Costa Rica – Day 7 – End of home stay, ecolodge, hot springs

Our group with the Laureles farm family.  From left to right: Becca, Leesha, Fernando, Lidia, Carla, me, and the Laureles grandson in sunglasses in front.

Our group with the Laureles farm family. From left to right: Becca, Leesha, Fernando, Lidia, Carla, me, and the Laureles grandson in sunglasses in front.

My preparations the night before paid off, as I slept really soundly and not worrying about bugs. The whole thing with the dogs must have bothered me more than I thought because I dreamed that I was walking by a busy street in back of the UNC campus (where I did my undergrad) and found two dogs in different places who had been hit by cars and were lying by the road with broken legs. In the dream I scooped them up and was taking them to get medical care when I woke up.

A howler monkey brought her baby out to see us.

A howler monkey brought her baby out to see us.

I got up before dawn, and three of us (Carla, Leesha, and me) went to watch the sun rise over the farm. Just as at the beach at Tortuguero, the sun didn’t come up in a ball like we are used to seeing at home. It just got light. Fernando’s cattle were mostly sitting down (which cattle here seem to do a lot) or grazing peacefully. Leesha tried to make friends with one of their horses in the pasture, but he was shy and didn’t want to get too close. On the way back we stopped by the howler monkey trees again. The monkeys had been very active just before dawn howling to greet it. They were still active getting their breakfast when we stopped by the trees. We probably watched them for a half hour. At first they hid, but after a bit a few came out where we could see them, including a mom with a baby on her back. She sat watching us for a long time, and I got a ton of pics.

Fernando showed Carla how to milk a cow.

Fernando showed Carla how to milk a cow.

Then we went back to the farm where we got to help Fernando milk the cow. That was fun – Leesha was a natural, and I got the hang of it but am glad I don’t have to do it every morning. Fernando put the calf into a separate enclosure while we got a bucket full of milk. When we were done, he let out the calf, who made a beeline for his mom. I’m glad they let the calf stay with the mom.  The mother-offspring bond is the strongest in nature, and to talk the calf away so that we can take the milk does not seem right. It was enough to make me switch mainly to almond milk, though it’s hard to avoid dairy entirely. While we were milking the cow with Fernando, Lidia came out with a glass that we filled up straight from the cow. She then used that to make some of the very best pancakes I have ever eaten, which we had along with eggs, juice, and of course rice and beans.

<Optional thoughts about the book I was reading>

While the rest of the group walked for a swim at a river spot with difficult access, I got some reading done in This Changes Everything. Naomi Klein makes the case that climate change will require us to abandon unregulated free market capitalism to enact the collective solutions needed to address carbon emissions. She thinks it is a great opportunity to reshape human relations to be more just, equitable and fair, to enact protections for workers and poor people around the world.

It’s a compelling argument, but I’ve also read some interesting critiques. Basically the critiques say Klein was anti-capitalism before she started writing about climate change – she wrote about clothing factory workers in South America and about disaster opportunism, in which big companies use the opportunity of a disaster to make a windfall profit. The critiques think her current book is more of the same vein, and that she doesn’t give enough credit to some of the market solutions being proposed such as a price on carbon.

Klein says we need a mass social movement to force governments to take the steps needed to address climate change. I agree with that, but I think we need market solutions too. A carbon tax, preferably with the proceeds being returned equitably to everyone in the form of dividend checks or tax cuts as proposed by Citizens Climate Lobby, is a must. Klein thinks this idea is okay but not nearly enough. I think it’s just a start too, but it’s a vital one. We have to disincentivize fossil fuels and incentivize renewables if we want people to make the switch.

Klein seems to talk mostly about mass movements but decentralized control with communities taking charge of their own energy, transit and food systems. I would love to see that, and mass movements are important. That’s what stopped the Keystone pipeline, which is of huge symbolic value, and having participated with the Sierra Club in the People’s Climate March in New York City, I feel like the march helped provide immediacy and momentum to the UN talks that week.  It was shortly after that when Obama announced the first-ever agreement with China to lower emissions. Of course none of this is enough and the work is not done, but you have to start somewhere.

