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.

This shows you how commerical Cafe Britt was. They put on a play to explain the history of coffee. It was bizarre.
My cappucino that I ordered in the restaurant (it was very strong).
Here we are enjoying our coffee drinks in the restaurant.

Costa Rica...ya gotta love it

This would be mi amigos dancing last night. We had a latino dance class which was a blast.
Here I am with Heidi and my roommate Stephanie. It was 230 colones (50 cent) beer night.
The road to the coffee plantation. Note that we are in a huge commercial sized bus.
Beautiful Costa Rica on the walk to the plantation.
This massive bug was hanging out on the ground when we were at the plantation.

So you have heard all about my coffee plantation trip. It was a lot of fun and it was really interesting. The coffee was just too strong but I had to try it. We ended up getting back here to San Jose and we had a survival spanish course which seemed like it took all day because we had to keep playing out scenarios in groups but I learned a little and I now have another booklet to help me out.

I started my Team in Training triathlon training two days ago when Stephanie and I went for a run. We went out again this morning and ran for 30 minutes which is really good considering their are hills every 100 meters. It gets me pumped to get ready. In case anyone doesn´t know, Team in Training is an organization that benefits the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I´m participating in the Nations Triathlon in Washington D.C. in September which is an Olympic distance triathlon (1.5K swim, 40K bike, and 10K run). I´ve started to raise money but I have no donations but my own :( My fundraising goal is to raise $4,500 by mid-August. I have a long way to go but I will keep moving. I know I can do it! If you want to help me out, then I would be very, very happy!!!!!!

http://pages.teamintraining.org/soh/nattri08/aminneman

We are going to Cafe Brit tomorrow which is the big coffee company here in Costa Rica. It should be a lot different then today and we should be able to buy more bags of coffee. I´m really excited! Miss you all!

More Coffee

Today we visited a coffee plantation just outside of San Jose. It was owned by a succesful business woman who bought the plantation ten years ago. We took our bus back a long bumpy dirt road then walked a long way down to where we learned about the plantation. Here is a picture of me next to a bunch of coffee plants.


Here is a coffee bean. If you squeeze the seeds out, you can eat them. I didn´t take time to test it out but I heard that they didn´t taste like coffee :(

Here I am with my freshest cup of coffee that I will ever drink (and the strongest).

I found alot of what I learned today to be very interesting. First off, this specific plantation just won an award for best coffee in Costa Rica (aka best coffee in the world according to the Ticos). It used to be an organic plantation for three years but changed back because of less profit due to low production capabilities. When the plantation switched to organic, production went from 800 sacks to 30 sacks. This played a big role in the change.

On the way up to the plantation we saw fields that been overused and degradation was taking place. It was cool to actually see some of the effects of overuse even though these farms can no longer be used sustainably.

We heard alot from the owner about how she has changed things at the plantation to become successful. Ever since they won the award, they have been able to sell their coffee at very high price compared to in the past.

She also talked to us about where her coffee is sent and sold. She mentioned that her beans are combined with other beans and sold in bigger batches to major companies. That was the only thing that surprised me. She told us that many coffee growers will label their beans as organic when they actually are not. Basically, the ethics are no longer there. Thats too bad for all those organic lovers out there!

Coffee is an export that is considered suitable for fair trade. Fair trade is a movement to alleviate global poverty and promote sustainability. The movement advocates the payment of a fair price as well as social and environmental standards related to the production of a variety of goods. Fair trade can lead to equality in international trade. Sustainable development can be achieved through better trading conditions and securing the rights of producers in workers. This mainly relates to those in developing countries. The plantation that we visited and the woman who owns it could possibly benefit from fair trade. On the other hand, this woman completes all steps of production from planting and cultivating to exporting; therefore making use of fair trade is not necessarily beneficial in her case. Also, she has found that separating herself can allow her to work more directly with customers which has proven to work through her apparent success.

