Pacific

Tuesday, June 5

I am still nervous from the first day of classes and so don't sleep well. Wake up repeatedly trying to remember what errors I made. Can't think of any.

Get up with the sun, make coffee and log in to see what happened in my online classes while I was sleeping. Not much, but not nothing. Some students have crazy schedules and so make time for class at the oddest hours. Doesn't matter to me--I'm happy for all of them.

Breakfast of scrambled eggs and fruit, to order. I seem to be the only guest so the breakfast buffet has turned into breakfast to order. Fine by me. After eating, I grab my mask. I bought my dive mask in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize 11 years ago after mine was stolen. It was the only one that fit. Upon use, I loved it. Absolute best mask I have ever tried on. Super low profile makes clearing trivial, and wide range of view. Simple. Cheap. Cannot understand why all dive masks are not built like this one, but I have not found another like it and so carry it with me whenever I might dive.

Walk down the road two blocks to the beach, where Deep Blue has a boat waiting for me in the surf. Wade out into the gentle waves and hop on board from the stern, by the outboard motor. Nice boat, with a center console and a sun shade. Tanks down the middle between benches. Basic and functional. We set out across the water. I look back to see the cove out from Playas del Coco:

We head out to sea, then south down the coast to another cove, near Playas Ocotal where there is a colossal resort. We pick up a cute young couple who signed up for their introductory open-water SCUBA lesson.

They did the classroom and swimming-pool portion of their training at home in Buffalo, New York. They do more on board as we head out and then further south:

Our first dive site was around this low island:

The dive instructor has his students to care for so my divemaster and I back-roll off and descend. This is my first-ever dive in the Pacific so I am a little nervous. Water is a little colder than the Caribbean off Belize where I dove two weeks earlier (and for a dozen years prior). but not enough to be a nuisance. Visibility is much lower. About 10 meters or so. not bad, but I am used to 3x that in Belize. Also, the landscape is dominated by the volcanic rocks, not the reef-forming hard corals of the Belize barrier reef, which is justly famous world-wide. and finally, the fish! All are kind of familiar, but not quite. The Panama isthmus formed about 3 million years, which has been enough time for speciation by vicariance. As in, same genus, different species. Repeat over and over. As a zoologist, I loved it!

On the surface interval, the instructor continues his lesson while my divemaster goes fishing:

By dive skills, I'm happy to report, were fine. Good buoyancy, low air useage, stayed calm. We say some sharks (white-tipped; one group of three small ones and another of two medium-sized). Divemaster asked by hand signals if I was OK. Yes, of course--I love sharks! They are cool. I'm not afraid of sharks. I appreciate and respect them.

I took some snapshots of the young couple on their camera and they returned the favour with mine:
if you call that a "favour." Pretty bad case of mask face.

Our second dive site was here:

just explored around the base of these rocks, down to 75 feet or so. There is a bit of a thermocline around 65 feet or so.

After that, we returned the couple to their resort, and then headed back up the coast to Coco. Some some isolated beaches I wanted to see from the land, and would the next day by bicycle. This is one:

Took a few more photographs of the boats in the cove as we approached. This one includes a faux pirate ship for tourist cruises:

As we got closer, I took some snapshots of the brown pelicans:

All too son, they dropped me off on the beach where they had picked me up in the surf at 8 am. I walked back up the road to my hotel:

I took a shower to get the salt off and then logged in to my online classes and worked until sunset. Actually, missed the sunset.

Day 1 of Summer session

I wake up early today as it is very exciting: the first day of Summer session. I suppose I should be used to this by now, but I am not. I still get excited to meet my students. I want them to all log in at 8 am CDT (7 am CST, where I am) and so shower, eat breakfast, make a second pot of coffee and sit there patiently on Blackboard waiting for students to log in an introduce themselves.
And listen to the birds. Then turn on CNN and watch the Queen's Jubilee. Etc.
OK, online teaching is not quite as exciting as it is made out to be.
Eventually students do arrive and that is cool. I know some already. We have a nice day. I get bored in the afternoon as no new students log in, and so re-work content that is probably already just fine. Getting really, really bored, I do something foolish: I imagine I can write, edit, shoot and publish video all on my own. Hilarious!
Really, I can't, but do anyway. Here it is, my introduction to "Tropical Ecology":

Domingo: day to work

Sunday, June 3

Gosh, I'm boring. Wake up in paradise and what do I do? Work all day. I have two online classes starting on the morrow. Both done. Does that matter? No, I spend all day fussing over them, fixing things that are not broken. I do walk down the street to see the sun set. Pretty, but not spectacular like last night so no photos.

