CR Day 19 - Hugo Sanchez

Today the students took their final in Spanish and gave a presentation in Humans and the Environment. I wanted to go to campus and hear the presentations but I am down with "travelers tummy" and decided I better stay at the ApartHotel. It poured down rain and I couldn't even sit on our back porch when I got up...so here are a couple of photos out the front door. Please note the butcher's truck in the background, on our side of the street...



Chuck came and got me after his class. We went into town to get him a sandwich then we meet Ana and went to her uncle's art gallery. Hugo Sanchez is a very famous artist that lives here in Heredia. He and his wife, Marta are kind, friendly people that Chuck and I took to the first time we meet them. Hugo took all of us to the Cultural Center to see a display of his series on Jazz. I got a photo of him in front of one of his paintings. He gave Chuck and I a watercolor which we will frame and hang at home.




It's "winter" here, what the Ticans tell me is that they have two seasons: wet and wetter. I don't think I've describe the winter clothes here...it's at least 75 degrees all the time here. Sometimes breezy in the morning, rainy in the afternoon but never really cold. However, on any street corner you can see everything from string tops and short, tight skirts to winter jackets and boots. Lots of the students wear winter sweaters and today I saw a student in a wool scarf.

Water Quality

What happens to waste water in Heredia, Costa Rica?

As many of you know, one of my specialization areas is the examination of contaminant fate and transport in aquatic systems - streams, rivers, sewage systems, etc. How do these contaminants get there? What happens to them once they're in your water? Do they stay in their present form or do they transform into something more harmful?

Some of the issues surrounding these contaminants are well understood, while others are still emerging as the subject of research. But one thing strikes me very clearly: in the US we spend billions on research and control for trace levels of relatively obscure pollutants while in other parts of the world, routine pollutants are released into the environment in massive amounts. I have seen this same issue in India and China too. It is important to investigate and correct all types of water pollution but some basic improvements abroad could go a long way towards meeting basic public health improvement. Here in Heredia, there are plenty of basic infrastructure improvements needed.

Some shocking statistics: According to the World Health Organization
(2008, http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/mdg1/en/index.html) About 2.6 billion people – half the developing world – lack even a simple ‘improved’ latrine and 1.1 billion people have no access to any type of improved drinking source of water. This is one of the greatest injustices of the world.
___________________________________________________________________
Sewage Treatment Plant, UNA Campus, Heredia



Tuesday we visited the sewage treatment plant for the UNA campus in Heredia. This small plant takes all the waste from the campus and passes it through secondary (biological) treatment before releasing the water to the nearby stream. When all is working well, purification steps remove the solids then optimize growth conditions for bacteria so they can decompose the organics, converting them to easily removed solid sludge. But - this whole process is dependent on a healthy population of bacteria. Unfortunately, the science labs on campus have delivered a toxic shock load to the treatment plant and now the plant has failed. They hope to receive new inoculant next week (a fresh load of bacteria that should kick-start the plant back into proper operation) but when we visited, not many systems were operating and the discharge looked as bad as the influent.

But at least UNA is trying. They are doing (mostly) the right things to help keep contamination out of local streams and I'm confidently that ultimately they'll get it right. But not so fast for the rest of Heredia; most homes have either failing septic systems or no treatment at all. We see untreated raw sewage flowing through broken, combined (storm plus sanitary) sewers every day. Laws are in place to address this, but so far they are not effective.

Open sewer during "dry" flow. At least during rain, this gets diluted:



Successful water quality control does not have to be complex or expensive. Last week we visited the Sanchiri Mirador Lodge & Restaurant: http://www.sanchiri.com/valleyrestaurant.html. Pat posted the beautiful pictures from the porch overlook, but I liked the view behind the scenes. This eco-friendly hotel grows their own organic food and feeds their barnyard animal table scraps from the restaurant. All the human and animal sewage is collected in an anaerobic bioreactor (basically a large septic tank). This process removes 70% of the influent waste load and the byproduct gas, methane, is used to provide fuel for some basic heating purposes. Nice.

Bioreactor and gas piping at Sanchiri:



Finally, I told my students today during their final presentations (where they showed the class numerous pictures of polluted this and that, as assigned) that I am actually in this business because I love the beautiful, clean places of the world. I wish there were more of them, and I'm glad that I work in part to see that there are.

