Thoughts on Costa Rica

So, I've been thinking alot about the situation here in Costa Rica. Before I came here, I thought Costa Rica would be a supreme example of sustainable development and conservation. Unfortunately, Costa Rica (and especially San José and it's surroundings) are far from environmentally friendly. When walking to school, for example, I feel suffocated by all the pollution from the many cars and buses. I feel I'm breathing more air pollution on the streets of Curridabat than I did while in New York City! It's very disappointing. Not to mention that the vast majority of towns do not treat their grey water (soapy water from sinks, showers, washing machines, etc.). It's terrible! All of it runs into these huge gulleys in the streets and eventually ends up in streams and rivers surrounding the town.

Yesterday we sampled insects from a creek upstream of a village and downstream. It was incredible how different the number of species and types of insects we found were!

At the upstream site, we found lots of insects and crustaceans such as pill bugs, crabs, and grubs. At the downstream site, we only found a ton of leeches, snails, and larvae for insects like mosquitoes. It was quite depressing. Not to mention all of the trash we found at the downstream site. The water was so murky and disgusting too! We even found a dead cat! Yuck. You could see the tubes where the grey water was pouring into the creek.

Not only is there garbage in creeks, but also in the streets. There are no public trash containers. Also, there's absolutely no recycling that I've seen besides at ICADS and Selvatura (at Monteverde). How can a country so focused on conservation not have a proper recycling system? The urban planning here, in general, is horrible. The streets are always packed with cars. Have I mentioned that San José is the vehicle accident capital of the world? I've nearly been here quite a few times. People are insane here! Yesterday there was a crash literally right outside my house. I don't think anyone was hurt, thank goodness.

Anyway, I'm disappointed with the urban planning in these communities. It's too bad they didn't think ahead and plan appropriately. It's going to be much harder to change things now that they are already in place.

This isn't to say that Costa Rica isn't very far ahead of many places, especially in Latin America. They have a great parks system in comparison with many places. They also use hydropower, wind generated power, and geothermal power for the vast majority of their electricity needs. I was just disillusioned about the general sustainability of Costa Rica.

Phew! Enough ranting, I guess.

So, my first field trip with the class was yesterday when we sampled the insects at the creek. It was fun being out in the field and doing hands on stuff. Besides that, this week hasn't been terribly exciting. I went to another dance class on Tuesday, so that was fun. I'm going again tonight. Today we has a Fiesta de Las Frutas with all of ICADS. It was really fun and delicious! We tasted fruits and learned their names. I had a Spanish exam today too, which went alright.

Tomorrow we're leaving for the Talamanca Mountains until Saturday. We're going to visit blackberry farms and sustainable logging farms. I'll update more when I get back.

Ciao!