Reverse surf-n-turf trip

Saturday, June 2

Woke up to my alarms. They sure sounded early!? 5 am?! What? Hit snooze and went back to sleep.

Woke up at 6:15 am. Oh, yeah, the early alarm was to rouse me to see off my compatriots on the early van to the airport in San Jose.
One lucky guy had the delight of knowing the returning van would bring his wife.
Bastard. Hate him on general principle.
I miss Rhea so much it hurts. Back to sleep. Pillow over head so I don't hear the birds mocking me.

Eventually I make myself get up and make coffee. Dark roast, bitter. Suites the mood.

I pack for a flight home: heavy stuff, but not over 22 kg, plus all liquids in one piece. Delicate electronics in a knapsack to carry on the flight home to Rhea. Check.

Damn. Not going home. Did I mention I miss Rhea? No? Well, I miss her.

Knock on door. I'm annoyed. Plan to ignore, but then wonder if I got my times mixed up and my collectivo is already here and so open the door. Wrong again. It is Ron, asking if I want to have breakfast with the guys. "Uh, yeah" I answer, as eloquently as ever.

A porter magically appears (thanks, Ron!) who hauls my 22 kg bag up to the lobby. Struggles. I carry my equally heavy knapsack and pretend it is just my down parka. Fool no one. Drop them by the front desk and pay the US$50 for cleaning the bit of dirty laundry I arrived with (?!?). Enjoy my yoghurt and final comradeship with my seminar compatriots. Say I hope to see them again, and actually mean it. Drop 10,000 colones in the tip jar at the front desk and head out to meet the collectivo.

In this photo, you can see my luggage piled out front. You can also see this amazing plant they have a few specimens of. If you are reading this, and know what this awesome plant is, please comment to let me know--both what this plant is (I want one!) and that anybody is reading this hum-drum blog.

The van arrived. It was a Toyota diesel van with a manual transmission. Basically, a minivan this geek dad would love. We drove out of town down that unpaved road people complain about but which I think is marvellous. I compare it to the Georgeville Road in the Cayo district of Belize and then smile. Imagine that road but vastly smoother--like you always imagined it could be, if Belize had a government as rich as Costa Rica.

I shared the van with a woman from Europe and her son. She asked for a stop to take a photo. I took a photo of her doing that:

I then took a photo with her camera of her and her son, and asked as a favour her to shoot me:

The scenery is lovely. Steep hills formed into cattle pastures. Bucolic in the sunshine. I try not to imagine them in a tropical rain storm.

We stop down in the low lands. We get out to use los banos:

I am entranced by Scarlet Macaws:

And then notice a blue and gold macaw. What?!?
All is not as it seems. At a call, the fly to a cage out back:
This scene helps me appreciate the role of Scarlet Macaws in the ecotourism industry. And ties together my observations of Scarlet Macaw fledgling poaching in the Chalillo reservoir a couple of weeks ago with the lucrative "ecotourism" industry. Tourists are understandably thrilled by the sight of "wild" macaws:
and thus buy souvenirs featuring these rare birds at those sites.
Please, do not buy souvenirs, drinks, food, whatever from establishments that use endangered wildlife to lure in customers. Think about it.

We got back in the van
and continued on towards Liberia. Some may think the flat lands of Guanacaste boring. Not me, a real Okie. I thought it looked lovely: flat, green land dominated by cattle pasture. Looked like home! As a bonus, there were horses everywhere. And all horses were white or bay. A few foals black; some gray yearlings. All had excellent conformation. You see where I am going with this: 100% Pura Raza Esapanol. Oh, yeah: PRE Andalusian horses as far as the eye could see. Probably not registered with ANCCE, but no matter: these were the real deal. By the thousand. Like thoroughbreds in Kentucky. Loved it. Hope to ride a few by the end of the week.

