Tortuguero: A Costa Rica Must See

Note: I recommend reading this blog post via the website and not by email as the many pictures and video (don't miss the video if you have time to view) may not appear in your email.  http://peacecorpscr.blogspot.com/

This last weekend we took the opportunity to travel to Tortuguero, which is located in the northeastern corner of the Province of Limón.  So far, our excursion there has been the highlight of our time in Costa Rica as we were able to see the nesting of the Green Sea Turtle and also watched a baby Green turtle, just newly hatched, struggle to finally meet the ocean (see video below).

The town of Tortuguero is located on the outskirts of the Tortuguero National Park (Parque Nacional Tortuguero) which is a prime location to watch turtles nesting on the beach.  Of the turtles that nest in this location, you can see Hawksbills, Loggerheads, Green and Leatherbacks, many of which are endangered.  The nesting season for the following turtles is from mid-February to the end of September, depending on the species with the highest population of turtles, mostly Green Turtles, arriving in the month of August and the beginning of September.

The town of Tortuguero, population 2000 (rough local estimate), is situated with the Atlantic Ocean on its eastern end with a long, flat and wide beach that stretches for miles in both the northern and southern direction.  The western end of the town is bordered by a river which connects with a series of canals, some natural and others manmade.  Some of those that are manmade were constructed so as to float timber down the river as transporting logs over the marshy, swampy terrain would be impossible.  (See history of Tortuguero: http://www.tortuguerovillage.com/english/history.htm)

As the town is only accessible by boat or plane, the town does not have any cars and the houses that are scattered throughout the village are connected mainly by meandering dirt paths which weave their way throughout the village which gives the town a very quaint and leisurely feel.  The center of town is the dock where you can find two supermarkets, a number of sodas or restaurants and a few cabins.  The “main street” of Tortuguero runs parallel to the river and perpendicular to the dock, with the northern half consisting of a paved sidewalk (not unsurprisingly, the majority of the upscale souvenir shops, jewelry stores and restaurants are located on this end).  The northern end of this walkway leads to the regionally famous Afro-Caribbean restaurant, Miss Junie’s.

The animal life that can be found in the park include manatees, as well as caimans, crocodiles as well as numerous fish. The forests are home to jaguars, three-toed sloths, and three of Costa Rica's four species of monkey: Geoffroy's Spider Monkey, the Mantled Howler, and the White-headed Capuchin. Basilisk lizards and poisonous frogs also inhabit the area, along with 375 species of birds, including kingfishers, toucans, blue herons, peacocks, and parrots. There are more than 400 species of trees and approximately 2,200 species of other plants.

Of the above, we were able to see Howler Monkeys, Spider Monkeys, White-headed Capuchins, Basilisk lizards, toucans, caiman, an anteater and kingfishers among others during a canal tour we took the morning of September 3^rd.

However, the real reason we came was to see the Green sea turtle nesting.  We took a night tour on September 3^rd from 10 pm – 12 am where we were able to see the four stages of turtles nesting, laying eggs, cover, camouflage and return to the ocean.  We were not allowed to take any lights nor take pictures during the tour so as not to scare the turtles during this very critical time.  The only way to see the turtles was by infrared light and this was only to be shone from behind by the guides or turtles spotters.  It was really hard to comprehend the turtle's immensity (a mature adult weighs between 250-420 lbs!) and the struggles that the turtles must go through to lay their eggs.  Our guide told us that only 1 turtle out of a 2000 eggs would ever survive to come back to nest after 35 years.

Some other interesting facts:

-Each Green Turtle lays between 100-200 per nest.

-A green turtle can live up to 80 years in the wild.

-Sea turtles mate between 2 and 4 years (on average they nest every 3 years).

-Mating season for Green Sea Turtle is from June to September.

-After 45-75 days the turtles hatch at night and instinctively head for the beach which is the most dangerous time of their life.

Needless to say, I highly recommend visiting Tortuguero should you have a chance to visit Costa Rica.

Our First (Unwanted) Houseguest

We heard a rustling in the plastic bags in the room adjacent to our bedroom. Since we're used to critters in our quarters, we dismissed this sound as most likely that of the geckos which traverse our walls and ceiling, but usually for a quick pass to see what kind of morsel, moth, “zancudo” (mosquito) or other bicho it might be able to capture with its flitting tongue.  We love the geckos because they help keep our room less infested and other than leaving little defecations that appear like rat droppings, they are completely harmless.  We’ve even taken to watching them, staring at the ceiling during the evening (remember, no TV) and placing bets on whether they’ll be able to catch such-and-such bicho.