Before the storm, Gulf of Nicoya, near Isla Tortuguero:


- Chuck

CR Day 18 - Visit a local school

Today we visited a local school. First they had a welcome program for us, they danced and sang and then our students discussed some environmental poster they made. We presented the school with books that we brought to share with them, to add to their English book library . This school has bilingual emphasis so all of the kids speak some English. The WCU students then went into the classrooms to work with the kids and I went around taking photos. It seemed that everyone enjoyed the visit. Several of our students want to teach and those folks were glowing. Being with kids is such fun and it is one of the highlights of our trip, I'm sad that we couldn't have done as many school visits as we'd planned but this is what is happens when you travel, plans have to change for many reasons.

This evening we went to the home of one of our students for a dinner. Lindsey's family home has a wonderful view of San Jose, all lit up at night it is breath taking. It was fun to be in someone's home and see typical Tican life. It is a large, two-story home, very clean and neat with tile everywhere...

CR Day 17 - Sewage Treatment Plant

I noticed today as we walked to campus that the neighborhood is very quiet after the kids leave for school each day. The bakers young clerks weren't in the shop this morning when we passed by, I'm guessing they've gone back to school.

Before Ana's class this morning Chuck and Ana went to meet with the president of UNA. They gave him gifts from WCU and he gave us a gift to take back to our university. It was all very nice and formal.

The students went to tour the campus sewage treatment facility with Chuck this morning. I went along to take photos and because I don't think I've gone anywhere in the world without a tour of a sewage treatment facility. Of course, whoever is in charge didn't know we'd be coming so there was the waiting for the right person to be found and then this treatment facility (the only one in this area) is actually not working right and they are trying to fix the problem. Oops!! No wonder the river smells so bad...

After class, Chuck, a couple students and I went for Tican pizza, we could have opted for Papa Johns but felt that wasn't really in the spirit of this trip. It was very good and Chuck and I will have the left-overs for dinner tonight.

--P

CR Day 16 - Cafe Brit

Today we toured the Cafe Brit, a coffee processing factory. They began with walking us through a garden where they had Arabica coffee growing, interplanted with bananas and legumes. They really showed us the entire process, then took us into the plant and showed how the beans are roasted. It smelled great! There was time for shopping in the gift shop and now we have a little decaf coffee, yum!



--P

CR Day 15 - Sunday

Well everyone has today off. We all need a little time to sleep in and relax. Ana Sanchez invited us to go to lunch at the country club her family belongs to. I had a beef stew for lunch, Tican. It was very good and the view of San Jose from the deck was spectacular. It's a lovely club with work out facilities and pools and places to eat...very nice.

--P

CR Day 14 - Isla Tortuga

Today we went to the port city of Puntarenas where we boarded a boat and headed to Tortuga Island to spend the day swimming and sun bathing. The boat company provided a special lunch and the entire day was about relaxing. Some of us got a bit sun burned, even with a lot of sunblock on...the water was clear and Chuck and I put on our googles and watched all the pretty fish swim around the coral. The bottom was rocky and hard to walk on but we had our Tevas and just wore them in the water. Again, the water was surprisingly salty and it was easy to lay back and float around.



Here's a coconut sprouting on the beach...neat!!



This is a "wild" Peckery...this one seems a bit domesticated.



Fishermen putting out thier nets in the Gulf of Nicoya.

--P

Day 13 - Lankester Gardens

First thing today, we visited a church in the city of Cartago where the Virgin Mary performed miracles. Every year thousands of people make a pilgrimage here to ask God for help. This year the pilgrimage is canceled due to the H1N1 (swine flu) outbreak. People leave small charms that show what was cured and the church has a gallery filled with these things. It was interesting to see...

We headed from there to Lankester Gardens, famous for it's extensive orchid and bromeliad collections. We all wandered the gardens and took in all the beautiful plant life. They are creating a Japanese garden there and working on some water features. Chuck saw a snake about 6 feet long after that I couldn't concentrate on taking great photos!

