Tourism and ecotourism are not the same thing although some people do use them interchangeably. I would say tourism is traveling for leisure or pleasure where as ecotourism is tourism that puts emphasis on the plants, animals and the environment in general. I would classify most of what we are doing as ecotourism, but I will give several examples of both varieties from the trip.
First I will start with some simple tourism we have taken part in. We have taken several walking tours of San Jose which I have mentioned before, we went to some tourist sites like the volcano, the waterfall, and Monte Verde all of which some people utilize as tourist attractions, but some like us utilize as ecotourism opportunities, and most recently we went to the beach which was strictly for pleasure, although some people took part in a nature hike which would be ecotourism.
I would like to focus on Monte Verde for a minute. Some people go there to view the forest, and maybe see some animals if they are lucky, and take part in tourist activities like 4-wheeler tours, or canopy tours. We focused on some ecotourism aspects though. On our walking tour it took my group about two hours to walk less than a mile. This was because the guide was telling us lots of information about the forest and its history plus we were stopping to look close at bugs, trees, flowers, and many other parts of the flora and fauna of the cloud forest. Some people (tourists) would be satisfied with walking through the forest and seeing nothing and if they did this our hike would have taken about 10 or 15 minutes.
I would also like to revisit the coffee plantations for a minute. Café Britt was a tourist attraction for sure. We saw very little land where they grow coffee, and we were rushed through one field and their processing and packaging plant to go see a play about coffee. It was educational but it was a tourist’s experience. At De Café Tal Daisy’s outfit, we hiked up and down the mountain to get to here location seeing many nice views and walking by or through many of her fields to get to her small mill and drying station. We got to ask her questions about her past experience and how she got to where she is today. I would call this more of an ecotourist opportunity because we got to interact with not only the owner but also the environment. I should mention that part of ecotourism is helping to sustain the environment and Daisy is not really doing all she could in that aspect because she is a traditional farmer not an organic farmer. Café Britt says they are all organic but they buy from many farmers and show the tourists very little of their operation so who is to say if they are being sustainable or not.
My point for this blog was obviously that tourism and ecotourism are not the same thing. Being that we are here to learn about sustainability it seems that we should be doing as much ecotourism as possible…and I think we are doing quite a bit. We are learning loads about the environment everywhere we go and it is a great experience. One example I will give is that I would have originally thought that coffee was bad for the soil because they never rotate crops and use the plant over and over. In actuality this might happen back in Ohio but here especially in the mountains the soil is very rich with nutrients so there coffee farmers can just keeps producing coffee without hurting the environment too much.
I think we will change gears when we go to see how bananas are produced. For example according to travbuddy.com about 1/3 of banana production cost goes to pesticides. This cannot be good for the environment at all. First the bugs obviously die. Then some other organisms are hurt from consuming the pesticides, some animal’s food is gone because the bugs die, and the chemicals can run into the water and hurt us. These are just a few things that are bad about pesticides there are many more consequences from dumping pesticides all over the ground and plants. Bananas represent a large portion of the income in Costa Rica because they are mass produced; they all have chemicals to help keep the bugs away so the environment must be paying a hefty toll.
I assume I will learn a great deal about bananas in the coming weeks when we visit the banana plantations and will be able to go into more detail about the sustainability of bananas. It will be interesting to compare and contrast bananas and coffee after we visit the banana plantations.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Manuel Antonio
On our free days all 27 of us decided to go to the beach at Manuel Antonio while Glenn and Saul lived it up in Cuba. We took a small bus on a four hour ride once again on some pretty crappy roads. I would like to give a shout out to Ronald our usual bus driver because he always seems to get us around while avoiding the traffic while this weekend we saw San Jose rush hour at its best.
After the bus ride through the mountains we arrived at the hotel. We immediatly headed to town to check it out. Most people ate but a few of us packed sandwiches so Peter, Matt, Paul, Bob and myself hit the water right away. O yeah...it rained for the whole trip but it did not slow us down. The group eating had slow service so we were in the water for about an hour before anyone else got in there. The ocean was amazing. I forgot how magnifisant it looks as i have not been there for many years now, and the water wsa warm. I could do without the salt though. Long story short we all had a blast at the beach in the rain for many hours then we hit up happy hour 2 for 1 on about 5 varieties of drinks. We all had a blast and then ate at the same restaraunt. Chase and I were lucky enough to get on the waiters good side so we each got two free rounds (of two drinks that is). Happy hour was the highlight of the trip for most people i think.
On a side note we have learned to barter. Some of us went to a local market where I will be buying all of my souveniers and bartered for all kinds of stuff.
Back to the weekend, I was able to haggle a 40 dollar box of cigars fdown to $15 dollars so some of us tried a cigar during happy hour. After dinner we all checked out a local dance club slash bar. Some poeople called it a night early and some people stayed out till 2 or 3. I was personally at the hotel around 1230.
The next morning (today) it was still raining so i skipped the nature hike...this was a good call according to the people that went, then we left for home around 230 after lunch.
It was a fun trip but not close to what we have been doing.
We saw our first monkey...sweet.
It never stops raining.
The bus rides are getting old but i could not be having more fun in Costa Rica.