The next evening Melinda happened to wake up at night to go to the bathroom and was startled to find a toad hopping diagonally across the floor.  She called me and even though we’d been in site for a couple of months at this time, I didn’t dare try to pick it up with my hands although I’ve since seen ticos do this.  I grabbed an empty ice cream container which I had saved to store “chunches” (various random things) and used it to trap the toad like a glass trapping a firefly against the floor, and gently slid the top underneath to seal it.  I then punched a couple of holes in the lid so that it could breath.

I let our host mother know of our unwanted house guest and she recommended that I take the toad far from the house or it was bound to return.  I figured this was nonsense, but followed her directions nonetheless and took the ice cream container with toad in tote next door and liberated it into the drainage ditch where I figured it would find more fitting to its domiciliary preference.

The next evening we heard another rustling in the corner of our room in the area where we store our plastic bags to re-use and low and behold when I moved our bike helmets, the little toad was huddled up in the corner again, appearing vulnerable yet shameless.  I repeated the steps I took to entrap the little nuisance the first time in the ice cream container and set out to take it further from the house, thinking it must know the neighborhood, but certainly wouldn’t be able to find its way back to our room from a little further down the street.  I deposited our little uninvited guest just inside the small “bananera" (banana plantation) down the road a little farther from where we lived, thinking we must have seen the last of him.

Low and behold the fifth morning we happened to hear a noise from the corner of our room and somehow the pest had found its way back inside.  I thought of the “dicho” (or saying) that declares  that “guests are like fish, after three days they start to stink” and this was indeed the case in our situation.  As it was the morning and we were busy getting ready to sit down to eat, I left the trapped frog in the ice cream container on the edge of the counter next to the sink, with a book on top, just in case the toad had enough force behind his little legs to force the lid off his pint-sized prison.  My thought is that after breakfast I would take him across town with me to where I work and let him off in the grounds there.  Surely he wouldn’t find his way back this time!

However, given my rush to eat, get through the shower and eat, I forgot to bring the toad with me.  It was a sweltering day both outside and inside our humble, two bedroom living space.  I passed the entire day at work without a single thought about the prisoner who was now facing cruel and unusual punishment baking inside a poorly ventilated ice cream chamber, inside a larger poorly ventilated room.  At 4 pm it was time to start our English class with several youngsters in our neighborhood when I recognized my error.  Was our poor toad lying dead, either baked to death by the sun, or suffocating from lack of oxygen?  When I opened the door, removed the book and opened the lid, the reality was that he was alive, but close to suffocating in its own waste as he had soiled himself several times over.  Was I now a torturer of defenseless animals I wondered?  What right did I have to entrap him, wasn’t the house built on what was probably the homes of his ancestors?  As a pacifist, I was having a hard time reconciling my negligence with the cruelty in which it was cast upon this poor creature.

I looked around the room to see if I could spot the hole from which this animal must have entered the room.  Searching diligently, I found a small hole below the sink where the pipes entered which must have been his point of entry.  I stuffed the entryway with a cloth shoe protector and headed off to unshackle our pitiable, prisoner of war walking nearly a quarter of a mile from our house and set it free well off the side of the road in an abandoned lot.  I tried hard to free my mind of the torture that I had bestowed upon our unsuspecting boarder.  Was it necessary to rendition and torture this little animal to keep it from pushing itself on us?  What were its motives for returning: was it greed, curiosity, spite or sense of belonging that it was searching for?

I’m not sure whether it was from the maltreatment or for the fact that we covered his tunnel of ingress, but we haven’t seen the toad in our room since.  In the days subsequently, I have found ways to sooth my troubled spirit and only occasionally have had dreams of the crazy, foaming mouthed toad wreaking horrible revenge on both Melinda and I.  I only now feel a soft sting of guilt every time we see a toad after a long, hard rain.

Tico Time or My Least Favorite Tico Word: Ahorita

One of the core requirements when going through Peace Corps training was learning to cope with cultural adjustment.  We were warned about what they refer to as "tico time" and that you can expect when a meeting is scheduled for 2 pm that if you are lucky it will start at 2:30 pm, but more likely at 3 pm and that presupposes that people actually show up.  As a North American, or more generally we're referred to as "gringo" here, this is one of the most frustrating cultural adjustments that we have to make. 