Dropped of the other passengers at Canon de Vieja. They planned to go rafting there and then onto Playas del Coco, where I was headed for. I moved to the front seat and chatted with the driver in his excellent English on our way to the beach. He lives in Monteverde with his wife and two daughters. He got a loan to buy this van and drives tourists in it as his livelihood. He had not been to El Coco before and so had to ask directions in town (of a taxi driver). We got to the hotel I had made arrangements with.

Checked in. (Thanks, Trip Advisor!). Owner nice; room larger than I expected. Ditto the pool and gardens. I settled in, ate dinner in town, then took snapshots of the beach at sunset:

Oh, yeah. I can stay here for a week or a decade.

Synthesis & Summary

Friday, June 1

Today was devoted to putting our learning of the past few days into a time-frame as a tool for synthesis and summary.

We had breakfast together one last time at the Monteverde Lodge. I have been eating well, perhaps too well, and so only had the yogurt with granola and fresh fruit with my coffee. Most of the group decided they also needed exercise and so walked to the CIEE center. I took advantage of the free time after breakfast to chat online by instant messaging with my wife. She is excited about trail-riding her horse with some friends this weekend. I said I wished I would be there for that, and meant it.

I hurried to turn off my computer and go to the lobby to get in the van for the short ride to the CIEE center. Our first lecture was by Dr. Karen Stocker of Cal. State-Fullerton.
She shared twenty (20) years of research on the role of women's cooperatives in changing the economic and social status of women, and more generally the role of tourism in changing local culture.

We then broke for coffee, fruit (my favorite was the passion fruit [Passiflora sp.]) and tamales. Yum! I ate enough to qualify as lunch.

Our next lecture was by our own Dr. Ricardo Perez of Eastern Connecticut State. He covered tourism development in Cuba over the same time span Karen had covered for the local area. Tourism development in Cuba is more top-down than bottom-up and his lecture helped us appreciate the differences that leads to.

We walked to lunch so we could see more of the community. This scene shows one of the many small, locally-owned hotels:

We also saw some wildlife. Here, Van is peering into the road-side vegetation after catching a glimpse of an agouti:

Thinking of my wife's trail-riding trip had me on the look-out for horses. This handsome horse makes a fine pack animal:

As always, I admired the landscape planting, such as this Ensete:

We eventually made it to CASEM Co-Op, where women sell art and food them make:

I was full from my lunch of chicken and rice, but some were hungry for desert so we used the van to get us up the road a short ways to the Monteverde dairy
for ice cream.

I walked around the outside of the factory and took snapshots of the front:
and back:
This dairy was founded in 1953 by Quakers who emigrated from the U.S. In recent decades, cattle pastures have been converted to use for tourism enterprises so milk must be brought up by truck (seen here) on the same unpaved road tourists use from dairy farms in the valleys below. The ice cream carering to tourists on their way down from the Monteverde Cloud forest reserve (sign below) makes this dairy another example of agrotourism.



In the afternoon, we had another lecture by Dr. Stocker on intergenerational differences in attitudes toward tourism development. After that, we had a discussion led by local people of varying ages and backgrounds. Fascinating, and a real highlight of the week for me.

We all met for dinner. Over the course of that, we continued our synthesis and summary as a group with our IFDS leaders (Karen and Willow). We talked about the past week and how we would continue to learn more about the topics in the seminar in the following weeks. Most of the participants have campus obligations they have to fly to right away, while myself and one other are continuing our investigations into sustainability in Central America. Kristi is flying to Nicaragua; I am going by bus to Guanacaste province to see first-hand the tourism development issues we learned about on Monday, day one in Monteverde. I'll continue to blog about that.

Coffee

Thursday, May 31

Woke up early and made coffee to enjoy in my room.

Drank more coffee with breakfast (tipico again)

Morning's lecture was on...coffee. We covered the history of coffee cultivation in Costa Rica over the past two centuries. I love history and so drank it up. Naturally, a lot of Costa Rican social and economic history was stirred in. In an effort after independence (1821) to quickly ramp up production of the lucrative cash crop, landless peasants were given title to forest lands they cleared and grew coffee on. This created a broad middle class--quite unlike the situation in the rest of Central America. We also learned about the railroad from San Jose to Limon in the 1890s and how that changed the cultural mix of Costa Rica by bringing in a Caribbean influence. In the 19th century, coffee farmer coops spread as a form on non-governmental participatory democracy. These eventually (late 20th century) proved unable to continue providing a middle-income livelihood for coffee farmers. Many sold their farms; a few went into direct internet sales and a few developed agrotourism ventures in Monteverde. We went to visit the most successful of these, Don Juan's Coffee Tour.