Really quickly the beach was a tourist site for sure. Locals were trying to sell us stuff the minute we got there. All the shops and restaraunts took american currency. The hotels were cheap for tourists ...and everyone i suppose. And i saw very few people that lived at Manuel Antonio most people were from North America I think.
Fun weeks see ya later.
After the bus ride through the mountains we arrived at the hotel. We immediatly headed to town to check it out. Most people ate but a few of us packed sandwiches so Peter, Matt, Paul, Bob and myself hit the water right away. O yeah...it rained for the whole trip but it did not slow us down. The group eating had slow service so we were in the water for about an hour before anyone else got in there. The ocean was amazing. I forgot how magnifisant it looks as i have not been there for many years now, and the water wsa warm. I could do without the salt though. Long story short we all had a blast at the beach in the rain for many hours then we hit up happy hour 2 for 1 on about 5 varieties of drinks. We all had a blast and then ate at the same restaraunt. Chase and I were lucky enough to get on the waiters good side so we each got two free rounds (of two drinks that is). Happy hour was the highlight of the trip for most people i think.
On a side note we have learned to barter. Some of us went to a local market where I will be buying all of my souveniers and bartered for all kinds of stuff.
Back to the weekend, I was able to haggle a 40 dollar box of cigars fdown to $15 dollars so some of us tried a cigar during happy hour. After dinner we all checked out a local dance club slash bar. Some poeople called it a night early and some people stayed out till 2 or 3. I was personally at the hotel around 1230.
The next morning (today) it was still raining so i skipped the nature hike...this was a good call according to the people that went, then we left for home around 230 after lunch.
It was a fun trip but not close to what we have been doing.
We saw our first monkey...sweet.
It never stops raining.
The bus rides are getting old but i could not be having more fun in Costa Rica.
Really quickly the beach was a tourist site for sure. Locals were trying to sell us stuff the minute we got there. All the shops and restaraunts took american currency. The hotels were cheap for tourists ...and everyone i suppose. And i saw very few people that lived at Manuel Antonio most people were from North America I think.
Fun weeks see ya later.
Exporting Coffee
Costa Rica grows a ton of coffee and most of it is for exporting. There are some stats from coffesearch.org below the first number being 60 kg bags harvested and the second being 60 kg bags exported. So it is obvious that coffee is a big deal as far as exports go down here in ticoville.
Costa Rica
Atlantic coast: August-November. Pacific coast: September-December
2,467,000
2,196,000
As mentioned in a previous blog not a lot of the fruit goes into the finished product. According to the same source about 12-20 kg of export ready coffee will be produced from every 100 kg of coffee cherries harvested. That seems like a lot of work to sell coffee especially when lots of the work is done by hand. It really seems to me like coffee harvesters are getting a raw deal even with the Fair Trade Coffee emerging. But then I have also noticed that the standard of living is much lower here in Costa Rica. Not a lot of people are making a lot of money. In 2006 the average income was $12500 and with about 4.4 million legal citizens and with what I have seen, I am lead to believe that this average is very skewed. I think there are a few people making tons of money and lots of people making very little. For example our tour bus that we have for the whole trip costs hundreds of dollars a day (this is hear say but I believe it to be true) and Ronald the driver makes about $20 a day (also hear say that I believe to be true). I do not see how some of the people get by living here and coffee farmers would fall into that group. They do lots of work for little pay and it does not seem right to me.
Costa Rica
Atlantic coast: August-November. Pacific coast: September-December
2,467,000
2,196,000
As mentioned in a previous blog not a lot of the fruit goes into the finished product. According to the same source about 12-20 kg of export ready coffee will be produced from every 100 kg of coffee cherries harvested. That seems like a lot of work to sell coffee especially when lots of the work is done by hand. It really seems to me like coffee harvesters are getting a raw deal even with the Fair Trade Coffee emerging. But then I have also noticed that the standard of living is much lower here in Costa Rica. Not a lot of people are making a lot of money. In 2006 the average income was $12500 and with about 4.4 million legal citizens and with what I have seen, I am lead to believe that this average is very skewed. I think there are a few people making tons of money and lots of people making very little. For example our tour bus that we have for the whole trip costs hundreds of dollars a day (this is hear say but I believe it to be true) and Ronald the driver makes about $20 a day (also hear say that I believe to be true). I do not see how some of the people get by living here and coffee farmers would fall into that group. They do lots of work for little pay and it does not seem right to me.
Monte Verde
So just to write about some stuff I left out…we did go and find the hottest hot spring and it was 152 degrees. It was pretty much unbearable to be in but most of us went in anyway. I started slow and found out that the feet were the worst part. Once you got used to the heat it was not that bad. I fully submerged myself in it and then had to get out. Everyone’s heart was beating so fast when they got out of the hottest one; it kind of made me think it is not good for the body.
When I left off I believe it was time to walk up the mountain. Not fun. I used to hike a lot more and I do not remember a mountain being so steep with such uneven steps. I think it would have been better if there were no steps at all. It was not a fun walk enough said. I think I would have spent 10 dollars for a bottle of water at the top but luckily they were regular price.