The main downfall of this plantation is its lack of sustainable growth patterns. Due to the location of the plantation, few pesticides and growth enhancers are needed and the altitude and lack of a lot of sunshine provide for very positive growing conditions. The reason sustainable practices are not in place is due the higher expenses with less attainable profit for the woman who owns the plantation.

Tomorrow we are visiting a coffee plantation that operates using more sustainable practices and has the benefit of being very successful.

Coffee

I don't really like coffee. Tomorrow we're going to a coffee plantation so I researched a little to learn more about it before we go.

The last decade of the eighteenth century is when coffee was first brought to Costa Rica. After the slow movement across the country, Costa Rica became the first country in Central America to establish a coffee industry. Colombia was the first country that coffee was exported to, followed by Chile. After arrival in Chile, the coffee would be repackaged and sold in Europe under a Chilean name. In 1854, Costa Rica began exporting to London which led to the coffee becoming known as the "grain of gold". The bean was able to be exported after an oxcart path was built from the central valley where it was grown to the Caribbean coast for export.

Coffee helped modernize Costa Rica and brought more wealth and opportunity not only from current citizens but also from Europe and other places. The Atlantic railroad that I mentioned in my banana blog was funded by the growth of coffee popularity and export. It was not only used for bananas but also for easy access between the Central Valley and Limon. Coffee is said to have established the base which Costa Rica stands today.

After visiting the coffee plantation tomorrow, I hope to find out more about the sustainability issues that exist within the industry.

PHOTOs finally

Here are a few photos over the past few days... Here are a bunch of us just hanging out in the Atlanta airport during our 4.5 hour layover.
This is my bed. Note the picture in the top left corner...I'll reference it later in this blog.
Here a Caribbean Cow. They have these cows all over San Jose and each is decorated differently to represent something to do with Costa Rica. This one is supposed to be a dressed like Caribbean Costa Rican women. Very conservative as you can tell.
The National Museum.
The whole group in front of a big statue in downtown San Jose.

Since yesterday's blog some pretty crazy things have happened...well mainly just one. Last night we got to go out with most of the group to a local bar which was alot of fun. I got to try some Costa Rican drinks which were good (mainly beer). My roommates and I had our first cab experience which went great. He took us right home (I'm not sure what else I was expecting). After we got back, I noticed another ant on my wall which I had been seeing a few randomly in this same area of my wall but never thought much of it. Well last night I wanted to do something about it so I went to kill it and it crawled behind a picture frame in my room. I casually grab the frame and lift it from the wall expecting to see an ant. WOW, not just one...picture over 100 ants crawling frantically around behind this frame and falling to the floor and crawling all over the floor. Not just regualr small USA ants. BIG RED ants. They were crawling everywhere so my roommate went and grabbed the Raid and I drenched my entire room and killed them all. They were climbing into my suitcase (which was empty thankfully). I ended up sleeping on the couch in the hall until my host mama came and woke me up and ask what was wrong. I told her and she cleaned it up right then which was nice. I don't know what else could make me homesick. I got over it quickly though :)

Today we had a crash course on the basics of risk management and the business environment. We talked about how everything varies by country and culture and how regulations differ greatly. I think the course were taking is going to be very intesting because I get to see sustainablity from a business light and compare it to my geology background. I know that our trips out of San Jose are going to teach me even more because of the actual experiences.

Tomorrow and Thursday we are going to two different coffee plantations. I'm excited to learn more about the process and see how they go about being sustainable in Costa Rica. We're having a guest lecture today purely on Costa Rican sustainability which should help me get more out of our trips in the next few weeks. Well I have to go to the lecture now. Adios.

PS. For anyone who doesn't know, I have to write four posts each about bananas, coffee and tourism for class. Hints the blog about bananas before this.