I've heard that the cultural reason behind "tico time" is that ticos place more importance on relationships than they do on being on time.  So, if you're a tico and you're hanging out with your brother and it is 2:30 pm and you're supposed to be at someone's house at 3:00 pm and it takes you 30 minutes to drive there, but your brother asks you to stay longer for a cafecito (coffee break or literally "little coffee"), who are you to say no.  Meanwhile, your community development meeting is supposed to happen at 3:00 pm and the first person shows up at 3:30 pm and 2 others trickle in.  They call you at 4 pm, but cafecito is still happening and you say, sure, you'll be there ahorita (meaning soonish or sometimes, never).  After 1 1/2 hours of waiting around with the 3 members of the community development leadership and making several calls to see if you can get just one more member to show up, as they need 4 to make a quorum, they decide to cancel the meeting having wasted nearly 4 1/2 hours of cumulative time.  Now, I'm generally pretty tolerant of many cultural differences, and believe that a lot of time my culture is too focused on time (or lack thereof) and we end up running around exhausting ourselves all day like chickens with our heads cut off.  However, not showing up to a meeting after given a 1 1/2 hour window opportunity is just plain selfish.  It is placing value on your time above the collective time of others.

I also do not buy the cultural argument about placing more value on relationships than other cultures.  Sure, there is probably some truth to that.  However, when we called the treasurer to the community development association to come to the meeting after waiting for an hour and a half, he was sitting at home doing nothing.  He was sitting there waiting for someone else to show up.  Nor did he call to give an expectation that he would not show up and even if he did you could not necessarily count on his ahorita.

Another cultural phenomena that factors into this is that ticos do not like to say no.  So, if they can't or just don't want to show up, they just don't do it.  When you confront them, they say yes or maybe when they really mean no or most likely not.  This method of functioning is supposedly a way of saving face as ticos try everything they can do to avoid conflict.  It is one big passive agressive society.  So, imagine you have a passive aggressive grandparent, child, mother-in-law or parent that just drives you nuts and multiply that by 4 million and there you have Costa Rica.

Obviously, I exaggerate, but honestly not very much.  This cultural phenomena has many serious implications; important projects are delayed for weeks, months and even years (or they just never get done) and it saps the motivation of the groups performing community development and other important work.  My hypothesis about tico time is that it has grown out of habit, that in the past there was not reliable transportation and therefore, meetings were cancelled and or never happened at all.  I believe that climate also has a factor here as when it rains it makes journeys difficult and sometimes impossible so you have to be a lot more flexible with time.  I have to admit also that somedays it is so hot here, I want to sit around here and do nothing except watch and feel my brain slowly melt to the ground.  Whereas, you cannot change the weather, transportation has improved dramatically and is no longer an excuse for being late or not showing up.  I do have to give it to ticos for their patience and there flexibility though, because if it was up to me, I would have given up a long time ago.

Green and black poison dart frog found in our yard: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_and_Black_Poison_Dart_Frog

What I believe is a collared aracari found in our front yard: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collared_Aracari

Stop, Still and Listen: Reflections on Time

Time passes much more slowly here, the sounds of raindrops and the calls of birds fill the empty spaces.  A howler monkey growls in the far distance signaling the dawn.  The neighborhood stray dogs bark at the farmer and his dog as they pass by our house on his way out to his farm breaking the morning calm.  This morning we woke up and heard the ocean from our room even though we are probably about a half kilometer from the beach.  All of the daily sounds take on more significance in the “silence”, the bed creaks, our host mother clears her throat in the room next to us, a squeaky gate is closed in the house across the street, and the rhythmic sound of footsteps on the unpaved road appear slowly and then gently fade into the distance.

Here we have no TV, we don’t listen to radio, and our town has no movie theater or other type of diversion which are common in the States.  We don’t have internet in our house, although there are two internet cafés in town, one of which we visit about once a week.   Occasionally we’ll watch a movie which we’ve downloaded to a portable hard drive to entertain ourselves, producing a gentle nostalgia of the lives that we left before we came to Costa Rica.  And in between our daily actions as time passes with the slow movement of a cloud, we listen: a rooster crows, wind tenderly kisses a curtain, a cricket hums, the sound of thunder rumbles in the distance, a pan clatters against the kitchen sink.

