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.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Costa Rica Highlights



We are living and hanging out at the Biological station. This is full of nice sized bugs. We went on our first hike and saw so many different creatures. The rain forest is so wonderful and beautiful. There are so many creatures I don´t know where to begin. Today we went croc hunting. They are such weird animals I don't know how to explain. They are so rustic set in the new world. We saw this huge one that look like it eats very well. :) We also have been able to partake in some "ecotourism" and went zip lining. That was a blast but a little to touristy. I really enjoyed the Macaw counting we did the other day. My group saw 147 Macaws. They are taking an average over the month for the park. Those birds are so graceful and pretty. When we went on the lagoon hike we saw a flock of like 30 birds feasting. That was so amazing!!

I am so over whelmed by the fact that there is such a first world influence in a truly 3rd world country. You see billboards and high class hotels right next to the run down shack. So interesting I would love to investigate more about the culture. It is just so cool.

 On Monday my education group went to one of the local schools Esquela Capulin,  to do some teaching. We played with the kids and taught them about the trees and how they help the environment. It was so cool. Then after all of our teaching we went to plant trees with the kids!  I made a friend who told me all about his biking battle wounds. It was great!! It was so exciting and so much fun to extend our work down here to the community. The really cool thing was that neither the students nor the teacher knew much English and so we had to work through the language barrier together to understand each other. We taught in broken Spanish and used lots of gestures to get our points across. We had one of the rangers who knew Spanish and English to help translate. I have been using some of my Spanish but it seams that it is a little rusty. Saturday we will be leaving Carara headed to Monteverde, then to U Peace and finally to Corcovado. Though I really enjoy it here I can't wait until our next part of the trip.

Until  then,

Katie

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