After the water fall everyone was beat but we had an evening hike near the volcano. We went to the place that had the best view of the volcano but unluckily the clouds had moved in and we could not see it that night. We could hear it though. It kind of sounded like popcorn popping from where we were. We took a hike to an old lava field and it was pretty unreal. This was our best look at some forest to this point and it was tight but we did not see any animals. The lava field was also cool. There were tons of rocks from the volcano and there is no way to describe it; it is just something you have to see.
We had a free night that night after dinner. We ate at a steak house that did not offer us steak…but it was good food none the less. When we got back to the hotel the power was out so we all legged it to the market for ice cream and other goodies. After the power came back some of us decided to check out a local discoteca….sketchiest place I have ever been to. There was like four people there besides us and one of them was a crazy guy that used to live in Arizona that is a Tico now. He had some negative things to say about the U.S. and some of its citizens and administers and he was just really creepy. We left that place pretty soon after we got there.
The next morning we took off for Monte Verde. The first leg of the trip was by bus. It drove us to the lake where we got on a boat for about an hour. Then we got in four small vans for tourists and traveled on some of the worst roads I have ever seen to Monte Verde. Apparently they like the small town so they keep the roads bad on purpose to keep people from moving there. Good strategy. The ride was miserable to say the least but we got to see some serious views traveling through the mountains and rolling hills. Pictures do not do justice for the things we have seen, this country is beautiful.
We ate at the hotel which could not be more different than the hotel at the volcano; there were 6 – 8 people per room with one bathroom for the guys and one bathroom for the girls at the end of the hall. I do not think anyone showered due to lack of water pressure and the bugs in the bathroom. The food was typical Costa Rican with some sort of meat, rice, fruit, and what Evan likes to call bean paste. We left shortly after for the zip line. UNBELIEVABLE. This was so much fun. There were 14 lines, one repel, and a Tarzan swing. The Tarzan swing was interesting because it was more of a drop straight towards the ground and then a jerky swing and I thought it was going to be one fluid motion. That was one of the coolest things we have done to date, as I said I think that will become a theme for everything we do on the trip, and the last line was about a half mile long. Sometime I could not even see the ground due to the clouds and it was raining so the visibility was even worse.
After the zip line we had dinner at a pizza shop. I think everyone needed that. The pizza was a nice change of pace from what we have been eating. My table had a blast and we do not even know why. Jamie, Chase, Morell, Stephanie, Paul and myself were responsible for one of the best hours I have had on the trip so far you had to be there though. After pizza we had a night hike. Surprise it was raining. My guide was really knowledgeable though so it was fun. We saw some cool bugs and plants and then we went off the trail with him which is a big no no, then we all killed the lights and walked in the pitch dark for a while, then we went to see bats and a tarantula. The hike was a little long and very wet but fun none the less.
Everything is always wet. The rain was cute for a week now it is just a huge hassle to deal with it.
The next morning we went on a morning hike to see birds mostly. I got some awesome pictures of quetzals which are pretty rare but they have a nest for viewing at Monte Verde. I am glad we visited the cloud forest but I think the best forest experiences will come this weekend at the Osa peninsula. Then it was back on the bus for a long ride home after we dropped la professoras at the airport so they could go to Cuba. We all went to the beach with our free days…because we cannot afford another $1000 to go to Cuba…but I will write about that tomorrow.
Hopefully Saul and Glenn make it back from Cuba alright.
I guess we will find out in the morning about the trip.
When I left off I believe it was time to walk up the mountain. Not fun. I used to hike a lot more and I do not remember a mountain being so steep with such uneven steps. I think it would have been better if there were no steps at all. It was not a fun walk enough said. I think I would have spent 10 dollars for a bottle of water at the top but luckily they were regular price.
After the water fall everyone was beat but we had an evening hike near the volcano. We went to the place that had the best view of the volcano but unluckily the clouds had moved in and we could not see it that night. We could hear it though. It kind of sounded like popcorn popping from where we were. We took a hike to an old lava field and it was pretty unreal. This was our best look at some forest to this point and it was tight but we did not see any animals. The lava field was also cool. There were tons of rocks from the volcano and there is no way to describe it; it is just something you have to see.
We had a free night that night after dinner. We ate at a steak house that did not offer us steak…but it was good food none the less. When we got back to the hotel the power was out so we all legged it to the market for ice cream and other goodies. After the power came back some of us decided to check out a local discoteca….sketchiest place I have ever been to. There was like four people there besides us and one of them was a crazy guy that used to live in Arizona that is a Tico now. He had some negative things to say about the U.S. and some of its citizens and administers and he was just really creepy. We left that place pretty soon after we got there.
The next morning we took off for Monte Verde. The first leg of the trip was by bus. It drove us to the lake where we got on a boat for about an hour. Then we got in four small vans for tourists and traveled on some of the worst roads I have ever seen to Monte Verde. Apparently they like the small town so they keep the roads bad on purpose to keep people from moving there. Good strategy. The ride was miserable to say the least but we got to see some serious views traveling through the mountains and rolling hills. Pictures do not do justice for the things we have seen, this country is beautiful.