From there we headed to lunch in a restaurant overlooking the Orosi Valley. We ate at a place that grows it's own fruits, veges, milk, cheese, eggs and chickens. All done organically, they even capture the animal feces and create methane for a power source. The food was good, the view amazing and the green attitude was wonderful!

--P

Day 12 - Miravalles Volcano

West Chester students at o'dark thirty!!

Today we had a free day and one of the host families offered to arrange an extra trip to a volcano. We had to meet at the dawn hour of 4:30 as it was a long drive. Our driver NEVER went above about 40 mph (I'm just guessing here as his odometer was broken, not kidding), cars kept flasing thier headlights as we passed them and sure enough next thing we would pass a highway patrolman . It was a blessing that so many could sleep, I, dear readers, was wide, wide awake.

The Ticans have put a geothermal power plant in the Miravalles area and capped a half dozen fumeroles to feed the plant. Our host had arranged a tour, knowing that Chuck had lectured on this and would be very interested in showing it to his students, It was a neat plant, plenty of big pipe, giant turbines and tanks. The view out the window of the power station has Miravalles volcano as the back drop.



As if a big geothermal power plant wasn't enough, next thing you know our driver pulls onto this tiny, gravel road and stops at a break in the fence line. Off we go strolling through the rain forest, along a steaming, hot stream...next stop, boiling mud pots. Can life get anymore interesting?



I had to take the below photo, this man and his son are herding cows with a motorcycle. Life, not fiction!


After finishing our walk we headed to Thermo Mania, a hot springs water park. It has about 6 naturally hot pools where we spent the rest of the afternoon, soaking up all the hot water and ignoring the rain. Please note, that's Miravalles again, in the background!


--P

CR Day 11 – Plaza de la Cultural, San Jose

Our students are taking two classes here in Costa Rica and their courses have a service learning component. Today we were supposed to go to a local school to work with the kids there learning about recycling but schools here are still closed while the government tries to stop the spread of swine flu. We still have the bus reserved so we headed into San Jose to tour the National Theater and the Gold Museum.

The National Theater is a large, impressive structure with plenty of marble columns and statues everywhere. It’s said to be the finest building in all of Costa Rica. The ceilings have wonderful murals painted on them (above photo of the group looking at the ceiling); scenes of Costa Rica at the turn of the last century. One of the murals is used on the 5 colons bill I photographed and posted over on my Costa Rica 2009 Flickr site (there's more photos of everything there, just not enough room here at blogger). We all enjoyed seeing the men’s smoking room as well as the room where widows and divorced woman were allowed to sit.

The Gold Museum is located underneath the Plaza and the National Theater. This museum houses pre-Columbian artifacts made by the indigenous peoples of Costa Rica. I love the tiny little gold frogs, there is an entire display of them…It has numerous other displays; it’s a very nice museum.

That afternoon both Ana and Chuck lectured. We meet back at the Esplanda (our standard meeting place for field trips) later that evening and headed over to the Costa Rican legislature in hopes of hearing President Arias speak to a gathering of think tank folks from UNA. Arais is helping to mediate the Honduras situation and wasn’t available but we all dressed up and enjoy the fact that we were sitting in on something akin to a senate subcommittee meeting! It was an amazing day.

Don't WCU faculty and students clean up nice!

--Pat

Geothermal Energy

Yesterday's trip brought us to the Centro de Generacion Miravalles, a geothermal powerplant at the base of the volcan Miravalles in northern Costa Rica. We took a tour - and I'll describe it in more detail later when I have some time to compose some thoughts. Suffice to say that where it is appropriate, this is a great way to generate electricity. Here's a short video showing a mudpot near the thermally active area.

- Chuck

CR Day ??

OK, we've had three really long days without a moment to write. We've been touring around and seeing amazing and wonderful things...we have two more hectic days and then I should be able to slow down and write to everyone and describe the things we've seen.

