Back to the land of constant A/C

SThe past 10 days have been absolutely fantastic, I have thoroughly please with both the people and the experience. 

I learned so much this week about free trade and duty free business as well as issues such as sustainable energy and agriculture and have retained so many facts about sloths and their behavior. It was fascinating that a country as small as Virginia could encompass a rainforest, a dry forest, volcanoes and beaches within its boarders. 

Costa Rica has also made me appreciate the little things that America has to offer like constant air conditioning and being able to flush toilet paper.  However it made me realize how depended I was on my cell phone and how much I was missing constantly attached to it. 

Even though we saw and did so many fun and interesting things, I think what I am going to miss most about Costa Rica is the wonderful people I got to see and spend time with everyday. I hope we continue to remain close and live life Pura Vida style! 

And the thunder rolls

Today was another extremely busy day, we visited 3 companies, 2 American and one Costa Rican. Both Boston Scientific and Semtec are American companies who are located in business duty free industrial parks. The benefit of this is that the companies are able to import and export without cost or tax. The negative to this is that it comes with strings attached, such as the company makes promises to the community by employing a certain percentage of their employees. 

The first tour was Boston Scientific Industrial Plant where they assemble minimally invasive surgical equipment, 90% of which is used in the United States. Our next stop was the Costa Rican souvenir manufacture, which is the largest manufacturer and provides 70% of all central Americas souvenirs. This was the most interesting part of the day for me, it was very interesting how different the safety standees were from the Americans companies to the Costa Rican. In the souvenir plant, the workers worked very closely with drills, and we were even allowed to walk I between the ire stations. When we visited the other companies we had to stay on a certain path and wear safety goggles. 

After lunch we headed to Semtec, which creates the electronic components. Just like Boston scientific, Semtec is headquartered in Indiana.  In 2006 they created the plant in Costa Rica, which became wildly successful. Both of the American companies offered amazing benefits to their employees, healthcare (you receive free health care in Costa Rica if you work and contribute to society, U.S. Should adopt this) free transportation, doctors on site. Banks on site, free cafeteria and free gym and work out classes. 

After all that excitement, we went to down town San Jose where we saw their market and road of store after store.

Dramamine or bust

Today was a very busy day, we started out with breakfast at earth university and headed to turrialba to visit Assukkar sugar cane and macadamia nut plantation.

The Assukkar plantation had the most beautiful scenery I think we've seen so far.  It even houses s quaint little church that is still used on special occasions today. The church doesn't have electricity and was relocated from the middle of the town when they build a newer, larger church in its place. 

After enjoying the scenery we explored the process of planing and harvesting the macadamia nut.  Every tree is a male tree, which frowns very large and bears minimal amount of nuts, in contrast, the female tree is small in stature and is plentiful, by grafting a female branch into the male trees they can create a medium size tree that produces a lot of nuts. One worker can gather 40-50 baskets of nuts a day, each basket is worth 500 colones. The process between the nuts being picked and elated is extensive and involves several instances of removing the humidity from the nut before the second shell can be removed to finally extract what we know as the macadamia nut.  Due to the high demand of the nut, and the low cost, one huge bucket of nuts only sells for 500 colons, or $1, they choose to send the nut, when it is stripped of its first layer and sorted to a processing plant which continues to dehydrate the nut until it can be extracted. 

Next we enjoyed beverages overlooking the scenic view. We were at such a high elevation that we were in the clouds.  We were offered a drink made of sugar cane juice and coffee.  For the coffee, they had a brown granulated sugar, which looks like the unprocessed sugar from the mills in Louisiana, but it had a different flavor to it. It was delicious!  Unfortunately we weren't able to tour the sugar cane plant, but we did get to taste and learn about it. This is one of only two companies that have figured out how to manufacture the sugar organically.  I found it extremely interesting that they don't sell their sugar directly to the consumer, but sell to other companies who package it in their brand. For example, Assukkar sells to an American company called Wholesome and package the sugar under the name organic sucanat (which can be found at whole foods) 

Vitec video com was our next stop, whey manufacture high quality camera accessories such as tripods and heads.  All Vitec products are handmade and high quality. One of their tripods retailed at $800 (and that wasn't the most expensive one). The reason they are so expensive is that all products are handmade, made of high quality products and are used professional photographers and videographers. One of their most expensive tripod heads costs around $20,000 and takes over 7 hours to make. Vitec does t use automated machines to create their products but instead chooses to assemble by hand because the demand is low for such high quality and expensive products.the low demand allow them to have low production at a high margin.

Lastly we quickly viewed Cartago Basilica where we learned that the church was formed around the rock of the Virgin Mary, which is still housed in the alter today. We encountered people from Venezuela who were collecting water from the blessed fountain in hopes that their government would change from the dictator like system. 

Massage envy

DThis morning we woke up early to have breakfast at earth university's cafeteria.  I think we have had rice and beans (which is delicious) at almost every meal. After lunch we watched a short video on earth university before heading to the banana field.

