Livin' the Costa Rican Life: Tourism

Tourism and eco tourism have been on the rise in Costa Rica as well as many other Central American countries. This is occuring due to these countries containing natural beauty from their landscapes and fascinating beauty. Costa Rica has a lot to offer. The beaches, rainforests, vocanoes and wildlife are the major ecosystems that attract tourists from all over the world. In fact, tourism is the second highest source of income in Costa Rica after the production of silicon chips. To better understand eco tourism, it can best be described as traveling purposely to natural areas purely to understand the natural history and culture of the environment. This is done while making sure to not alter the ecosystem. This leads to more economic opportunities to make conservation beneficial to the local citizens and also provides incentive to preseve the natural surroundings.

We got a little taste of the tourism industry here in Costa Rica on our trip to Cafe Britt today. We were thrown into this tour that made you feel like a product being pushed through the process. Compared to yesterdays plantation, Cafe Britt was very commercial. You could sense that tourism was a major industry just through this experience. As far as eco tourism goes, today wasn´t the best example. We stayed on a paved path the entire time and were explained the coffee production process. We also got to see how the beans were roasted and packaged. We then learned how to test coffee and smell and feel it. I wouldn´t call this eco tourism because we didn´t get to see alot of the natural part of the plantation. We were surrounded by coffee plants but we didnt get to see the natural beauty so much as the production side. Either way, it was very evident that the plantation had the tourism act down. I think that in the next few weeks we will continually experience this.