Until then a few thoughts:

• I haven't seen any sort of pizza delivery here but our local empanada stand delivers...
• Costa Rica needs to work on thier highway systems; the fastest our bus went yesterday was 40 mph and we were on an 8 hour trip...which means we would have done that trip in under 5 hours on interstate highways in the US.
• There is little police presence here but then our hotel has a guard and all the homes have high fences and iron bars in the windows.
• We got home this afternoon, in time to buy veggies and fruit from our butcher. He had some fried food under a "heat" lamp, which he explained was Chicharron...deep fried pork. He sliced up a slab of the meat, squeezed a lime on it and gave each of us a piece; it was great. Needless to say a small piece of Chicharron was part of dinner tonight! Here's a photo for you:

--Pat

Our Ecotourism Experiences

One of my students is studying ecotourism as a special project. She is examining the pros and cons of this industry that is so important to Costa Rica and other nations with exceptional natural resources that the rest of the world is eager to see, including such things as beaches, forests, canyons, deserts, mountains and more. One of the reasons that Costa Rica is so heavily invested in ecotourism is that this small nation has so many of these features packed into a relatively small country (CR is about the same land area as is the state of WV). In the central valley and just outside, there are volcanos to see and experience; Arenal is one of the few constantly erupting volcanos in the world, and both Poas and Irazu look like moonscapes. The Caribbean coast is the home of nesting sea turtles and the northern part of the country features whitewater rivers widely known for rafting adventures. Of course Costa Rica has abundant forests and there are all kinds of ways to see them, ranging from simple trails to elaborate aerial trams and adrenaline-rush ziplines. Last weekend we experienced both.

Our first ecotour on Saturday brought us to the rainforest of Braulio Carrillo National Park. Actually, we were just outside the park in a private preserve. There, we visited the rainforest via both aerial tram and a short walk. See the short tram videos I've posted:

The tram took us up a hillside on a lower cable near to ground level then down the hill, through the top of the canopy. It was a quiet ride where we could peacefully observe diverse plant communities. Each tram car holds at least six people. There was not much wildlife to observe visually but we could hear the abundant birds and insects singing in the forest. This company claims to have gone to great lengths to minimize their forest impact; the only unnatural opening we could see in the forest was the immediate path for the cables. Even the large steel towers holding the tram had been airlifted in by Nicaraguan army helicopters.

After our tram tour we went on a short hike through the rainforest on a paved trail. Pat noted that the paving actually protects the forest from foot erosion, and the guides were very particular about keeping us grouped together and on the trail. Again, we were fully immersed in the forest and were able to observe habitat for leaf cutter ants, the eyelash viper that we found on a palm leaf, and we were amazed to see an anteater descending a tree and ambling off into the woods. The only drawback was the size of our group, about 14 people, but we managed to see quite a bit of the forest ecosystem in a short time.

Overall, I would have to rate this ecotourism experience very positively, 7 or 8 on a 1 -10 scale. The overall biological and physical impact to this area just outside the park was minimal yet the company can obviously move quite a few people through the system. They also stressed that local Costa Rican school children were brought to this tram using some proceeds from our ticket sales, a big plus. To complete the picture, I would like to know what overall percentage of their profits are actully returned to the local community.

______________________

Sunday, our second encounter with ecotourism brought us to the Pacific coast. We visited Punta Leon and confined our visit to an enclosed compound that was very focused towards the well-heeled tourist. We were given wrist bands to identify us and were ushered to the zipline outfitting building. There, we were given harnesses and driven by bus to the top of the forest canopy trail. We waddled up in our harnesses and one-by-one we launched ourselves through the forest.

This too was ecoutourism, but it contributed very little to our understanding of the forest ecology. I've ridden and built many different zipline systems but for first time riders, the ride was the adventure, not the location. Ziplines are loud, fast and fun, but they don't provide much of an educational experience.

The other part of our visit to Punta Leon was our visit to Playa Blanca. This was a typical tourist beach without a lot of natural zone protection. The complex did make an effort to minimize air pollution by using electric vehicles within the compound. Unfortunately, some of our students were not treated well by the vendors or other guests there. On a scale of 1 - 10, I would rate this ecotourism experience as a 3 or 4.

- Chuck

CR Day 10 - Not much to tell

UNA library computer lab - check out those internet cables!