This year will be huge for climate agreements leading up to the talks in Paris in December where everyone is hoping for the first time to get a binding agreement across all nations. That will be a tall order. Klein is right that social movements will make a huge difference in the climate debates, and she is right that control needs to come down to the local level.

I’m pleased to live in Columbus, which has a very ambitious green plan.  But this leads to my critique of Klein’s focus on social movements.  As important as they are, in the end it is governments, whether local state or national, that will decide if, when, and how we address climate change.  This is why I’m studying public policy. I’m not exactly sure where this course of study will lead, but climate change is the most important issue not just in my lifetime but maybe in of all human civilization, and I want to be in a place where I can help address it.

<End of thoughts about the book and back to the trip>

Becca made friends with a rescued deer fawn.

Becca made friends with a rescued deer fawn.

So most of Friday afternoon was spent on the bus driving to the Villa Finca Tina ecolodge in the mountains, then to the Baldi hot springs. I’m pretty sure this will get changed up next year, since we didn’t make it to the hot springs until after 9 p.m. so had less than an hour. They were absolutely amazing though, as was the lodge which had several rescued orphan deer and even planted special grasses for the deer to eat.

In Ohio it is against the law to rescue orphan deer. I understand about wildlife rehabilitation needing to be licensed, but we should allow people who care – and most people do – to help animals that need help. Even if those orphans go to a sanctuary to live out their lives, that’s better than being killed just because they were unlucky enough to lose their mother. In one case, a police officer and his wife rescued an orphan deer whose mother had been hit by a car.  When the authorities came and take it, the couple claimed the deer had escaped the day before and showed their torn screen door. In reality I’m thinking they probably found a sanctuary out of state to take the deer.

It’s a ways until retirement, but it liked the ecolodge area and hot springs so much, I would give serious consideration to retiring there. The community seemed to have a lot of natural healing practitioners, and as of now it’s affordable. I’ll have to come back with my husband and investigate this idea more thoroughly before making any decisions, but this is now a possibility on the list.

Costa Rica – Day 5 – Nature reserve, banana tour, home stays

Into the woods for a nature reserve hike.

Into the woods for a nature reserve hike.

Note: Many more photos are at the bottom of this post. You can click on any photo to see it larger.

This morning was a hike through a forested nature trail on the grounds of Earth University. One of my goals this trip was to keep up with the undergrads who are half my age, and so far I’m doing okay. Either I’m in better shape than I thought or they are in worse.  I felt pretty good this morning and hope that lasts.  It helps that in getting a decent amount of exercise this trip.  Most of the time at home I’m on the computer for work or school or social media and personal email, which really takes a toll after a few days.

Banana tour

Also this morning was a tour of the banana plantation at Earth University, and of the packing and shipping house where workers sort, clean and box the bananas to go to Whole Foods. Today they were being shipped to the Whole Foods in Jessup, MD. This was so interesting and fulfilling to see. The values of the organization are printed in large letters on the outside of the building. This is a fair trade shop where the workers work an 8 hour shift with lunch and coffee breaks. The work looked very hard even so — I can’t imagine the exploitation that must go on in a shop that isn’t fair trade, which most are not.

The tour made me happy and a little proud that these are the bananas I buy. We first started shopping at Whole Foods because unlike most grocery stores, it has animal welfare standards. I’m willing to pay more for this, and for sustainable standards on seafood and fair trade on products like bananas. Of course this can come at a price. Our guide Mario thought it was pretty funny that the nickname of Whole Foods is “whole paycheck.” I hope someday we can move into a place where I can have a vegetable garden like the one at our home stay location, and we can grow more of our own food. In the meantime, I’d like to start ordering vegetables from a CSA.

Home stays

Me and my housemates at Laureles Farm. Clockwise from upper left: Becca, me, Carla, Leesha.