We ate at the hotel which could not be more different than the hotel at the volcano; there were 6 – 8 people per room with one bathroom for the guys and one bathroom for the girls at the end of the hall. I do not think anyone showered due to lack of water pressure and the bugs in the bathroom. The food was typical Costa Rican with some sort of meat, rice, fruit, and what Evan likes to call bean paste. We left shortly after for the zip line. UNBELIEVABLE. This was so much fun. There were 14 lines, one repel, and a Tarzan swing. The Tarzan swing was interesting because it was more of a drop straight towards the ground and then a jerky swing and I thought it was going to be one fluid motion. That was one of the coolest things we have done to date, as I said I think that will become a theme for everything we do on the trip, and the last line was about a half mile long. Sometime I could not even see the ground due to the clouds and it was raining so the visibility was even worse.
After the zip line we had dinner at a pizza shop. I think everyone needed that. The pizza was a nice change of pace from what we have been eating. My table had a blast and we do not even know why. Jamie, Chase, Morell, Stephanie, Paul and myself were responsible for one of the best hours I have had on the trip so far you had to be there though. After pizza we had a night hike. Surprise it was raining. My guide was really knowledgeable though so it was fun. We saw some cool bugs and plants and then we went off the trail with him which is a big no no, then we all killed the lights and walked in the pitch dark for a while, then we went to see bats and a tarantula. The hike was a little long and very wet but fun none the less.
Everything is always wet. The rain was cute for a week now it is just a huge hassle to deal with it.
The next morning we went on a morning hike to see birds mostly. I got some awesome pictures of quetzals which are pretty rare but they have a nest for viewing at Monte Verde. I am glad we visited the cloud forest but I think the best forest experiences will come this weekend at the Osa peninsula. Then it was back on the bus for a long ride home after we dropped la professoras at the airport so they could go to Cuba. We all went to the beach with our free days…because we cannot afford another $1000 to go to Cuba…but I will write about that tomorrow.
Hopefully Saul and Glenn make it back from Cuba alright.
I guess we will find out in the morning about the trip.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Arenal
So we left Friday for a long weekend full of fun and a little bit of education. We took a pretty long bus ride to the Arenal volcano. I have found that it is physically impossible for me to sleep on a bus or a plane so for most of the trip I listened to my ipod or kibitzed with the people around me. We could see the volcano from pretty far off and the first time Roberto (the tour guide for the weekend) pointed it out I was not terribly impressed but then we kept getting closer and it kept getting bigger. Words cannot describe the view we had of this thing. It is one of the coolest things I have seen in my life.
We got our room assignments and I was put with Marty so he and I got to know each other a little bit better this weekend. The place we stayed was not bad at all, even though there were some little bugs in some peoples room, I think that most people were pretty happy with the place. The beds were pretty nice but not quite as nice as mine at the apartment…some people said they were nicer than their host families so I am starting to like my living arrangement more and more. Shortly after we checked in we put on our bathing suits and went to the Baldi Hot Springs.
This place was amazing. It is a hot spring that is naturally heated by the volcano. Once we got there about half the group went to the highest pool because we were under the impression that that is where the hottest pool would be…this was not the case but we found it later. After the highest spring we all went to the water slide. This thing was rough to say the least. After two turns in the slide, you would catch air and then hit the slide again before the water…and when you did hit the water it was like being punched in the face. I went down it four times and it got worse every time. I smoked my head on the slide the last time and could have had a concussion but I don’t think so, it just hurt really bad. After we stayed at the springs for a few hours we had dinner at the resort…best we have had yet hands down. After the springs we just had a free night so we had a little room party but it was nothing too serious.
The next morning we went to see a hydro-electric plant. This was actually pretty cool. It did take a while to get in because they had lost our email with the plans for the visit so G-money Saul and Roberto had to talk with the people there while we all sat on the bus. Once we got it all straightened out we went to the dam and that was cool but just like any other dam. Then we got inside the plant and saw some things that I have never seen before. We had to wear hard hats the whole time and they probably not sanitary. We got to see two turbines in action and they were spinning really fast but it is hard to believe that these things provide power for most of Costa Rica. I got some descent pictures and videos of the turbines but other than that there was not much to the tour and it was hard to hear the guide so I did not learn as much as I thought I was going too but it was a good experience none the less.
After the hydroelectric plant the real fun started. We headed to La Fortuna water fall but we did not go by bus…he rode horses. These are not the typical horse you would find in North America either. My horses name was Camarillo and it was not the biggest or the fastest but it was fun to ride anyway. We all settled up one at a time and when we went into the arena that we waited in all the horses automatically went to the gate that lead to the field. It was as if they were getting ready for a race and they knew it. We started out kind of slow going up and down hills and though small streams but when the horses got out into the open they could fly and they did. If they were going slow the guides would whip them to make them go faster; of they could just whistle to make them go faster. I did not believe it the first time it happened; Diane, Matt, and myself were riding along and the guide whistled from a couple hundred feet back and all of a sudden our horse took off galloping, it was one of the coolest things I have experiences….this might become a theme for all the stuff we do on this trip.