Chuck headed down to campus at the regular time of 8am while I stayed at the apartment and waited for the cleaning lady; she won't clean unless someone is at home. So this morning I sat in the sun and read my book while a nice woman cleaned our rooms, nice! We did luck out as today was clean sheet day, and on top of that we got two nice washcloths with the towels. It is unusual to get washcloths even in nice hotels in many of the places we've traveled; I carry my own while Chuck does not bother with one. Washcloths and clean sheets - today was a big day! The sheets that were on the bed when we got here may have been on there for a while and they had that tropical mustiness, clean but musty...

Anyhow, I find that students often hit a "travel wall" about half way through each of the trips we've been on and this trip is no different. We have some folks that are tired, some that need a dose of home cooking and some that have had it for other reasons. A few days from now they will find their comfort zone again and all will be fine. I wonder if this happens with adult groups too and if there is anyway to avoid it? I know that it's a stretch to take two demanding classes and spend the rest of your time speaking Spanish, fitting in culturally and eating unfamiliar foods. But again, I have to say that these are amazing young people.

At UNA this afternoon I noticed that the cleaning people are cleaning every room, every desk, everything. I'm wondering if it's what they do at mid-year break or if it related to the swine flu or is this something you have to do all the time here in the tropics...questions.

Students on orientation tour.

CR Day 8 & 9 - Playa Blanca

Sunday, we all climbed aboard our bus and headed towards the Pacific. We stopped at the Rio Tarcoles, a river that is filled with crocodiles and is one of the most polluted rivers in Costa Rica. There must have been twenty crocodiles lying in the water near the bridge. These animals are huge, some as long as 15 feet. Scary!


On our way west we passed lots of bicyclists and it was explained to us that Costa Rica has a big bike race in a few weeks and lots of these people were probably training for it...to Chuck it just looked like good fun.

From the river we drove to Playa Blanca and the students and Chuck did the zip line while Ana, her kids and I relaxed and waited for them on the beach. It is a white sand beach with large lava rocks sticking out of the sand. The group caught up with us about an hour later and we all enjoyed the beach for the afternoon. We headed home as the sun set over the Pacific. It seemed like all the Ticans were out in their cars Sunday night...man, were the roads crowded.


Monday, we had our welcome information session at UNA, a week late as the university has been closed for spring break. The session included a funny video called "The Gringo Guide to Costa Rica" which covered, among other things, how to get hot water out of the shower. It was a cute movie. They also explained to us that pedestrians do NOT have the right-of-way and cars do...very dangerous crossing roads here. They explained to us that it was normal for men here to cat-call and whistle at attractive women, displaying their "Machismo Culture." I still don't like it but the men think they are being complementary. Public schools and UNA are going to remain closed for an extra week, in hopes of containing the swine flu outbreak. They asked that everyone keep an open mind and not to compare thier host families with thier real homes, good advice for all.

Good night all, Pat

Sorry, no post tonight folks. We got home from Playa Blanca fairly late and we are very tired. I'll write it up tomorrow. It was another wonderful day!

CR Day 7 - Eating our way around the area...

On our walk to campus this morning Chuck and I stopped at the bakery and picked up a couple of Tican doughnuts. The students all wanted one when we got there and I would gladly have bought a dozen but that would have run the neighborhood out of doughnuts on a Saturday and that seems cruel.

Today we got on our tour bus and headed to Braulio Carrillo National Park. This park is very large and spans several biomes; the one we saw was the tropical rain forest. We rode a tram across the rain forest canopy and saw lots of butterflies and birds. It was green and lush, shades of Jurrasic Park! After riding the tram we hiked in the forest and our group saw an anteater and an eyelash viper; both were surprisingly close to the trail. When the guide says stay close to him, he's not joking!

This is market day in Costa Rica and we stopped at a farmer's market in a small town. Chuck and I had asked Ana about the different types of tropical fruits we've been seeing. We needed someone to teach us what they are called and how to eat them. So the entire group trooped around the market, learning about the different fruits and tasting the ones that could be peeled. Chuck, Ana and I bought bags of food to share later (after washing them).

Christine and Liz enjoying Guanabana....

I'm not sure Lindsay really wanted to taste a Mamonchine. It's a small red fruit that was really sort of hairy on the outside, this photo doesn't do it justice. You peel off the red, hairy rind and eat the squishy clear, white insides...it's sweet and perhaps one of my favorites from the entire taste testing.


