WHATTSUP BAY AREA!!!!

Today we woke up to a beautiful sunny day with the birds and insects chirping outside. With the topic being conservation & environmental justice, we were extra attentive to our surroundings and the beauty Costa Rica holds. Gazing off into the distance, you can see the Turrialba Volcano, covered in white fluffy clouds against the green luscious hills. The sunlight permeated the leaves, and the water from yesterdays rain made everything shimmer (The pool was filled with rain water!). We started off the day with a mindful stretch and warm up to energize us with the essence nature holds, which is important for our topic on environmental justice. Being aware of the nature that surrounds us, really helped paint the identity of Costa Rica. We got to know each other a bit more by playing a quick game called “I like my neighbor who _____” which involved moving around a circle by sharing something you like. It was pretty fun until Clark decided to test the boundaries of the rules by making everyone except him scramble over and over again. Anyways…. we prepared for our CAP (Community Action Project) by giving a quick overview of what it would entail, which is redoing a school. We divided up into groups based on what part of the school we wanted to work on and made a poster detailing our plans for the following 3 CAP days. After that we had free time, and of which I was able to test out the pool rain water which was very relaxing with the bright sun shining on my skin. But little did we know that this beautiful sunny day would eventually turn into a stormy mess…

Anyways (pt. 2 the electric boogaloo)! In preparation for our guest speaker, we watched a documentary that showed the effects of tourism in Costa Rica. The film followed the development of huge 5 star hotels that are taking over the coast of Costa Rica. The consequences of the massive infrastructures lining the beaches is not only affecting the wildlife, but its also affecting the locals that lives around the area. The mass tourism that started in the 80s can be harmful for the natural rhythms of nature and takes away from local resources such as the access to water. Pipelines were prioritized to provide water to the hundreds of rooms within these hotels instead of the local communities  that not only rely on the water to survive, but have lived on the lands for many years without disruption. In addition, large amounts of land, filled with a variety of lifeforms, were cleared to make space for these gigantic business ventures. We ended the documentary with a big question in our heads, “How much can people sacrifice before profits overpower culture and detrimentally effects the identity of the land?”

The documentary helped us transition into welcoming our guest speaker Andrés Rodolfo (Better known as Fofo!). He graduated from the local university in Turrialba and got his masters at CATI majoring in environmental management and ecotourism. The qualifications he had made him a bit scary at first, but we quickly warmed up to his enthusiastic nature and clever quips. Andrés introduced to us the idea of environmental justice which in short means “fair treatment and meaningful involvement of ALL people regardless of origin and circumstance from being exploited by huge cooperations”. This is important because many locals in Costa Rica have been overshadowed by large hotel chains, with their voices and problems being ignored for profit. He also shared about the importance Costa Rica has in the worlds biodiversity. For instance, Costa Rica contains the densest amount of biodiversity in the world! Which means it is suuuper rich and veeeerrry fragile. This is why it is important to conserve and protect the biodiversity as well as the people who are living with the land (who are not treating it as a commodity).

Eventually he brought up a very important thing, Article 50. Article 50 guarantees that people have a fair voice in the governments decision and grants them the right to clean water. So… with that in mind, Fofo got us to do a mock court decision on whether a 5 Star Luxury hotel should be permitted to build on the land that a local community already inhabits. Ironically, us as the leaders of the day, were randomly chosen to both be in a group advocating for the construction of the large 500 room luxurious grand tropical hotel resort (AAAHHH!). We actually did end up winning, however, the conditions were instead of having a huge hotel, we would be permitted to have a 25 room hostel. So, did we win?!?!

Finally, it started raining cats and dogs, after our villainous win of developing a tourist spot on fragile land. We then proceeded to start our phone call homes to yes you guessed it, to you guys reading this! Some of us weren’t able to make the calls tonight, but will do that tomorrow instead! After that, we finished the day with some soothing chicken noodle soup, filling our bellies with warmth and nourishment. The lightening and THUNDER haunted us until the stars came out.

THE ENDDDDD