When we got to the water fall I was amazed. It was beautiful and all I wanted to do was jump in the cool water falling to the bottom…but we had to walk down the mountain first. This was not that bad but I did not take into account how many stairs there were and how steep they were on the way down. I got some sweet pics of the water and then we jumped in. It was unreal. No matter how hard we would swim we could not get close to this thing. We did swim around it and apparently we missed the big sign that said danger, do not go beyond this point. After a nice swim it was time to head up the hill………………getting kicked out of the lab more to come very soon.
We got our room assignments and I was put with Marty so he and I got to know each other a little bit better this weekend. The place we stayed was not bad at all, even though there were some little bugs in some peoples room, I think that most people were pretty happy with the place. The beds were pretty nice but not quite as nice as mine at the apartment…some people said they were nicer than their host families so I am starting to like my living arrangement more and more. Shortly after we checked in we put on our bathing suits and went to the Baldi Hot Springs.
This place was amazing. It is a hot spring that is naturally heated by the volcano. Once we got there about half the group went to the highest pool because we were under the impression that that is where the hottest pool would be…this was not the case but we found it later. After the highest spring we all went to the water slide. This thing was rough to say the least. After two turns in the slide, you would catch air and then hit the slide again before the water…and when you did hit the water it was like being punched in the face. I went down it four times and it got worse every time. I smoked my head on the slide the last time and could have had a concussion but I don’t think so, it just hurt really bad. After we stayed at the springs for a few hours we had dinner at the resort…best we have had yet hands down. After the springs we just had a free night so we had a little room party but it was nothing too serious.
The next morning we went to see a hydro-electric plant. This was actually pretty cool. It did take a while to get in because they had lost our email with the plans for the visit so G-money Saul and Roberto had to talk with the people there while we all sat on the bus. Once we got it all straightened out we went to the dam and that was cool but just like any other dam. Then we got inside the plant and saw some things that I have never seen before. We had to wear hard hats the whole time and they probably not sanitary. We got to see two turbines in action and they were spinning really fast but it is hard to believe that these things provide power for most of Costa Rica. I got some descent pictures and videos of the turbines but other than that there was not much to the tour and it was hard to hear the guide so I did not learn as much as I thought I was going too but it was a good experience none the less.
After the hydroelectric plant the real fun started. We headed to La Fortuna water fall but we did not go by bus…he rode horses. These are not the typical horse you would find in North America either. My horses name was Camarillo and it was not the biggest or the fastest but it was fun to ride anyway. We all settled up one at a time and when we went into the arena that we waited in all the horses automatically went to the gate that lead to the field. It was as if they were getting ready for a race and they knew it. We started out kind of slow going up and down hills and though small streams but when the horses got out into the open they could fly and they did. If they were going slow the guides would whip them to make them go faster; of they could just whistle to make them go faster. I did not believe it the first time it happened; Diane, Matt, and myself were riding along and the guide whistled from a couple hundred feet back and all of a sudden our horse took off galloping, it was one of the coolest things I have experiences….this might become a theme for all the stuff we do on this trip.
When we got to the water fall I was amazed. It was beautiful and all I wanted to do was jump in the cool water falling to the bottom…but we had to walk down the mountain first. This was not that bad but I did not take into account how many stairs there were and how steep they were on the way down. I got some sweet pics of the water and then we jumped in. It was unreal. No matter how hard we would swim we could not get close to this thing. We did swim around it and apparently we missed the big sign that said danger, do not go beyond this point. After a nice swim it was time to head up the hill………………getting kicked out of the lab more to come very soon.
Friday, May 23, 2008
TO THE HOT SPRINGS
We are leaving and will not be back till Tuesday
going to the hot springs and a volcano, and a water fall, and horseback riding, and a cloud forrest
getting kicked out of lab gtg
Brief Bananas
Bananas used to be the greatest revenue generator in Costa Rica but they have recently been overtaken by tourism. In Costa Rica bananas take up over 50000 hectors which is quite a substantial amount of land relative to the size of the country. From personal experience bananas are always available and often served with meals (and if there are no bananas there are usually fried plantains). They can do lots with bananas
i.e. my host family has had juice with banana in it at least once a day since we have been here. My favorite banana so far had a small amount of honey on it or something similar to honey and it was very tasty.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Cafe Britt
Today we went to another coffee company called Café Britt. It was also very fun but very different from the trip to Daisy´s farm yesterday. The purpose of this post will be to compare and contrast the two companies.
I will briefly review La Café Tal (Daisy´s Company). She ran her own farm that took care of every step necessary to create the finished product. She grows her plants, pays 7 workers year round and many more during the picking season to harvest the coffee, she dries the coffee, she has her own small mill, and she packages her coffee all at her farm which was up on the mountain. I get the idea she sells a good amount throughout the year although I am not sure how big her farm was.
Today we went to Café Britt and it was completely different. They are an organic company but they seemed very commercial in the way they conducted business. Where as Daisy just showed us her farm and told us about her personal experiences Café Britt put on a production for us and other tourists. We saw all elements of their processes (or at least what they claim their processes to be). They grow some coffee at the company all under shade trees but they buy lots of coffee from local coffee farms too (this leads me to believe they are not part of the Fair Trade Coffee because they seem like they probably buy coffee cheap, so the farmers do not get much profits unless they have huge farms, and then jack up the price to sell to the consumers). They use the sum to dry the plants some but it looked like they also air dried and used heat to dry their coffee. Then they roast the coffee, grind it, package it, and sell it all from their location.
