When we returned to the Ecolodge on Sunday afternoon (from the trip to EARTH, Selva Tica, and Cahuita) this was waiting for us.
Monthly Archive for November, 2005
Selva Tica was amazing. We got there on a 2-hour tractor ride. The rain forest was unbelievably wet and dense… 8 meters of rain a year. The cloud forest near the Ecolodge doesn’t even compare. We also hiked up the mountain to eat lunch at Rara Avis, which is regarded as the first ecotourism site in the world. Here are the pics.
Pictures for this entry are now on my Flickr in the album Selva Tica, Costa Rica.
I can’t wait to go back to EARTH University. It’s a horticulture heaven. Note: the non-herbicide bananas are grown for Whole Foods Market.
Pictures for this entry are now on my Flickr in the album EARTH University, Costa Rica.
Here are some pictures from the waterfall near San Luis. It’s on private property, but definitely worth the $7 admission. I couldn’t get a picture of the entire thing since it’s so tall.
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My girlfriends — I wish ;) L-R: Martha, Lili, Jessica
Now Playing: “Useless” - Depeche Mode
Last night some of us went to Santa Elena to go to the bar, get wasted, and dance. But wait, there’s more! For only $19.95, this also coincided with Alayna’s trip to the area. So we met up and chatted at Bar Amigo’s for a while. Unfortunately she had to leave a half hour later and prepare for an early morning trip into the rain forest (is there a money-back guarantee?). The rest of us headed over to La Taverna and there were like 100 times more people than at Bar Amigos and they were all dancing. So we joined in and drank and danced and drank and danced.
It was a good time.
I got fairly sloshed.
I think I needed to after all the shit I’ve been putting up with lately. I can’t go into it in detail at this time, but I haven’t really been very happy and I miss home (the two aren’t necessarily related). My nerves are on edge in a bad way. I’m trying to remain optimistic that things will improve now that we’re back on the road. Sigh.
Today we bussed over to the Caribbean side and began our last field excursion. At the moment, I’m in the computer lab at EARTH University. This place is badass. I really couldn’t sum it up any other way. Hopefully I can do an internship here next summer fingers crossed.
This guy just walked up to me and asked to look at my iPod, proceeded to ask me how much space it has, how much of it was taken up by songs, how old it was, etc. Then he told me the new iPods are in color, do video, and are thinner. But that they cost like $400 here because the government adds huge import taxes. He spoke only in Spanish. And I mostly understood, until he asked me what I was doing here, for how long, etc. Then he kinda got confused when I tried to say I’m leaving tomorrow to go to Selva Tica, but not going back to the US until Dec 29th. He thought I was saying I am coming back to Costa Rica on Dec 29th. I think it’s because I was mis-using “regresar”. Ooops.
Anyway, earlier today we saw the banana plantations here at EARTH and got a general info session about the program of study. There are 400 students here — 100 in each year — and they study all apects of tropical agroecology and agronomy. Students come mainly from Latin American countries in the tropics, but there is one from Indonesia and a couple from Argentina. It seems to be a really hands-on intensive program in sustainable agriculture from all angles. I wish there was something like it in the US.
I’m not very happy that we’re leaving tomorrow morning after just arriving around 2pm today. Especially since the lack of time here is so that we can have more at a beach resort town. I’d rather be knee deep in bananas than knee deep in surf. Oh well.
Like I said, I’m trying to remain optimistic.
This post probably sucks cause I’m really tired. Time for bed.