In the sounds of the day we hear joy and we hear sadness and all that falls in-between, as people go along in their daily lives.  Time passes, life moves on.  And in the world, all of these sounds amass to create a grand symphony, ever-changing.  Someone is born, another dies.  A car passes a church on the highway as a congregation sings a hymn.  Right now someone is starving; another is listening to the sounds of jet engines on his way on vacation.  Wars rage in distant lands as firecrackers are lit to celebrate someone’s birthday.  A child kisses her mother, a baby coos, a grandfather laughs, a cat purrs.

And, here I sit in my room on my bed, a small speck of sediment making its way from the swift river to the big wide ocean.  How and where and what will be my destination, where will I settle when the waters deposit me on the shores of time.  I am trying to follow this course without fighting it, allowing the river to take me where it wants to, and listening to the sounds to give me guidance.

  Who needs a hammock?

Live Like a Peace Corps Volunteer in Costa Rica!

Had to re-post this link which we received from the Costa Rica office.  It is a funny, but also describes some of the daily challenges and cultural differences we have as volunteers here in Costa Rica.  Have fun playing "Live Like a Peace Corps Volunteer in Costa Rica!"

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B2YDS7Pm6kwEMjkyYThmOGYtMWEyMS00MzkzLWIyYjgtNTNkZWE1Njg2OWRj&hl=en_US&pli=1

If you want to see what is is like to be a Peace Corps volunteer in other countries, check this link out.

http://www.livelikeapcv.org/

Managing Solid Waste - Something Which We All Take For Granted

One of the direst environmental issues here is the crisis that Costa Rica has with dealing with solid waste (as well as many other developing nations).  They don't refer to what we throw away in our garbage cans as garbage, but "residúos solidos" because the majority of the things we throw in the trash are actually not trash, but can be recycled or reused.  In fact, only 7% of what would traditionally be called "trash" is actually trash.  On top of that approximately 58% of that "trash" is actually biodegradable and is taking up space in trash cans (or "basureros"), attracts all kinds of animals and "bichos", brings with it diseases in addition to it literally just doesn't smell good.

 
Before coming to Costa Rica, I didn't really think too much about trash and how it is managed in our country.  We separate our recyclables (and at my former job our compostables) and put our waste in plastic bags and off it goes every so often with guys that come by in the garbage truck early in the morning and wake us all up with the sounds they make.  But where does all of this go?  Where is the closest landfill to where we live?  And how much of that trash is really garbage and how long does it take for specific types of materials to decompose?

In Costa Rica they have a decentralized system for treating solid waste which is handled at the municipality level.  Therefore, if there are 82 municipalities in Costa Rica you have 82 different ways of managing the solid waste that accumulates at an alarming rate day by day.  Supposedly, although I have not read it and couldn't find it online by a simple search, there is a law that orders municipalities in Costa Rica to take care of solid waste within their regions in an orderly, regular and healthy manner.  However, in my experience here in Costa Rica, it is obvious that this is not happening and that there is no accountability to require that this occurs or to punish those municipalities which are not making it a priority to deal with this issue (nor is there sufficient money given to the municipalities to tackle this mounting issue).

In many rural communities here the municipalities do not have a method for picking up trash.  In fact, only 75% of the country is covered by some method of collecting trash.  The other 25% of the communities have two options: throw the trash in vacant lots or burn it, both with obvious terrible effects for the environment.  Out of the countries municipalities only 34% have sanitary landfills to deposit trash and out of those only 5 of them operate legally and out of those only 1 is operated by a municipality.

In Talamanca, we do have trash collection at the municipality level and the trash is transported over an hour north to a landfill in Limón.  However, the issue with the garbage collection is that the service is not regular leaving garbage to sit out on the banks of the streets and allowing stray dogs to break open the bags, scattering trash everywhere in search of food.  And despite the fact there is trash pick-up many people still burn their garbage.

Littering here is also a cultural habit that is passed down from parents to their children.  I was told one time that in the past here everyone used to litter, but that was when the majority of what was thrown on the ground was organic and decomposed.  As the years passed and the people here began buying their food in plastic containers, it didn’t register that the plastic that they were throwing on the side of the road would not decompose for at least 500 years.  Another issue here that I wouldn’t have thought about previously is that the trash that collects on the side of roads and in people’s yards accumulates water which then become nesting grounds for mosquitoes which carry and spread dengue of which there has been a recent outbreak in this area.  It also has a devastating effect on the animals that happen to consume this garbage as they think it is food; oftentimes dying of hunger because their stomachs are filled with plastic and they cannot each anything.    