Café Britt was a tourist attraction too and it was easy to tell. They have a walking tour for tourists and locals if they can afford it. The tour starts by walking through a small amount of coffee plants, then they showed how to pick them, then how they are processed to the final product. I believe the man said a basket weighing 25 pounds would yield three cups or three packages of coffee. Most of the plant is not used I believe they use less than 20% of the ¨fruit¨ and the rest is waste but I´m sure it can be used for other things like fertilizer or something. The roaster made the building where it was located very hot and it did not seem like a desirable place for the packagers to work but it made for an interesting tour and I have a pretty cool video of the roaster and I believe an air dryer.
At the end of the tour they lead us right to the gift shop but this was not until after the theatrical performance put on by three people. They showed us a history video of where coffee was discovered (Africa) how it made its way to be revealed in France and finally how it came to Costa Rica. Throughout the whole video they would stop it and come out dressed in costumes and act out little skits about what they video was talking about. It was pretty funny. Then they had two people from the audience go to the front and show us how to make a cup, and properly taste it and all sorts of jazz. It was a pretty fun experience but much different than Daisy´s farm. We also had lunch at Café Britt which was good Costa Rican food but the meat was fish…y me no tengo pescada
Just a little I have learned about Café…most of the ¨fruit¨ of the plant is not used as I mentioned before. The crops are never ripe at the same time so they have to be hand picked. They take a few years to fully develop (café brit kept them under special tables to take care of them for a year before they planted them with the rest). A plant is harvested once a year but produces many berries (which have the seed inside). And the plant can produce for about 40 years. Arabica or mountain coffee is the best type of coffee. Since the soil is very fertile the crops do not harm it and they do not have to be rotated like in the United States with our crops.
I enjoyed both trips very much but I think the better experience was Daisy´s farm just because I feel like Café Britt was an artificial tourist attraction but it was still fun and a good learning experience. I have learned a lot about coffee in the past few days from first hand experience and that is a good way to learn. It is nice not to read or be told about coffee but actually to see it first hand.
I will briefly review La Café Tal (Daisy´s Company). She ran her own farm that took care of every step necessary to create the finished product. She grows her plants, pays 7 workers year round and many more during the picking season to harvest the coffee, she dries the coffee, she has her own small mill, and she packages her coffee all at her farm which was up on the mountain. I get the idea she sells a good amount throughout the year although I am not sure how big her farm was.
Today we went to Café Britt and it was completely different. They are an organic company but they seemed very commercial in the way they conducted business. Where as Daisy just showed us her farm and told us about her personal experiences Café Britt put on a production for us and other tourists. We saw all elements of their processes (or at least what they claim their processes to be). They grow some coffee at the company all under shade trees but they buy lots of coffee from local coffee farms too (this leads me to believe they are not part of the Fair Trade Coffee because they seem like they probably buy coffee cheap, so the farmers do not get much profits unless they have huge farms, and then jack up the price to sell to the consumers). They use the sum to dry the plants some but it looked like they also air dried and used heat to dry their coffee. Then they roast the coffee, grind it, package it, and sell it all from their location.
Café Britt was a tourist attraction too and it was easy to tell. They have a walking tour for tourists and locals if they can afford it. The tour starts by walking through a small amount of coffee plants, then they showed how to pick them, then how they are processed to the final product. I believe the man said a basket weighing 25 pounds would yield three cups or three packages of coffee. Most of the plant is not used I believe they use less than 20% of the ¨fruit¨ and the rest is waste but I´m sure it can be used for other things like fertilizer or something. The roaster made the building where it was located very hot and it did not seem like a desirable place for the packagers to work but it made for an interesting tour and I have a pretty cool video of the roaster and I believe an air dryer.
At the end of the tour they lead us right to the gift shop but this was not until after the theatrical performance put on by three people. They showed us a history video of where coffee was discovered (Africa) how it made its way to be revealed in France and finally how it came to Costa Rica. Throughout the whole video they would stop it and come out dressed in costumes and act out little skits about what they video was talking about. It was pretty funny. Then they had two people from the audience go to the front and show us how to make a cup, and properly taste it and all sorts of jazz. It was a pretty fun experience but much different than Daisy´s farm. We also had lunch at Café Britt which was good Costa Rican food but the meat was fish…y me no tengo pescada
Just a little I have learned about Café…most of the ¨fruit¨ of the plant is not used as I mentioned before. The crops are never ripe at the same time so they have to be hand picked. They take a few years to fully develop (café brit kept them under special tables to take care of them for a year before they planted them with the rest). A plant is harvested once a year but produces many berries (which have the seed inside). And the plant can produce for about 40 years. Arabica or mountain coffee is the best type of coffee. Since the soil is very fertile the crops do not harm it and they do not have to be rotated like in the United States with our crops.
I enjoyed both trips very much but I think the better experience was Daisy´s farm just because I feel like Café Britt was an artificial tourist attraction but it was still fun and a good learning experience. I have learned a lot about coffee in the past few days from first hand experience and that is a good way to learn. It is nice not to read or be told about coffee but actually to see it first hand.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Just for fun...
