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Last Updated: Oct 16th, 2008 - 13:33:17 |
The truth is, I went to Costa Rica to visit a friend and relax on the beach.
It was July, the beginning of the rainy season - when water only pours down from the sky in the afternoons and not all day - a time when the beaches were said to be near empty of tourists and the flights were more affordable. I had chosen the timing for purely selfish reasons: I wanted a beach all to myself.
And there were few tourists ... at least, the typical kind.
Traveling by bus from San Jose down to the south-western coast I saw only one or two other gringos. In Dominical, known as a bustling surfer paradise during the high season, I was happy to find the dirt roads nearly deserted with more dogs and chickens running around than people.
As I walked out onto the empty beach and threw my towel down not far from the crashing waves, I reveled in the idea of spending the next week doing next to nothing.
The small Central-American country might be famous for its rain forests, cloud-shrouded active volcanoes, flora and fauna, but I was more interested in the sun, surf and rum-based beverages.
To my embarrassment, when I finally got up off my beach towel and ventured into the lush hills inland, I found that some people spend their vacations doing something more than swaying in hammocks. I found a jungle teaming with more than just monkeys and exotic birds. Everywhere I went there were groups of working gringos.
When spring comes and the droves of sunburned surfers and other beach dwellers migrate back to their homes in the northern climes, a rare breed of tourist begins to appear in Costa Rica.
The educational tourist, the strange individual who enjoys spending vacations learning local languages, working on sustainable organic farms, studying the jungle's endless biodiversity, arrives often in late spring or early summer in time for harvest season before the heavy rains begin. Most spend two to three weeks, many only several days and some stay as long as six months. In return for usually four, six to eight hour workdays, the eco-volunteer gets cheap rent (often $10 to $20 a night) and all the knowledge about the jungle they can absorb.
"Sustainability at Pura Suerte means working in concert with our environment to provide for all of our needs," said Drenden Flahive, owner of Pura Suerte, a 150 acre farm in La Florita near Dominical. Students learn hands-on about reforestation, organic permaculture, fruit orchards and traditional tropical agriculture. Flahive said in the last couple years the interest in such volunteer programs has grown a lot. "Every decision we make, from our approach to organic gardening and reforestation, to our buildings and resource management, aims to have a beneficial effect on our local ecology, and people everywhere are starting to realize how important these ideas are."
Max Mohtrose, a student at Regis University in Denver who volunteered at the Pura Suerte farm, said snakes have fascinated him since he was a child and he came to Costa Rica because it has some 130 species.
"The whole ecology stuff and sustainable farming is interesting," Max Mohtrose said. "But I came for the snakes ... I've already seen three on my list."
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