An aside: We've been here an entire week today and I feel like I'm really getting to know the students. I'm so impressed by all of them; they are bright, interested and interesting people. None of us has gotten any Montezuma's revenge (knock on wood) and everyone seems to be in excellent health. I think everyone is enjoying thier host families. What a great week.



- Pat

Costa Rica - A Growing Country

Costa Rica Population Estimates: US Census Bureau, International Database

• July 2009 - Our current trip - 4.3 million
• June 1994 - Our first trip to Costa Rica - 3.3 million

That's a 30% increase in just 15 years...Wow!

Just to maintain the 1994 standard of living, for every three existing...

• Roads
• Hospitals
• Schools
• Houses
• Doctors
• Teachers
• Engineers

...that were there in 1994, there must now (in 2009) be almost four.

As with many rapidly expanding populations, growth in infrastructure has not been able to keep up. We were discussing this on the bus today while sitting in a traffic jam on the way from San Jose back to Heredia. There just seemed to be too many cars and not enough roads, although we did see a nice, new, nearly completed highway under construction. There are plenty of examples of inadequate infrastructure in the US as well; outdated highway systems in busy cities, electrical grids that are on the brink of brownout failure during heavy demand and overcrowding in public school classrooms. How can we (of the world) keep up with the increased demands of a world that is headed towards 9 billion inhabitants by 2050?

- Chuck

CR Day 6 - Downtown San Jose

This morning our group headed to San Jose to tour the offices of the president. I think Ana was hopeful that we would meet the president of Costa Rica but he is busy mediating the problems in Honduras. I enjoyed seeing the building where the president works; it's very nicely appointed and they told us about his meeting there with Joe Biden in March. We also drove by the president's house which is surprisingly modest. We only got to look through the gate - they didn't invite us in for coffee or anything. I was a bit tired of hanging around Heredia today and was ready to get out and see something so it was a fun trip. We also drove by the US embassy; it was all gates and guard houses (not much to see) and they didn't want us to take photographs in the area. While in the downtown area we stopped briefly at an artist's market...mostly junk but still fun to look around.

Last night we went to dinner at Nandayure Valenzuela's (of UNA) home. They had invited other family members who live nearby to come over and meet us so we had a large crowd. Tican society is matriarchal and the people are extremely warm and friendly. They want you to love their country as much as they do. Nandayure made a lovely dinner for us with a large selection of traditional foods and afterward we sat around talking, watching some dance practice and sipping coffee. We talked late into the night about all sorts of things. It was a wonderful evening and I'm thankful that they had the two of us over for a visit. I learned a new phrase "Hoy por ti, manana por mi" which basically means "what goes around, comes around."


A truck is parked in front of our apartment (less than 10 feet from my front door) and it has been since we got here six days ago. Every night at 9 o'clock the truck backs up and moves across the street. Now, you have to know that the backing up is accompanied by a revving engine, back firing, back-up alarms as well as the car alarm for the car behind it on some nights. We sit a few feet from the door and can't hear the TV while the truck moves so it's hard to ignore...it's all pretty noisy. I asked our hosts last night if there is some sort of 24 hour parking permit and the entire family laughed at the thought of this...so no, there's no reason for this movement. They were curious too. So now Nandayure wants me to go ask the owner why he moves the truck each night, and I think I will. First, I have to practice asking the question in Spanish and then I'll have to get the video camera out and record his explanation, so someone can tell me what he says! I'll let you know how that turns out; I've got a few weeks left to practice my Spanish before going over and solving this mystery. You can see a photo of the truck in the blog post from Day 4.

On the way home this afternoon Chuck and I went into the neighborhood bakery. It's actually more of a garage-cum-bakery type deal but it sure smells good. They have a really amazing selection for such a small shop. I was really just looking for a good bread for peanut butter and jelly, aka dinner tonight. We came out with slightly sweet whole wheat rolls and a thing that looked like a popover but was in actuality a really, really good cream filled doughnut done Tican! I'm going back, don't worry - and I'll get pictures of the shop, the turnovers and rolls. We were hungry and we've already eaten the ones we just bought...sorry.

Buenas noches, amigos
- Pat