Professor Troy Abel from Huxley College of the Environment and his students share their insights on ecological citizenship, political biogeography, and immersions in one of the most biologically intense places on the planet. Costa Rica is translated as rich coast, a name originating from Spanish conquistadors who mistakenly thought the land was filled with gold. Many now recognize that Costa Rica’s riches are more green than gold with more than 4 percent of the world’s estimated biodiversity. Costa Rica has universal health care, a longer life expectancy than the U.S., and no military. Only by expanding our attention to all of these facets can one begin to see “Ecotopia’s Prism,” or Costa Rica’s intersections of ecology, economy, and culture fostering and inhibiting sustainability.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Lots has happend since I last wrote! We have been very busy at Carara, each team working on their individual projects and all of us have been doing service work in the park on the week days. We did some trail clearing to minimize snake habitat, and also have been working on cleaning and painting the bridges on the trails. I am on the policy team, and am really enjoying my experience so far. Giovanni, the head park ranger, has been arranging interviews for us to do around town. This has been really great because we have the opportunity to get out into the towns and see the community and interact with people. Today we had one of our best interview days because we got to go to a school to interview a teacher and the principal, and also got to see the kids at the school. They were all so excited to see us, and we took lots of pictures with them! So cute!!! The little girls were very interested in my hair because it is blonde, they kept touching it and telling me it was "bonita." We also had a really great weekend that was packed with activities. On Saturday we went out on the muddiest hike in the world! We were hiking to a lagoon that had crocodiles in it, but in order to get there we walked through 3-4 inches of standing muddy water, with deep mud underneath. We all were wearing hiking boots and everyone had mud up to their knees! After the hike we went back to the station to shower, where we discovered that we had a water problem and the showers were not really working! Many of us had to shower out in the laundry spicket! That night we went out to have drinks and dinner, and also went to a disco for dancing. It was nice to get out of the station and have a good time as a group. On Sunday we went on a canopy zipline tour! I have always wanted to do a zipline, and I really enjoyed it. It was a really cool way to see the forest canopy and at times I really felt like a bird flying over the rainforest! Overall I would say that we are having a really great time here, but we are also getting lots done. I cant believe that we leave the station this Saturday, but I cant wait to see what the rest of this adventure has in store!


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