Me and my housemates at Laureles Farm. Clockwise from upper left: Becca, me, Carla, Leesha.

The home stays will be the true experience of Costa Rica.  I’m staying with three other students at a small working farm called Laurel’s with Lidia and Fernando. Besides the garden, they have a horse, several chickens and a very friendly turkey, a pig, about 15 head of beef cattle, a couple of milk cows, and a pond full of fish.  We started our tour of the farm by taking turns riding Fernando’s very sweet and well-behaved horse.  She was so tolerant of us who haven’t ridden in ages — and who had a little trouble getting on.

Then we walked down the mountainside where Fernando keeps his beef cattle.  One of the cows tends to walk and graze with part of his front legs on the ground. Fernando said the cow has a worm, and that he had given the cow a shot. But this made me wonder what kind of veterinary care these animals get. Does someone from Earth University travel to farms to take care of them? Earth has an animal farm because we visited it. I didn’t think to ask there what kind of veterinary care those animals get, but hopefully they have some kind of veterinary program there, even if it is not as developed as the one at Ohio State.

The other notable thing about Lidia and Fernando’s farm is the howler monkeys in the back yard. As we were touring the farm, we heard them hooting to each other a lot, so Fernando walked us over to the trees where they live and threw in a few sticks to get them to come out where we could see them. It worked. We saw four or five on various tree branches howling a lot at us.

I was surprised how small they are based on how loud the sound they make is – so they live up to their name. The males have a special vocal sac in their throat that helps them amplify the sound they make, which sounds like a strong wind running through a tunnel.  I did wonder what the monkeys on Fernando’s farm were trying to tell us – was it a greeting or more of a warning to tell us to get out of their territory? I’m guessing the latter – that’s what it sounded like. I hope we didn’t stress them out too much, but living next to a farm, they have to be pretty used to interactions with humans.

 

Nature reserve photos

Mario tells us how the tree roots buttress out above ground because the tropical soil is so shallow.

Mario tells us how the tree roots buttress out above ground because the tropical soil is so shallow.

 

Rubber trees still bear scars from being cut in years past.

Rubber trees still bear scars from being cut in years past.

 

Crossing a rickety bridge on our nature hike.

Crossing a rickety bridge on our nature hike.

 

Vines hang from a tall tree in the nature reserve.

Vines hang from a tall tree in the nature reserve.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Banana tour photos

Banana are covered with treated plastic to ward off insects.

Banana are covered with treated plastic to ward off insects.

 

Banana bunches come into the shipping facility

Banana bunches come into the shipping facility

 

Workers check the bananas as they come in.

Workers check the bananas as they come in.

 

First stop for the bananas is a bath.

First stop for the bananas is a bath.

 

Workers put clean bananas on a conveyer belt to be packaged.

Workers put clean bananas on a conveyer belt to be packaged.

 

Bananas go into shipping boxes.

Bananas go into shipping boxes.

 

Bananas labeled for sale at Whole Foods.

Banana labeled for sale at Whole Foods.

 

Earth University bananas for sale at Whole Foods on Lane Avenue in Columbus.

Earth University bananas for sale at the Whole Foods in Columbus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Home stay photos

Riding a horse at Laureles Farm.

Riding a horse at Laureles Farm.

The vegetable garden at Laureles Farm.  Most meals featured  food that went directly from garden to plate.

The vegetable garden at Laureles Farm. Most meals had food that went directly from garden to plate.

A very friendly turkey at Laureles Farm - he followed us everywhere.

A very friendly turkey at Laureles Farm – he followed us everywhere.

Path through Laureles Farm.

Path through Laureles Farm.

Steps through the woods to get to the cattle area.

Steps through the woods to get to the cattle area.

Cattle graze on a mountainside at Laureles Farm.

Cattle graze on a mountainside at Laureles Farm.

Curious cattle come up to see us.

Curious cattle come up to see us.