I got into the spirit of the enterprise by jumping into the back of an ornately painted ox cart like those used before the railway to haul coffee to the Pacific port of Puntarenas:
The oxen were very good about the whole thing:
We were there of course to learn about coffee:
Starting with how it is grown:
How the harvested fruits are de-pulped with machines old and new:
Dried to 12% moisture:
and then roasted. Eventually, we got to taste coffee (and chocolate!) under the eye of Don Juan himself, born in the local area in 1937. He is the gentleman on the right in a hat:
Our wonderfully funny tour guide, Junior, also showed us how sugar cane used to be pressed manually:
All in all, it served as a great example of agrotourism: how farmers are diversifying to generate additional income by educating and entertaining tourists about an agrarian way of life past and present.

After this, we drove into town for lunch (casado con pescado for me) at the Blue Morpho, a restaurant in Santa Elena catering primarily to tourists.

The group split up at this point. Half went to a coffee cooperative to learn more about the economics of coffee under globalization, while three of us went to tour the University of Georgia's Costa Rica campus in the town of San Luis, in the western foothills of the Monteverde cloud forest.

This fine facility can be thought of as "educational tourism" in that it hosts hundreds of US university students annually who learn about the local environment through experiences similar to those of tourists: hikes in the forest, horse rides, home stays, farm visits, etc. Interesting.

When we got back to the Hotel,
I walked into the town of Santa Elena
to see the development of commerce catering to tourists. I used an ATM machine to get colones, but did not stay to shop. It was raining and getting dark so I walked back to the hotel.

At dinner, we again talked about a variety of subjects, such as favorite musical artists. The longest discussion was on teaching methods to engage students. We are all from different disciplines and institutions but encounter similar challenges. It was a very productive talk, and I am sure we will all try new teaching methods in response to our reflections on the chat.

Tomorrow is our last full day together so it was also a little bittersweet.

Canopy

Wednesday, May 30

Woke up feeling refreshed and excited, if a little tired and sore from the hiking yesterday. Ordered the tipico breakfast. The cheese (local?) was especially good.

Packed up the cameras and binoculars used yesterday but left out the field guides to save weight on my back. We drove in the usualy van to the Selvatura canopy tour business outside town a few miles. Here we are getting out in front of the main building:
A few participants signed up for zip-lining while the rest of us walked through the forest. It was nice secondary forest on lands that were cattle pasture a generation ago, before the tourism industry changed the local economy.

We came to the first canopy bridge and I was excited to get out above the forest:

Actually, I think we all were:
The bridges are suspension bridges. Concrete footings at either end hold up tall steel structures from which cables run across the various stream canyons. A steel grate walkway hangs from the cables. The purpose is to get you out in the forest. Here we see a fig fruit plucked from the branches of the tree just above us--and high above the ground. The bridges also serve as platforms for spotting canopy-dwelling birds.

My favorite was the collared trogon:
This Spangle-cheeked tanager was also pretty cool:
The general view of the forest canopy is very impressive:

I used my tablet to shoot some raw video. I uploaded it back at the hotel in unedited form. I may take this down later, edit it and put it back up with a different name. In the meantime, here it is:
As you might imagine, there were great opportunities for plant watching, especially of epiphytes:

At the end, we walked back through secondary forest. I took some more plant photos, such of this handsome little Chamaedorea palm:
I got a glimpse of a mantled howler monkey but no photo (nor of the family we saw yesterday). I also glimpsed a quetzal bird but it was moving too fast for me to take photo.

We loaded back in the van and drove to a women's collective for lunch.

It was served buffet style:
After lunch we took a break and then went to the CIEE center by van:
And went inside the class building:
Where we had a lecture:
along with coffee. The lecture covered ecotourism from the tourist perspective, which often differs from the view of local people. I also learned that many tourists come to Monteverde solely to go zip-lining and never actually hike in the forest, look for birds and talk to local residents. It is not clear what these visitors contribute to the local economy and what they learn about the local area. We had another lively discussion afterward.

Dinner was in the dining room again. We continued learning about each other and sharing the perspectives of our various disciplines on the seminar content.