During the presentation we learned that  earth has a lot of connections to the United States. 95% of earths banana exports go to whole floods, their main founder is Kellogg. Also there was a student a few years ago who visited from Nicholls who passes away, when the professor from Nicholls came back they donated $250 to the university and they plant a tree in that persons honor. There are 1200 applicants a year, and only 100 people are accepted, they look for leaders and agents of change. Students are from over 30 different countries.  One of the most interesting and exciting aspects of earth university is the fact that their pride themselves on their ethical practices and teaching.  Most of the students here come from their world countries and  small villages where I would suspect their country is built on a corrupt government or police force.  I wish this is something everyone in the world could learn more about,especially American government and businesses. 

Next we went to the banana fields and plant where we were able to see the whole process from herb to box. It was very interesting to see how fast the factory workers were, especially since they are only paid $120 a year. (All of the bandanas were marked with whole foods stickers) 

Next we went to the livestock integrated farm, where students learned how to grow plants and vegetables without soil and with using recycled materials such as bottles, tires and bags.  Instead of soil they are able to give nutrients to the plants with a combination of charcoal, coconut fibers and rice husks.

 This is élan Élan, the main ingredient in Chanel no. 5

Lastly we went to the live stock area were they took cow and pig manure to create methane gas for cooking and use California red worms to convert it to compost soil.  We also cracked open a coco plant and ate it, it looked disgusting (Fernando called it monkey brains) but it was very sweet. (They use the fermented juice in the seeds to create cocoa) 

We also found s cashew plant, apparently the interior is toxic, so when the nut is extracted you have to be very careful, which is why it's an expensive nut.

Lastly, I had s massage, it was amazing and much needed! On the way back from the massage, Camille and I ran across 5baby armadillo. 

The hike

At breakfast this morning at the El Encanto, we were able to see s sloth crawling on the power lines right outside the hotel!! It was a perfect start to the morning! 

Today we went on a hike through the jungle at cahuita national park, it was amazing.  We got to walk with the jungle on our right and the ocean on our left.  We encountered 3 golden eyelash vipers, one sloth, several crabs, hermit crabs, lizards, and a few birds.     

We estimated the hike to be about 6 miles, some of us earned walking wounds and wet feet. I was lucky enough to have Rebecca give me a piggy back ride over the water. At one point in our hike we were joined by a park guide, who had amazing eyes and was about to point out the camouflaged animals. 

After our amazing hike, we went to the city of limon, where Fernando gave us some history of Costa Rica and Christopher Columbus's first landing.  One of the most interesting thing about limon was the difference from San Jose, in comparison it has a lot more crime, due to the port of limon bringing in drugs.  Also, it has a lower education rate and higher poverty rate.  When I asked Fernando about the government, he said it was corrupt in limon, currently they are having a problem with the their governor and missing money.

Day 2 - all about the sloths

We left San Jose today for a 3 hour, twisty bus ride through the volcanic mountains to the Caribbean side to brauillo national park where we went to the sloth sanctuary.  Protecting Costa Rican wildlife is important to the economy here mainly for tourism.  Tourism is responsible for 60% of Costa Rican GDP. 

Along the way to the Caribbean side, we stopped at a fruit stand and were able to try many different types of fruits. The only one I recognized was the pineapple and mango.  We tried 3 others, which were delicious but had interesting textures for fruit. One had s huge pit and you had to suck the fruit from it, another was salty and had a dry stringy texture, and the last was goofy with a bunch of little seeds (horrible looking but delicious). 

The sloth sanctuary relies heavily on donations and tours to continue their research and  preservation of the sloths.  Sloths that are orphaned are unable to be reintroduced into the wild due to lack of survival knowledge not obtained from their mothers. 

Sloth facts:

- they are 100% effective at procreating, it only takes 40 seconds and a pregnancy duration is 11 months and 2 weeks.

- there are2 types of sloths in Costa Rica, 2 fingered and 3 fingered which can be distinguished by their faces. 2 fingered have pig faces and 3 fingered have raccoon like faces.

- they move slow to preserve energy, but can move very quickly when they need to breed or escape danger. 

- sloths have 4 stomached, food spend a week in each stomach so they only use the bathroom once a month.  They climb from their tree, use the bathroom and bury it, which also marks that tree has "taken" to the other sloths.

-sloths are solitary animals, and only stay with their mother for a year to learn how to survive. However, if it is time to breed, a sloth will not breed with its mother, it will be able to recognize her for its lifetime, which is usually 25-40 years for a 2 finger sloth and unknown for a 3 finger sloth. 

 Sloth selfie with spirit.

 This is Millie.

Visit Costa Rica- San Jose

Day 1.  We arrived around 11, Costa Rica is in the same time zone as Louisiana, but doesn't participate  in daylight savings. Our hotel is in a wonderful location where we were able to walk with our tour guide Fernando, who is very sarcastic and knowledgeable, to a local diner called Soda Tapia. They served "American food", with a twist. The burgers had beans and ham (according to Alex, making it an actual HAMburger). One great thing is you can pay in American dollars and they will give you change in colones.  Colones are very brightly colored and beautiful bills.

After lunch we went to the convent store to get Costa Rican snacks, Plantan chips with lemon and salt are actually delicious. Fernando told us Costa Rica has amazing coffee and fruits, especially pineapples, my goal is to try as many new things as possible and soak up as much culture as I can.

Tomorrow we visit the sloth sanctuary!!!