Everyone tells us that San Jose is safe as long as you are smart...but there is a chance we could get robbed at any point i guess.
Nestor was robbed at gun point two nights ago and he lost forty dollars. As a result i have decided never to have over 10,000 colones (20 dollars) with me at any time unless i am on a weekend trip or with the whole group. Also we always travel together in group of at least 2 unless we are just walking home from school...and even then we try to stay together. I am pretty sure the people that rob other people around here never have loaded guns but i imagine it would be terrifying anyway. I think knives are much more common but I am not really worried about being robbed because we are always in a group and Matt and I have decided to always take a cab home because last night (woo Sultans) we took a cab home that was safe, saved us a twenty minute walk, and only cost a dollar.
Ive heard that Costa Rica has a low crime rate....maybe that is because the police never do anything. I have rarely seen a cop doing anything except talking to locals and tourists. I have seen no one pulled over on the road, despite running red lights and things of this nature (the driving is terrible here) and one student from the States told me the cops made him pay 40 dollars because his paper work was not legit even though it was
I guess in short I hope I have no run ins with criminals or the policia
Many people say the country is clean but I personally see more trash here (on the streets and such) than I have ever seen before. It does not seem very clean to me.
Hopefully I can get some pictures up soon when Heidi lets me borrow her cord...thank ya in advanced Heidi
and
Happy birthday Bob
This is a fun place to visit
Tourism is one of the main sources of income for Costa Rica and once your are here it is not hard to see why. The country is beautiful as we got our first real glimpse of the country side today on our trip to the coffee farm and I cannot wait until we get out of San Jose this weekend to see more of the country. San Jose is nice but as I mentioned in a previous post it is not that exciting and could just be another city in the U.S. where everyone speaks spanish and some people speak english.
As far as tourism goes we are obviously getting some first hand experience with it on our trip.
I am not sure if i have mentioned all this before so here is a brief list of what we have done to this point.
We have taken several bus tours of different parts of San Jose
We have taken a walking tour of part of down town San Jose and eaten at a local restaurant ( es muy bien)
We have checked out some of the local bars (Sultans being the best by far so far as it attracts locals and tourists)
We have visited the coffee farm in Alejula
We will be partaking in tourism a lot on this trip so there will be much more to come but for now my basic knowledge is that tourism is a main source of revenue for the country and I am enjoying the tourism to this point.
First Coffee Trip
Today we visited a local coffee farm owned by Daisy Rodriguez in Alejula. This was a very interesting experience. We were supposed to go to another farm called Monte Cristo but for some reason unknown to me we went to Daisys farm instead. It was up on a mountain and the bus could only take us so far so we had to hike up the rest of the mountain and we saw some really nice scenery but I forgot my camera...boo. Apparently this farm produces the best coffee in Costa Rica. I got to taste it but i am not much of a coffee drinker so i do not know if it was good or bad..I assume it was pretty good though based on everyone elses reactions. Due to the fact that she was voted the best coffee in Costa Rica Daisy can sell her coffee for 15 dollars a pound as opposed to the average $1.5 (according to her), on the internet it siad that at one point prices were around 50 cents per pound, so she is doing pretty well. Due to the fact that coffee farmers usually get so little profit ($1.5/pound) a new trend is the Fair Trade Coffee. Some places that offer coffee recently started buying and selling fair trade coffee which is an attempt to give more money back to the coffee farmers instead of the intermediaries and distributors. This was started because coffee is one of the 3 most traded goods in the world and the people producing it get paid very little. According to my resources one big issue with the Fair Trade Coffee is how it is grown. Apparently the best way to grow coffee is to use shade trees which is slower but makes the coffee taste better and is better for the environment. One might think that by providing more money to the farmer the price of coffee would go up...as if it is not high enough already in some places...i think we are all familiar with starbucks, but the prices do not go up because the farmer gets more money but the middlemen are cut out. Daisy previously tried to grow organic coffee but gave it up three years ago because it was not working out. As i said before she is doing pretty well because after her award for the best coffee in Costa Rica people started paying more money for her coffee.
As a side note after the trip we had a survival spanish lesson which helped me a little to remember some spanish.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Pre coffee trip thoughts
From what i understand coffe first came to costa rica from france...i recall that they used to call it the golden bean because it was Costa Ricas main export
according to our guest speaker they main forms of revenue for the country now are ecotourism (which we are partaking in right now), bananas, pineapple, and intel (which i assume is smiconductors or something of that nature)
coffee is no longer one of the main exports of the country and i thik this is because many people around the world can produce it cheaply
i feel that maybe the coffee stays local now and is not a big export but still a large industry in the country for jobs
i am not sure if the harvesting of the coffee bean is bad for the environment but i imagine by the end of the week the answer will be evident to me because we are visiting two coffee companies
more to come later on coffee
pura vida
according to our guest speaker they main forms of revenue for the country now are ecotourism (which we are partaking in right now), bananas, pineapple, and intel (which i assume is smiconductors or something of that nature)
coffee is no longer one of the main exports of the country and i thik this is because many people around the world can produce it cheaply
i feel that maybe the coffee stays local now and is not a big export but still a large industry in the country for jobs
i am not sure if the harvesting of the coffee bean is bad for the environment but i imagine by the end of the week the answer will be evident to me because we are visiting two coffee companies
more to come later on coffee
pura vida
Monday, May 19, 2008
pescadido....good time
we just got back from the local bar that the Miami students hang out at every year and it was a good time. we will be hanging out there a lot i think.