Additionally, Costa Rica has lacked education about the effects of this ever-accumulating trash and lacks the institutional and financial means to tackle this issue which, before coming to Costa Rica, I took for granted in the United States.  For instance, what is plastic made from (answer: petroleum – another reason to not use plastic as it helps to encourage wars in oil-producing nations).  Were you aware of the big floating garbage “soup” in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that is said to be twice the size the state of Texas?  See link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch.  If we don’t act soon (meaning NOW), we’re really going to be doing some irreversible damage, if it hasn’t been done already.  

My municipality, although it lacks the coordination for regular trash pick-up does have a nascent system for recycling among mainly large and small businesses in the area and is an example to many other communities and municipalities in Costa Rica.  In fact, they are able to recycle many things which in the States I would throw away and which is considered (as far as I know) non-recyclable like the chips wrappers and what they call “tetrabrik” or “tetrapak” which are the milk and juice cartons which are composed of cardboard, aluminum and plastic.  However, they still lack a system for domestic recycling which is one of my project goals here for the next two weeks.

So, when I go to the local supermarket, Palí, to buy a soda or buy some chips, I am much more likely to refuse those that contain plastic and am especially careful of such wasteful items such as Styrofoam.  I encourage all of you who are not already doing so to reuse and recycle.  And for those of you who are already doing that I encourage you to think about the cycle of waste and to think about reducing or rejecting (the cornerstones of the 4 R’s: Rethink/Reject, Reduce, Reuse & Recycle).

As for me, when I return to the States I’m going to question more the consumption which leads to what I would call a disease, because in the end, it is making us all sick.

Directions “a la Tica” or How I Got Lost Before I Found Myself in Costa Rica

If you’ve ever been to Costa Rica and tried to get around San Jose as a foreigner you were probably surprised to discover the lack of street signs and the confusing manner in which “Ticos” (as Costa Ricans call themselves) give directions.  For instance, if I want to go from the Parque Central (Central Park) to the Mercado Central (Central Market) the directions might be: From the northwest corner of the park, walk 200 meters (100 meters = one block) west and 100 meters north and you will find the entrance on your left-hand side.

If you don’t happen to know that 100 meters roughly equals a block, independent of how long the block is, nor have an internal compass or don’t know certain points of reference, then you are going to find it very difficult to get around Costa Rica.  Although the streets do have names, hardly anyone knows them with the exception of perhaps Paseo Colón / Avenida Central.  Nor do the majority of the streets have street signs to give you any point of reference.  To top it off, people who live in San Jose are generally lousy at giving directions.  Ticos also happen to make references to places that no longer exist.  For instance, you might hear one say “…and make a left at the old Coca Cola bottling factory” which hasn’t existed for a long time or that you’ve “…gone too far if you reach the old tree that no longer exists because it fell down last year during a major storm.”

Houses, at least in rural towns in Costa Rica, do not have address numbers and are differentiated by their color, the color of their gate, a particular plant or tree that might be planted in their yard, the number of floors or the style of roof that it may have.  For instance if you want to get to your friend’s house, you might hear the following directions: Walk up the hill 800 meters until you find the house with the white and blue gate and the palm tree which was struck by lightning last year.

This cultural difference in defining points of reference and giving directions highlights the difference in development between Costa Rica and the United States.  Although Costa Rica is a well-developed country in many manners, and certainly superior to the United States in many social and political aspects (for instance, Costa Rica has no standing army and has not had a war since a short Civil War in 1948) this is one striking example of infrastructural development that we take for granted in the United States. 

I believe that this lack of a simple system for orientation is a result of rapid development without proper planning which oftentimes occurs in the need to catch up with the countries and economies of more industrialized, developed nations.  It also is an example of one of many inefficiencies which can make certain supposedly simple pieces of business much more difficult here (another example of development that we also take for granted is an organized and efficient system for collection of garbage and recycling which I will touch on in another blog post).

During my first four months here, I’ve learned to take and give directions “a la Tica” and come to know and appreciate a lot which we take for granted back home.  I’ve also realized that development takes patience, and is a never-ending but potentially rewarding process.   Furthermore we cannot cast a critical eye on the development of other nations without also looking critically of the development that needs to happen in our own country.  In fact, in relation to the widening gap between rich and poor, homelessness, racism and immigration, our national debt and the increasingly hostile divisions within our government, we have a lot of work to be done at home.  With hope, when I return from the Peace Corps in two years, the lessons I’ve learned in development can be used and applied in the United States, in my own backyard where we, too, have so many problems and inefficiencies which are waiting to be attended to.