Bananas

I love bananas. I actually just had one for breakfast this morning. My host Mama Carmen poured honey ontop and it was delicious. This sparked my interest in learning more about the banana industry and how they've come about in Costa Rica.
I just learned that bananas have been part of the Caribbean since 1870. The export of the fruit began after after the Atlantic railway was finished in 1890. Costa Rica became the largest producer of bananas in 1911 and today, the industry is one of the top foreign currency earning industries in Costa Rica. When bananas began being exported from Central America, 12 million stems were sent to the US. In 1955, 1,389,000 tons were exported, with 290,000 being sent from Costa Rica.
In 1985, a man known as Luis Alberto Monge issued the banana expansion decree which brought in national companies and caused what was known as the "uncontrolled banana expansion". Costa Rica doubled its banana production in less than seven years. The total went up to 103 million boxes in 1994.
As you can tell, banana production has grown greatly in Costa Rica. Next time, I'm going to look into how this expansion has affected the country in terms of the land, growing conditions, etc.

A side note: Three banana brands that we know in the US are Chiquita, Dole and Del Monte. They are all called "the big three" and branch from the the United Brands Company. Just the other day, my host Papa Fernando told us that we have Chiquita bananas where his son lives in Florida. He was really excited to know that we eat food from Costa Rica back in the states. It was kinda cool.

Post numero uno

I'm finally posting! It seems like forever since I've sat down at a computer (and I still haven't considering the labs are full and I have to stand at the the one I'm using now). Anyways...

We got into San Jose late Saturday night and took a bus from the airport to Veritas which is the university we're studying at. Our host family picked us up and we ended up hanging out and staying up until 12:30 am (2:30 am Ohio time) talking Spanish and getting the rundown on the city/country/rules. My roommate Stephanie knows Spanish well so she was my translator. It was rough and overwhelming :( Our family consists of an older couple who live by themselves and they are very nice. They also have a big hairy dog that smells just great. I have my own room and it's pretty nice. Theres a twin bed and a lot of storage. There are also huge windows that wake me up in the morning. Yay.

Sunday was a long day. We woke up and went into San Jose on a bus and we toured the city and walked around. It's alot different than West Milton/Oxford. It re-affirmed my love for the country and lack of love for big cities which gets me more excited for our weekend trips. We ate at a restaurant downtown and I got fajitas which was very good. Speaking of the food...we were all told about rice and beans everyday, every meal BUT our host family is from Peru and the man is on a diet so no rice and beans (so far)!! They have served us eggs and toast yesterday and a plate of fruit and toast today. For dinner last night, we had pasta. In other words, the food has been good. I'll need to dig into some rice and beans eventually though.

The rain came yesterday. Apparently their rainy season hadn't started (which is unusual)...until yesterday. It poured from about 4 pm until after I fell asleep. Its kind of cool though because you can sense when its coming. The weather is as follows...sunning and hot in the morning then rain in the afternoon. Apparently everyday it will be like this. It hasn't started yet today but it looks like it could anytime.

We found out last night that our hosts own two Hollywood Video stores. They ask if we wanted to go so we were excited thinking it would be a short trip (we were supposed to meet up with the group at nine). It ended up that they were closing the stores for the night so we waited then they took us to McDonalds to get ice cream. We didn't get back until almost ten :( It was still pretty cool to ride around the city with Costa Rican people that we had just met.

Today, we went to a big bank downtown. They have a lot of windows and you had to get a ticket when you come in to get in line. This may not be unusual in big cities, but it was new to me. We got a good exchange rate! Its nice to finally have colones. The exchange rate was 550 colones for every dollar.

After lunch we went to CINDE which is a marketing companies that promotes investment in Costa Rica. They reach out to companies and try to bring in international businesses. They have alot of incentives to attract them to Costa Rica. I never really thought about something like this existing but the presentation was very interesting. We got to see their growth in terms of GDP and investment and how their main exports and production have changed over the years.

Thats pretty much what has been going on. Everybody is getting along well in our whole group. We all stay in different directions for the University but thats where we all meet. We make plans because we have no cell phones. Just like old times.

I want to say hello to my family and everybody else (Jeff especially). I hope all is well in Ohio!

I don't know when i'll write again but I doubt it will be this long...but maybe so.

Adios mi familia y amigos!