that we shared their goal of making the world a better place. The woman thanked us again and again (even though it was us who should be thanking her), and left us with this message: “we [in the farm] live in a little slice of heaven, [and] can choose to either live in a heaven [that we create], or hell. We chose heaven. What do you choose?”

            The next day was a complete 180 from the day before. We visited a Dole banana plantation farm, which couldn’t be more different. We drove for several miles past hundreds and hundreds of banana plants and these very poor little villages. We were given a tour of the plantation by this man who apparently ran this farm. He was… interesting. He felt very much like a used car salesman who had a very cheery exterior that masked a tyrant underneath. He stopped his presentation several times to yell in Spanish at the workers who were walking by and talking. Everything felt incredibly fake. We asked him about the kinds of pesticides that he used, and he kept on changing his answer. At first he said that they didn’t use anything, then he said that they used “mainly” a fungicide, and finally he said that they used some pesticides. He also failed to mention the rodenticide that they obviously used (there was a large container of it near the bathrooms). He also did not really talk about how the workers were treated. He did however stress the fact that they were Rainforest Alliance Certified, which is something I suppose. For those who don’t know, RAC is an environmental certification that promotes sustainability, worker’s right, etc. And they do a lot with physical removal of the parts of the banana that can attract insect pests. The biggest thing I didn’t realize about banana farming is how incredibly labor intensive it is. Each banana plant has to be visited at least three different times during its lifespan. And after that, there is a lot of work that goes into the processing and packaging. It uses a lot of water during processing (they cut the bunches off of the branch and throw them onto a conveyer belt that has several hundred gallons of chlorinated water to cool them off), although they do reuse the water for a few days. The workers work long shifts (often between 10 and 12 hours a day with few breaks) sometimes six days a week. It’s been very interesting to learn about how food is produced and to see exactly how that process works.

            Sunday was our day off from class (we have class six days a week), and most of us signed up to help out at this chili cook-off that benifited the local orphanage. Sounds great, right? Unfortunatly, the experience left something to be desired. But I guess I should have known that going in. When the woman running the event came to our campus to ask for help, I asked her if the language barrier was going to be an issue (since my conversational Spanish is pretty weak). Her response was “Oh don’t worry about that. I’ve been here for TWENTY YEARS and I STILL can’t speak Spanish. I keep on meaning to take a class to learn some but I just haven’t gotten around to it” Hold on.  This woman has been here in Costa Rica for twenty YEARS and couldn’t be bothered to even TRY to learn the language?! How could you POSSIBLY live here that long and NOT know at least SOME Spanish?? I have been here for a week and have made every effort possible to speak with the people in town and the workers here at SFS and I have learned more than she has. How is that even possible?!

            It was even worse when we got to the event. It was basically a big huge gringo fest with mainly ex-Pats from all over the US and Europe. There was maybe ten Ticos (which is what Costa Ricans refer to themselves as) in the entire event. And the other volunteers were not happy to see us there. We were sent from tent to tent to do work, and eventually were just turned away. Our intern went and had an argument with one of the people in charge so we could help, but all they gave us to do was serve iced tea and try to not get in the way. When asked if we could do something that would help us practice our Spanish, we were told to “go down to the parking lot and find [ourselves] a Tico.” We were disgusted at how rudely they treated us and soon left. All I have left to say about them is that it’s a good thing they were supporting a good cause.

            Once we left, I left with a group of other girls to go into town to run a few errands and go to the local gelato place to use their internet. When we were done, we walked back to the school (it’s about an hour walk). The way the drivers treated us pedestrians was another eye-opener. Costa Rica at times can be a very male-dominated society, and women are oftentimes definitely not treated in the same way as males. We received a lot of honking, catcalls and whistles on our way back. We were also briefed during our safety education meeting that as females, we need to be extremely careful of how we speak to strangers. Even a smile or a friendly hello can be misconstrued as an invitation for something more. And as an American, we are often perceived as “loose” and very wealthy. We stand out like a sore thumb. It has been very interesting for me to go to a place where I am the minority. All my life I have been part of the majority, and have never experience the hyper-awareness of my skin color that comes with being a minority. But don’t worry, I am perfectly safe. I never go anywhere alone, and SFS takes every precaution possible to make sure that we stay safe. And so far, I have not had any issues with Ticos. Everyone is incredibly friendly and open to talking. They have very strong family ties and try to make sure that everyone feels as welcome as possible. Their core values are centered around the importance of family and a good education. They try to live by their motto “Pura Vida,” which translates to “pure life” and basically means hakuna matata. Definitely a phrase that I can get behind.