the real reason for this post is it only rained for about an hour today and i would clasify it as a ¨sprinkle¨
i imagine it will pour again tomorrow....we shall see
pura vida amigos
I wanna go home....
just kidding! this is amazing! i have only been here for a few days but i am loving it. The family does not speak any english which is hard to deal with but luckily Nestro a student from venezuela lives with us too and he is a great translater and my roommate speaks some spanish.
Mama Eugenia and Papa Alfredo are very nice people as near as i can tell one of them is a vet or they jsut own a dog grooming shop or pet shop. they have 3 kids ..Maria 14..Alfredo 10 (i think).. and Luiz 2 and a half.....plus four dogs that go to the bathroom at the bottom of the stairs to our apartment every night.
thats right we (matt myself and nestro) have our own 3 bedroom apartment which is tight
alfredo(the kid) trys hard at basketball but is not very good. he was amazed at mine and matts skills in the sport. all we have played is horse and as of now matt is king of the 7 1\2 foot basketball goal but not for long..........he only wins by positioning himself behind alfredo so he gets to the end of the game with no letters.
the native cuziene (sorry no spell check on the spanish computers) is all i expected it to be..............but at the house we do not eat much of it. My homestay food is really americanized We had pancakes for breakfast and cut up hotdogs and mashed potatoes for dinner on our first day. im not complaining it is just not what i expected.
They do not lie about the rain. So far it seems to be all afternoon and into the night sometimes.
And the clothes do not dry after the rain...im glad i do have the wicking and fast drying clothes
The sun rises mucho earlier here in the land of the tico and i found that out the hard way. I woke up at 530 the first morning to a room full of sunshine and looked at my alarm clock only to see 532 and thought for sure that it broke and i was late for the first day of activities but then i found my watch and it said 532 too and i was dumbfounded by the early sunrise...........then i went back to bed for 2 hours
The frist day we took a tour of san jose and i wish i had a bigger memory card for my camera hopefully i can find one here so i can take many more pictures the 600. the city is different than what i am used to and it hit me walking through san jose that i am actually in a different country but just a little. i could easily mistake san jose for a city in the U.S. that i have never been to....but i feel that once we get out of san jose this weekend it will really hit me
the group is really fun. i like everyone so far and know pretty much every one pretty well know.we are going to be a tight knit group by the end of the trip and when we go back we will propabaly all be good friends. we had a good time at one of the local bars last night and we plan to find another tonight
class starts tomorrow officially...we went to a business today that i will write about at a later time because now i am going home to start readign before dinner and a good time tonight.......until next time
Mama Eugenia and Papa Alfredo are very nice people as near as i can tell one of them is a vet or they jsut own a dog grooming shop or pet shop. they have 3 kids ..Maria 14..Alfredo 10 (i think).. and Luiz 2 and a half.....plus four dogs that go to the bathroom at the bottom of the stairs to our apartment every night.
thats right we (matt myself and nestro) have our own 3 bedroom apartment which is tight
alfredo(the kid) trys hard at basketball but is not very good. he was amazed at mine and matts skills in the sport. all we have played is horse and as of now matt is king of the 7 1\2 foot basketball goal but not for long..........he only wins by positioning himself behind alfredo so he gets to the end of the game with no letters.
the native cuziene (sorry no spell check on the spanish computers) is all i expected it to be..............but at the house we do not eat much of it. My homestay food is really americanized We had pancakes for breakfast and cut up hotdogs and mashed potatoes for dinner on our first day. im not complaining it is just not what i expected.
They do not lie about the rain. So far it seems to be all afternoon and into the night sometimes.
And the clothes do not dry after the rain...im glad i do have the wicking and fast drying clothes
The sun rises mucho earlier here in the land of the tico and i found that out the hard way. I woke up at 530 the first morning to a room full of sunshine and looked at my alarm clock only to see 532 and thought for sure that it broke and i was late for the first day of activities but then i found my watch and it said 532 too and i was dumbfounded by the early sunrise...........then i went back to bed for 2 hours
The frist day we took a tour of san jose and i wish i had a bigger memory card for my camera hopefully i can find one here so i can take many more pictures the 600. the city is different than what i am used to and it hit me walking through san jose that i am actually in a different country but just a little. i could easily mistake san jose for a city in the U.S. that i have never been to....but i feel that once we get out of san jose this weekend it will really hit me
the group is really fun. i like everyone so far and know pretty much every one pretty well know.we are going to be a tight knit group by the end of the trip and when we go back we will propabaly all be good friends. we had a good time at one of the local bars last night and we plan to find another tonight
class starts tomorrow officially...we went to a business today that i will write about at a later time because now i am going home to start readign before dinner and a good time tonight.......until next time
Friday, May 16, 2008
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